Page 69 of Nailed at Home Plate

My hand shook as I reached out and grabbed onto the handle of the back passenger door. I prayed that I didn’t fuck my life up by falling for the blue-eyed catcher that had not only stolen bases but also my heart. If only I had the balls to tell him earlier.

Sliding into the car, I closed the door and buckled my seatbelt. I felt like I was getting into my dad’s backseat after he was pissed about picking me up from somewhere I shouldn’t be. When my door shut the driver turned to me.

“Cadence Andrews?” My mouth went dry and all I could do was nod. It was then that the driver did something that I didn’t expect. He smiled. “This is for you.”

My brow furrowed as he extended a nondescript white mailing envelope to me. Timidly, I took it, wondering if I just accepted my termination paperwork. If so, it was a terrifying way to go about it.

As the car pulled away from the Sillys stadium, my hands shook as I stared down at the envelope. It seemed rather light for dismissal paperwork. Might as well rip off the metaphorical Band-Aid and open the damn thing. Then at least this bullshit wouldn’t be hanging in the air for the entire ride over to the stadium.

“What the hell is this?” The words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them as I stared at the envelope’s contents.

“I believe it's a ticket to the game.”

“From who?”

“That I don’t know. I was just sent to give that to you and drive you to the stadium.”

For fucks sake.

Was this some kind of cruel joke?

Fighting through the traffic on the way to the stadium was excruciating. My mind had the opportunity to run wild. Why did they give me a ticket to a game? Maybe…this wasn’t a bad thing after all?

At least the team car could bypass the headache of parking and head straight to the security gate. My hands shook as I got out of the car.Calm down, Cadence. If you were in trouble this would be a really weird ass way to go about disciplining you.Maybe it was one of the guys on the team that set this all up?

My brow furrowed in the most unattractive fashion. This wasn’t the main gate. This was the VIP entrance to the Diamond Club. Now I was even more confused. I opened my mouth to ask the driver another question, which he probably didn’t have the answer to, but he was already out of the car and around to my door.

These tickets were easily $500 or morea seat. Who the hell would drop that much money on me? There had to be a catch. Maybe I won some sort of employee thing? The thoughts tumbled in my head and distracted me enough to stumble from the car and up to the security at the club entrance gate.

I handed my ticket to the person at the check-in desk and heard the reassuring beep. Well, at least it wasn’t fraudulent. With a knowing smile, she directed me to the waiting usher to escort me to my seat.

He led me down the stairs and into the main entrance of the Diamond Club. It was a bustle of activity as this was the private restaurant and concession stand for those sitting in the prestigious seats. They were right behind home plate and smack dab in between both of the teams’ dugouts.

I timidly made my way down the steps behind the usher in a team logo polo. I could see the guys out on the field doing their pre-game warmups. And that was when my heart stopped. Wearing his catcher’s gear, he was hard to miss.

Damn, Jamie looked good in his element.

“Miss…?”

Oh, right. I was supposed to be following the usher guy. With a nod, I closed the gap between us as he gestured to my seat. It was the last plush seat in the front row right next to the home team’s dugout.

This was every baseball fangirl’s dream. I sank into the plushness of the outdoor vinyl seat. How was I supposed to sit and relax watching the game when I knew exactly what the catcher looked likenaked?

“Would you like to order anything to eat or drink?”

“What?” I glanced up at the usher, shading my eyes, blinking against the late evening sun.

“It's included with your ticket. Would you like to see a menu?”

“Could you get me a hard cider? Or a light beer? Or hell, wine. Whatever you have, that's sweet and full of alcohol.” With a chuckle, he nodded and wandered off to get someone on the wait staff. Thank fuck he left. I needed this moment of reprieve to get my head on straight.

“Miss Andrews?” I nearly jumped out of my seat. So much for a moment to collect my thoughts.

“Oh my god! Yes?” Turning, I was met face-to-face with a white box tied up with a red bow. Surely, he had the wrong person. The fact that he saidmyname wasn’t something my common sense wanted to consider at the moment.

“I was told to give this to you when you found your seat.” Bending down to my level, the staff member handed over the sizable box to me.What in the world?

I gave it a timid shake. All I could hear was the rustle of tissue paper. It wasn’t heavy but it wasn’t as light as an empty box would be. My pointer and thumb grabbed a hold of the forked end of the ribbon and pulled, loosening the bow. The box barely fit on my lap. What the hell was inside?

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