Page 165 of Off Season

“You can’t possibly want to work with me. You hate me.”

The corners of his mouth raise in amusement. “I wouldn’t be workingwithyou; you’d be workingforme.” He tilts his glass until he finishes the remaining contents before his eyes meet mine again. “Kamryn, I’m fighting the battle to get women equal pay in athletics. You’re the best shortstop in the world and you make less than a hundred grand a year. The highest-paid shortstops in baseball make thirty-five million dollars per year, and none of them hit as well as you. Doesn’t that injustice piss you off?”

“Of course it does.”

He points his finger at me. “That’show you can make a difference. I need a smart woman who knows sports inside and out and who happens to be a real ball-buster. Does that description sound familiar to you?”

I let his words sink in for a few moments before responding. “What about when things go to shit with you and my sister?”

“What if they don’t go to shit?”

“You can’t give her what she deserves. Why are you spending time with her when you can’t and won’t give her what she needs?”

“Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?”

I wince. “Fuck you, Tanner.”

He smiles. “You certainly like to dish it out, Kamryn, but you don’t like to take it. Can you give Cruz what he deserves? What he needs?”

I stand and place my glass in the sink. “Good night.”

As I walk away, he says, “Think about my offer.”

With my back to him, I simply hold up my middle finger as I round the corner toward my bedroom. I can hear the asshole chuckling as I do. What does my sister see in himbesides the whole sexy, domineering, older man thing?

I walk into my room and see Cruz peacefully asleep. Am I a hypocrite? I want Tanner to set Bailey free so she can find someone willing to give her what she needs. Should I be doing that for Cruz?

How can things work out for two people when there’s a clear divide in needs with little to no overlap? I don’t want my sister to compromise. Why should she? I won’t ask him to do the same.

I can’t look at his innocent face right now. Walking back out into the house, I quickly make sure that Tanner went up to bed. When I see the coast is clear, I quietly tiptoe upstairs and into Fallon’s room before closing her door behind me.

Her eyes blink open. “Kam? Is everything okay?”

“Can I sleep with you?”

“Sleep, sleep or sex sleep? I don’t think I’m adventurousenough to sex sleep with a woman at this point in my life. Maybe I should have done that in college at least once, but that ship has sailed for me.”

I giggle. “I’d totally be up for sex sleep with you anytime, but I meant sleep, sleep. Maybe a little talk sleep now that you’re awake.”

She smiles as she opens her blankets, and I slip into bed. Fallon has become my friend in the past few months. She’s only nine years older than us, but she has such a maternal, calming nature to her. Given that the only maternal figure in my life has been Bailey, and I haven’t been willing to burden her the past few months, I’ve come to rely on Fallon for that. Our staying up late talking has become commonplace.

I take in her skimpy sleep shorts and tank top. Her nipples are poking through. “Fuck, you’re so hot.”

“Kamryn,” she warns.

“Are your boobs real?”

She lets out a laugh. “If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that... Yes, they’re real. Stop looking at them. They’re not on the menu for you.”

I smile as I lay my head on the pillow and stare at her. “Do you think I’m being selfish by holding on to Cruz?”

She pinches her eyebrows together. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I don’t want marriage and kids.”

“Does he?”

“He says he doesn’t care, but I think he does. It’s in his genes. His family is single-handedly doubling the population of the state of Texas.”

---