Page 72 of Curveball

Bailey smiles. “My biggest issue is watching my mouth around Harper.” She narrows her eyes at Kam. “Living with you my whole life has given me a foul mouth and a dirty mind. I need to work on censoring myself, even when Harper and her friends aren’t around.”

Kam shrugs. “Well, I’m jumping in the shower so I canmake sure my bussy is nice and ready for whoever enters her tonight.”

We’re at the game.It’s tied at one going into the seventh inning. Quincy is pitching a gem. Every time he takes the mound each inning, he looks my way.

Kam leans over and whispers, “You can’t possibly tell me there’s nothing going on between you two. He eye fucks you every damn inning.”

She’s not wrong. He’s never been this obvious before. I look at Arizona to see if she’s noticing it too, but fortunately she’s staring at Layton when they run onto the field every inning. Not Quincy.

I ignore Kam and whisper to Arizona. “You should tell your brother about you and Layton. It’s not fair to keep lying to him.”

She nods. “Soon. I’m just terrified that if something goes wrong with Layton, it will impact his relationship with Quincy. They’re such good friends. And teammates. You see how Quincy is with Marc. I can’t have that happen between him and Layton.”

“It doesn’t look like you and Layton are splitting anytime soon. And they’re friends. Quincy and Marc weren’t. Quincy always hated him.”

She nods, knowing I’m right. “I guess we should tell him. Soon. Maybe after the season. They’re about to start the playoffs. I don’t want to mess with that.”

“That’s still a few weeks off. You guys are so obvious.”

She takes a deep breath. “Okay. We’ll tone it down until the seasonis over.” She bites her lip. “Well, we’ll try to. He’s just so—”

“In love with you.”

She looks at me with uncertainty.

I wrap my arm around her. “He’s in love with you, babe.”

She blows out a breath. “It’s all happening so fast.”

I can’t help but look at Quincy. “When you know, you know. It’s an unstoppable force of nature.”

Quincy gaveup a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning. I could tell he was beating himself up when it happened. Instead of celebrating the fact that he’s ascended to the top spot in the pitching rotation of one of the best teams in baseball, he’s carrying the burden of the team’s success on his shoulders. I can physically see it weighing on him. I’ve never seen him more stressed than he is right now.

Fortunately for him, Layton hit a three-run bomb at the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Cougars won the game by one run. Layton is on the best hitting streak of his career. We’re all headed to Screwballs after the game to celebrate the important late-season victory.

Layton walks in without Arizona. I look at him. “Where’s our girl?”

“She’s outside talking to Quincy. I’ll order her favorite beer.”

“She likes the—”

He holds up his hand and gives me a sweet smile. “I know what my girl drinks.”

Yep, he’s in love with her.

The whole crew is here, even Trey and Gemma, who don’talways join us due to having a new baby at home. Trey goes to the bar and Gemma quickly turns to the table. In a bit of a panicked, low voice, she says, “His birthday is next week. Do you guys have any ideas for gifts? I’m drawing a blank. He honestly has everything.”

Cheetah raises his eyebrow. “You know what all men want for their birthdays?”

She narrows her eyes. “I’m afraid to ask. What?”

“We all wear blow jobs. Size? Your mouth.”

Gemma starts laughing. “Oh shit, that’s a good one. I’m gonna use that in one of my books.”

She gasps, quickly covers her mouth, and mumbles, “Shit.”

I look at her. “I thought you were a lawyer. Are you an author too?”

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