Waking up from my nap was like taking a sledgehammer to the skull, but having dinner with Zoe more than made up for it. I made my favorite pre-game dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese along with a pretty spectacular salad, if I do say so myself.

I left her with dessert and an array of snacks to keep her fueled for her night of work. It was pretty incredible to leave knowing when I came home she’d be in my bed.

When I got to the stadium I was not expecting a beat down.

But Wes sure was ready to provide one.

“I hear you slept with Zoe last night. Please tell me I don’t have to kill you.”

How in the hell? “Why would you have to kill me?” I thought we were past this idiotic big brother routine.

“Is everything good? You treat her right?”

“For fucks sake. It is none of your business.” I threw my bag into my locker. “What do you think you know anyway?”

“Eve saw you leave the house this morning.”

Shit. It was definitely a complication having them next door. I didn’t even think about Jake or Eve seeing us because I was more worried about June and Roman.

“I stayed over but I didn’t sleep with her. Yet. It’s happening though.” I stabbed him in the chest. “All of this is happening. She’s with me now so you can lay off. You are officially relieved of duty.”

“I’m never off duty,” he scoffed. “What do you mean she’s with you now?”

Was I going to have to write this down in small words he could understand? “I mean right now she’s in my bed writing. And after the game she’ll still be there. And tomorrow night it will be the same thing.”

Whether it was my bed or hers, we were going to spend every night together. I couldn’t stand the idea of sleeping alone in a bed again until it was in a hotel on the road.

“Yeah?”

“Yes!”

I barely got the whole word out before I got a hug that crushed my ribs and forced all the air out of my lungs. “I’m so happy right now. Congrats, man.” I pounded his back kind of hoping to be able to breathe again, but he took it as an invitation to kill me faster. “Welcome to the family.”

He finally let me go. After a few deep breaths I was able to speak again. “If being family with you means being hugged, I’ll take that trade offer more seriously.”

“What?”

Fuck. Shouldn’t have said that. “Nothing. It was a joke. Because being hugged by you is painful.”

He didn’t buy it. “Who’s looking at you?”

Well, there was no sense lying about it now. “Lowenstein put out a feeler. I shut it down. Well, actually Marie shut it down before she even spoke to me, but we were on the same page.”

I was ninety-nine percent cool with it. Especially now that Zoe and I were more than a theory. There was no way I was leaving a team I loved and the woman I was pretty sure I was falling in love with for a chance to work with my dream manager. It wasn’t worth it. But it didn’t stop the twenty-year-old kid in me, the one who dreamed of playing ball for Lowenstein, from having a minor heart attack.

Wes let out a low whistle. “No shit. Wow. You sure?”

“Damn sure. Now, don’t we have a game we’re supposed to be getting ready for? Or should I pull out the pillows and cookies?”

“Fuck off.”

Wes left me alone after that. Actually, he was nicer than usual, which was weird. The game went by in a blur but we won pretty handily. Statistically it was our standard this season. We won most of our first games, lost the second, and won the third. We were trying like hell to figure out the game-two slump but so far nothing we tried made much of a difference. I think it came down to simple team rhythm and game two was our down rhythm. But hey, winning two out of three on the regular? Not too shabby.

Probably why we were now looking like the favorites heading into the playoffs. I still couldn’t believe it.

It was about as mind blowing as coming home to Zoe in yoga pants. “Is that what you usually write in?” I tossed my bag into the corner.

She glanced around her laptop. “I call this uniform number two.”

“Uniform?” I sat on the corner of the bed and got rid of my shoes. “Is that like my baseball uniform?”

She set the laptop aside and pulled her knees up, watching me undress with a heck of a lot of intent. “Sort of. This one is the ‘I might need to be decent in public’ uniform. Yoga pants, t-shirt, flip-flops. Easy, comfortable, mostly appropriate even when I haven’t brushed my hair in two days.”

She’d definitely brushed her hair recently. She had one of those fancy buns on the top of her head and she looked a hell of a lot more than decent. She looked damn good.

“And your other uniform?”

She grimaced. “That’s the ‘sweatpants, no-shower, I haven’t stopped writing in three days, I don’t know who I am anymore’ uniform.”

