Page 67 of Pitcher Perfect
“He wore himself out. He wants a bath and a lasagna.”
“Okay, let’s start over.” Sig raked both hands through his hair. Man, that guy had such good hair. A normal color, too. So unfair.Life was so unfair.“You went there to pretend date the pitcher so she could catch this other guy’s eye. How is that going?”
“I’ve noticed him noticing her a lot more. Checking her out. How could anyonenotcheck her out? She’s drop-dead gorgeous, even in sweats.” He thought for a second. “Maybeespeciallyin sweats.God.”
“Do you only want her because he wants her?” Burgess asked. “That’s a thing.”
“Nope. I’d much rather he didn’t. I’d saw off an arm.”
“Okay.” Sig chuckled. “You’d saw off an arm for this guy not to notice her, but you’re willing to just accept defeat? Get back up there andwin, man. At the very least, give it everything you’ve got. Unless you want to see their marriage notice in theGlobeand wonder what would have happened if you’d tried.”
Marriage notice?“I feel sick.”
“Deep breaths.” Burgess had been acting a lot fatherlier lately. He was a father, but ever since he’d hooked up with his daughter’s au pair, he’d been more... nurturing. In like a super grudgingkind of way, but still. “In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
Robbie did as he was instructed, eventually calming the storm in his belly caused by the mental image of Skylar and Madden walking down the aisle of a church together. “Is it always this hard when you meet the one?”
“Yes,” Sig and Burgess said in unison.
“Did you ever think life would be easier if you’d just never met her to begin with?”
“No.” Again, in unison.
“Yeah, me neither. She makes me feel like me. The me that isn’t pretending to be someone or something else. Is that stupid?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s like she’sshowingme... who I am. And I’m just really scared she’s going to leave once she’s done. Once she’s done making me fall in love with her... oh fuck.” That four-letter word—“love”—hit the back of his head like a sack of bricks and he dropped his head into his hands. “Fuck.Fuck.”
“Really sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?” Burgess rumbled.
“Damn right.” There was a shadow of something nostalgic, possibly even wistful in Sig’s eyes as he stood up. “I’m only going to talk about this once, all right?” He let out a breath. “Whenever I doubt myself with... a girl, I ask myself one question.”
“What is it?” Robbie croaked.
“If there is anyone else in the world who’d work harder to make her happy. As long as the answer to that is no, you’re the right man.” He cleared his throat hard. “So what’s your answer?”
Robbie had no clue. At first, anyway.
Until now, he hadn’t allowed himself to think that far ahead.
Did he know how to make a woman happy? In bed, yeah. He knew very well how to do that, though he didn’t exactly love thinking about being in the sack with anyone anymore. He’drather sleep on the hard floor beside Skylar’s bed without a chance of sex than accept a sure thing from anyone else. Eye-opening, to say the least, but he’d felt that way since the morning they’d met. Just...boom.
He’d been hit by some irreversible magic. Permanently down for the count.
But can you make her happy?
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Think harder, then,” complained Burgess.
“Okay. Jesus.” Robbie massaged his temples, running down the mental list of everything he’d learned about Skylar. “She likes orange juice with no pulp. She likes making lists. She’s obsessed with her planner. Even uses these cute little stickers and colorful tapes...”
Sig and Burgess stared back at him, stone-faced.
Robbie cleared his throat and stopped circling around the important stuff. Just put himself out there by proving how deeply she’d scored him. “She’s brave. She’s funny. She’s got this... heart of an athlete, but it’s not just winning and competing, she really understands the mentality it takes, how that should be cultivated and coached. She wants to coach... no, shewilland she’ll be excellent at it. If you gave her a whistle and told her to coach hockey, she’d figure out a strategy by the second period. No lie. She doesn’t take anyone’s shit, but she... knows when to pull back and support someone, too. She just wants her family to love her unconditionally. She wants to be loved for being great at softball, but she wants to know she’d be lovedwithoutbeing great at it, too. I don’t know... I don’t know if she has that foundation. She should.” His heart was starting to beat in a near-painful way. He was indignant and proud and aching all at the same time. “She didn’t get into Brown.So what?”
With all those words hanging in the atmosphere, echoing backto Robbie in his ears, he suddenly knew. He had to try. He had to try to make Skylar fall in love with him, instead of Madden.
He also knew exactly where to start.
“Get back to Rhode Island andtry, Corrigan,” Sig said, correctly interpreting Robbie’s silence as an epiphany. “You might never get this chance again.”
