Page 11 of The Love We Make

Ethan: Just landed.

Madison: Good. I am going to bed. It's late.

Ethan: Love you.

Madison: Love you too crazy!

The team exited the plane and loaded up on buses that would take them to the hotel. I skipped and made my way to the taxi lane. Despite how late it was, I needed a drink. And since I didn’t pitch tomorrow, I was getting a damn drink.

“Where are we going?” Eddie called out from behind me.

“I’m going to get a drink, you?”

“Guess I am going to get a drink.” Eddie rubbed his hands together and got in step beside me, “And a nightcap?”

Yeah, maybe a nightcap. A nightcap with long legs and a name I wouldn’t remember the next day. That is the kind of nightcap Eddie was referring to and that is the kind of nightcap I could get on board with.

“Hell yeah.”

We ended up fairly close to the team hotel in downtown Milwaukee. Eddie and I were two beers in when I finally decided I was tired and needed that “nightcap.” I turned on my stool and searched the room. There were gorgeous women all over the place.

“Who are we after?” Eddie asked, elbowing me.

“I think the tall, light brunette in the back,” I motioned with one finger, the rest of my hand wrapped around my bottle of beer.

“Ok, hmmm,” Eddie started. “I think I will go for her friend, the redhead.”

“Nice,” I said as I lifted off the bar and started walking toward the two women, Eddie right beside me. We were both top pitchers in the league and we knew our appeal. We had done this a million times. Between the two of us, we never got turned down and we never struck out.

This wasn’t an attempt to wine and dine, romance, and make love. This was sex. Fucking sex. Every once in a while, a night of sex was the only thing that made up for the fact that we were lonely on the road so much. We lived a glamorous life in the spotlight, but in the shadows, we guys just wanted what very few of us had—someone.

Until then, we settled on the company of a woman and her warm body. Just making sure we never got too close by learning her name or some dumb shit like that.

I was within five feet of the woman when my phone alerted me to a text. Since it was so late, I immediately stopped mid stride to check the message, worried something may have been wrong. Eddie groaned beside me at the hold-up.

Madison: I can’t sleep.

Ethan: ??

Madison: Will you call me?

Ethan: I am out with Eddie.

Madison: Ah, snagging the ladies?

She didn’t know my MO, I would never tell her about my sex life. But she hit the nail on the head and I cringed.

I felt like a hypocrite.

Iwasa hypocrite.

I would kill anyone else for doing to Madison what I planned to do to this brunette, who coincidentally, kind of reminded me of Madison.

Fuck.

I was begging her to not let someone in her bed that didn’t love her, and here I was, ready for a one-night stand.

I ran a hand down my face and laughed at Madison’s timing. It was like getting a text from karma. A reminder that maybe I should do as I wish she would andbe good.

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