During Spring Training, we’d binged on three series. I know he’s still riding a high from the game and needs time to relax. It always took him forever to wind down after his high school games, and he’s told me he’s even worse now. Especially since this is his comeback season, after last year’s injury.
“Thought you’d never ask.” He reaches over, grabbing a remote that sits on the bedside table.
With a press of a button, a TV comes rising out of a table at the foot of the bed. This is the high-tech shit I’ll never get used to. “Back when we would lie in your twin bed, watching your little nineteen-inch TV, did you ever think this would be our life?” I smile as I think back to how we used to snuggle in his bed.
He tilts his head back, laughing with a grin on his face. “I hoped, but I loved that twin bed. There was no other way for us both to lay on it without you being completely on top of me. Can’t tell you how many hard-ons I hid from you, how many times I went to the bathroom to jack off, because I just couldn’t take it anymore. You’d squirm in those tank tops you wore, and every time you did, I could see down your shirt,” he admits.
“I had no idea!”
“I know you didn’t, that’s why I never said anything. It was like my very own Penthouse magazine right there in my room. One time you moved so that when I looked down your shirt I could see your nipple. This was before we’d moved that far in making out. If I remember correctly, I threw you off me so hard you hit the wall the bed was up against.”
I giggle. “I do remember that. You told me you were sick.”
“Sick? Shit-” he shakes his head, “I came in my pants. With the way you were moving against me, and then looking down to see not only creamy flesh, but your nipple? It was too much for a fifteen-year-old who wanted nothing more than to get your shirt off and his mouth on that tit.”
“I’m in shock.” I lay my head against his chest, cuddling up next to him.
“You are? I was! That was the most embarrassing thing to happen to me up until that point in my life. But it all worked out in the end.” He kisses my forehead. “I got the girl, and now we’re living happily ever after.”
I wrap my arms tighter around his waist. “Happily ever after,” I repeat.
The next morning, the sound of an alarm breaks through my slumber. One thing I’m not used to yet is getting up to an alarm on days I don’t work, but if he’s playing or has practice, his alarm goes off. I can already see where this is going to be our biggest issue. Seven days a week, this alarm may be going off for one of us.
He reaches over, shutting it off, and when he does, I move away from his body. We were still in the same position we fell asleep in last night, and I’m a little stiff. “What time is it?” I ask, my mouth heavy with sleep.
“Ten.” I can hear him rub his hands vigorously over his face. “I have to be at the ballpark at two, but I have a few other things I have to do before I get there.”
“Like what?” I roll over, staring at his bare back as he lifts himself out of bed. “Pete’s meeting me here today, and then we’ve got to go over to the warehouse,” he says, referencing the place that fulfills all his online store orders. “I’ve got about a hundred pieces to sign this week. Then we’ll head to the stadium.”
I’m not sure at all what I’m going to do, but I wish there was something I could do to help him. “Is there anything I can do to make this easier on you?”
“Just be my ride home from the game.” He reaches out, rubbing on my bare leg sticking out from beneath the blanket. “I’m about to get real busy, and I’ll want to spend any amount of time I can with you.”
He pushes himself up, before grabbing a pair of workout shorts and a shirt with the sleeves ripped out.
“Going to go run?”
“Perfect way to wake up.” He gives me a wink as he leaves the bedroom.
Sometimes I wonder if he’s not superhuman, with the amount of stuff he does in a day. Reaching over, I grab my phone off the table, intending to check on the charity IG, as well as catch up with the current events. My version of my parents reading the newspaper at the breakfast table.
Taking it off do not disturb, I see a few texts have come through from the group chat.
F: Hey ladies, do y’all wanna get together and have lunch/early dinner before the game? I know most of us don’t like stadium food, and since the game starts at five, we have time. Angelo’s is close by, we could park at the stadium and walk over as a group and be back by the time they take the field.
There’s a flurry of yes’s and good ideas. I’ve never been to Angelo’s, but I’m game to try new things out. I need to find a favorite place to eat here in the city, and I’m definitely on the hunt.
M: I’d love to! I’m not sure where it is, so please don’t leave without me.
F: Awesome! I’ll add you to the head count! We’ll meet at the stadium at three, just park in the family lot and we’ll meet up there.
Putting my phone down beside me, I take a deep breath. Meeting new people has never been easy for me, but I’m so glad Felicity has taken me under her wing. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe I can make this life work.
Seven
Savage
“It’s gonna be hot as hell this summer if it’s already this hot in April.” JD wipes at his forehead as we take batting practice.
“Ain’t that the truth? It was even warm down at the Gulf in February.” I whistle as one of our rookie’s hits one out of the park.
“On your honeymoon” He stretches the word out, hitting me in the shoulder. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell anybody about it, man. Ya know we all woulda been there.”
Many of my teammates have come up to me, saying the same thing since Malone and I got married. To be honest, I didn’t realize they thought so highly of me, but it makes me feel appreciated. Truth is, I wanted to make sure she had no reason to back out. More than anything, I wanted her connected to me, for fear that she’d run again.
