Making Her Mine (Player Loves Curves 1)

“Time,” Neil calls to the umpire, and he gets up from his squat behind home plate and runs over to meet me. “What’s up?”

Before he even gets to me I’m shaking my head because I know I’m not giving it all for my team right now. “I’m sorry… I just have stuff on my mind.”

He spits on the ground and puts his hands on his hips. “Well, all right, you want to talk about this shit, get it off your chest? Because I want to win a ball game.”

“Nothing, man. I’m fine. I’ll work it out.” I pat him on the back and don’t notice Shawn is standing next to me until he pecks me on the shoulder. He’s a big man and an awesome 3rd baseman. But an even better friend. He listened to me for a good hour in warm-ups today stressing about Trinity and what I needed to do. He points over my shoulder. “I think your little problem worked itself out.”

I follow where he’s pointing and Trinity is standing there, waving at me. She’s not smiling, but at least she’s here. I start to walk toward her, but Neil stops me. “Two more outs, brother. Then you can go see your girl.”

I hit him in the chest with my glove. “Let’s do it.”

He walks back to home plate… and I throw six strikes in a row, striking out the next two batters. On the sixth one, the ball barely leaves my hand before I’m trotting off the field over to the fence where she’s standing. The crowd is going wild, but I only have eyes for Trinity.

She’s holding the fence, her fingers wrapped around the metal. I put my glove in one hand and with the other, I hold on to her hand through the fence. “I didn’t sleep with your sister.”

She sniffles, nodding her head. “I know. I’m sorry, I should have trusted you. I should have known. I ruined everything…I’m so sorry.”

I lean into the fence, ignoring the fans eavesdropping around us. “I’m all fucked up without you. I’ll forgive you for anything, because I’m miserable without you. Just tell me you’re moving in with me tomorrow. We can work everything else out. I just need you with me.”

“Get in the dugout, Reilly, so we can continue the game.”

I don’t look at my coach, who’s hollering at me. Instead I wait for Trinity to answer me.

She smiles. “Yes, I’ll probably just come home with you tonight if that’s okay with you. I think I owe you another IOU.”

I lean in and kiss her through the fence. When I pull away, the crowd is cheering and they have us up on the Jumbotron. I can’t even stop myself from smiling. “That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.”

I kiss her again and walk over to the dugout. “You think you can win this ball game now, Reilly?” My coach is a hard ass, but I don’t blame him. My first inning was shit.

I pat him on the back. “I can do anything now, Coach.”

I go on to pitch the best game of my life that night. The coach touts that it’s because of his motivational speech. But I know it was because I needed to get home to collect on my IOU.

Epilogue

Jasper

One Year Later

I throw the last pitch of the season and run off the field. My teammates are all celebrating, but not me. I have a better place to be. I was going to skip the game tonight, but Trinity promised she would wait for me.

I pass the locker room, and my assistant has my car parked by the back entrance with the keys in and the engine already running. He holds his phone away from his ear. “You better hurry. There’s not much time left.”

He doesn’t have to tell me. There’s a policeman in front of me. He turns on his lights and I follow right behind him to the hospital. I park illegally, running through the hallways in my cleats.

I head straight for Birth and Delivery. They’re standing in the hallway and as soon as I get to them, they open the door, letting me in.

But what I see causes me to about fall over. The doctor is already in position and Trinity is covered in sweat, breathing in and out quickly.

She starts to cry when she sees me. “Oh my God, you made it. I was so worried you would miss it.”

I shake my head, throwing my baseball cap across the room to the chair. I grab on to Trinity’s hand. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

The doctor interrupts us. “Hell of a game, Reilly. You won the championship.”

“We won it,” I say to him. And not only do I mean my team. Trinity too. This has been my best year, on and off the field. She finally agreed to marry me and now she’s bringing me a little Jasper Junior into the world. I couldn’t have asked for a better life.