Page 38 of The Third Baseman

“No, sorry!” Lowe waved me off before I could answer. “None of our business.”

I swallowed thickly. “No, that’s okay.”

Because I’d never really had girlfriends before, not since school anyway, I’d never really had ‘girl talk’, where I could talk about my feelings or what I was experiencing. Yet I found right then in the back of the Range Rover taking us to the plane that I wanted to.

“We were teenagers; you know how it is…” I chewed on my lips as my brain flashed with more memories I was trying hard to forget about. “But, yeah, we were like that. It’s not the same when you’re an adult with jobs and responsibilities, though.”

I look down at my lap. The dark of the car was doing a good job at hiding my face, both from the blush and the blatant lie. It was nothing to do with being an adult. I’d dated a few guys in college, and before David. Even though I’d had no one to compare Jupiter to when we’d met, it hadn’t taken me long to figure out nothing would ever match up after so I stopped looking for it to happen, which made it easier to forget.

“I know what you mean,” Beulah said, her hand resting over mine. “I was a pretty lonely teenager, so I didn’t discover what is was like to be in a relationship until last year.”

She smiled softly then her gaze drifted off, and I suddenly felt like I was intruding.

“Not sure I want to think about Jupiter Reeves as a teenager,” Lowe snickered. “Was he as intense then as he is now?”

“Yes, but not in a moody way. As long as he was with me or playing baseball, he was happy. And when we were together, we were either having sex or studying. Sometimes both at the same time,” I chuckled, then let out a long steady breath to calm the twisting in my loins before they heated to the danger levels of a nuclear reactor, “Phew, haven’t thought about that in a long while.”

Or at least since the other day, when the past had banged hard on my office door until I’d flung it open.

“Speak of the devil.”

Because we’d been so deep in boy, sex, and relationship chat, I hadn’t realized we’d pulled up at the airport and the car had stopped. I looked up as the driver opened the back door to see New York Lions painted along the side of a huge bus the team was disembarking from.

The three of us climbed out of the car and fell into line behind the enormous group. There were easily seventy people, made up of the players, coaches, and support staff.

As one of the tallest players on the roster, it wasn’t hard to spot Jupiter, even with his short dark hair hidden by the same Lions ball cap everyone else was wearing.

It also wasn’t hard to notice how broad his shoulders were, how narrow his waist was, how thick his thighs were, and how tight his ass was.

I’d always loved his ass.

In fact, for the first time since I’d arrived in New York, I had the luxury of looking at a real life version of him properly, without him noticing. Because it was perfectly fine to look if he didn’t know I was looking.

Which is what I told myself right before he spun around in the crowd, his eyes finding mine almost immediately; like a tractor beam.

Like he’d always been able to.

He walked backward for ten paces, all without dropping his piercing gaze. His jaw popped, followed by a slight curve on the corner of his mouth. Then he winked.

That fucking wink.

And I wish I could say my panties were still dry, but winking was all he’d ever had to do to have me desperately needing to jump his bones.

Need.Notwant.

“He’ll get you pregnant with that wink.” Lowe’s quiet whisper tickled my ear, then sheooofedas I nudged her in the ribs. “Seriously, women’s hearts all over the United States are breaking. I’ve never seen him wink, ever. He’s become a completely different person since you arrived, like he’s suddenly developed a personality beyond moody fucker.”

I kept my smile to myself, and when I glanced back at him, he was once more facing forward, walking with the boys through the airport. The buzz of a message coming through on the phone in my pocket told me his head wasn’t totally focused on where he was going.

It was only fifteen minutes later as we buckled into our seats for take-off that I dared look.

Jupiter:I’m so fucking happy you’re here, Star.

The Jupiter I’d known with his dimples, winks, and toothy grins was impossible to deny.

The Jupiter with the tattoos and arrogance, all man and muscle, was becoming harder to ignore.

A combination of the two was deadly.

---