Out of Centerfield (Washington Warriors Novel Book 1)

by Mertz, L.

  Butch

  Okay, I’ve talked to both of them and now I just have to sit back and relax and things will happen. I just know it. I called Hank and told him that during the home games, Johnathan will only play two out of three games. I need him to have more time with Kelsey. Evelyn thinks that I’m being silly, but if I want Kelsey to have a future, I need her to have Johnathan with her. He is an intelligent young man and is perfect for her. I just hope that her mother hasn’t brainwashed her with not trusting baseball players. I got rid of Kelsey’s father—he was a drunk and I couldn’t have him stay in their lives. I know that Evie was in love with him, but I needed to protect my family.

  Game 68

  Johnathan

  Johnathan: Let’s go out tonight. My treat. I don’t want to just sit in the condo all night. I’m off tonight and tomorrow because of Butch and I’m bored.

  Kelsey: Well hello to you too. What do u have in mind?

  Johnathan: I don’t care I just don’t want to be in the condo tonight. What can we do?

  Kelsey: Um…dinner? Or we can just go to a bar?

  Johnathan: Bar is good. I’ll come pick u up. Give me ur add.

  She text me her address and I take a quick shower and put on a white t-shirt, black pair of cargo shorts and sandals. I text her that I’m on my way. When I get to her place I can tell that it’s just as nice as my place, but probably bigger. I ring her condo and she buzzes me up.

  When I get to her floor, I knock on her door and it’s propped open so I just walk in. “Hello?”

  “I’m here, almost ready. Give me five minutes,” she yells at me. I guess she’s in the bathroom or bedroom but I’m not sure. She has a nice place like I assumed. You can tell two girls live here. There are clothes and shoes just thrown everywhere. The kitchen is just like mine too. I wonder if the same company owns both buildings.

  “Okay, I’m ready. You were fast.” She’s walking down the hall. Crap she looks great. She’s wearing tight jean shorts and a tight little red tank top and a pair of flip-flops. It’s simple, yet super sexy on her. She looks like she is trying to put her hair up in a ponytail or something.

  “Leave it down. I like your hair down,” I tell her when she gets closer to me.

  “Are you crazy? This is June and the humidity is at an all-time high. I will drown you and myself in my hair. I’m putting it back,” she says to me.

  I walk toward her and smell her hair, I know that’s kind of creepy, but I can’t not be near her when we are in the same room. “I have no idea what you’re talking about but it smells great and I would be more than happy to drown in it with you.”

  “Umm, uh…” Slowly, she pulls away from me. She’s blushing. “Let me grab my purse and we can go, yeah?”

  “Sure.” She grabs a small purse and puts her keys, credit card, ID and phone into it and we head out. Once in the elevator, I grab her by the waist and hug her to me. “I’ve missed seeing you in the stands behind the plate when we’ve been playing out of town.” I look down at her and see confusion in her eyes but I don’t back down. I know that her grandfather is trying to get us together, and I want to be with her so it’s a win-win for me.

  “Um, yeah okay, thanks?” she says to me. I know that she can feel this invisible pull between us. I don’t know why she tries to fight it.

  Kelsey

  I wasn’t expecting Johnathan to text me tonight. I was just sitting at home reading my Kindle. I read roughly one book a day. I have roughly twelve hundred books on there and I add more every day. I have a problem with the one-click button. We are best friends. When I received the text I was confused but I figured why not go out? I mean, I’m at home by myself; Lauren is at a night time shoot and probably won’t get home until morning.

  I give him my address and hop into the shower quickly to refresh. I hear the buzz from the intercom and run out of the bathroom with just my towel wrapped around me. I also leave the door propped open so I can hurry and get some clothes on.

  I hear him enter the condo and let him know that I’ll be just another few minutes. I throw on a pair of jean shorts and a red tank top. I grab a pair of flip flops out of the closet, put them on and walk out of my bedroom. As I come down the hallway, I am trying to get my hair up and off my neck. It’s been extremely hot the past week and it’s only June. My hair can’t handle the humidity.

