Out of His League

by Cathryn Parry

  “Because my friend Derrick has a mom and a dad and a brother and a little sister, and every Saturday they do something with everybody in the family all together, and my mom calls it their family fun day. So we started doing it, too.” Brandon stuffed a spoon into his mouth contentedly. “Last time we saw the dinosaur movie on IMAX. We went to the candy store, and I got gummy worms.”

  “What, no bubble gum?”

  Brandon blinked, the vanilla ice cream with the streaks of blue and pink in it halfway to his mouth. “Gum isn’t allowed in movie theaters. Don’t you know that?”

  No. Because he didn’t go to movies, or to family fun days.

  “I want to take—I want us to take—your aunt someplace that she’ll really like.” Jon spoke in a low voice, angled away from the door, because there was a woman who’d entered the café and she was staring at him with that look he knew too well. He didn’t want to be recognized—not right now. He wanted to think about Lizzy and what he could do with her on Saturday. He was so out of his league on this. “She’s a doctor. She’s smart. She reads a lot.” He’d been in her apartment; he’d seen the bookcases and the piles of magazines on her coffee table.

  “You read a lot, too.” Brandon rolled his eyes. “I got the books you sent over yesterday.”

  Yeah, Jon had read a lot as a kid, together with his mom. Then after she’d died, pitching had substituted for books. He’d boxed up the books and kept them, though.

  “You’ll keep them in good shape for me, right?” Jon asked. “I’m going to want them back once you move home.”

  “What are you going to do with them then?”

  “Keep them for when I have kids,” he said gruffly. “After my baseball career is over.”

  “That is going to be in a long time.”

  “It is.” Speaking of which, Jon glanced at his watch—their break was almost over. He needed to figure out a way to ask Brandon to help him understand his aunt. She confused and befuddled him. She challenged him and...

  She really didn’t need him. She was the first person he’d met who was aloof and self-directed on that count. He liked that. But now that he had a chance with her, he wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  “So...I saw some magazines on your aunt’s coffee table. A bunch were from the Smithsonian. That’s the big museum complex in Washington, D.C. It has buildings dedicated to art, space travel, dinosaurs, geology, American history. There has to be something specific she likes about it.”

  Brandon took his mouth off the lump of ice cream he’d stuck in his mouth like a banana. “She likes to read me books that show how people used to live a long time ago.” He swept his arm to make an arc.

  “How long ago?” Were they talking cowboys, World War II, or ancients? To a kid like Brandon, a long time ago could be back when Jon had been in college in Arizona.

  “Well, one book has pictures of a castle and knights.”

  “She likes castles and knights?” Dr. Elizabeth LaValley, a closet romantic?

  “...and there was one with a town in it, with different kinds of shops and houses where you could see how families lived in olden times. The scientists dug it up, and saw how it used to be, all dirty and broken. But then you put the clear sheet over the page—” he pantomimed with his hands “—and then another sheet, and the book shows how the houses used to look like—where the mom and the dad slept, and where the kids played, and where they ate, and the garden they kept...”

  “Wait, so...like an archaeologist would do?” He was thoroughly confused.

  “Someday, Auntie is going to take a boat trip, and stop in all kinds of places like that, but for now, she’s too busy and she has to work, so she reads about it in books and imagines how it was back then. That’s what she told me.” Brandon resumed licking his spoon.

  Baloney, Lizzy was too busy. She just didn’t want to break out of her routine.

  Jon put down his drink. He needed to find a museum exhibit that cataloged an archaeology dig of some sort. Boston was swimming in museums. Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum...

  “I want to make sure we’re doing something unique,” he said to Brandon. “We need to go someplace your aunt hasn’t been to before. Where else has she gone on other...family fun days?”

  Brandon shrugged, slurping down the last of his melting ice cream straight from the dish. “She doesn’t go with me and Mom and Sharma when we go bowling or to the movies.”

  Lizzy would hate to know Brandon was telling him this. Still... “Does she, uh...go with any other families?”