“We just wanted to get it done, ya know? We wasted so much time in the first place; we didn’t want to waste anymore.”
“Understandable. When Felicity and I got engaged, I wanted to run off that night and get married. She talked me out of it, wanted her Dad to walk her down the aisle, but if I had been given my own choice? We wouldn’t have waited. I just wanted that girl to be mine.”
We let out loud yells and claps as another teammate smashes two in a row over the back fence. “I agree one hundred percent with you, all I wanted to do was start our lives together. I didn’t give much more thought to it than that.”
“There’s so much shit that comes along with us, though.” JD shakes his head. “Shit I hadn’t even thought about.”
“What do you mean?”
Suddenly I’m wondering if there were things I should have thought about too.
“Like when it’s us, we’re in this bubble. We’re used to being around each other, because we just are. I don’t see you as a former MVP, I see you as my friend, Slater. Right?”
I nod, trying to figure out what he’s getting at.
“But the ladies in our lives? They become people that the female fans look up to. They either love them and want to emulate them, or they hate them for being the person we go home to at the end of the night. Back when Felicity first got on social media, because ya know, it’s what the front office suggests. Put your wife on a platform so she can interact with your fans and get us good PR. It was great. There weren’t a lot of rude comments or anything, but over time things got rough.”
“Rough how?” Now I’m beginning to question if letting Malone work her PR magic was the smartest thing to do. Getting her own public Instagram account was the first thing she’d done when I told her I was ready to let everyone know we’d gotten married. I’d tagged her in it, and it’d been on like Donkey Kong since.
“It’s like in the beginning everything’s all shiny and new, the fans want to learn about the women who live with us. They put them up
on this pedestal and they’re so nice, but then something happens. It can be that she takes too long to post another picture, maybe they didn’t like something she wore to the game, maybe the camera zoomed in at a bad time and she looked bored, could be that I’ve done something wrong. They find something, and they start picking at it. Felicity finally turned her comments off a month ago, and she’s a changed woman since then. They had her crying, man. Crying, over stupid shit they said.” JD’s hands are gripping the chain-link fence and I’m worried he might pull it down.
Reaching over, I put my hand over his fingers to stop them from squeezing. “That bad, huh?”
“People are assholes. Last season I messed up. I over-threw a ball trying to get an out, it allowed a run to score and we lost the game. Never mind that it was one of the many we lost without you here. But for some reason people picked that night to attack her. Like my mistake was her mistake. Her phone blew up, and when she started crying, I grabbed it, started reading the shit they were leaving her. It was hurtful stuff. Saying like if she were really a good wife, I wouldn’t be making mistakes out on the field. If she were keeping me happy at home, I wouldn’t have any reason to make an error. Then there were the people who were extra-douchey. Telling her to tell me what a piece of shit I am. That I have no business playing on this team,” he shakes his head. “It was ridiculous. I compounded everything by replying to a few of the comments myself, telling them to come after me, not her.”
“All this over shit that doesn’t even concern them?” I’m starting to feel like I’ve fed Malone to the wolves. I have no doubt that she can take care of herself, but I can also imagine some of these keyboard warriors sitting back, licking their chops, waiting on her to make what they deem is a mistake.
“Yep, because we love them, and because we put them in the public eye, it makes them fair game. I don’t think it’s right, I fuckin’ hate it, but it is what it is.”
Somehow him saying that doesn’t make me feel any better at all.
Malone
I’m slightly nervous as I drive to the stadium, I kind of think I always will be. Pulling up to the family lot, I roll down my window to talk to the nice security guard who’s been here every time I’ve been there.
“Afternoon, Malone.” He gives me a grin. “You meetin’ all your friends?”
He’s sixty, if he isn’t a day. Grinning back at him, I give a nod. “Sure am, we’re gonna go grab some food before the game.”
“It’s good that you’re making friends. This life isn’t easy, I’ve seen many people come and go. Hope to see you stick around.”
“I’m not planning on going anywhere.”
He waves me through, and I head over to meet what I’ve come to think of as my new group of friends. It’s weird how things change so quickly, how you latch onto people who are going through the same thing as you. Parking in Slade’s designated spot; I get out and make my way over to them.
“I see Savage hooked you up with another shirt.” Felicity points to the t-shirt I’m wearing.
“Yeah, when I got done taking a shower, I walked out and there it was. He put a note on it, telling me he hoped to see me in it today.”
The front says Property of Savage the back says Mrs. Harlow with his number on it. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it. If I didn’t love how he proclaimed me to be his.
“I think you know everybody.” Felicity looks amongst the girls that have joined us, and when I confirm I do, we all walk as a unit over to the nearby restaurant to have an early dinner.
“Are you prepared for next week?” Felicity asks as we wait for our food to come.
“Next week?” I try to remember what’s happening, but it’s hard to keep up with my schedule and Slater’s without having my planner in front of me.
“They go on the road,” someone answers. “Away games all week next week.”
It’s then that I realize they’re talking about the guys being gone, playing games not at home. The other part of being married to a baseball player I haven’t had to deal with yet. “Oh.” I deflate a little, taking a drink of my water. “Is it as bad as I’m assuming it’s going to be?”
