by Alexis Anne
And yet it didn’t make me feel any better. The churning in my gut only got worse. “Okay.”
“Hey Chris?”
“Yeah?”
“Congratulations. I better get an invitation when you set a date.” He clicked off the call.
I wouldn’t be setting a date if Olivia ran away from me before we got started. I wouldn’t blame her if she took this news as a sign we were doomed, or that it was too dangerous to be with me.
“Making sandwiches?”
I spun at the sound of her voice. “Uh, yeah. I was hungry and figured we could both use some sustenance.”
She looked at me like I was talking in gibberish.
Maybe I was talking gibberish. “Is everything okay?” she asked slowly. Linc was in his room watching a show on his iPad and “taking a nap” since he didn’t sleep much last night.
“Everything’s great!” Oh my god, I sounded insane.
Olivia stared at me.
“Fine, everything isn’t great. Everything is bad. Very bad and I’m afraid when I tell you what’s happening you’ll be mad and leave me and never let me love you again.”
Now she really stared at me.
“I think I need some coffee before whatever this is,” she waved her hand at me, “happens.”
I whimpered a little and handed her a mug. I didn’t want any. I had enough nervous energy and adrenaline running through my system to power a small country.
Olivia sat at the counter and watched me finish assembling sandwiches. Okay, watching is probably the nicest way to say she was studying me. Probably searching for signs I’d taken drugs or been taken by aliens.
I repacked all the meat and cheese, plated our food, and set it on the bar. “Do you want to eat first or last?”
She picked up a chip and took a bite. “How about I eat while you talk?”
I whimpered again, paced the kitchen, pulled my stupid hair some more. None of it told me how to share this new information with Olivia in a way that wouldn’t freak her out.
“Chris? Start at the beginning.”
Right. The beginning. “Roman called. He’s my agent.”
“Are you being traded?”
“No! It’s nothing about baseball.” Thank God.
“You’re the new spokesman for a cereal box?”
No wonder Roman had a hard time breaking the news to me. This was fucking impossible. I pulled out my phone and called up the images he sent me. “Roman received this letter. Ben and Scott’s agent received the same thing.”
She took my phone tentatively, scowled at the image, swiped the next, and the next.
“What kind of fucked up shit is this?”
God, I loved her. “We don’t know but we don’t like it.”
“No kidding!” She stood up, taking her sandwich with her. I thought she was going to pace around too, but instead she came to me and wrapped her arms around my middle. “I’ll cut anyone who hurts you.” Then she took a bite of sandwich like getting threatening letters happened everyday.
“Really?” I stroked her hair, thankful that she was touching me.
“You should probably know now, I may like my nice quiet days at home, but I’m a Momma Bear. I’ll take anyone out who hurts my family.”
I squeezed her against me because, if I wasn’t mistaken, she was saying I was family. “Don’t leave me.” Celebrating last night I was all caveman, but I couldn’t caveman Olivia about her life. In this I was powerless. I really preferred when I got to be a caveman.
She pushed back enough to look up at me. “You’re stuck with me now.” She shrugged. “No take backs.”
I crushed her to me all over again and I think I heard some sandwich hit the tile floor. “Oh thank God.”
She nuzzled against my chest. “I’m worried, Chris.” She squeezed me tighter.
I held her just as tightly. Hell, I wanted to crush her into me so we could become one. “I’m worried too. Mostly about you and Linc. Come with me on the road, or go stay with Beau.”
“Linc has camp this week. He’s been looking forward to it all summer.”
Crap. “I’m getting you both bodyguards then. Don’t fight me on this. If you won’t leave and I can’t be here, then this is the way it has to be.”
“Okay.”
“And I’ll have to tell my brothers about us. I’ll want them to look in on you too.”
“Okay.”
“Please don’t argue with me,” I sighed. “You and Linc are my whole world and if anything happens to you—”
“I’m not fighting you.” She shook me.
I thought back over the last few things she said. “You said okay?”
“I did.” She smiled up at me.
“You’re not fighting me.”
“I’m not.” Then she rose up on her tiptoes and kissed me. “If there’s someone out there watching you and your brothers then they’ve seen you spend all your spare time here. Yes, I want protection and you better have some too.”
“I will.” God, she was so beautiful and smart and way too good for me. I brushed back her hair and just stared at her. “Maybe I can call in sick with the stomach flu. Pretend I’m not fit to pitch for the next week.”
“And what if this goes on and on? Are you going to quit pitching for the rest of the season to stay by my side?”
“Maybe.” Honestly it sounded like the best idea either of us could come up with.
“No. That’s what people like this want. They enjoy seeing their victims panic. They want to throw us off and get us to change our patterns. They feed on the chaos.”
“You’re really pretty and smart. And...wait, have you done this before?” She sounded experienced.
She shrugged. “My mom had a stalker when I was in high school.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Even sculptors have their mega fans.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing but letters for a long time. Then at one of her exhibits the stalker handcuffed himself to my mom. After that he was in jail for a little while, but when he got out I had a bodyguard. So did my mom. That went on for months until...”