“I bet you’re still sexy in sweats.”

She shuddered. “You should know now, before we get any further into this . . . me on a deadline is not pretty. It’s actually quite gross.”

“Maybe you just need someone who can make breaks and showers more interesting.”

Her cheeks turned that pretty shade of pink. “Or maybe I’ll just reserve writing sprints of that intensity to when you’re on the road.”

Planning for me to be gone? In this instance I didn’t mind. “My schedule is intense, Zo. I’m sorry about that.”

“Mine is too. I think if we spend some time together and decide we want this to be a long-term thing, we’re going to have to have some serious conversations about schedules and expectations.” Her cheeks turned from pink to red, which wasn’t what I wanted at all.

I touched her arm. “Darlin’. I thought you said you were going to,” what was the word she used? “Pants this?”

She smiled. “You’re right. I just spent some time today thinking about how weird our schedules are and that in a really strange way, it might actually be a good thing.”

Well, I liked the sound of that. “Stop thinking so much.” I stood up and pulled my shirt free of my pants. Her eyes followed all of my movements. “Are you done with work? Should I go make us some food and leave you be for a bit longer?”

She shut the laptop. “I planned on quitting when you got home. By the way, thanks for inviting me over. Your space has really nice vibes. I wrote more today than I have all week.” She plugged the laptop in and set it on the edge of my dresser. “So yes, I’m done with work and ready to hang out with you.”

“Was the bed comfortable? Is there anything I can get to make working here better? A chair? A desk?” I really liked seeing her things mixed with mine and if she was going to spend time here I wanted it to work for both of us, not just be convenient for me.

“My office is mobile and I prefer writing in bed. They tell me it’s bad for my back, but it’s good for my paycheck so I go to yoga with June and hope it corrects most of my bad behavior.”

Speaking of bad behavior. “Sit back. Scoot. Get comfortable.”

I waited while she slid back then I went over and flicked on the lamp so I could kill the overhead light. It made the room feel a little more like a bedroom and less like a work zone.

Then I started undressing.

She grinned, but didn’t say anything.

“You had some questions last night and I hope I answered them to your satisfaction.” I’d spent a good hour in the shower when I got home this morning acting out all the things I wished I had been able to do with Zoe. I had a feeling that shower and I were going to be very well acquainted for the foreseeable future.

“You did.”

I dropped my pants and stood in front of her in my boxers. “Anymore questions that you may have thought of today? I’m here, mostly naked, and ready to provide answers.”

“You’re quite adorable.” She fought back a giggle.

“Why thank you.” I performed a bow. “Now, questions?”

She studied me slowly, taking me in inch by inch in a way she probably couldn’t last night. I was surprised by her first question. “You called yourself boring. Why?”

Wasn’t it obvious? “I’m the serious guy.”

“Serious and boring aren’t the same thing.”

When you were the one constantly telling your friends to chill, your brothers to think before they leapt, it started to feel a heck of a lot like you were the killjoy in everyone’s life. “I don’t really have an answer for you. I’m not the wild one. I don’t do stunts. I don’t party all night.”

“You also go dancing on a whim and stand naked for a woman to examine . . . for fun.”

“Not for fun. This is very serious.”

“Oh.”

I turned slowly in a circle. “Ask me something else. Anything.”

“Why do you live with Seth?”

Another one I didn’t see coming. “Uh . . . well, because I keep waiting for the team to realize they could have a better second baseman and send me back down.”

She scrunched up her face. “Um, yeah. That’s not going to happen.”

“Marie keeps saying the same thing.”

“Is it just because of the money or is it because you’re lonely?”

Damn . . . “Both. When I got called up I was suddenly making enough to help put my sisters through college. Then they kept me and I was making even more. I helped Mom out, paid for everyone’s tuition. Then Jack got the coaching job with the Pythons and it wasn’t just me anymore. We bought Mom the house in the Keys. I know I can afford to buy my own place now, but I’m stuck in this habit of thinking I can’t.” And maybe in the end it was a good thing. Maybe I didn’t buy because I wasn’t ready. Maybe I was waiting for Zoe before I decided where my life was going next.

