by Fredrick, MJ
When they took outfield again, the game was still tied.
Quinn hit a double, but the next two batters struck out before Lily came up to bat. Trinity rocked on her feet, her thighs burning after three innings in this position.
“Hey, batter, batter,” Trinity called, and received a teasing butt-wiggle in response.
She was still laughing when Lily’s bat struck the ball, sending it between first and second base. Trinity didn’t have a chance to watch her friend run to first, because Quinn came charging toward home plate. Heart pounding at the sight he made, all intensity and speed, Trinity stood, braced, watching the determination on his face as his arms pumped, legs ate up the ground. And she was right in his path.
“Trinity!” Leo’s shout grabbed her attention and she turned to see the ball arching through the air toward her. If she caught it, the game was over—three outs, tied game. If she missed it—
Her glove went up. Quinn’s heaving breaths grew closer, louder, over the sound of her own panicked breathing. The game depended on her. Leo depended on her.
The ball fell into her glove a split second before Quinn’s foot hit home plate.
“Out!” her brother shouted, and a cheer went up all around her.
The next thing she knew, Leo’s arms lifted her and he spun her on home plate. She grabbed his shoulders and laughed as he let her slide down her body. Just when she thought he might kiss her in front of everyone, Max barreled through the crowd, shouting for his dad.
“You won, you won!”
Leo released her to pick up his son in one strong arm and father and son exchanged matching grins. “Tied, technically, but we didn’t lose.”
Trinity took a step back, her breath catching in her throat. A tug on her ponytail drew her attention and she turned to see a grinning—grinning!—Quinn.
“Nice play, Blondie.”
She let herself relax and return his smile. Adrenaline still pumped through her at the memory of how he’d looked running toward her. “I thought you were going to mow me down.”
“Thought about it. Come on. Let’s have a beer.” He looped an arm around her shoulders and guided her across the field.
She had never been the center of attention in Bluestone, but as the player with the game-ending play, she found herself the recipient of good-natured ribbing from Quinn’s team and admiration from her own. Doug, in particular, was standing close beside her, his head bent as if to catch every pearl of wisdom that tumbled from her lips someone reached through the crowd and grabbed her hand. She looked up into Leo’s eyes as he drew her away from the group.
“Hey, where’d you go? I looked up and you were gone.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear, off-balance from all the attention, especially from him. The light in his eyes was familiar, at once thrilling and terrifying. Could she really let herself get involved with this man without getting hurt? Of course not. He wasn’t staying around. But would their short time together be worth the pain when he left?
“I came over with Quinn. Making peace and all, you know. Where’s Max?”
“Eating outside with my dad.” He tugged on her hand and led her down the short hallway to Quinn’s office.
“What are—we can’t go in there,” she protested as he opened the door and pulled her through.
“Only place I can think of.” He closed the door behind her and turned, blocking her view of the surprisingly neat room to crowd her against the door. “I’ve wanted to do this all week. Even dreamed about it this morning.” And he touched his lips to hers.
She curved into the warmth of his body, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, her fingers tunneling through his hair as he dipped his tongue between her parted lips, stroking, playing, teasing. She loved how he kissed, not taking it so seriously, but conveying his intensity all the same. He lowered his hands from the door to close over her hips, bringing her closer, making certain she understood her effect on him.
He lifted his head to look into her eyes. “Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said, all breathless, and pulled his mouth back down to hers. Her body came alive as she absorbed the heat of his, as he hooked his fingers through the belt loops of her jeans, as she dared to nip his lips with her teeth.
He dragged his hands up her back and loosened her hair from its ponytail, filling his hands with her hair. “God, you’re so pretty,” he said, dragging his lips over the crest of her cheek to her ear, finding the sensitive spot below.
She whimpered and couldn’t stop herself from rubbing against him, just a little, knowing this would have to end soon, but he made her feel so good, like she hadn’t in so long. The doubt demons crept into the corners of her mind, but she shoved them back, angling her head so he could kiss her throat, tease her collar bone above the neck of her T-shirt.
This time when he broke the kiss he stepped back, ending contact completely. “We should…” He hooked a thumb toward the bar. “I just needed—I’ve wanted to do that all week and someone’s always watching.”
Particularly someone with big brown eyes and a broken heart. What was she thinking, getting involved with a man with a child? A man who’d leave when the place felt too small, as he’d done fifteen years ago. And if he didn’t leave, if he stayed with her, she’d have to tell him her story. She told no one, because she didn’t want to see the same disappointment on their faces that she saw on her parents’ every day.
She touched her fingertips to her lips, afraid it was too late. She turned and grasped the door knob. Before she could open it, he was behind her, the heat of his body warming her back. He pulled her loose hair back into a ponytail with gentle hands, then pressed a soft kiss to the side of her neck. Then he closed his hand over hers on the knob and opened the door.
Totally worth the pain.
