Page 1 of The Shake Off

ONE

PAYTON

“Okay, girls,” Kit began as she drained the champagne from her glass and peered around the table at our friends, before her eyes finally landed on me. “I hate to say it, but it’s home time. Bell will be awake at six, and I have a full day of classes tomorrow.”

I glanced at my watch – nine-thirty on the dot. Gone were the days when my best friend and I would be out drinking until the small hours on a school night, but that’s what happened when you fell in love with your boss, adopted his baby daughter, and became a professor of English at Columbia University – her, obvs, not me.

“Hey, any amount of time I get to spend with you, cake, and champagne, in our favorite restaurant, is good enough for me.”

She blew me a kiss. “Happy birthday, babe.”

“Thank you, and thank you for tonight, all of you. It was perfect.” I reached across the table for the remainder of my birthday cake laden with rainbow frosting, and pulled it toward me. This baby wasn’t going to waste. “And if you’re checking out early, I’m taking the rest of this home to enjoy from the comfort of my couch, watching The Golden Girls. Or, better yet, maybe I’ll find someone on the way out who’ll come back and feed it to me while I watch The Golden Girls.”

That’s what Blanche would have done. Blanche was my girl, and I fully intended to be her when I grew up.

“Hey,” laughed Beulah, “it’s your birthday. You can make that wish come true.”

“Oh yeah, where are the candles? I’ll try again.” My eyes darted around dramatically as I burst out laughing, especially when I caught Beulah attempting to stifle a yawn, and pointed accusingly at her. “I saw that.”

“Sorry,” she winced. “Not sure what my excuse is. I don’t have classes or a toddler.”

“You have a squad of baseball players to look after. I’d take a toddler any day over those boys.”

“Tell me about it.” Her yawn finally made an appearance, and she shook her head in disgust at herself. “Honestly, I don’t know how I used to survive on five hours of sleep. Baseball has made me weak I’m telling you. Weak.”

Lowe let out a chuckle. “Don’t let Penn hear you say that.”

“I might be weak, but I’m not stupid.”

Penn Shepherd, Lowe’s husband, and owner of The New York Lions, where Beulah and Lowe both worked, wasn’t known for his sense of humor when it came to baseball.

“How’s everything going over at Lions H.Q.?” I asked, finishing off my own glass of champagne as Lowe attempted to signal the waiter for the check. Except, given how busy the restaurant currently was, he was ignoring her, which was his first mistake.

She got up and marched over to him.

“Good,” Beulah continued, “though now Spring Training is over, I’m getting less done. The boys have only been back two days, but I swear someone knocks on my door every five minutes. Today I had Ace Watson coming to ask if he could add a clause in his contract about PlayStation and this season’s edition ofThe Show, and making sure they got his eye color right this year. Apparently, they weren’t blue enough last year.” She rolled her eyes. “How is that my job as head of legal? I swear they come up with this shit to fuck with me.”

Kit’s lips pulled tight as she tried not to smile. “Beats corporate law though, right?”

“Yeah. It sure does,” she replied. “It’s Marnie I feel sorry for. She had to work with those boys every day.”

“Hey, Ace Watson could interrupt me any time. That boy is cute with a capital C. If I was still in college, his poster would be up in my dorm room.”

“And he knows it,” Beulah laughed. “I swear he could charm his way into Fort Knox with the way he bats those eyelashes.”

“I take it you’re talking about Ace,” Lowe said, sliding back into her seat, check in hand, and fished around in her bag for her AmEx.

“Yeah,” I sighed, like I wasactuallyeighteen and still in college, but I couldn’t help it. Any time The Lions starting pitcher was mentioned, a little sigh escaped.

It was almost a subconscious reaction at this point.

“You might change your mind when you see him. He decided to grow a mustache for Spring Training. He looks like a porn star.”

The sigh became a little moan. “That’s hot. Like a young, sexier Tom Selleck.”

I really needed to stop watching late night TV, but that didn’t stop the four of us all sighing at thought of Tom Selleck.

“Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s done him any harm. You should have seen the girls lined up along the fences at the ground.”

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