  Johnathan tells me that he likes my hair down and I explain that down is not an option. He walks over and smells my hair. When he does that I can smell his cologne and him. It’s a not a strong scent, but nice and fresh. I like how he smells and I guess he likes how I smell too. I grab my purse and we head out.

  “Where do you want to go?” I ask him.

  “I don’t care just somewhere casual and simple. I don’t need a lot of noise.”

  We head out into the city and find a bar that Lauren and I frequent during the week. It’s a relaxed place and we have become friends with the owner of the bar. Johnathan holds the door for me to walk through and I see Harry and wave to him while walking to a high top table against the wall and grab a seat. Johnathan asks me what I want to drink and I let him know that I’ll just have a Miller Lite. He goes to the bar and places our order. I watch him the whole time and just look him over. He is a good looking guy with a laid back attitude. Tonight he is dressed comfortably in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. I can see the shorts tighten across his butt has he leans in to give the bartender our order. It’s a nice butt. I see him turn around and smirk at me, oh crap, he caught me.

  “Like what you see?”

  “The beer? Yes, thanks.” I grab it off the table and take a drink.

  He laughs. “Sure.” Leaning in closer to me he says, “I could see you in the mirror behind the bar top watching me, Kelsey.”

  “So why aren’t you playing tonight and why aren’t you at the game in general?”

  “I know someone,” he says and takes a drink of his beer. I don’t know what that means. Normally even if you aren’t playing you have to be with the team.

  “Okay… I think.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Kelsey. I won’t get in trouble or anything.” He turns to look at the game on the TV screen that is over the bar. We sit in silence for a while and it’s strangely comfortable.

  “I’m ready for another, you?” I ask him.

  “Sure,” he says, then adds, “and I’m going to be checking you out.” He winks at me and finishes his beer.

  I start walking to the bar and then look over my shoulder, and sure enough, he is watching me. I grab two beers and talk to Harry for a few minutes then return to the table.

  “Here you go. Would you like anything else?”

  “You.”

  I suck in a breath. “Okay,” I say. I don’t see the point in trying to play games. I mean we can try and see what happens. I haven’t had a boyfriend or hooked up with anyone in a long time, but what the hell.

  “I’m sorry, what? Okay? You said, okay?” He’s sputtering.

  “Yeah, sure why not? I mean we get along well enough and my grandfather obviously likes you, so yeah, why not.” I shrug and take a drink. “But it has to stay a secret. My grandfather practically owns you and drama is not a good thing for the club. Agreed?”

  Johnathan

  Oh, crap. I didn’t think that it would be this easy. I mean I thought she would fight me a little bit anyways. But I’m not going to complain. Keeping it a secret shouldn’t be too hard. I mean I have no one here to really tell.

  “Okay, I want you to know something. If we do this, dating thing, I don’t play around. If you say you’re mine then you are. There will be no other people in this relationship but us. Sound good? And I have to tell Kevin, but that’s the only person, plus it’s not like you won’t tell Lauren.” I stop and take a drink from my bottle.

  “Yeah. I got it. Now, don’t you think that we need to get to know each other a little more?”

  “Yup.” She takes another drink from her bottle.

 
; “Okay, I’m going to get more beer and then we can get to know each other more.” I walk over to the bar and get us both two more beers since I don’t want to have to walk back up here again while we play. While there I order us some chips and dip; we don’t need to get trashed.

  I get back to the table and she has finished her current beer. I place the four I got on the table.

  “Okay, twenty questions. Ask me anything you want and I’ll answer. Then I get to do the same. If we don’t want to answer we have to drink. Cool?” I ask her.

  “Sounds like a plan. You go first.”

  I think about what I want to know. I start with something easy. “Favorite band.”

  “Oh, that’s easy, right now it’s Hollywood Undead. They are this group that I just stumbled upon one day on the Internet and I fell in love with their music. I listen to everything though, except for Jazz, but everything else.”

  “Oh, I don’t think that I know that band, but I’ll be sure to check them out. Your turn.”

