Playing the Field: A Diamonds and Dugouts Novel (8 page)

What was JP up to?

Shaking her head to clear her brain, Sonny said out loud with frustration, “What the hell happened to my life? Two weeks ago it was normal. Now I’ve got a baseball player stealing kisses and refusing to leave me alone.”

Being left alone was the only way she knew how to keep a handle on things. JP’s persistence was screwing it up. And it didn’t seem like he was going to be giving up any time soon. So it was up to her to figure out what to do about it.

Someone called her name from outside and Sonny poked her head out the door to find Janie looking for her. Glad to see a friendly face, she stepped out into the sunshine. “Hey, lady. What are you doing here?”

Janie rushed forward, her arms full of active toddler. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She set her daughter down and the two-year-old took off over the grass, bent on running as far and fast as she could in no particular direction. “I just found out last minute that Ben has a business get-together for us to go to tonight. He swears he mentioned it to me weeks ago, but that man has a faulty memory. We’re supposed to bring something and I don’t have time to make anything. Hillary has horse riding lessons up near Berthoud and Michael has to be at a birthday party at four.”

Her friend gave Sonny a bedraggled look. “I’m swamped and I thought I could persuade you to toss together a fancy cheese platter for me.”

She looked overworked. Poor thing. “Of course I’ll put something together.” Sonny glanced at Janie’s growing belly and added, “How’s the morning sickness?”

Janie waved a hand and grimaced. “The universe has not been kind the fourth time around. I’m in my second trimester and still sick as a dog.”

Sympathy flooded her. God, she remembered the days of early pregnancy sickness. For months she’d walked a tight line between nausea and straight-up vomiting. How any woman could withstand it more than once was beyond her. And here now Janie was remarried and going on her fourth. Her friend was Wonder Woman.

Beckoning with a wave, Sonny slipped back into her workshop and headed for one of the custom-built pantries. Inside were round after round of goat cheeses in various stages of drying. Selecting two and pulling them out, she set them on the counter and went in search of a tray.

“Hey, Sonny? Do you mind if I let Kelly play with Vader? He’s trying to get her to play with him and keeps dropping a flat soccer ball at her feet.” Janie’s voice came from just outside the door.

“Of course.” Sonny called back over her shoulder. “He’s bored with Charlie gone. If she kicks it for him, he’ll chase it down and dribble it between his paws.”

Janie sounded impressed. “Really? Since when did he get so trick-savvy?”

“Since Charlie taught him to do it about a month ago.” It was pretty impressive, actually. Vader looked just like one of those super well-trained dogs in the movies. No one would guess by looking at him that last week he’d eaten an entire apple pie off the counter.

Sonny found the tray she’d been looking for and pulled it down. She turned as the brunette head of her friend came into view. “I’m assuming silver is good enough for this thing, right?”

Gratitude made Janie’s aqua-blue eyes bright and watery. Or maybe it was the hormones. “That’s perfect, hon. Thanks again for doing this. I was so mad at Ben this morning when he dropped this bomb on me.”

Sonny was all sympathy. “I bet.”

Taking a knife in hand, she made quick work of the cheese and arranged pieces artfully on the tray. After she was finished and the rest of the cheese was back in the fridge, Sonny handed the tray to her girlfriend and gave her a quick hug.

Janie sniffled against her shoulder. “I hate being pregnant. I get so moody and hormonal. I mean, I love Ben with everything I have. But some days I want to wring his neck, you know?”

She couldn’t imagine why. It wasn’t like Janie had a lot going on or anything. Deciding that work could wait, Sonny patted Janie’s back and said, “I know, sweetie.” Stepping outside just as Vader dashed past after a ball and Kelly’s laughter split the air, Sonny continued, “I was just thinking this morning about the time when that college kid shoved his tongue down your throat. Do you remember that?”

Her friend snorted and grinned, the memory effectively soothing the hormonal tide. “God, I haven’t thought about that in years.”

Sonny snagged the ball from Vader and tossed it in Kelly’s direction. The chubby toddler squealed with delight and clapped her hands. “That was only a few weeks before you met Ben, wasn’t it?”