  “No. My mom says that Auntie wants a family of her own, but she doesn’t know how.”

  Wow, that was... It made him sad.

  “When I was little and sick, my mom says I survived cancer because of Auntie. She knows doctor things. But I’m supposed to help her with...people things.”

  “Well, you’re doing a good job,” Jon said in a low voice.

  Brandon brightened. “I could spy for you. If you call me tonight, before bedtime, I’ll tell you what she’s reading.”

  Jon was creating a monster. “No. You’ve helped me a lot already, buddy. I think I can take it from here.”

  Lizzy was just so complicated. He felt like a sixteen-year-old again, completely ignorant when it came to women.

  “Let’s head back,” he said to Brandon.

  But they were too late. Two young women came tripping into the café, and when they saw Jon, one of them gave a squeal of recognition. “You’re Jon Farell, aren’t you?” She clapped and gave him a flirtatious smile. “I’d recognize your hair anywhere.”

  “Omigod, we love your hair,” the second girl said.

  The first girl held up her iPhone. “Can we take a picture with you? Pleeease?”

  Jon smiled, but he was feeling irritated. He was suddenly tired of being public property. The season was over.

  “You’re so in the news,” the second girl said. “But don’t worry, we believe in you. We don’t believe a word they’re saying.”

  “I’ll give you a photo, but over there, away from the kid.” Jon steered them to an adjoining table. He was enough of a professional that he stood with a frozen smile while each girl took turns snapping a photo with him. It would be uploaded to Facebook within ten minutes. Such was life in this century.

  “Thanks,” he said to the girls. But his heart wasn’t in it. Brandon looked forlorn. Jon felt...

  Not grateful. Not at all like he was making somebody happy.

  Not in control.

  The opposite of everything he usually felt when fans recognized him and wanted to pose with him.

  Oh, Lizzy, what are you doing to me?

  “I can’t let that happen on Saturday,” he said aloud.

  “I don’t like when people take pictures of you,” Brandon agreed. “You’re supposed to be with me today.”

  “Sorry, buddy.” But Jon didn’t see what he could do about it.

  An hour later, in front of the camera, Jon still felt rattled. Susan spent the remaining time interviewing Brandon about his thoughts on visiting kids who were in the cancer ward and how it felt from the point of view of a cancer survivor. Brandon did a great job answering her. Jon was grateful he could push off his part of the interview until the next session, because he had nothing genuine he cared to share about how he felt at the moment.

  He ushered Brandon back to the child care facility. Lizzy had left a note—she was in an emergency appendectomy surgery and would be back for Brandon in another hour or so, if all went well. Jon was glad he wouldn’t bump into her. He needed time to think.

  He retrieved his SUV from the hospital garage and then drove to meet Coach Duffy for a scheduled workout with his college team.

  After a bullpen session, he stretched and cooled down with ice to his elbow. And a couple hours later he was back in his SUV, following crawling traffic northbound when his phone rang. It was Brooke, his agent.

  “I was gonna call you tonight
,” he said into the phone. “Some fans said something that bothered me today. They said that I was ‘so in the news’—what would they have meant by that? Is there something I should be concerned about?”

  “Not a thing,” Brooke said lightly. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll worry about your contract. How are you pitching?”

  “Fine.” Better than he’d expected.

  “Good. I talked with my contact on the hospital board, and they’ve penciled you in for the bachelor auction in two weeks.”

  Wait, what? “I told you I’m not doing the bachelor auction.”

  “Jon, you don’t have a wife, or even a girlfriend. Vivian knows this. There is no excuse for you not to participate.”

  “Who told her?”

  “Does it matter? What’s so bad about raising money for your owner’s pet cause? She’ll be there for the event. It’ll get you major brownie points.”

  “I thought I was getting brownie points by doing the video.”

  Brooke sighed. “So, worst-case scenario, you go on a date with a wealthy cougar—or her wealthy daughter—who lusts after you. So what?”