  “Why baseball? Like how did you get into it?”

  “Well, my dad left us, my mom and me, when I was like seven or eight, and well my grandfather took me for little league try outs and I just fell in love with the game. I’ve been playing ever since. How about you, why do you like baseball?”

  “That’s a waste of a question, but I’ll answer it. It’s in my blood. I mean my grandfather was one of the best ball players of his day and it has been ingrained in me from birth. I just love it. Okay, my turn again.” While she’s thinking about what to ask next, a plate of chips and hot dip are placed on the table.

  “Yum, how did you know? I love this stuff.” Taking a chip, she dips it in the hot cheesy substance and puts the whole thing in her mouth.

  “Man, if I knew you were that hungry I would have gotten food when we first got here,” I say, laughing at her.

  “No, I just love this stuff. I tried to make it at home once, it was awful.” She takes some more to eat. She gets some of the cheese on her fingers and starts to lick them off.

  Groaning, she looks up at me and starts turning red. “You have no idea how sexy you are, do you.”

  “What? No I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are. I’ve never been with anyone like you.”

  “Well, you haven’t been with me so how would you know?” She takes a drink from her bottle again.

  “You’re right. I haven’t… yet.” I get up from my seat and move over to her side of the table.

  “What…what are you doing?”

  Standing in front of her, I turn her so that I can fit between her legs. I put my hands on her neck pulling her face toward me. I can feel her arms wrap around my waist as I lower my mouth on top of hers. She tastes of beer, salt, and cheese. Nipping at her bottom lip, she gasps and I take full advantage of the opening and stick my tongue in her mouth. The heat coming from her body and the small noises she makes tell me that I must be doing something right. I tilt her head as she pulls me closer to her with her arms so I can deepen the kiss. I’m feeling very much like a caveman and trying my hardest not to throw her on the table and claim her as mine. I slowly pull back, opening my eyes, and see her flushed face and swollen lips.

  “Do you want to get out of here?” I ask her.

  She just nods her head. I throw some money down on the table, grab her hand and we walk out of the bar. We head for her condo but before we get there, I stop and push her up against the brick wall of the building and start my assault on her mouth again. I can’t help it. Now that I’ve had a taste of her, I can’t stop.

  Kelsey

  Oh...my…God. He has me pressed up against a brick wall right now. I can’t think straight. We really need to get walking. All of a sudden there’s a flash of light in the dark alley. It blinds me temporarily then I see that the flash came from a camera. I’m shocked. I can’t believe that we’ve just been caught by the media.

  “We need to get back to my place.” I push him back, trying to catch my breath and pull his baseball cap lower down his face. We are both breathing hard. He is an amazing kisser; I have never felt so good from just kissing. He grabs my hand and I have to almost run to keep up with him and his long strides. He clearly knows what just happened and I’m secretly hoping that it hasn’t ruined our night.

  We get to my condo and I get in the building with him right behind me as we step into the elevator.

  “Is Lauren home?” he asks me.

  “I don’t think she is, why?”

  “Just checking.”

  We are silent for the rest of the ride up to the condo. I’m nervous about the photographer if he got any pictures and also about what is about to happen or not happen in my house. I know that I don’t want to have sex with him, but we can have a little bit of fun, right? Once the doors open we step out and I get my key out for the door. It takes me a few seconds to actually get the key in the lock. Once inside, he lifts me up and I automatically wrap my legs around his waist as he once again assaults my mouth with his.

  “Bedroom?” he stops to ask.

  “Straight back.” I answer and then return to kissing him. I pull away from him, “Wait don’t we need to talk about what just happened?”

  He drops is mouth back to mine and continues to kiss me and walks back to my room at the same time. We hit the door and it opens easily, then he kicks it shut with his foot and we are on my bed. He is on top of me and we are making out like high school kids. With my hands on his back, I find the bottom of his shirt and start to run my hands up his spine. I can feel him put his hand on the outside of my leg and he rubs my calf and then higher up my thigh to the bottom of my shorts. I need this to stop before we get naked. I’m not ready to have sex with him just yet and we really do need to talk about what happened in the alley.

