I tap his glove with mine. “Let’s do this.”
When we get to the top of the sixth and we’re up by three, I feel like maybe I’ve gotten my mojo back as we take the field. I can do this. I can make baseball the most important thing again.
I don’t even realize it when I glance up at the stands once more. But then I blink, because I’m sure I’m seeing things.
She’s here.
I can’t even help it when I stop and stare. Our eyes lock together and I watch it happen. I watch as a brilliant smile curves her lips. And as the smile gets bigger, my heart gets lighter. She came back. And she’s here. I never thought she’d set foot in this stadium again. How could she after what happened to her?
Then I want to kick myself when it dawns on me that everyone in the stadium is looking to see what I’m staring at. My eyes shoot to the JumboTron to see the cameras focused on her. But she’s not looking at the massive screen. She’s looking at me. She gives me her usual thumbs up and blows me a kiss, and just like that, I know everything will be okay.
And then, while the stadium has quieted down, someone yells, “Stay strong, Murphy!”
The umpire taps me on the shoulder, reminding me I still have a job to do. I step behind the plate, unsure if I’ve ever played ball with a bigger smile on my face. Brady nods at me even before I give him the sign. He nods because he knows my prayers have been answered.
I give him the sign for a breaking ball. I need this game to be over and his breaking ball is the fastest way I know to get that done.
After three up and three down, Spencer gets up to bat and hits a hard ground ball to left field for a double. Then it’s my turn.
I don’t look at her as I take my up. I can’t have the distraction. Just knowing she’s here is enough. I rub my tattoo as I step up to the plate. I foul off four balls to the left. Then, on the fifth pitch, he throws me a fastball. My favorite pitch. I hear the sound. I feel it in my hands. I close my eyes briefly as I fling the bat behind me and jog my way around the bases.
When I round third base and I’m heading for home, I find her in the crowd. Just before I reach home plate, I pound on my chest, right over my heart, and then I point to her. I think she’s crying. But I can’t be sure, because, damn it, I just might be crying, too.
~ ~ ~
I take the quickest shower in history in my haste to get to her. When I emerge from the clubhouse, camera flashes blind me. Reporters fire questions at me as I make my way over to where Murphy is waiting with Lexi and Scott.
Thankfully, I see that Drew is already on top of things, keeping reporters away from her. Everyone wants a piece of her. People want to know how she’s handling being front-page news. I can’t believe she showed up here. She had to have known this would happen.
Before I get to her, a woman shouts over the crowd. “Stay strong, Murphy! Don’t let that bastard ruin you. Not many people could show their face after what he did to you. You go, girl!”
Women start chanting, “Stay strong. Stay strong.”
Murphy turns bright red. Damn, she’s adorable when she blushes.
I sweep her into my arms, not caring how many people are taking pictures. I want the world to know I’m behind her one hundred percent.
I kiss her before we even say a word. Her lips taste better than I remember.
I pull away and stare into her alluring eyes.
“Hi,” she says shyly.
“Hi, yourself.”
Her eyes get misty. “I have so much I want to say …”
I nod. “Me too. Come home with me?”
“Yes.”
A smile overtakes my face. “Drew, can you please find us some transportation?”
“Right this way,” he says, motioning for us to follow him.
“Lexi, can we drop you and Scott along the way?”
She laughs. “I wouldn’t dream of it, little brother. We can find our own way home.”
We say our goodbyes and let Drew usher us away.
~ ~ ~
When we walk through the door to my apartment, all I want to do is take her in my arms. But we need to talk. We didn’t talk in the cab. That wasn’t the right place. We didn’t even talk in the elevator. But she did let me hold her hand. And she did smile a lot.
“I’m sorry,” we say at the same time and then laugh about it.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Murph. What happened to you is unimaginable. You needed a minute to take a breath. And if you need longer than a minute, that’s okay. Just say where you want to go and I’ll take you there. I meant it when I said we could leave New York.”
“You are not quitting baseball, Caden. But you offering to is why I’m here.”
I motion for her to sit at the bar while I open a bottle of wine. “You might need to help me understand that,” I say.
“I wish you could have met my dad. He was wonderful. He always had so many words of wisdom to offer. Words that didn’t mean much to me at the time, but now I understand.”
I hand her a glass and sit next to her. “I wish I could have met him, too.”
“When I was little, he would warn me about boys. He would tell me that a lot of boys will say things to get you to like them, but when it came right down to it, most boys were not willing to change for a girl. He said the only way to know if a boy really loves you is if he’s willing to give up his dreams for you. He said when that happened, I would know I’d found the right one.” Her eyes fill with tears and she starts to choke up. “Then he told me that the way I’d know I truly loved him is that I would never let him do it.”
I pull her onto my lap and wipe her tears. “Damn, I love your father.”
“Me too,” she says, nodding. “He’s right, Caden. I love you. I love you more than I thought I could love anyone. And I would never let you give up baseball. It’s what makes you you. It’s what brought us together. And when I really thought about it, I realized I don’t care what anyone else thinks. If people want to watch me and that loser have sex, they are sick and twisted and aren’t worthy of me caring in the least.”