  “Is that all?” he said sarcastically. If Brooke wasn’t seeing it, he couldn’t explain to her. “Sounds like I’m expected to put out, too. You wouldn’t be singing this tune if it was you being auctioned off.”

  Brooked laughed. His teeth went on edge. “Oh, come on,” she said. “I know you, Jon. Don’t play coy.”

  His hands gripped the steering wheel. She had crossed the line.

  “Look, my phone is ringing,” Brooke said. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”

  “You bet we will,” he said to dead air. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind what he was doing next. He turned the SUV toward his apartment, where he’d stashed the business card for the hair-donation cancer charity that Susan had given him. Jon was cutting off his hair—every damn bit of it—and going incognito. If no one in Boston recognized him until spring training, life could only be better.

  Because being a spectacle for baseball wasn’t what he’d signed on for, and until now—until Lizzy—he’d forgotten that truth.

  And if anyone on Vivian’s team gave him a hard time, he would remind them that he’d donated his damn hair for the cause.

  It didn’t get more personal than that.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  WHEN ELIZABETH OPENED the door to her apartment that Saturday morning, she gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Jon had cut his hair! His beautiful hair!

  By reflex, she reached out and touched it. Silky in her fingers, and short. Cut above his ears, it took away the mystical quality the long brown hair with the white streak had given him. Jon seemed more human now, just a man. His jawline appeared stronger, his nose more pronounced.

  Jon’s ice-blue eyes regarded her, and she realized her fingers were brushing his scalp, caressing him like a lover. Embarrassed, she jerked her hand back. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m...sorry.”

  Jon chuckled, deep in his throat. “If I’d known you liked my long hair that much, I would have reconsidered.”

  “Oh.” She pressed her hand into the pocket of her jeans, up to the knuckle. “You cut it for charity, didn’t you?”

  “No.” He shifted on his feet, hesitating. “Turns out they need at least eight inches of hair to make a wig for the kids who are fighting cancer. They couldn’t use mine because it was too short.”

  “So you decided to cut it, anyway?”

  He said nothing. She was reminded of how uncomfortable he’d looked that afternoon in the Sunshine Club, with Susan fussing over him and the women tittering and gawking at his presence before the camera. “In any event, no one will recognize you now,” she said brightly.

  “That’s the plan.” His voice was quiet. He seemed different from the man who’d come to her house weeks ago, determined to connect with her life as if it was inevitable. Back then, she had criticized and attacked him unfairly. Then she had gone begging to him on Brandon’s behalf. Now...

  Her plan for the day was up in smoke already. She’d intended to remain neutral and treat him like any other man. But he had upended her.

  “Are you going to let me in, Lizzy?”

  “You’ve surprised me.” And she couldn’t stop staring at his haircut. He looked like a completely different person. “I thought you enjoyed being public.”

  “Not everything I do has to be public.”

  “But your hair was your trademark.”

  He looked her up and down. “Your scrubs are your trademark, and yet here you are, in street clothes, just like me.”

  Standing in the corridor of her humble condominium building, and dressed in jeans and a light jacket, Jon did look like he could be anybody. Maybe he was trying to be normal, to be seen as a man and not an icon. He blended in, like the men she worked with at the hospital.

  But he could never be just anybody to her. Shaken, she opened the door wider to him. He stepped past her with a sidelong glance, that strong arm brushing against her breast.

  She inhaled as tingles went through her. Her body always responded to Jon. Where was Brandon? He was supposed to be here as her shield and her chaperone. She looked in the hallway outside her condo. One of her neighbors had decorated their door with a Halloween scarecrow overnight, but other than that, they were alone.

  Leaving her door open, she followed Jon into her kitchen. She was just...unnerved. Jon did that to her. Whenever they were in the same room, he distracted her. Took over her imagination with thoughts of what it would feel like if she pressed herself to him, from chest to thigh....

  Presently he kept his distance, checking out the pumpkin she and Brandon had been carving on the kitchen table. She’d been able to use her scalpel skills, and that was fun. But when Brandon had noticed Jon’s SUV drive up, he’d bolted downstairs to meet him. So where was he...?