  I pull my hands from under his shirt and push up on his chest to break off the kiss. “We have to stop.”

  He rolls off me and he stares up at the ceiling. I have my blinds cracked so some of the light from the street is coming in through the windows. He breathes heavily and I can see his straining erection in his shorts. I don’t know what to say. He looks great here in my bed, but I’m not ready to go any further than what we have started tonight. Johnathan rolls over onto his side and looks at me, placing his hand under his head.

  “I don’t want to do anything that you don’t want to do, Kelsey, but can I just stay here tonight? We don’t have to do anything I just want to lie here. I’m kind of buzzed, not only from the beer, but from you also and I don’t think that I can leave you right now,” he tells me.

  Swallowing, I say, “Yeah, that’s okay, we can have a slumber party.”

  “Bathroom?”

  I point to the door beside my closet and he gets up and goes in there. I get up and change into my bedtime clothes which consist of boxer shorts and a cami. I go to the hall bathroom and use the toilet and finger comb my hair to put it back into a ponytail. I glance at myself in the mirror and I look a little mused up from our make out session. My lips are swollen; I wince a bit from their tenderness. I turn out the light and head back into my room.

  Johnathan is already in the bed under the covers. I climb into the bed and I turn my back to him. I feel him grab me by my hip and pull me to him, my back to his front. He is really warm. I can tell that he took off his shorts and t-shirt. I feel him put his head into my neck and he smells my hair again.

  “Why do you smell so good?” he asks, his voice is husky sounding.

  “Because I shower regularly?” I say to him.

  I feel him vibrating with laughter and he snuggles closer to me pulling me tighter to him. I just smile to myself. This is nice. The two of us just being cuddled up together. I feel his breath evening out and I know he is asleep. I fall asleep shortly after and dream about the guy wrapped around me forgetting the fact that we haven’t discussed the situation that could affect both of our lives.

  Johnathan

  I’m glad that Kelsey stopped us, because I don’t
think that I had the strength to do it. Just the thought of having her skin against my own was enough to make me hard. I don’t want our first time to be just a quick roll around in the sheets. She needs to be worshiped like the beautiful woman that she is. Going into the bathroom, I try to calm down and I even think about relieving myself with a quick shower, but I can’t do that either. Looking down at her counter I see that she has a lot of hair products—more than I’ve ever seen in my life. Now I understand the earlier comment about not wearing her hair down.

  I open the door and see that she isn’t in the bedroom anymore so I strip down to my boxers and climb into her bed. I didn’t realize that it was well after midnight. I’m now really glad that I have tomorrow off, but I still need to go to the gym to work out for a few hours. I hear her door open and see that she has changed into a pair of boxer shorts and a cami. They don’t leave much to my imagination and I start to get hard again. I adjust myself before she gets into the bed and is all the way on the other side of the bed. I don’t think so.

  I reach out and grab her hip, dragging her to my side. She fits perfectly. I snuggle my face into her neck again and smell her. She always smells so good to me. I ask her about it and she hits me with a smart ass comment. I can’t help but smile and laugh at her. This is nice, just being together like this. I drift off to sleep and I dream about the girl in my arms.

  Game 84

  Kelsey

  Well, it’s been a few weeks since our night out on the town and night in the bed. And I haven’t seen the pictures that the photographer caught of the two of us in the alley. The next morning he had to get to the stadium early to practice. There was no awkwardness when he left. He kissed me goodbye and thanked me for going out with him. I told him that I would see him that night at the game since Lauren didn’t have a job. We still haven’t been able to do the night tour of the monuments yet. I really want to take him. But, with the busy playing schedule, it’s been hard and I know that he’s been tired. So when we do have time we either hang out at his condo or mine. When he’s out on the road he calls and text me when he can. He even sent me flowers last week to the office. Grandfather saw them and was happy that I had someone nice enough to send me flowers. I didn’t tell him who they were from but I think he knew.