***
Leo arrived early at the town hall meeting Wednesday night. Hard to believe he’d only been in Bluestone two weeks. Between the baseball team he was now coaching and working every day at the paper, he felt more a part of the town in this short a time than he had in the years he’d lived here as a teen, and he was happy. But maybe that was because this time he knew escape was in sight. Tonight he had information to share for the meeting. Not information they’d want to hear, but something to contribute.
He searched for a blonde head among the people milling outside, but didn’t see her, though she’d said she’d be here when he saw her at school earlier. He’d brought his SUV separately from his mom’s car in the hopes that he could drive Trinity home by way of—well, anyplace that would offer them some privacy. It killed him to see her at school and not be able to press a kiss to her pretty mouth, to touch that golden hair. He hadn’t let him think about the future, about what Max would think if Leo got involved with another woman. But for now, he savored the anticipation of being with her, touching her, knowing it wasn’t a great secret he was keeping.
There she was, with her brother, who towered over all and was surrounded by a number of parishioners. Leo waited patiently by the door, where they’d have to thin out to get through, and he’d pull Trinity aside then.
Something was wrong. He could see it in the lines of her face, the way her lips pulled down, the blankness in her eyes when she finally saw him, so different from the light he usually saw when she looked at him.
He held out a hand, but she didn’t take it, though she slipped out of the crowd to stand beside him.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
He drew a circle in the air around her face. “This isn’t happiness to see me.”
She blew out a little laugh and offered him a brief genuine smile. “I am happy to see you.”
“I was hoping I could drive you home afterwards, maybe walk by the lake a bit.”
Her former expression returned. “We’ll see.”
“Oookay.” Something was wrong, but there was no time to find out as the meet
ing was called to order. He and Trinity found chairs behind Quinn and Lily and he shifted on the folding chair. Trinity took the legal pad from him. He watched her face as she read it while the old business was presented. He felt inexplicably nervous as his time to speak grew closer, especially since Trinity was frowning as she read. He should have talked to her about it before, and Lily and Quinn, but there hadn’t been time, since he finished compiling the list before he picked up Max.
Trinity handed back the pad, her brow furrowed. Before he could ask what she thought, Lily was called upon to talk about the progress on the concert series. She stood.
“I tasked Leo Erickson to do the research on this, and he has some figures to share.” She turned to him with a flourish worthy of Vanna White.
He stood, wiping a hand down the leg of his jeans. He bounced the edge of the pad against his thigh and scanned the crowd. The people had become familiar to him in the two weeks he’d been here, but still he felt a flutter of nerves, knowing he had to convince them of the plan. “Lily asked me to price portable stages, sound people, lighting directors and the like. The prices I found were…not cheap.” He raised the list to read, though he knew the prices already. He couldn’t look at the hopeful faces of the people. The murmurs began as he read off the prices, starting with the council.
Quinn reached around and took the pad from him. “Where did you get these figures on stages?”
“I called around for portable stages, reasoning we didn’t want to leave them up all week. It’s going to be in your lot, isn’t it?”
“For this price, we can leave it up until winter. I’m sure I could get some volunteers to build something for a fraction of the cost.” He handed the pad back.
“It has to be a certain size if Maddox Bradley is coming,” Leo told him. “I haven’t heard back. Then there’s light and sound techs. And the price of electricity.” He listed costs for all.
“I don’t see the problem,” Quinn said. “Lily’s putting up the bands. I can cover the electricity and get together the guys to put up a stage. All we need are the bands.” He twisted to look up at Leo. “You’re taking care of that, too?”
“Just Maddox. Lily’s looking for other bands.”
“I have a couple who are interested in coming,” Lily said, rising. “I’m working on a schedule but we’re really waiting to hear from Maddox since we want him to kick off the series. Is there anyone who might be able to get through to him another way? Leo’s trying through his PR department, and well, that’s not going so great.” She looked around the room, but no one spoke up.
“I say we go ahead with the plan,” Quinn said. “We’ve got this.”
The mayor nodded and instructed them to move on.
After the meeting, Leo waited outside with Quinn while Lily and Trinity extricated themselves from the social aspect of the meeting.
“When are you going to get started on that stage?” Leo asked.
“Once you get me the measurements. We can go get the lumber this week.”
“You’ve done something like this before?”
“Did the renovations on the bar myself.”
“There are renovations on the bar?” Leo asked, confused. The place didn’t look like any improvements had been made in twenty years.
Quinn cuffed his shoulder as the women walked out.
“You guys coming by for a beer?” Quinn asked, walking backwards toward the bar.
“Not tonight. I think we’re going to go for a drive,” Leo said when Trinity approached.
Quinn’s lips twitched in understanding as he looked from Trinity to Leo.
“Ready to go?” Leo asked Trinity, reaching for her.
“Sure.” Avoiding his hand, she headed down the steps toward the parking lot.
“Something wrong?” he asked, catching up to her. Had he been premature in announcing their plans? Or had he been too obvious?
“Just—a lot of parents here. I don’t want to get called in for fraternizing with a parent.”
Right. Conflict of interest. He wasn’t doing Trinity any favors here, being so open in his interest. “Trinity, it’s a small town. Not fraternizing with parents limits your options.”
