Chapter Eleven

Justin

Ignoring Grace required more energy than I had to give. Between grueling workouts, training sessions, and the exhibition games, I was worn down and found my resistance weaker than usual. When she returned to work the Monday after our argument in the locker rooms, she wore a pair of oversize shades that hid the good majority of her face. I couldn’t see behind the polarized lenses to find out what might be going on inside her head even if I wanted to.

Which, for the record, I didn’t.

I wanted to move on from the whole thing. Grace hadn’t outright lied to me. I acknowledged that. But I felt betrayed all the same. Her lie of omission was a whopper and carried some complicated implications. The whole point of finding a woman like Grace was to keep things simple. Finding out she was the team president’s daughter was about as complicated as it could get. When things eventually ran their course, she would still be thrust into my life. Even if her father never found out about our relationship, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t eventually cross my path again. She’d return to Oklahoma City and with daddy being the team president, she’d naturally show up for games and be allowed VIP access. Then what was I supposed to do?

I purposely chose women who were easy to replace. A new team, a new city, a new woman. It worked better that way.

“You ready, Calloway?”

I tore my eyes from Grace and prepared to fire another pitch at my trainer who was crouched behind the plate. I scuffed my feet, wound up, and fired. A textbook perfect curveball. My signature pitch. It landed with a satisfying thump in my trainer’s glove and he rocked back on his heels at the sheer force.

I allowed myself a smug grin and then jerked my head to let him know I was leaving the field for a minute. I jogged off toward the locker room and went right past Grace. As far as I could tell, she didn’t so much as look my way. It was the first time I truly felt invisible. I didn’t like it. Especially not from her.

Fuck, Calloway. It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter. She’s just a college girl. They’re a dime a dozen. Tight piece of ass that was a nice ride. Did it end too soon? Sure. We could have had a lot more fun together. There’s a mile-long list of things I’d love to do to her sexy body. But is it the end of the world? Hell no!

The pep talk didn’t help much. In fact, it made me feel worse. I punched the door open and strut into the locker room to change t-shirts. The sun was fucking relentless and I was tired of the way it was clinging to me. I tore it off and stuffed it into the bag at the foot of my locker. I’d considered locking my shit up to keep Bailey and Erickson from retaliating but in the end, decided it was best not to look like a scared pussy.

As I changed, I glanced around the empty locker room. Where were the morons? Neither one of them were on the field. I scoffed to myself. Probably sleeping off their hangover from the night before. Pricks like that lived it up because they’d spent their high school and college years being second fiddle. The only reason they could score now was because of the money attached to their names.

With my fresh shirt on, I backtracked through the locker room and stepped out into the hall. Like some kind of internal clock, it hit me that it was around the time Grace usually took her break to hit up the Coke machine. If I veered left, I could go out to the main concord and have a chance at seeing her. I didn’t know why, but before I could make a conscious decision, my feet took me left.

I was halfway there when a couple of familiar voices perked my ear.

“Come on, we want a little taste of what you’ve been giving Calloway.”

“I have some tape in my bag, if that’s what you’re into.”

My blood turned to ice and then quickly shattered as molten lava poured through my veins. “What the fuck…”

“Get away from me, both of you.”

Grace’s shaky voice spurred me on even faster. I raced around the corner and found Bailey and Erickson closing in on Grace who stood, Coke in hand, in the corner of the empty alcove. Bailey and Erickson snapped around at my thundering approach and both went white as sheets.

I throttled toward Bailey and caught him around the throat. Grace yelped as I threw him back against the wall. “You’re a real slow learner, aren’t you?” I snarled. I tightened my grip enough that his eyes bulged. “I told you to leave her alone. What part of that wasn’t crystal fucking clear to you?”

Erickson tugged at the back of my shirt. “We were just messing around. Fuck, man! You don’t have to be such a fucking douchebag about everything.”

I sneered at Bailey, ignoring Erickson’s feeble attempt to pull me off his friend. Weak ass pussy. I squeezed another hair tighter and then released Bailey’s throat. He sputtered and rubbed the red marks where my fingers had pressed into his throat.

The front office is gonna hear about this, Calloway,” he said with a hoarse voice. “You’re golden boy reputation isn’t going to save your ass this time.”

“You’re damn right this is going upstairs. I’ll be taking this matter to management my goddamn self.”

Bailey glared at me but wisely kept his trap shut. Erickson moved to Bailey’s side and grabbed him by the elbow. “Come on, dude.”

“Not worth it anyway,” Bailey sneered in Grace’s direction. “Fucking whore probably has some kind of disease.”

My fists clenched tight, ready to fire, but Grace reached for me and touched my arm before I could get a shot off. I stilled at her soft touch and glared at Bailey as Erickson dragged him off. When they were gone, I finally turned to Grace.

“Are you okay?” I asked as my hands ran up and down her arms. “Did they touch you?”

She shook her head and then burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my chest. “I’m so sorry, baby. This is on me,” I told her as she cried against me.

She swallowed hard. “No, it’s not.”

“Well, it sure as hell isn’t your fault. Fucking prick has been trying to get me riled up since the beginning of this whole fucking thing. I’m sorry you got caught in the middle. I’m not letting this go. I meant what I said. I’ll take this up the chain as far as I can, and I won’t stop fighting until his ass is banned from the entire fucking league.”

“I’m just glad you were close by. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if you hadn’t shown up…” her words trailed off and a horrified expression twisted her delicate face.

“I’m sorry about last night, Grace. The things I said. I was being a fucking idiot.”

“No…you weren’t.”

I tipped her chin up and met her dark eyes. My heart twisted at the red rims and the streaks of tears left on her tanned cheeks. “Yes. I was.”

She drew in a deep breath and I wiped away the remnants of her tears. “I should have told you. It honestly just didn’t occur to me until it was…well, until it was too late.”

“I know.”

I led her to the chairs on the opposite wall and sank down. I pulled her into my lap and ran my hand over her thigh. She was wearing her cutoff jeans again and while my head was still pounding from the rush of adrenaline, other parts of my anatomy were coming to life all too quickly.

Grace met my eyes. “So, what do you want, Justin? With me?”

All my arguments were still there, lurking just under the surface of my mind. Grace was still my boss’s daughter. I didn’t so much care what her father would think of it, as much as I worried that our lives would remain intertwined even when things ended.

Unless…they didn’t.

I stared up at her and brushed her hair out of her face. “You’re so damn beautiful, Grace.”

She smiled softly. “Thank you.”

“I’m curious. Do I make you feel beautiful? Do you believe me when I tell you?”

She considered it for a moment and then nodded. “Yes. I do.”

“Good.” Warmth spread through my chest and I drew her closer. I wasn’t sure if it was the aftereffect of the fight or if there was some other rational explanation for it, but in that moment, holding her close, I wondered why I’d ever thought Grace could ever be just a spring training fling. From the very moment I’d seen her sitting at the stats table under the afternoon sun, I was stricken by her. It was more than her physical beauty. There was some intangible quality that set me on fire in a way I’d never experienced before.

“What do you want, baby? Where do you want to go?” I asked her. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“I can’t,” she started. “I have to finish my shift.”

“Like hell! I’m not letting you go back anywhere near those two assholes. Come on. We’ll go anywhere you want.”

Grace looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Justin, I really can’t leave right now. The day isn’t over and there’s an exhibition game tonight. You may not have to pitch but they’re counting on me to be there.”

I nodded. “All right, fine, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. And as soon as the game is called, we’re leaving.”

She looped her arms around my neck and her fingers played with the tensed muscles in my back. She gave me a little grin that sent electricity up my spine, “I won’t argue.”

I chuckled. “Good.”