“Until?” I really didn’t like the way she looked away. It sent a chill down my spine.
“Until he snuck into our house with a gun and held my mom hostage. He died in prison five years ago.”
“Were you home?” Fuck, I’d never wanted to bring someone back from the dead so I could kill them all over again, but I sure wanted to now.
“No. I was in college at the time. Mom was living with her boyfriend then.” She squeezed me again. “So you see, there are many reasons why I like life to be quiet and steady, and I’m not about to turn down professional protection when there is a known danger.”
I knew she meant all of that to comfort me, but it didn’t. It just made me feel even more helpless. We lived in a world where anything could happen and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to change that.
“Will you travel with me for the rest of summer? After camp? I think I might go nuts if we’re constantly apart.” I was already coming out of my skin at the thought of being away this week.
“Of course. We’re all yours until school starts.” She smiled. A secret, shy kind of smile. “I’m looking forward to all the travel and...being an official WAG.”
I groaned and kissed her. Just thinking about Liv being with my team as an official team wife, officially mine, brought the caveman back. “There’s something else we need to discuss.”
“What?” She only stopped kissing me enough to get that one word out and she didn’t open her eyes.
“Roman thought...maybe it might be a good idea to keep the engagement under wraps until this stalker blows over. And I think he might be right.”
Her eyes opened and locked on mine as her shoulders sagged. “I agree. I don’t want to upset someone who’s already obsessing.”
I cupped her face. “I’m telling my brothers though.”
She
smiled up at me. “I hear we might not be the only ones with good news soon.”
My gaze drifted over her face. She was my fiancée. Soon to be my wife. “Seems the Kaine brothers have a thing for Calusa Key women.”
“We are pretty special.”
I kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. “I love you so much.”
22
Personal cheering section
Olivia
I did not like staying home. Not one little bit. Before we got engaged it seemed so logical. I would work while Linc enjoyed his summer camp. Chris would travel. But now that we were engaged I hated it. It felt wrong to be apart. It felt even wronger to be apart knowing there was someone out there watching us.
I didn’t mind the bodyguards. They might be the only thing keeping me sane, actually. So I settled into our fancy hotel suite in Houston with a great sigh of relief.
It felt good to be away from the tension on Calusa Key. It felt even better to be with Chris.
“I HAVE MY OWN ROOM!” Linc yelled from down the hallway, as if he didn’t always have his own room at home. I suppose a hotel room was different somehow.
The Four Seasons had a separate residential tower and this was where they placed their high profile guests. Not only did it have a second, guarded entrance, but the suites had more apartment like features. In this case we each had our own bedroom, plus a regular, small living room and kitchen. It wasn’t opulent but for a hotel it was spacious.
And apparently, exciting.
The team knew we were dating (but not engaged) and so far had treated us to a bottle of champagne and a little welcome basket of snacks. Linc liked the bucket of bubble gum and couldn’t stop giggling over the sunflower seeds.
I wore my engagement ring on a chain around my neck that was long enough to keep tucked inside my shirt. After all this time I hated to keep yet another secret, but since it didn’t technically change anything, I didn’t mind.
At the game that night we sat in the crowd as Chris Kaine’s personal cheering section. As much fun as I had on the field last season, this was just as exciting. It was completely different to experience the game as it was happening, and something else entirely to sit in the crowd with your heart in your throat, cheering on someone you love.
We sat a few rows away from some of the other wives and girlfriends. They all waved at us and welcomed us to the club. No one else had kids but over the summer so far Linc took that as an opportunity to be special. Whenever someone had an extra souvenir, treat, or soda, it always went to Linc.
Chris strode out onto the field so sure of himself. He searched the crowd, smiling when he found us waving at him. Then he shot me a wink.
I felt like a teenager with a crush on a famous baseball player. Except my crush was real...and it was returned.
“Cotton candy?” Carrie, Wes’s wife, stood beside us with a big blue ball of cotton candy in her hands.
They all seriously spoiled my kid (and I loved it.) “Sure.” I took the cone from her but before I passed it to Linc, I took a handful for myself.
“Hey!” Linc protested, hungrily grabbing the rest from me.
“Hey what? It’s the mom tax.”
Carrie shrugged. “Sorry. Even adults enjoy treats.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Why not?” Carrie asked, sitting in the empty seat in front of me and turning sideways so we could talk. There were a handful of empty seats in the part of the stands where we managed to get tickets. “It’s fun and I enjoy it.”
“Yeah, mom. It’s fun and she enjoys it.” He said all this with a blue mouth.
I ruffled his hair. “Say thank you.”
“Thank you Dr. Carrie!”
“You’re welcome.” Then she smiled back at me. “Our men are quite the team.” Chris threw, Wes caught. And together they seemed to be psychically linked. Last year they were the talk of the championship and while we weren’t quite to playoff season, the chatter was already heating up again.
“I guess we’re stuck with each other, then.” I really liked Carrie. She was the team’s orthopedic surgeon, so if Chris hurt his arm it was her hands who would fix him.
