Page 8 of Pitcher Perfect
“Holy shit.” Redbeard frowned. “It’s almost like... she doesn’t know she’s hot.”
A teammate slapped him on the shoulder, though he barely flinched at the assault. “You better marry her before she finds out she could do way better.”
“I know, right?” Then to her, “Can’t wait to tell the grandkids how we met, Skylar.”
“Hey.” Elton strode past her toward first base. “Stop talking to my sister.”
Redbeard’s head dropped back on a loud groan. “Why does every attractive woman have to be somebody’s sister?”
What exactly didthatmean?
Skylar shook herself, refusing to spare this man another thought. She had a batter to strike out—and her first victim went down easy. It wasn’t polite to revel in another player’s walk of shame back to the dugout, so she settled for trading a smirk with Madden.
The second batter managed to get on base, but only because a teammate advised him to bunt. That Bearcat, the third to approach home plate, confused Skylar, just a touch, because while he appeared to be incredibly cocky, he also gave her the almighty chin dip of respect. Interesting. Actually, she recognized this one from television. Sig Gauthier, right? Yeah. Cool. It wasn’t every morning she got to strike out a celebrity.
Her first pitch found its target.
Unlike the last guy, however, this one adjusted his stance, dropped his elbow slightly, clearly having studied her first throw.You want a piece of me, hockey boy?
Skylar toggled the ball behind her back, preparing to throw a curve, took a breath, and went through motions that were second nature, pitched—
And he actually caught a piece of it.
Everyone looked up as the ball sailed into the right outfield and Sig took off.
But as Sig was rounding first base, all hell broke loose.
The English bulldog accompanying the blonde named Chloe streaked like a rotund comet across the diamond, his pretty ownerhot on his heels, crying out the namePierre. As if that wasn’t odd enough, Sig abandoned his run for second base and sprinted after them, all the way into the outfield, the trio disappearing into the tree line and leaving everyone in attendance speechless.
Almost everyone, anyway.
Redbeard probably couldn’t even pronounce the word “silence.”
“I’ll pick up where he left off,” he shouted, swaggering to home plate and picking up the discarded bat, tapping it against the white diamond, before settling it on his oxlike shoulder. “Next batter, right?”
“Doesn’t anyone want to go check on them?” Skylar asked.
Redbeard glanced back at his dugout for a consensus, getting a handful of shrugs and headshakes in return. “Nah.” He gave a practice swing. “If Sig can’t handle that problem, none of us can.”
As a fellow athlete, she appreciated teammates knowing one another so well, but she didn’t allow that to show on her face. “Fine.” She started to drop into her stance. “I’ll happily demoralize you.”
Some appreciativeohhhhhs carried over from the baseball player dugout.
“Yeah. About that.” Redbeard lowered the bat and straightened, taking Skylar out of her rhythm—which he seemed to realize. Had he been watching her so closely? “I was thinking, Rocket. Why don’t you and I place a little side bet?”
“No.”
“At least hear me out,” he said, chuckling.
“I’ve heard more than enough from you.”
“I’m better one-on-one.” He winked. “Happy to prove it.”
“Earlier, it sounded like you prefer one ontwo.”
Another chorus ofohhhhhs from his teammates.
He inclined his head, eyes twinkling, yet verging on regretful. “Touché.”