Janie placed her hands on her hips and nodded, her eyes on her daughter. “Yeah. I’d just finished my degree at CU and was doing data entry from home so I could be with the kids for the summer. That kid shocked me back into the world of the living, that’s for sure. It was like being awakened from a sexual coma.”

She could relate.

A goat bleated in the distance and the breeze picked up, stirring the aspen leaves into a delicate dance. Janie speared a look at her, her eyes narrowed. “Why were you thinking about that?”

Suddenly uncomfortable, Sonny hedged, “No particular reason.”

Janie’s eyes narrowed further.
“Really.”

Well, hell. She should have known better than to hide anything from Janie. The woman was like a bloodhound once she caught scent of something. Still, she gave it another try anyway. “It just popped into my head is all.”

Her friend was silent for a moment and then gasped. “Somebody kissed you!”

Denial was instantaneous. “Nuh-uh.”

“Don’t you lie to me, Sonny Luanne Miller.”

God, she sounded like a mother. It was effective, too. “All right, fine. Somebody did kiss me.”

Triumph lit Janie’s face. “I knew it! Was it good?”

Sonny looked at her friend and caved. She needed to tell someone. “It was
so
good.”

Janie called out to her daughter, “Kelly sweetie, don’t do that. I don’t think Vader wants to wear your headband right now, darling.” Then she looked back at Sonny. “When did this happen?”

She thought back and replied, “The first time was about two weeks ago.”

“There was more than one?” Janie’s eyes were round as snow globes. “Why have you been holding out on me?”

Why had she been keeping it secret? Good question. “It’s happened twice, and I didn’t tell you about it because I’ve been busy.”

Her friend jabbed her in the shoulder. “That’s for not telling me. I’m an old married woman with a herd of kids, you know. I need to live vicariously through you.”

That made her laugh. “You’re not old. But you do have a herd of kids, that’s true.”

And Sonny knew for a fact that Janie was ridiculously happy about it. Even if she was always running around crazy. Married life suited her.

Janie turned the topic back to the kisses. “So, tell me about them already. They were from the UPS guy, weren’t they? I know you have it bad for those brown shorts.”

“Please. It’s the FedEx uniforms.”

Janie chuckled, but prodded her. “Seriously, who was it? I’m dying to know.”

Because it’d been playing at the back of her mind for days, Sonny asked instead, “When you met Ben, were you ready?”

“Heck no. Not in a million years.”

“What made you change your mind?”

Janie placed a hand on her gently rounded belly and looked at Sonny. “I didn’t. Ben changed it for me.”

See now, that didn’t compute. “But you had two kids, J. How did you get past the fear of screwing everything up?”

Understanding softened Janie’s eyes and they got all watery again. “I fell in love, Sonny. I didn’t plan it or look for it.”

“Weren’t you scared?”

Kelly ran over to Janie and she scooped her up and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I was terrified. I had one wrecked marriage behind me and a tenuous hold on the present. But Ben pushed through my fears. He made me see that the only thing to be terrified of was never being loved at all.”

Sonny lifted her gaze to the sky and inhaled deep, her own eyes feeling a little watery. “What if it had been a mistake? What if it hadn’t ended in marriage and happy ever after?”

“I had to take that chance. Being without Ben wasn’t an option.” She cuddled her daughter and continued, “Besides, nobody has a bead on the future. We can’t see how it’s all going to unfold and we can’t predict the bruises.”

“I don’t want bruises.”

Janie gave her a level look. “Well then don’t go around kissing anybody.”

Good advice, that.

The sound of gravel crunching caught their attention and they turned just in time to see a shiny red Toyota truck pull into the drive. Crap. She’d forgotten all about his arrival and now her stomach took a nosedive.

Kelly pointed over her mom’s shoulder and exclaimed, “Car!”

Janie squinted against the sun and asked, “Who’s that?”

The nobody she’s not supposed to be kissing. “That’s JP Trudeau. Shortstop for the Rush.”

“What’s he doing here and how do you know him?” It took Janie a minute and then she whispered fiercely, “Is he the one you’ve been sampling?”

