Page 150 of The Perfect Love

I blow my whistle as the younger group of players fails yet again to nail a double play they had more than enough time to complete.

“Sanderson, Thorn, Sterling,” I call out the first, second, and third basemen.

They trot over.

“Sorry, Coach,” Thorn says immediately.

“I don’t want apologies. I don’t care about that. What I care about is fixing problems. You three need to spend extra time working on agility. You have the power in your throws and the chemistry as a unit, but your agility is holding you back. Sterling, you have to be faster getting the ball in your glove and then over to Thorn. Thorn, you need quicker turnaround time. Sanderson, you have to work on stretching and balance so you can extend farther off the base. Your throws have great precision, now you need to fine-tune the time it takes you to get through the play. Baseball games can be won and lost in nuance like that. I’m going to add on some agility work for you during practice, but I want you working on it outside of that too. If you work on it together, you’ll end up even more in sync.”

They look at each other and nod.

“Thanks, Coach,” Sterling says.

“I’ll send emails with ideas for drills to run. Now get back out there.”

They all run back to the field, and Aaron blows his whistle this time, setting them up to run another play.

Coach M comes to my side. “If I could afford to pay you, I would. That was a good call.”

“Thanks, Coach.”

He smacks my shoulder. “Don’t ever doubt that you have what it takes to be a part of this game in some way for however long you want. You have a good eye and an understanding of the game that a lot of people would kill for. Remember that.”

I give him a nod, but he doesn’t let me respond before he blows his whistle and yells for the team to bring it in.

I’m cold as fuck and I can’t feel my nose or my toes, but today has been even better than I was hoping it would be.

I’m still in a great mood when I get to Chelsea’s apartment and go inside. I have a key now, because my girl likes it when I’m here waiting for her after a long day.

I love it too.

“Hey, baby,” I call as I walk down the hall.

“How was your first day of practice?”

“It went great. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. How are you?”

I smile as I walk into the bedroom and take her in. She’s in leggings and a baggy sweater, and just setting her book on the bedside table.

Her eyes lift to mine, a bit of trouble dancing in them.

“I want to have sex.”

My bag hits the floor with a thud, and I blink a few times.

“Right now?”

A slight laugh slips out. “Kind of?”

Walking over to the bed, I sit down next to her. “Talk to me.”

“Okay, so, first of all, you should know I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, but chickening out every time I was going to talk to you about it. But at the Promise meeting on Tuesday night, a girl asked about having sex again and one of the answers she got was really helpful.”

“What did she say?”

“Well, she mentioned making sure we’re safe, which… obviously. I’m always safe with you.”

My heart bursts at that, and I smile like an idiot. I love that it’s second nature to her now. No wondering if she’s safe with me.

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