Page 17 of Nailed at Home Plate

I came here tocalmthe waters between Cadence and me. Not churn them up more with inappropriate thoughts. This kind of shit was completely out of character for me. If I did find someone worth pursuing, it was a slow and respectable sort of courtship. Not all these thoughts of falling into bed with someone each time my cock got hard looking at her.

This certainly wasn’t the first time I was turned on by thoughts of my coworker.

I was ready to run back into the locker room and douse myself with cold water to get my damn cock to chill the fuck out before practice. Literally and figuratively. Cadence eased her dancing to a slow stop. Part of me wanted to duck away so she didn’t see me and yet another part wanted to make a beeline at lightspeed for the woman just to get this all over with.

She slipped out her earbuds and grabbed her water bottle. I had to play it cool and not pretend that I’d been watching her for the better part of the last few songs. As Han Solo suggested, “I don’t know. Fly casual.” How the fuck do I maintain any sense of being casual after watching that performance? Shit, I didn’t even have anything prepared to say to explain the past few weeks and I–

“Jamie?”

Fuck.

The more alarming notion was the fact that my body had moved of its own accord towards Cadence. Even though my brain had still been locked in aheated debate on even approaching her. Swallowing back my sudden fluster, I tried to remain cool.

“Uh…”Off to a great fucking start, Jamie.“Sorry, I’m here early.”Thank you, Captain Obvious.

“That’s okay.” Dammit. Her voice sounded strained. I must have interrupted her quiet dance time before the insanity of team practice. Suddenly her eyes squinted shut and she shook her head. It caused the skin of her nose to ripple, bringing her freckles to the forefront. “Actually,” She added suddenly. “Uh, there was um…something I wanted to talk to you about anyway. Privately.”

My stomach bottomed out.Shit.Was she going to call me out? What about this woman made me so unnerved or pissed off? How did she have this kind of power over me? Even when she couldn’t look at me square on.

“Oh?” I swallowed nervously with an equally unsteady laugh. “Hopefully it's not about me being a total lost cause.”

“I mean…”Fuck.“Not…not technically.” Giving her a cautious glance, she seemed to be just as tense as me. But that was only a passing thought as her sweat-covered dewy skin caught the sunlight. Suddenly I craved salt. “Look,” The sharpness and urgency in her tone made me snap out of my salt lick daydream. “I understand that dance isn’t easy for everyone. Sometimes you just need to find what teaching style works for you.”

Wait, was this an underhanded way of kicking me off the team? “So…that means…?”

“Maybe we just have to think outside the box.” I must have looked as lost and confused as I felt. Cadence bent down into her bag and procured hertrusty hair elastic. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, she furiously wound the loop around her wild waves. I could feel the twitch of jealousy in my hand as I suddenly wanted to feel those silken strands knotted in my fist.

“I’m…almost afraid to ask what you’re thinking.”

“What, don’t you have a sense of adventure, Jamie Rheems?” There she went with my full name again. The tone of it and how it slid off her lips sent a delicious shiver up my spine. “I know your coaches in the majors had you doing all sorts of interesting field work and wild things for batting practice. To name one, I seem to remember you chipping some golf balls from home plate.”

I blinked at her. How did she know that? And for fucks sake, why was it a turn-on?

“I–yes.”

“So maybe you’d be open to doing some country line dancing. Off the clock of course. The guys and I go a few times a season. You follow along, most of the time everyone fucks up in one way or another. I figured you’d fit right in.”Uh…thanks?The words tumbled out of her all at once in a singular breath. Why did it seem that she was just as unsteady with us being this close as I was?

I bristled at her suggestion. Line dancing in a bar was slightly more terrifying than dancing in front of 20,000 fans at a baseball game. But this was exactly what I told myself needed to be done. I needed to change my attitude about this whole thing. I needed to learn how to dance if I wanted to keep playing baseball. I needed to do whatever was necessary to get back on the team I belonged to.

If this was something that Cadence said I should do, then…so be it.

“Well, I guess that’s something I could try.”

“Excellent!” The sense of relief in her body was noticeable. For fucks sake I’ve been a total asshole. “Thank you.” I didn’t exactly expect that enthusiastic response. She bounced on the balls of her heels for two beats and my eyes couldn’t help but drift to her chest.

Fuck. Shit. Stop being a horny teenager. Do something else. Anything else.

“You’re welcome, Cady.” I rushed out in a single, charged exhale.

“Cady?” Her surprised tone hit me like a brick wall. Goddammit, we were doing so well. I had to go and fuck it all up because I couldn’t help but stare at my coach’s tits and say stupid shit. I needed to recover this word vomit if my life depended on it.

“Yeah…uh, like the chick fromMean Girls.” Cadence blinked at me. I mean, fair. Most guys weren’t into early 2000s teenage romcoms.

“Right.” There was some skepticism in her voice. Her brow arched as her hands slipped to her waist. Shit, she needed to stop drawing attention to her body. Especially being this close to me.

“Yeah…I’m gonna call you Cady.” All I could do was continue the lines from the movie. With a snort, she cocked her head to the side. How many men could quote lines from such an off-the-cuff cult classic teen movie?

“Are you a closet Lindsay Lohan fan or something?”

---