  “Brandon went downstairs to meet you. Do you know where he is or what he’s doing?” she asked Jon.

  “Oh, yeah, he’s setting up his—”

  “Jon!” Brandon came bursting in the door. “That pitch-back net is so awesome!”

  He stopped short. “Wow. You cut your hair off.”

  A smile played on Jon’s lips. “You noticed, buddy.”

  “People won’t take your picture today.” Brandon grinned, showing the gap in his mouth from his missing tooth. “Good.”

  “That’s why I did it. It’s our time today.”

  Brandon turned to Elizabeth. He carried his baseball glove and wore his Captains cap. “Are you ready to go, Auntie? It’s family fun day.”

  Oh, that term of Ashley’s. It drilled a bittersweet core straight through Elizabeth’s heart. What did she and Ashley know of family fun?

  She started to protest, but caught Jon and Brandon sharing a look. “What’s going on between you two?”

  “We collaborated.” Jon winked at Brandon and tilted his head. Brandon took a moment to process whatever it was that was being shared, then ran for his bedroom door. He came back with a homemade card.

  “This is for you, from me. It’s a thank-you for taking care of me. I made it at the hospital.”

  Elizabeth glanced at Jon. This was his idea. And it was so sweet and unexpected, her eyes felt moist. She was not the type of person that people gave spontaneous gifts to.

  “I...” She put her hands to her heart and knelt to her nephew’s height. “I’ll treasure it very much. Thank you.”

  Brandon beamed. He glanced up at Jon. “Now can I tell her where we’re going for family fun day?”

  “No,” Jon said. “Not yet.”

  She stood, gazing between them, from one to the other. They really were in cahoots. Brandon really was great at dealing with this...baseball player who was so different from her. She was only good with people if they were in a hospital gown and had an IV attached. An IV where she could add some sedating drugs, if necessary.

  She pulled on her short boots with the two-inch heels and drew
her leather jacket off the wooden hanger in her coat closet. “Am I dressed appropriately for...wherever it is we’re going?”

  “Yes!” Brandon said, tugging at her arm. “Let’s go, Auntie.”

  Nodding, she opened a kitchen cabinet. Having learned to prepare when it came to Brandon, she opened her purse and loaded a few gluten-free snack bars inside. Gluten-free snacks weren’t easy to find in public places.

  Jon held the door for her and, careful not to look into his eyes, she brushed past him on the way out. On the way down the elevator, Brandon leaned close to Jon, crowding him. The space was so tight she felt light-headed. To relax, she gripped her car keys in her hand.

  Outside, she walked ahead of them to her Prius.

  She heard a quiet chuckle behind her, and she turned. Jon was shaking his head. “You want to take your car?” He nodded to her Prius.

  “Yes, of course. What’s wrong with it?”

  “It’s only big enough for one person, Lizzy.”

  Well, that was an exaggeration, but maybe it was a bit small for Jon. He had long legs and wide shoulders and very big hands...

  She glanced away. Great. Did she always have to be so physically aware of him?

  “Come on,” he said. “We’ll take my SUV.” He stood beside his behemoth monstrosity of a truck that looked like it could hold a baseball team and all their equipment.

  She smiled despite herself. “Typical. You carry the world around with you, and I travel by myself.”

  “You’re my entourage today, Lizzy.” He opened the passenger door for her. “Climb in.” She felt his palm on the small of her back.

  Her heart pounding, she stepped up slowly. His hand stayed on her back until she settled into the seat. The interior of his truck was comfortable, with worn leather seats and clean windows. On the dashboard was a pair of athlete’s sunglasses, and wedged on the console between them was a parking tag that read “Captains.”

  But it was the air inside that got to her. The scent that made her heart ache. She closed her eyes and inhaled. Jon. All Jon. That same, male, distinctive...whatever it was...aura, presence, pheromones...that had so gotten to her on the day she had met him.