Both of them watched—one in avid fascination, the other equal parts nerves and uncertainty—as the truck door swung open. It seemed like a small eternity before JP rounded the hood of his Toyota and came into full view. When he did, he stopped and surveyed the property, eyes shielded behind a pair of old-school aviators.

Something besides nerves came to life in her stomach, too, as she took in the sight of his fit, toned body in a white T-shirt and faded jeans. He stood like a man completely and utterly confident in himself.

That man knew his place in the world.

Sonny wasn’t the only one left speechless at the sight of him. Janie stood next to her with her mouth open, eyes glued on the sexy ballplayer. Then she swallowed hard and tapped Sonny’s shoulder.

“I lied earlier, Sonny.”

Her eyes were glued on him too. “Yeah? About what?”

“About the kissing. You should be doing a whole lotta kissing.”

Chapter Seven

JP
SCANNED THE
yard and found Sonny standing next to a brunette woman with a toddler. All of them, including the baby, were staring at him. Though he’d been in the big leagues for a while now, that kind of reaction still surprised him. In his mind he was just Jason Patrick Trudeau: Iowa-born farm kid from the sticks who was good at playing ball and had a thing for pretty ladies.

Right now he was looking at one very pretty lady. Standing barefoot in the grass, her creamy legs went clear to her chin in those khaki shorts and her figure was outlined mighty fine in her dark pink tank top. She’d pulled her hair back at the nape of her neck and loose strands of red-gold waffled in the breeze. The long line of her neck was elegant and graceful, and he wanted his lips on it bad.

Mostly he just wanted her bad. Period.

Yesterday after the game, he and the guys had grabbed a few beers at a club in LoDo that Mark owned. While the talk had revolved mostly around the game, there’d come a point when the conversation had turned to women. More specifically, Sonny. The guys had been full of suggestions on how to win her over. Most of them he’d ruled out as plain dumb, but there’d been one that he’d taken to heart.

It’d come from Mark’s sister, Leslie. She ran the club and had taken a break, sitting at the long table with the players. Although she was dating fielder John Crispin, JP had started to suspect that she had an interest somewhere else. It was hard not to notice how often she stole glances at Peter when she was sitting directly across from him. That’s probably the only reason he noticed though, because Leslie was a cool one. Not much showed on her surface.

But she had a razor-sharp intelligence that he respected. So when she’d told him that Sonny was most likely feeling overwhelmed and needed time to get used to him being around, he’d listened. Women like Sonny, who’d been burned and left with a bagful of responsibility, were cautious and needed to be coaxed gently. They needed time to trust and see that it wasn’t misplaced.

He figured he could do that. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to push through her resistance. And it sure didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be kissing her again. It simply meant that he’d have to let her think it was her idea.

Which shouldn’t be too hard, considering the way she’d gone boneless on him yesterday. It’d taken no coaxing at all to get her to kiss him back, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get her to do it first.

And there was no time like the present to get the ball rolling.

As he strode across the grass toward her, he saw her friend elbow her in the side and whisper, making him smile. The little girl on her hip hadn’t stopped staring at him since he’d arrived. Since he had a bunch of nieces and nephews and was used to it, her open curiosity didn’t bug him. Besides, he liked kids. They had an honesty about them that was refreshing.

He liked Sonny too. Not just in a sexual way, either. But in a friendship, enjoyed-talking-to-her-and-making-her-laugh sort of way. His parents were still the best of friends, so he figured maybe he was on the right track to finding what they had by the way he was feeling.

Before Sonny, there hadn’t been many women that he’d really clicked with. And that had led him to be picky, which wasn’t a bad thing. It did mean, though, that he dated less than people thought he did. He’d rather be alone than waste time in a relationship that didn’t satisfy on all the levels.

Sonny now, she satisfied.

As he approached, an image of his parents flashed across his brain. In the warm months they spent the evenings together on the front porch, sipping tea and talking through the day’s events as the sun went down. There was such an easy intimacy between them. Some day he wanted that for himself—and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

JP was probably the only twenty-six-year-old guy on earth who didn’t just think with the junk in his pants.

But he thought of his parents, his siblings and their partners, and he understood that relationships were more than sex. Oh, it was a big part of them and he wanted it with Sonny in the worst way. No doubt about that.