Page 11 of Midnight Player
Jake studied him. If he said he was good, then he had to trust him. “Stick with strikes on the inside corner pocket. This team loves going for the high and fast pitches. You keep it inside, you’ll strike ’em out.”
“Got it.” Henry nodded, determination settled over his features.
Jake marched back to home plate. He’d done the best he could for the guy and their team. Whatever happened next, it was fate. He knelt behind home plate as the Goliath hitter of the Howlers approached the plate. At six-two and two hundred forty pounds of pure muscle, Kinson was a homerun derby champ.
Henry’s first pitch was a strike on the inside corner pocket, just like he had instructed him. The second pitch was a sinker. Kinson clipped it back for a foul ball. The third pitch was a high ball.
Jesus. Henry needed to settle the fuck down. He knew this was the biggest game of all their careers. Jake scanned the runners at first and second. They were poised to run if Kinson got a hit. It would be up to him to stop the runner at second from crossing the plate and scoring the winning run.
Focused on Henry, Jake went through hand signals for the type of pitch he wanted him to throw. Henry nodded when he displayed the signal for a slider.
Unease settled into his gut. Henry’s slider wasn’t always reliable. Jake held his glove out, then flicked his gaze to the runners on first and second. The pitch counter ticked by. The crowd held its collective breath, and sweat rolled down Jake’s back. Henry wound up for the pitch, aimed, and fired. And his slider went directly over home plate through the strike zone instead of sinking right before it reached the plate. Kinson swung with all his might, all two hundred and forty pounds of torque behind his swing. His bat connected. The loud crack of the impact settled over Jake, and his heart dropped into his stomach. After this many years behind the plate, he knew what that sound meant.
And he watched the ball take flight higher and higher, soaring into the upper deck. The crowd rose to their feet. The stadium held its breath as the ball soared through the air.
The ball landed over the wall on the stadium’s second level, and the crowd went berserk. Home run.
Kinson scored a three-run home run to put the Howlers on top.
Henry hung his head. Deep in Jake’s gut, he knew the game was lost. He knew it to the furthest depths of his soul. While he was sad over losing his chance at being crowned a world champion, not everything that happened in Houston had been bad.
Because he’d met her—Willa.
HisWilla.
Or she would be before the night was over.
During the final inning and a half, his team played their hearts out. But in the end, they fell short and lost.
Jake didn’t linger on the field for postgame interviews. He beelined for the locker room and showers. He avoided the media, in no mood to discuss tonight’s loss. The only thing that concerned him now was reaching the hotel and finding his Willa.
8
After the long day at the conference, Willa and her friends were sipping margaritas and sharing the last of the queso dip at San Juan Cantina a few blocks away from the Vivaldi.
“Okay, spill. You keep blushing any time you look at the game.” Mel’s suspicious gleam made Willa uncomfortable. Mel looked cute in her trendy hipster jeans and off-the-shoulder top in soft pink. Her blonde bob edged sassily along her angular jaw.
She shifted in her seat, trying to think up an explanation where she didn’t divulge all the deets when Vanessa chimed in. Vanessa was tall and slender with a riot of curly black hair. She pursed her lips. “You’re right, Mel. She’s being squirrelly. Out with it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Other than she’d experienced the hottest sex of her life with the man on the screen currently crouched behind home plate.
“Sounds like she’s got a man on her brain. Who is it? Is he rooting for the Flashes?” Mel asked with a jerk of her head toward the nearest television.
“She makes a valid point. Unless you’re secretly a gambler and placed a huge bet on one of the teams.”
She glanced between her two author besties. They attended conferences together because these things were a nightmare for her. They were like the Three Musketeers. All for one and one for all. Granted, this time around, she had her own room because she hadn’t decided she was attending right away, and they’d only gotten a room with a king bed. While she loved them, she didn’t want to be stuck in the middle between them.
Then she regarded the Mexican restaurant patrons, ensuring she spied no one from their conference nearby.
Leaning in, she whispered, “I had a one-night stand last night.”
“What?” Mel’s eye grew round as saucers and brows hiked up beneath her bangs.
“And you’re just telling us this now?” Vanessa squealed with her mouth open.
“Yeah, I wasn’t going to bring it up.” Mainly because she kept pinching herself in disbelief that it happened in the first place. She experienced the hottest, most sexually charged night of her life.
And she kept glancing at the screen because Jake was crouched behind home plate. She recognized the fierce determination on his face. It was the same look he had worn when he’d been hilt deep inside her.
