Page 27 of Throwing the Curve

“Your friends know.”

“My friends have my back.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “What about the other people who saw me show up at that party with Andy?”

Ryan shrugged. “Honestly, I doubt they paid much attention.” The guys were used to seeing random women arrive at a party and leave with someone else. No one gave it a hell of a lot of thought. He squeezed her hip reassuringly. “And like you said, no one wants bad PR for the team, so stop worrying. It’s all good.”

The music changed to some weird fast beat. “I don’t know how to dance to this. You want to go sit down?”

“Sure.” Peyton nodded in agreement.

He took her hand and led her toward their table. He eyed the table of coaches and wives off to their right and detoured that way. “I just need to say congratulations to coach.”

“Okay.” With no hesitation, Peyton tightened her grip on his hand and followed him as he wove around tables to get to where he wanted to go.

“Congratulations Coach, Mrs. Gill.” Ryan shook his coach’s hand and smiled politely at his wife.

“Thank you. Now Ryan, why do I have to keep telling you to call me Marlene?” coach’s wife replied.

“Sorry, ma’am,” Ryan said.

“Oh, now you just made me feel old,” Marlene teased.

“Not a good idea, son. My wife feeling old is not the anniversary I was hoping for,” Coach told him.

“No one could say you were old. Looking at you two, I can’t believe you’ve been married twenty-five years. Were you high school sweethearts?” Peyton asked.

“Oh, I like this one, Ryan,” Marlene said, as she patted his arm.

“Me too,” Ryan said. “Peyton, this is Coach Mark Gill. He’s my favorite pitching coach and his wife, Marlene.”

“Nice to meet you both. I’ve heard wonderful things about you Coach Gill. Ryan said you’ve been a lot of help to him with homing in on things and making adjustments.”

Ryan looked at her. How had she known exactly what to say?

Coach beamed at Peyton. “Is that right? Well, I’m honored. Your boy here is the best pitcher I’ve ever seen. It’s been a real joy working with him.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Ryan replied.

“Peyton, have you met everyone?” Marlene asked.

“No, I haven’t.”

Marlene linked arms with Peyton and introduced her around the table to the team manager and the rest of the coaching staff. After several minutes of small talk, Ryan figured they’d put their time in. “Coach, Marlene, there are lots of people here who want to speak to you, and we don’t want to monopolize your time. Congratulations again.”

“Peyton, it was really lovely meeting you. Looking forward to seeing you at some games,” Coach said to her.

“Me too,” Peyton replied.

“You’re coming to the one next week, I imagine.”

“Next week?” Peyton asked.

Coach’s brow furrowed. “The Make A Wish first pitch.”

Peyton looked over at Ryan in confusion.

He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, the one I was telling you about where Tommy will throw out the first pitch.”

---