Page 37 of The Third Baseman

Beulah, Lowe, and I were sitting in the back of a car en route to LaGuardia, where The Lions team plane was kept.

After my meeting with Penn and my collision with Jupiter, I’d taken a longer run than intended, and spent the rest of the day figuring out this plan and whether I could make it work. My figuring was done in between all the time I wasn’t thinking about Jupiter and the wall of sculpted muscle he now seemed to be built from. He may as well have been carved from granite.

I’d tried not to touch him, even pretend I hadn’t, but I knew my fingertips had grazed along an impressive set of corded abs when I attempted to maintain my balance and my hand slipped down his chest.

“Marnie?”

I shook my head and turned in my seat to face her better. “Sorry… well, there’s a theory that if you can make small, positive changes, then they all come together to make one big change. It’s the one percent improvement rule.”

“Huh.” Her lips pursed, concentration settling on her face. “That sounds cool, kind of like when you want to lose weight, you only eat half the cookie, and not the whole thing; almost like you’re deceptively dieting.”

I nodded. “Something like that.”

“Penn must be kicking himself that he didn’t come up with it first.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. He asked me how he didn’t already know about it.”

Lowe snorted. “Yeah, because he thinks he knows everything.”

Beulah joined in, letting out a loud laugh. “You think it’ll work?”

“I’ve been reading up on it, and there’s no reason why it can’t work. It seems to be kind of new in top tier sports, especially when there’s already so much money pumped in to ensure they’re at the top of their game already. But this could be the perfect opportunity to put theory into practice. The New York Lions aren’t at the top of their game, and it’s a brand new team. At the very least this could help them sync together, but that should then help them play together.”

Lowe let out a little groan, and we all knew why. It was only ten days into the season, and the high they started on was swiftly deflating after more defeats than they’d expected.

“They need it. They barely scraped the win tonight. I know I should be positive when they’re already playing much better than last season, but no one else has to live with Penn! All I hear about is why they lost, and what they should have done better.”

Beulah pulled her in for a consoling hug. “Surely that’s what Coach Chase is getting paid the big bucks for? Send Penn to him when he starts giving you earache.”

“Will it be bad tonight?”

Visions of the powernap I’d planned for the flight began floating straight into the night sky, and replaced with the visual of Penn Shepherd pounding down the aisle of the plane, pointing out every single thing we could have done better.

I’d had a tiny sample of it on Saturday when the boys had returned from their first away stretch, which they lost, but the massive win against the White Sox that day had stopped his train of thought.

There were four hours to go before we got to Miami, and I didn’t want to spend it listening to a lecture – especially as it was nearly ten-thirty p.m. already.

“Nope, we’ll get Lowe to shut him up with a little mile high action in the bathroom,” Beulah laughed, then huffed loudly as Lowe elbowed her hard in the ribs.

I joined in, until I realized exactly what Beulah was talking about and couldn’t halt the heat rising in my cheeks. I wasn’t a prude. I liked sex just fine, but being in a relationship like that, where you couldn’t keep your hands off each other no matter where you were... I’d only had that once – and it hadn’t been with my ex-husband. Teenage hormones were not to be taken lightly.

“Marnie, what’s that look?”

I blinked. “What?”

“You had a look, like you were thinking about…” she grinned knowingly.

I blushed even harder. “Oh no, it was nothing. I was just… to be in a relationship where you… you know… sex all the time. I’d forgotten what it was like.”

“What about David?” asked Lowe, ignoring Beulah’s frown.

I dropped my head with a shake. “He was away a lot, and then when he got home it wasn’t the first thought. He was always too excited to tell me about what he’d been doing, his new discoveries, that sort of thing. And then it was a lot of talking, and we’d fall asleep.”

I didn’t really understand the identical expressions Lowe and Beulah were wearing, but I knew I never wanted to see it again.

“What about Jupiter?”

If I thought I’d gone pink before, I’d now turned a deep shade of fuchsia.

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