Page 75 of Caught Looking

Security let me into the owner’s suite where I met Travis Brantley and a few other celebrities. I ended up spending most of warmups talking to Scott Kaine. He was adapting one of Zoe Cassidy’s books into a movie. Zoe was married to Erik Cassidy, our second baseman. Scott was also Chris Kaine’s brother.

“You’ll be at the game next week?” I asked Scott. We had a home stand after the break.

“Yep. We’re down here for the month before heading back to start production on a new movie. Chris is slated to start on Saturday.”

Talking about our award-winning pitcher tickled that same part of my mind that had bothered me when we were with Kristin. But it wasn’t Chris or Scott that my brain was trying to connect to.

It was Everett.

What had he said when we were playing poker? “Willa.”

“Who?” Scott asked.

“A friend of mine. Willa Cooper. She’s a—”

“An incredibly talented cinematographer. We worked with her on Zoe’s last movie.”

“And one of my very best friends.” She was perfect for the documentary. And that would keep her in town.

Which was the only way I’d finally get Everett to pull his head out of his ass.

Scott jerked back in surprise. “We don’t need Seven Degrees of anything with this team. You’re all two degrees connected to everyone.”

“Isn’t that the truth.” I found Kristin and gave her Willa’s contact information then settled into one of the seats just outside the glass.

And I cheered on my woman.

21

ANNALISE

Some hotel beds were cut from boulders. Others were made of clouds. Seth’s hotel room in Chicago had a cloud bed and I wasn’t ready to wake up. Especially not when he had his warm body wrapped around mine.

“I don’t want to go,” he groaned.

“Go where?” I pretended we hadn’t hopped an earlier charter plane after my game. Pretended he didn’t have a game of his own in a few hours. I just wanted to stay here and forget the world.

He pressed a kiss to the side of my throat. “Sleep. I’ll arrange a car for you later.”

My hand shot out, grabbing his wrist. “No. Where you go, I go.” I used his words against him. And as much as I wanted to stay in this bed, we had five whole days to ourselves when his game was done. We could while away the hours in that massive bed in that massive mansion we were about to play house in.

Seth lowered his body over mine as I turned to face the ceiling. “You sure? You’re tired.”

I opened my hips and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m sure. I’ll sleep tomorrow. And the next day.” Aside from the absurd bonus, Kristin and Coach Summer had both insisted I take a couple of days to process things and recover.

With freedom for a few days I made the last second decision to come to Chicago with Seth even though after his game he’d be turning around to come right back. The last thing I wanted to do was spend time alone. And while Jeri was great company, it was Seth I wanted.

And his comforting, masculine weight on me.

His beautiful eyes swept over my face. “Okay. We stick together.” Then he pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I like having you here entirely too much.”

“Are road trips usually lonely?”

He was hard against my center, but he didn’t rock against me or tease. I think our emotions were just too heavy for that kind of play. I’d slept on his shoulder and lap during the flight. The game wiped me out. So when we got to the hotel I was more than happy to test the sturdiness of the bed. We tested it twice before passing out.

And now it was morning entirely too soon.

“Yeah,” he replied, “they kind of are.” A look crossed his face.

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