Page 14 of Pitcher Perfect
So what?
The bacon, egg, and cheese bagel was now a ten-ton boulder sitting in his stomach.
He should really get up and make a hasty exit, take the hard lesson she’d given him about his treatment of women and forget this ever happened. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to stand up and leave. Something about never seeing this person again was giving him a very distinct burn behind his Adam’s apple. Had that ever happened before?
No.
Plus, hey, he still had ten minutes on the clock. He couldn’t give her dickhead brother the satisfaction of ending the date early, right?
Mostly, though, Robbie just reallylikedsitting across from her. Skylar smelled like soap and orange juice and her voice had this husky pitch that made him wonder what she said when she was close to coming.Stay there. Right there. Don’t move. Harder.
Apparently, Robbie was never going to find out.
“What’s your plan?” he prompted, even though he desperately wanted to change the subject. That was the hockey player in him, though. Embracing the shit show.
Skylar’s chin came up, interest shifting her beautiful features, irritation clearing from her brow.Oh Jesus.She was even more beautiful when she didn’t want to slice off his balls. What had he even said to evoke such a change? Right.What’s your plan?
“Plan?” she echoed.
“Yeah. For pulling the catcher.”
“I’m not trying to pull him. I’m trying to...”
“Marry him. Have his babies.” Robbie gave her a sympathetic wince. “Hate to break it to you, Rocket. If you want those things, you have to pull him first.”
“Well.” Skylar twisted the mug in front of her, appearing more than a little thrown. Man, it was so endearing the way she flushed to the roots of her hair. “There wasn’t a softball league in my town growing up, so I played baseball. It wasn’t until much later, freshman year of high school, that my parents started driving me the twenty miles to play club softball on a girls’ team, but by then I was one of the guys. Those friend groups among the girls were formed and they were so... good at wearing the right clothes and sliding into DMs.”
“You preferred sliding into bases.”
That earned him his first laugh from Skylar Page—and itforever changed him. It was as unique as the rest of her. That slightly sunburned nose wrinkled and she gave sort of a mini lurch, no sound coming out at first, but then a tremulous gasp filled the space between them. “That was terrible.”
“It had the desired result.” Every second that drained from the clock now was like an explosion in his ears. “All right, so you’re not good with men.”
She groaned. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
“Maybe you sense that I’m the perfect person to help.”
Help?
What the actual fuck are you doing?Robbie wasn’t even 100 percent sure yet, the idea was coming to him in flashes, like the goal teasing him with glimpses between a hoard of shifting defenders. All he knew was that if Skylar walked out of that restaurant and he didn’t have a way to see her again, he’d regret it more than the time he tried bleaching his hair and eyebrows blond in middle school using Clorox. He still had the chemical burn on his scalp and a lifetime of nightmares ahead.
Speaking of nightmares, right now, as he looked at Skylar, every crude thing he’d ever said in the locker room was coming back to him in hideous waves, turning his stomach to soup.Hewouldn’t even recommend that Skylar date him. Maybe helping her with the catcher was the only way he could realistically remain in her orbit. Maybe watching her win another man over was going to serve as punishment for the way Robbie himself had been treating women lately.
Because he’d been raised a lot better than that, hadn’t he?
Yeah. Talk about an understatement.
His parents were still happily married and living on Long Island. They wore matching polo shirts to the golf course. They’d just gotten a pizza oven installed in the backyard and they texted him a picture every single time they used it, their smiling facescut off and out of frame in some haphazard selfie. By example, they’d taught him what a healthy, respectful relationship looked like. To say nothing of the numerous lessons his grandfather Nick had taught him before—
Robbie cleared his throat so hard, Skylar jolted.
Come on, guy.He knew better than to think about his grandfather in public.
He ducked his head to hide the flash of grief.
Bottom line, he’d let his bachelor behavior escalate, drunk on the access to women that his career and gladiator physique afforded him. And he’d been taught better.
Skylar was squinting a skeptical eye at him. “How wouldyouhelp me?”