“I love you too, babe. More than you could ever know. And you don’t have to worry, Ethan is pretty sure we got all the videos taken off the internet.”
“Really?” she asks, looking surprised. “You can do that? You did that?”
“We sure as hell did. Nobody gets to see my girl that way except me. And I’ve got a lot of people working to make sure that prick goes to prison for what he did to you.”
She sighs and I can feel some of the tension leaving her body. “Thank you, Caden.”
I cup her chin with my hand. “Don’t you know by now that I’ll do anything for you?”
“Anything?” she asks with a sultry grin.
I laugh. “Just name it.”
“Take me to bed, Kessler, and I’ll tell you exactly what to do.”
I immediately spring to life underneath her. Then I get up, lifting her into my arms before I carry her down the hallway.
She giggles as I practically run back to my bedroom. “Don’t drop me,” she jokes.
“Never.”
I put her down on the bed and take a minute to look at her.
“What is it?” she asks when I don’t immediately climb on the bed with her.
I shake my head. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever have you in my life again, let alone my bed. I’m a very fortunate man.”
Her hand moves up to her face and she runs a finger across her scar. “I’m the fortunate one.”
I crawl on top of her and lean down to kiss her. I kiss her scar. Her cheeks. Her neck. She’s moaning beneath me before I even get to her lips. And when I do, she grabs the back of my head and holds me to her. We kiss each other breathless. We make each other understand that the words we’ve spoken are truer than any other words.
“Please, Caden,” she begs, squirming under me.
I smile as I hastily remove my clothes and then take my sweet time removing hers. I peel her top off,
kissing and licking inch by inch of her stomach as I do. I unclasp her bra and take her glorious breasts into my hands and then into my mouth. I unbutton her jeans and remove them slowly, taking care to give attention to every curve of her legs.
“I plan to take my time with you and make you come in every way possible. But right now, I need to be inside you. I need to feel you and know you’re mine.”
“Yes.” She reaches over to my nightstand but I pull her arm back.
“Murph, I want to feel you with nothing between us. Is that okay? We’ve both been tested and you’re still on the pill, aren’t you?”
She nods, a slow smile creeping up her face. “What if I try and trap you, Kessler?”
I laugh, leaning down to devour her neck with my mouth. But before I do, I whisper in her ear. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
My hand wanders down her soft skin and through her fine curls to find her wet for me. I slip a finger inside her and run my thumb across her clit. Her breath catches and she moans under my ministrations. I work my fingers faster on her until I know she’s on the brink. Then I climb on top of her and glide myself in, reveling in the incredible feeling of flesh on flesh.
“Jesus, Murph.”
I have to control myself so I don’t come too quickly. But the sensation of having nothing between us is almost too much for me to take. The sweet friction builds inside me like a tsunami, and I’m about to explode. I stop moving and reach up to grab both sides of her head. “I love you, Murphy Brown,” I say, looking into her eyes as our bodies are joined in the most intimate way possible.
“The way I feel …” she chokes up as tears pool in her eyes. She reaches her hands around me to thread her fingers through my hair. “Love is not a strong enough word, Caden.”
That did it. This woman owns me lock, stock, and barrel. If I had the ring with me, I’d propose to her right this very second. But I left it in my locker—the same place it’s been since the first day I put it in my pocket.
“It’ll always be you,” I tell her. “It’ll always be us.” Then I let myself go as I reach a hand between us and make sure she is right there with me.
Our salacious cries echo off my walls as we drag every last ounce of pleasure from each other. I collapse down on top of her, thanking my lucky stars she came back to me.
When I catch my breath, I rise onto my elbows. “I hope you slept on the plane, because you aren’t getting any sleep tonight.”
She giggles and looks around my room. “I like it here,” she says. “Mind if I stay?”
“Stay the night? Hell no, I don’t mind.” I wink at her. “I wasn’t planning on letting you leave until I’m done with you.”
She looks up at me with her gorgeous blue eyes. “Not just the night. I was thinking I might stay a little longer than that if the offer still stands.”
I study her in astonishment. “You want to move in with me?”
She nods. “I was just waiting for Trick to find a new roommate and now she has. I always wanted to move in with you, Caden.”
“Damn.” I smile down on her and shake my head. “You sure do know how to make a guy work for it.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, looking guilty. “I wanted it to be a surprise. Plus, I think I needed to be sure.”
“And are you?” I ask.
“I am. Thanks to my dad.”
“He raised one hell of a daughter.”
She cocks her head to the side. “That’s what your dad said.”
“My dad talked to you about your father?”
“He came to the cemetery to meet him. And to get my blessing.”
My jaw drops. “Did you give it to him?”
“Yeah. My mom deserves to be happy and so does he.”
“Do you think they’re as happy as we are, Murph?”
“No,” she says, more tears spilling from her eyes. “Because I’m one-hundred-percent sure that nobody is as happy as we are.”
I kiss away her tears. “I’m going to show you just how happy I am,” I tell her. “I’m going to show you all night long … and then every single day after that.”
Chapter Fifty-two
Murphy
It’s a relief that the Nighthawks were on the road for a full week after I came back. One: it gave me a chance to ease back into New York City without being in the spotlight; and two: I was able to move in and put my touch on Caden’s place. Uh … our place.
