Page 33 of Raine Out (Grand Slam 2)

“A beard?”

“Yeah, you know,” Maisie says, turning to me, “a disguise, a fake boyfriend.”

“So if I bring a lady beard to these events, you’ll leave me alone?” I say, looking at Sophie.

“Not a chance. You’re way too good of a catch to waste your time with a beard.”

“Baby,” Seb says. “Give him a break. Sometimes it just has to happen—like with us.”

“Oh my God,” Maisie says, pushing his shoulder. “Do you think you’d be with her today if I hadn’t interfered? You both were being stubborn idiots until I forced the issue.”

“Yeah, you’re not wrong—” Seb says, jerking his head back as Sophie busts out of his arms.

“Raine!” she screams. Before I can even look up, Sophie’s bolting across the airport. She collides with someone with such force that they both tumble to the ground. Maisie arrives a second later and throws herself on top of them. As the pile shifts around, I see a peek of bright, yellow material. My heart starts racing as I quickly realize that Trouble is Raine.

Raine’s boyfriend gets to the pile at the same time Seb jogs over. He reaches down and pulls Maisie and Raine up as Seb untangles Sophie. I inch over toward them as I try to give my mind time to process that the woman I was hitting on is Raine.

“You teach her that tackle move?” The boyfriend says to Seb as he steadies Raine. “I thought you played baseball, not football.”

“I do,” Seb says as he puts his hands under Sophie’s arms and pulls her to her feet. “That’s the first time I’m seeing her open-field tackling skills. Makes me love her even more. I’m Seb Miller.”

“I know who you are. Big fan,” the boyfriend says, shaking Seb’s hand. “Butch Harrison.”

Sophie hugs Butch. “It’s so nice to meet you, Butch. I’m Sophie. Raine has told me absolutely nothing about you except that you’re a Navy SEAL and you met while you were working together.”

“I—” Raine says.

Butch slides his arm around Raine. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Sophie, and frankly, I’m one of those people you can’t quite describe. It’s better to just meet me in person.”

“You must be Raine,” Seb says, smiling as he shakes her hand. “Sophie’s told me so much about your time growing up in Chicago. I met your mom the last time we were there.”

“Yeah, Mom won’t quit talking about you,” she says, smiling. “You’ve made her a dedicated baseball fan—or a dedicated Seb Miller fan anyway.”

Seb turns around and pulls me from behind him. “This is my buddy Alex Molina. He plays for the team, too.”

Raine looks around Seb and finally sees me. Her eyes get wide. “Uh—”

“Hey, Trouble,” I say, smiling at her. “Sorry, I’m not wearing yellow. I didn’t know we’d be meeting again this soon.”

“You two know each other?” Butch says, his steely eyes staring at me from underneath the bill of his cap.

“We just met. I helped her with her bag,” I say, looking down at her. “I didn’t realize you were the famous Raine at the time.”

“What? Did you think my real name was Trouble?”

“Maybe just hoping it was,” I say, trying to control the grin that keeps growing on my face.

“Aww,” Sophie says, slipping her arm through mine. “You have a nickname for her already.”

“Stop,” I whisper, squeezing her arm tight against me.

Raine glares at Sophie as she grabs Butch’s hand.

Maisie points at their hands. “So how long have you two been dating?”

Butch puts his arm around Raine’s waist and lets his hand slide down to her butt. He squeezes it. “I don’t know, babe, like six months, right?”

“Oh my God!” she says, throwing his hand down and slapping him across the chest. “Don’t ever squeeze my butt again.”

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