Page 145 of Off Season

My hands rest on the far back tile wall as I let thescalding hot water beat down on me. Have I been spinning my wheels for a year? On some level, I’ve always known I was, but the problem is that I love her, and I can’t imagine being with anyone but her.

What do you do when your perfect match doesn’t want you?

Where do we go from here? You don’t just propose to someone, they say no, and you go back to what you were. You can’t love someone who refuses to ever love you back. I don’t ask for much, but I have enough self-respect to know I deserve at least that.

I’m running through a million different scenarios in my mind when the steady stream of voices suddenly goes silent. I hear a few people breathe, “What the fuck?” and a few others whistle and snicker.

Without even having to turn around I know that Kamryn has stepped into the showers. I can feel her presence. After taking a calming breath, and without turning around, I break the silence and grit out, “I swear to god, Kamryn, if you’re naked, I will kill you, you crazy fucking bitch.”

I hear her voice, “You’re not the only one with big balls, kitten. A gang bang is on my bucket list.”

The shower area is suddenly covered in a sea of deep laughter from all the guys. I hear Jimmy say, “Look at her jugs.”

Another teammate replies, “You probably don’t know the difference between jugs and balls.”

Jimmy lets out a laugh. “Well, I know I wasn’t touching your mom’s balls last night.”

There’s another eruption of laughter and cheering. Fucking neanderthals. I’m too old for this shit.

I hear Kamryn’s voice again. “Boys, relax. You’ve all seen a naked woman before. At least I hope so. It’s good to see that none of you are hung like Justin Timberlake.”

As the guys all cackle like a bunch of old ladies, I turn my head to Trey, who’s next to me, and whisper, “Is shecompletelynaked?”

The corner of his mouth raises slightly as he subtly nods.

I shout, “Everyone get the fuck out! Now!”

It quickly goes silent. After a brief moment of hesitation, I hear them all scramble to leave. Once I’m confident they have, I turn around. Sure enough, Kamryn Hart is standing in the communal shower of a professional baseball team, naked as the day she was born.

I cross my arms and stare at the lunatic standing before me. “You’re one hundred percent certifiable. You. Are. Nuts.”

She cracks a small smile. “Your nuts are huge.”

I shake my head. “No, sweetheart, no one has bigger nuts than you.”

She shrugs. “I needed your attention.”

I exhale a long breath. “There are other ways to go about it. Better ways than being naked in front of twenty grown men.”

She places her hands on her hips. “It was a bit of a community service. I felt like the two gingers on your team deserved to see their first naked woman.”

I have to bite back my smile. She loves her ginger jokes.

I’m not sure how she could possibly make me smile given how I feel right now, but Kamryn Hart always makes me smile. It’s one of the things I love most about her.

I ask, “What’s the difference between a ginger and a calendar?”

She immediately answers, “A calendar has dates.”

I can’t help but let out a laugh. There’s no ginger joke she doesn’t know.

After a short stare-down, my face turns serious. “There’snothing left to say. I have nothing left to give. What is it that you want, Kamryn?”

“You.”

“You just rejected me in front of forty-thousand people. You don’t want me.”

Sincerity blankets her face. “I never said I didn’t want you. You know my feelings on marriage. We should have had a conversation about it before you proposed, especially in a setting like that.”

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