Page 59 of Play the Field

Seizing, my body tensed against her before releasing. As soon as the moment passed, I fell to her. My palms slammed into the wood behind Cat’s head as I planted a kiss on her full lips.

Catching my breath, I looked down at her with a grin I couldn’t contain. “Living this close to you is going to be incredibly dangerous for my productivity.”

After Cat and I got dressed and chatted about how she planned to lay out the new place, we went our separate ways. Despite how much I loved spending time with her, she was too distracting to get anything done.

And I’d finally hit a good pace with my writing. Instead of getting hung up on plotting, I was letting the story unfold before me. Of course it would need more drafts but I was just happy to be back at my keyboard.

I lifted my hands from the laptop to check my phone. It was a message from Bri:

Made the playoff schedule. Trying to put your professional ass team up against the strongest teams to make it as fair as possible.

Looking at the brackets, it made a lot of sense. Most of the more casual teams were set to face off early on to see who was a rising star. From there, they would start working through the more serious groups.

Our team had agreed that we’d only let Cat pitch one inning per game until the Championships. After all, the whole point was to have fun.

And from what Cat said, the fundraising scheme was going well. They’d put up posters around town and a bunch of people had come into the bookstore and told me they’d come watch the game.

Mom seemed to have been right, letting Cat in was helpful. And every day she kept proving just how important to my life she was.

My eyes widened at the dates on Bri’s brackets.No way the playoffs are next weekend.

But they were. The league stacked all of the playoff games on one weekend to not stretch the season too late into the fall. We never knew when the first snow would come each year but it was better to not risk it.

A loud buzz sounded from downstairs. Standing from my desk, I crossed my apartment to the intercom. “Hello?”

“Delivery.” A voice sounded from the other side.

My face lit up as I realized what it was. Rushing downstairs, I grabbed the package from the driver. “Thank you!”

He nodded as he disappeared back to his truck. Turning on my heels, I took the heavy box back upstairs and slammed my front door.

Giddy, I grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen and sliced at the clear tape. Under a layer of packing paper, dozens of multi-colored shirts were neatly stacked inside. Reaching for my phone, I typed out a text back to Bri:

Perfect, thanks. Good timing.

I attached the photo of the opened box and hit send, awhooshsounding from my computer.

It was all getting so real. And my nerves were growing at the thought of Cat’s big performance. Soon enough, we would know whether she still had a professional career or if she was really done.

But I had faith. I’d never seen a player improve the way she had.

And if I had grown to believe in her, who wouldn’t?

36

CAT

The bookstore was growing busierby the day as the days got colder. Taking a break from my training, I offered to help Cleo restock the shelves. With a stack of used mystery novels in my hand, I wandered down each aisle and slowly slotted the books into place.

“Remember the Dewey Decimal System!” Cleo hollered from the register.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. “I got it on lock, I swear.” I wasn’t entirely sure I was true. But I knew if I was wrong, no customer would notice.

Once my stack had depleted, all of the recent donations filed away into their new homes, I wandered around to the register and smiled at Cleo.

They narrowed their eyes at me suspiciously. Worried about my shoulder, they were watching my every movement going into Championship weekend. We were less than a week away, our team having crushed the playoffs easily.

“You okay?” Their forehead wrinkled.

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