Page 111 of Last Fall

I didn’t reply because he didn’t really ask a question. Plus I hadn’t expected the curiosity so soon. Zoe and I hadn’t discussed how we wanted to handleityet.

“Is she someone special?” Brysonpressed.

I gritted myteeth. “Yes.”

“Care to share any details? Is itserious?”

I glanced at Wes who was listening in. He shrugged, essentially telling me it came with theterritory.

Fuck.

“Yes, it’s serious. Which is why I won’t be sharing any details right now. She values her privacy and therefore, sodoI.”

Bryson nodded, scratching something onto his notepad. Then he reached out his hand. “Well congrats and good luck with the lady and with the playoffs. I hope to be doing a lot of these interviews in the comingweeks.”

After we shook hands Seth and Chris wandered over. Wes was nearly dressed to leave and I wasn’t far behind him, but Seth and Chris were in towels. It was pretty obvious who had hot dates after the game and whodidn’t.

“What are you two doing this week?” Our first playoff game was here in exactlyoneweek.

“Chris is going home and doing the island bum thing,” Seth said, jerking his thumb over at thepitcher.

Chris shrugged. “Laying low is how I keep cool. There’s a good chance I’m pitching in the opener and I want to be as calm and collected as possible. Start us off right. Keep that game one winning streakalive.”

“What about you?” I threw a dirty towel at Seth. He batteditaway.

“Sleeping. Eating. Fucking. The usual. Speaking of which, when are youmovingout?”

Moving out?“Excuseme?”

“You and Zoe are practically one person so I figured you were one foot outthedoor.”

“You in a hurry to get rid of me?” Seth wasn’t much of a planner so I was surprised he was thinkingahead.

Unless there was a reason he was thinkingahead.

“No,” he said all defensive, “it’s just the condo is more of a bachelor pad and you’re...not a bachelor anymore. Besides,” he shoved Chris, “this bastard needs somewhere closer to crash aftergames.”

“Can we get through the playoffs before we start talking about living arrangements?” I seriously could not add one more thing to my brain. Zoe and baseball were all I couldhandle.

“Yeah, yeah, just give meheadsup?”

“Awww,” I hugged him, “are you worried I’m going to leave you in the middle of thenight?”

He shoved me off. “We’re doing playoff beards,right?”

We allnodded.

“Good. Allen, I hope your Instagram fans are ready for our manlyglory.”

There was a little bit more banter before Seth and Chris finally went to get dressed. That’s when my phone vibrated in mypocket.

Zoe:We’rehere.

I tapped Wes. “Girls areoutside.”

He grunted and followed me out, practically mauling Carrie the moment he saw her. “You look fuckinggorgeous.”

Not as gorgeous as Zo.I stood there staring at her like shewasn’treal.

Dark hair down around her shoulders with a Mantas ball cap on her head, jeans, dark sneakers, andmyshirt.

“What are you doing?” sheasked.

“Memorizing.”

She blushed, ducking her head away, so of course I had to pull her against me and kiss the crap out of her. “I need to have Eve order you more of these.” One for every day of the week. Or least a fresh one for every game. “So, how was it watchingtoday?”

Her fingers massaged the back of my neck. “A lot more fun when you know you’re going home with the secondbaseman.”

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