Page 55 of Pitcher Perfect
Robbie gave her a subtle nudge in the ribs. “Look alive, Rocket.”
“I’m alive. I’m ready.”
“You’re as red as my hair.”
“It’s... the preclimb adrenaline. It’s beginning to surge—”
“Right.” Sighing, he faced his thick body toward Skylar, leaning down to whisper in the hair above her ear, the action blowing a warm shiver down her spine. An even more heightened sense of awareness than before. One that she really didn’twant. “Look, I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have done that in front of you.”
“I asked you to do it.” God, her voice sounded husky.
“Maybe so, but we deviated from your schedule. I knew better than to do that. You told me we were sticking to the plan.” Heslid her a glance. “Now you look like you’ve just returned from an alien encounter.”
“That’s not so far off.” She cut him off before he could respond. “Don’t you dare make a joke about the Milky Way.”
“How?” He stared. “How did you know?”
She pursed her lips at him. “I told you, I played on the boys’ team in middle school. Fluid jokes are part of the deal.”
“You never told me the boys were being inappropriate, Skylar,” Vivica said, coming up behind them unexpectedly, dismay written all over her face. “I would have said something to the coach.”
“It’s okay, Mom.” Skylar waved off her mother’s concern, even though it felt nice to have Vivica focus on her feelings. A rarity. “The guys probably would have just laid it on thicker.”
Robbie choked. Turned white from holding his breath.
Vivica didn’t seem to notice. “That kind of thing can really affect someone’s performance.” She rolled an irritable shoulder. “They’re lucky it didn’t.”
“Right.” Skylar exhaled. “My performance is what matters most.”
“Hell, yeah, it is,” Elton said, hands on hips, staring up at the rock face. “Ask the scout from Brown.”
Three members of her family snorted, passing a knowing look among their trio. Even if her mother frowned after only a few seconds of mirth and gave the men a reproving look, Skylar still felt that comment in the deepest pit of her stomach.
“Honey.” Doug sent his wife a tight smile. “Wasn’t it Mark Twain that said, ‘The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why’?”
“Yes, it was,” Vivica confirmed with a squeeze of Skylar’s shoulder. “Words to live by. And she does, to the best of her ability. That is all any parent could ask for.”
“Thanks,” Skylar said with a fleeting smile, just wanting the conversation to be over, please, for the love of everything holy. When Vivica walked away to go consult with Doug, Skylar let out the breath she’d been holding and all at once, became aware of Robbie’s bewildered scrutiny.
“Holy shit, that was unhinged. Are you good?” Robbie asked, seeing way more than was comfortable. How had this man been a part of her life so briefly and already knew her triggers? The tension with her family regarding her shortcomings. Her scheduling quirks. He’d picked up on her so fast.
It was as comforting as it was scary.
“Yeah.” When he raised an eyebrow at her, his concern obvious, Skylar repeated herself, quieter this time, grateful for his presence despite her growing concern that she and Robbie were getting too close, too fast. “Yes.”
After a moment of scrutiny, he nodded. “Great. Because I’ve got two things to say. One. Nothing isevergoing to be more important than you, regardless of how you perform. Got that?”
“Yes,” she managed, pulse tripping.
“Good.” He studied her for a moment, as if to confirm, before bracing. “And two... I can’t even look at that rock wall without getting sick.”
Still flustered from the first part of that statement, she worked to recover. “Just stick to the plan.”
“The plan is not foolproof.”
“It’s the best we’ve got.”
His mouth flattened into a grim line, signs of seasickness beginning to creep into his complexion. Such a range of moods in one morning. Worry. Humor. Apprehension. Sensuality... with a mesmerizing side of helplessness at the end. When his muscles tensed up and his shaft darkened and he’d groaned, that fist picking up speed—
