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.”
“I don’t want to miss anything,” I tell her. “I’ll wait until the stretch.”
“You know how busy the bathrooms get then. We should go now.” She’s tugging on my arm as she scoots past the others. “Come on, Murphy.”
I’m not sure why she’s so adamant that we go now. Maybe she really needs to pee. Or maybe my face really does need a touch-up.
When we return to our seats, the game is tied 3-3. Brady is up to bat. Caden tells me that pitchers aren’t usually very good hitters, but Brady is good. He hasn’t had as many home runs as Caden, but he does get on base a lot.
As I watch him at the plate, I think about what he told me at the coffee shop. That he lost two people. I wonder if that’s why he is the way he is. I vow to try and get closer to him. Maybe he’d open up to a woman who is a friend. My mind goes crazy with ideas of how I can make that happen.
I guess I lost track of time, because I don’t even notice when the seventh-inning-stretch starts. But what pulls me from my thoughts is when I hear a song blasting over t
he loudspeakers.
I turn to Lexi, who has a huge smile on her face. “I thought they didn’t play this song here,” I say.
“They don’t,” she tells me, looking like she’s about to burst. “Not ever.”
I look around, confused as ‘Sweet Caroline’ plays in Hawks Stadium for perhaps the first time. Then I become horrified as I look at the JumboTron to see my face plastered on it. I grab Lexi’s arm.
“It’s okay, Murphy.” She nods to the field in front of us.
When I look down, I see Caden walking over in our direction. I’m more than a little concerned that he’s left the dugout during a game. I notice he’s rubbing his right shoulder blade where his tattoo is. It’s something he only does before he goes to bat. He motions for me to come to the wall. I shake my head. I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s acting very strange.
He laughs at my apprehension.
“Go,” Lexi prods me.
I make my way down the four rows and lean into the net separating us. “What are you doing, Caden?”
He lifts up the net and asks a few guys to hold it. Then he reaches over the half-wall and lifts me over, pulling me onto the field. All the while, the stadium is going crazy singing the song that never gets played here.
“Have you lost your mind?” I shout as he puts me down so I’m standing in front of him.
He laughs again. “I think I have,” he says. “But in a good way.” He looks up at the large screen that shows me the cameras are still focused on us. “I wanted you to have a good experience here, because I hope you will be spending a lot of time in this stadium.”
“Caden, I told you, I don’t care what other people think. I’m going to be here for you no matter what.”
He nods. “And that’s just one of the reasons I love you, Murphy Brown.”
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls something out. Then he drops to a knee and the stadium goes wild. My heart lodges in my throat and I lose all my breath. I look up at Lexi and my mom, who are both crying. I look down at Caden, whose eyes are locked on me as I come to grips with what is happening.
The Perfect Game: A Complete Sports Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 27