“Tell me about it.” She stopped at the door of his SUV.
“You don’t have to be home right away, do you?” he asked, aware it was silly to ask a grown woman that.
“I’m not ready to go home. You? Is Max waiting?”
“My dad tucked him in probably an hour ago.” He unlocked the door and helped her in. Anticipation buzzed through him as he rounded the SUV and got in, but Trinity’s mood was off. She hadn’t been herself before the meeting, either, so…
“Something wrong?” he asked as he turned north on the main road out of town.
“No, why?”
“You’re quiet.”
She cast him a half-smile. “What are you saying? I’m usually talkative?”
“No, but you’re usually more, I don’t know, energetic. So I figure something’s bothering you.”
“Nothing for you to worry about. Just—things at home. I’ll deal.”
He waited a moment longer for her to expand, but she didn’t. “Your parents don’t come to the town hall meetings? Seems like a former minister would be more involved in the town.”
She blew out a breath, and some of her tension seemed to go with it. “The parishioners like my father more than my brother. My father thinks it’s best that he keeps his distance now that he’s retired and lets David take over the leadership. It’s hard for my mother because she’s fairly social, and David doesn’t have a wife to fulfill the duties that usually fall to a minister’s wife. I wish they’d focus their energy on him.”
“Instead of you?”
She nodded.
“Do they have a problem with me?”
She swept her hair behind her ear and rested her elbow on the passenger door. “I don’t think they’re aware just yet.”
“Then what?”
“I disappointed them once. I probably will never be able to make that up to them.”
“So much for forgiveness.”
“Oh, they’ve forgiven me. They just haven’t let me forget.”
“What is it that you did?” he asked with a grin, unable to imagine.
She shook her head, lips pressed together as if holding the secret inside. She should know better than to try to keep a secret from a reporter. That only made him more curious.
He turned into a scenic outlook and parked, then shifted on the seat toward her. “We can go home if you want.”
“I don’t want.” She moved so her back was against the passenger door, and she folded her feet on the seat in front of her.
Okay, not the most welcoming pose for what he had in mind. So they’d talk.
“Sorry we put all this on you, all the phone calls and everything,” she said.
He lifted a shoulder. “It was nothing. I do it all the time for my job.”
She angled her head. “So you’re planning to go back?”
He turned his head to look out at the lake. “Not until summer, anyway. I took a leave of absence.” Officially, now, though his editor continued to call for updates on the article he was writing, and ideas for the next assignment. Leo had deleted the voicemails, not liking the tension that knotted his stomach when he saw the number. That was new. He usually felt a shot of adrenaline when the number appeared. “I figured by then I’ll know if Max is better off here than Excelsior.”
“Is that where you’re from?”
He hadn’t told her that, had he? “Yeah, it’s where we lived before.”
She wrapped her arms around her legs and for a bad minute, he thought she wanted to talk about Liv. Instead she rested her chin on her knee. “I’m trying to picture you as Mr. Suburbs.”
“Is it that hard to imagine?”
“You pushing a lawnmower and driving carpool? Oh, yeah.”
“To be fair, I would rather pay someone than do any of tha
t.” He hadn’t been home much, but he didn’t want to talk about that, either, about the guilt he felt for wasting the time he’d had with Liv.
“That I can imagine.” She softened the words with a smile.
“I didn’t bring you here so you could find out what a rotten human I am.”
“I know why you brought me here.” Her smile shifted, grew sultry, as she rose on her knees. She leaned over and curved her hand on his jaw. “I feel like an idiot teenager.”
“Not sure about you, but when I was an idiot teenager, I didn’t have such lovely company.” He trailed his fingers across her cheek. Damn, she was so pretty. The men in Bluestone must be blind and ball-less, if her being a preacher’s daughter was what kept them away.
“I’m sure you had all kinds of company, being the smoking hot pitcher and all.” She nestled closer.
He laughed. “Smoking hot, huh?”
“No need to be modest.” She traced the line of his hair with her fingertips. “I have ways of knowing.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear,” he warned, and unable to resist any longer, covered her mouth with his.
She felt so good and it had been so long. His hands rested on her ribcage as he drew her closer, easing from beneath the steering wheel. He wanted to lay her back on the seat, wanted to stretch out over her, but her heart was already pounding under his hand, her breath coming hot and ragged as they kissed. He shifted again and pulled her onto his lap. She straddled him, took his face in her hands and parted her lips. He curved his hands over her ass and drew her closer. Her giggle against his mouth was the sweetest sound, especially after her somber mood earlier. He chuckled back, and let his hand course up her side, resting just below her breast. The urge to fill his hand with of plump flesh made him feel like a horny teenager.
He turned his head to her sweet-smelling throat, her silky hair catching in his stubble, and he cupped her breast, drawing a gasp from her. She covered his hand with hers and for a moment he thought she would push him away. Instead, she arched into his touch with a moan, dragging her hands over his shoulders and down over his chest, rubbing up and down in rhythm with his thumb on her nipple.