“Okay, then if you were to buy a house and put down roots here, where would you look? What kind of home does Erik Cassidy dream of at night?”

“Babe,” I laughed, “I can honestly say I don’t dream about houses. That’s the other reason I’m still living with numb nuts. I’m too comfortable to care enough to start the process.” But if things kept going this way with Zoe, I’d be looking in a heartbeat just to get some privacy. “What about you? I know you don’t plan on living with June and Roman forever.”

“I don’t know,” she rolled to her side, propping her head up on her hand. “I care more about my writing space than anything. I need lots of bookshelves, a nice couch or chair, as few distractions as possible . . . ”

Her voice trailed off.

“Do you plan on staying in Tampa?”

Her eyes flicked up to mine. “Yes. My life is here.”

“Ask me something else.”

Her eyes did that thing again. They got all big and dark, like she was turned on. “We know you’re a Bear in the streets, but what are you in the sheets?”

She was being playful and serious at the same time, so I decided to have a little fun with the answer. “A bull, a stallion, a fucking god.”

She shivered. “A god? Well then . . . I guess I should prepare to be amazed.”

Amazed? Okay, maybe I’d gone a bit too far. There was confidence and then there were unrealistic expectations. I wanted to keep things closer to confidence. I sat on the edge of the bed because the distance didn’t feel necessary anymore. “I’m not a bear in the bedroom unless you ask me to be one. I think what I like about you so much, what’s always attracted me to you, is that I’ve never felt like I had to be that guy around you.”

She stared up at me.

And stared. With these big green, gorgeous, owl eyes.

“Erik,” she paused, pink lips slightly parted and begging to be kissed, “that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. It’s the kind of thing I’d have my hero say.”

“That’s what I told you last night. Your books are more real than your past. I’m your hero, Darlin’. And you,” I moved onto the bed, over her, hovered near those damn lips, “are mine. I’ve been waiting a long time to make this story real.”

It was a really good sign that she didn’t flinch away or hesitate. It was all very natural the way she smiled up at me, the way she ran her hands over my shoulders and behind my neck, the way she pulled me closer for a kiss.

I eased my weight down onto her and sank into it.

Erasing her fears slowly was going to be hard when she felt this good. It was damned difficult to hold back when I wanted to jump headfirst into everything. But then again, work like this was a lot of fun.

* * *

By Wednesday night Zoe had taken over half my room and all of my life. Every plan now included her. I hated that she was spending the weekend at the beach and that I was on the road the whole next week. I wasn’t ready for this to end and, if I was being honest, worried that a week and a half apart would unravel all the good that happened this weekend.

Having her asleep beside me every night was difficult to say the least but I wasn’t lying when I told her I was a jealous man. I wanted her, but I wanted all of her. I was selfish like that.

Every day it got easier for her and harder for me. We were close to a turning point but I didn’t want to rush it.

And damn was that hard. Physically, painfully hard.

I had my head on her stomach. The lights were off and we should have been asleep. After the game I brought home burgers and cheese fries. We stuffed our faces. I told her stories about the stupid things the guys had done that week. We laughed.

We made out like teenagers.

And now we were both awake when we should be exhausted.

“I don’t want to wait,” I said as I traced shapes above her knee.

“Wait for what?”

“The weekend. To meet your friends. Can I come tomorrow?” She was leaving at lunchtime to pick everyone up at the airport, and then they were driving straight to the beach house. I didn’t see a reason to wait unless it was breaking some sort of girl code. Maybe they needed time alone together and I was being an overbearing jerk, stepping on their toes.

But two days was too long.

My head bounced as she laughed. “They will be thrilled.”

Really? I looked up. “You’re sure?”

“Very,” she kept laughing. “They asked why they had to wait so long to meet you.”

Perfect. “Well then I should give them what they want. What time?” Did I sound too eager? I sounded too eager.

“How about five o’clock? That should give them plenty of time to grill you before we actually grill dinner.”

I rested my chin just above her belly button. “I’m going to miss you.”

“You’ll be there quite a bit this weekend.”

“It won’t be the same.” I didn’t bring up the fact that by the time she dropped everyone back at the airport and went home I’d be gone.

She knew.