“For your first one, probably worse.”
There’s a feeling of dread in my stomach. One I wouldn’t wish on anyone else. This is the part I’ve been scared about, the questions I’ve been too frightened to ask. I’d have to be stupid not to think that many of the men on the team cheat on their wives. After all, I have worked PR for many years, and I have been around professional athletes. But I try to convince myself that I know Slade. He’d never do anything to jeopardize our future. We just found each other; he wouldn’t fuck it up before we had a chance to make a real go of it? Right?
My food comes, and I pick at it, wanting badly to ask what the protocol is for a cheating situation, but also not wanting any of them to think I’m a naïve idiot.
“Are you okay?” one of the other wives, I think her name is Nikki asks. “You’ve been picking at that salad since you got it. If it’s not good, we can send it back; they treat us well here because we eat here a lot before the games.”
“No, no.” I shake my head, shoveling a bite into my mouth. “It’s not the salad at all.”
“What are you worried about?” she asks me quietly, but as soon as the words are out of her mouth, all eyes are focused in our direction.
“What’s the deal with cheating on the road?” I wince as I just blurt it out, wanting to get it over with.
“Well, first-” Nikki holds up a pink manicured nail, “-nobody at this table stands for it. You wanna let your man have his cake and eat it to? You need to be sittin’ in the box with the rest of them.”
As I glance around the table, I see a lot of heads nodding in agreement. “Oh thank God! I’ve been worried about it, have wanted to talk to Slade about it, but didn’t know how to bring the subject up. I know from my previous life, some women look the other way, but that’s not me.”
“Nor is it us,” Felicity assures me. “And if something ever happens, that’s why we have the group text. We’ve all got to stick together.”
And even though they’ve made me feel comfortable since I met them in Spring Training, this is where I begin to feel like a member of the Bandits family, where I feel like I have a spot, and it’s mine. They aren’t being nice to me because of who Slade is, they’re giving me advice, even at the expense of my husband.
For the first time since all this started, I’ve got a sense of belonging that’s just about me, and I have to admit it feels good. I revel in it slightly, happy that I decided to come to dinner with these girls. Finally I pick up my fork and eat, because finally my stomach, my heart, and my mind are at ease.
“I wish JD still looked at me the way Savage looks at you every time he comes out of that dugout.” Felicity bumps my shoulder as we sit next to each other, drinking ice waters and watching our men play.
“JD looks at you all the time,” I argue.
“But not with the heat Savage looks at you with. That’s the burn of a new love, of being newly married, and knowing you’re going to go home and fuck like rabbits.”
“Felicity!”
Nikki giggles from where she sits on Felicity’s other side. “She’s a dirty girl. She reads erotic romance and watches soft porn. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her, but she’s not even bothered by a finger up the ass.”
My face is burning a bright red as I listen to the two of them talk. As they keep on, I shove my hands up over my ears and shake my head, laughing as they try to come up with something that’ll top what the last one said. When I open my eyes, I see that Slade is standing at the dugout, staring at me before he makes his way to the warm-up circle. He’s got a smile on his face, and when our eyes meet he bites his bottom lip before he tips his helmet toward me. It’s the single, hottest thing I think he’s ever done. And because of that, I take my hands of my ears, clap loudly, and whistle before yelling, “Hit me a homerun, Savage!”
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He turns around, knowing he looks good in those ass-hugging pants of his, giving me a smile. Ninety seconds later, when he smacks one over the right-field wall, I’m celebrating with the rest of the Bandit’s fans in the stands. When he comes across home plate, he steps on it hard, then turns around, pointing at me as he runs for the dugout.
Even from where I sit, I can see the twinkle in his eyes. Asshole showed off for me. Can’t say I blame him and can’t say I didn’t like it. Little do I know, our exchange will hit the national headlines in the morning, and from there, it’s a rollercoaster of a ride.
Eight
Malone
The beeping of my alarm startles me awake. I’ve only gotten up to one a few times since we’ve been here, but I’m actually kind of glad to get up to one today. I’m ready. Ready for a new routine, ready to figure out what I’m going to do separate from Slade’s stuff. The biggest question I’d had back when he first asked me to marry him was what about me?
Now it’s time for me to find out.
I’m quiet as I get out of bed, knowing Slade didn’t fall asleep for a long time after the game last night. I’d been exhausted, while he’d been wired, probably because of all the adrenaline. Instead of hanging out on the deck, we’d eaten a late snack and gone our separate ways.
As quickly and quietly as I can, I go through the room, grabbing everything I’ll need to get ready, before leaning down to give him a kiss on the cheek. Once I’ve got it all, including makeup and my hair accessories, I take it all to one of the other bathrooms in the place. As I pass through the living room, I gasp, not used to the view of the Birmingham Skyline just yet. Who would have thought little old me would be living in a penthouse apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows? Not me. Not ever, but I’m thankful and grateful for this man who’s been brought back into my life.
MVP (The MVP Duet Book 2) Page 5