She smiled, then turned back to the field to watch Wes smack a double into the hole in the outfield. “We’ve all expected you two to get together at some point. We’re really happy for you three. Did you get our gifts?”
“We did. Thank you so much. You really didn’t have to do that.”
She shrugged. “The Mantas are a family. Welcome.”
She sat with us through the rest of the inning, and then we all went out for dinner once the guys were showered and cleaned up.
“So Chris’s beach house is available for vacations?” Zoe, Erik’s fiancée asked. “Because I’m always looking for vacations and writing retreats.” Zoe was a pretty famous writer. Wes, Mr. Instagram, was even on some of her covers.
“Yeah,” Chris chuckled. “The house is available for a select few cool people.”
Zoe leaned closer and whispered. “Am I cool? Because I can pull strings and get Linc’s favorite author to say hi or send an autographed copy.”
“Oh, you’re very cool then,” I said, answering for Chris. “When would you like to reserve?”
Chris rubbed his thumb over my knee. The gesture was so naturally intimate and it set off a round of butterflies in my belly. “Maybe after the season’s over. Right now my brothers are occupying half the house.”
“Oh, how’s that going by the way?” Erik asked, his arm slung comfortably around Zoe.
“Ben will be moving out in a few weeks. London’s house is almost done. And Scott is anyone’s guess.”
Then Erik’s gaze drifted my way. “And Berlin? How is she? Still with this Ryker guy?”
“Yeah. She’s gone as opposite of Jack as humanly possible.”
He grimaced. “I don’t blame her. He was such a jerk.”
“I told her you said that. She also said if you two were ever on the island at the same time she’d like to see you. She misses you.”
“It’s hard to go from having someone in your life for over a decade and then suddenly they’re gone. I get it though. I probably bring up some bad memories.”
I tried to be as sympathetic as possible from my expression to my words. “You do look a lot alike.”
“He got what he deserved. I wish Berlin nothing but the best. But I do miss my sister. It would be nice if we could find a way to keep our relationship alive.”
Maybe our connection would help that happen. “Why don’t you two pick a post-season week to come stay at the house and I’ll arrange for Berlin to be in town the same weekend?”
He blinked a few times, seemingly overwhelmed with emotion. “I appreciate that, Olivia. Thank you.”
“Not a problem.”
Chris’s thumb kept strumming my knee, causing a reaction in my body that I could only describe as thermonuclear hot. Then he looped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to whisper in my ear. “You’re sexy when you help out my friends.”
I turned to find his lips waiting for me. And I didn’t mind kissing him in front of all his friends one little bit.
I almost forgot about the bodyguard following me around in Houston, but it was hard to ignore back home. While we were away new security cameras were installed. But it became our new normal and there was really nothing to do about it. Besides, we all got caught up in the news of Ben and London’s engagement. Like us, they kept it fairly quiet and got straight to wedding planning.
In a way it was funny because they were jumping straight into marriage which made my head whirl, but here Chris and I were working on expanding our family. I had no idea how or when I wanted to get married. Probably because in my head we already were. I also couldn’t imagine tying the knot in the middle of baseball season. Winter seemed like a good time. Besides, the weather would be much, much nicer.
“What are you thinking about?” Chris chased a finger up the inside of
my thigh. My breath caught and my center grew hot.
“That we’re doing this before we planned a wedding.”
He replaced his finger with his lips. I trembled.
“Then let’s get married now.”
My eyes closed and I had to lean back on my hands to stay upright because the things his lips and tongue were doing to the skin of my thigh were tantalizingly close to exactly how it felt when he did those same things between my legs.
“Wait, what?” Did he say let’s get married now?
Unfortunately my question caused him to stop kissing me. He looked up and shrugged. “Let’s get married now. Or however long it legally takes in Florida. We can get a marriage license and either do it at the courthouse or plan something here. I don’t really care as long as it happens.”
I blinked down at him several times. I don’t know what I was thinking. Ben and London were planning a small but lavish wedding. My wedding to Beau had been large and out of my hands. I guess I assumed we were doing something equally ostentatious. He was a hugely famous pitcher after all. Celebrity wedding all the way.
Or not at all.
He moved over me, his naked torso so lean and muscular and delicious to touch, lick, and simply gaze at. He planted a hand on either side of my hips and held himself up so we were nose to nose. “I have two home games next week and then I’m off on Thursday. Want to get married on your beach?”
“On a Thursday?”
His eyes danced. “Why not?”
I couldn’t think of a single reason. I bit my lower lip to keep myself from flying apart with excitement. “You, me, Linc?”
“We can invite our siblings if you like.”
“We do need witnesses.”
He kissed me until I had no choice but to fall back against the bed. “You, me, Linc.” He pressed between my legs with his insistent erection. “Ben, London, and Scott.”
I cupped his face as he pressed my legs wide. “Summer and Berlin. Maybe Trent.” And no one else. “We’ll get a dinner catered and eat on the back porch.”