He gave me carte blanche. Told me anything I desired would be okay with him. But all I really wanted to do was add something to the one bare wall of his theater room. And now, it’s decorated with the hats he’s given me over the past seven months—each with a date inside coinciding with a memory we won’t ever want to forget. I hung each hat on a nail, that, once I have enough collected, will spell out the word LOVE. But at the moment, it looks more like LC, because I need one more hat to complete the circle of the second letter. Yes, he’ll probably think it’s sappy, but that’s what he gets for asking a chick to move in with him.
Today, however, the Hawks are back in town and a group of us are making our way to our seats in the stadium. Even my mother is here. She no longer stays with me when she comes to town. She stays with Shane. Even Scott seems to be okay with it for which we are all grateful. He and I have had some meaningful heart-to-heart conversations about losing a parent at a young age. It’s a club nobody wants to belong to. But it has taken our bond to a whole new level.
“So, they didn’t fire you?” Scott asks. “You still work at the gym?”
I laugh. “No, they didn’t fire me. I think they understood that I needed a few personal days. It’s a great place to work.”
“Do you think I could work there when I get older?” he asks.
I ruffle his hair. “You bet. When you turn sixteen, you could work in the café.”
“Cool,” he says. “I want to save up a bunch of money and go to a good college with a great baseball team so I can be a Hawk someday.”
I can’t help my smile. The kid is humble, I will say that. He doesn’t want for much, especially now that he has Caden watching over him, but he expects nothing. I think he sees that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible. He has two perfect examples of that in his father and Caden.
“Are you seeing this, Murphy?” my mother asks, with wide eyes.
I look around us to see what she’s talking about. Several women are wearing identical shirts. Shirts with my name on them. Shirts that read ‘Murphy Strong’ in Hawks colors.
“Oh, my gosh!” I stop walking and watch others pass by, seeing dozens of them.
I look at my mother. “I don’t understand. Why would they do this?”
She puts her arm around me. “Murphy, don’t you realize you are a role model now? You took the worst experience in your life and gave it your middle finger. Less than a week after you were humiliated, you came here—to the very place that could have ruined you. You’ve shown women they don’t have to be defined by bad experiences. That it’s how you deal with those experiences that shows the world who you really are.”
I look at her, confused by her uncharacteristic words of wisdom.
She shrugs and leans over to whisper in my ear. “Your father rubbed off on me, what can I say?”
Some of the t-shirt-wearing women see me and smile. Some shout out their praises to me. One even asks me to sign her shirt. I’m dumbfounded by the outpouring of support. I’m grateful that I no longer need to fear the place where I plan on spending every moment I can watching Caden follow his dream.
“Hey!” Lexi shouts to one of the women. “Where can I get one of those?”
“They are selling them by the east entrance,” she tells her.
“I’ll meet you at our seats,” Lexi says.
“Really?” I raise my disbelieving eyebrows at her.
“So, sue me. It could be a collector’s item one day. You want one, Irene?”
My mother gets out her purse and gives Lexi some money
. “Get me a couple of them.”
“Get me one, too, Lex!” Scott shouts after her.
I eye him skeptically.
“It’s not like I’m gonna wear it or anything,” he says.
Shane and my mom laugh as we continue on our way.
Once in our seats, I see the real magnitude of the situation. Women wearing the shirts are everywhere. It’s not just dozens of them, or even hundreds. It’s thousands.
Tears sting the backs of my eyes.
Shane puts a fatherly arm around me. “I’m proud of you, Murphy. I couldn’t have hand-picked a better woman for my son.”
“Thanks, Shane. That means a lot to me.”
When Lexi comes back wearing one of the shirts, I roll my eyes.
“What?” she says. “Don’t you think it looks good on me?”
“It looks ridiculous,” I tease.
“Nonsense,” my mother adds. “You’ve started a revolution, my girl.”
Shane takes a shirt from Lexi and studies it. “Books will be written about you.”
“Oh, my gosh!” Lexi squeals. “I’ll bet Baylor Mitchell will write a romance novel about your love story. I mean, the way you two met and then this. And who knows what else will happen.”
Lexi shares a look with my mom and Shane. Shane winks at her.
I eye all of them curiously. “What?” I ask. “You guys look like you have a secret. Oh, God—Baylor isn’t really writing a book about us, is she?”
“I have no idea,” Lexi says. “All I’m saying is that I would totally buy it.”
When the Hawks take the field, Caden looks up at me. He usually doesn’t do that. But he looks nervous today, like maybe he wasn’t sure I’d be here. Which is silly, because I already blew him a kiss when he was in the dugout.
When the game starts, however, he’s nothing but a machine. He makes his plays expertly. He doesn’t look into the stands. He’s back to being himself again. He looks so at home down on the field. So happy. It’s where he belongs. I couldn’t imagine him giving that up for me.
Lexi catches me wiping a tear. She looks up at the scoreboard, then back at me. “Come on, let’s hit the bathroom, your mascara is running.”
Catching Caden (The Perfect Game Series) Page 27
