Page 34 of Imperfect Player

Chapter 9

Ethan

First one to board the plane, I take my favorite seat next to the window.

Head back, eyes closed, I let my mind wander to the only place it seems to want to go anymore.

Everly.

I had hoped to run into her today. Hoped she would be in the office and not out meeting a client or some shit. I wanted to see her before I left. Needed to.

Thank God she was.

I’ve known the damn woman for two weeks, and yet . . . I like her. I miss her. Even now. It’s been a whole fifty minutes since I left her, and I am already wondering what she’s doing. If she found the note I left her.

When I grabbed the Post-It off her desk, I had intended to write nothing more than see you soon. Maybe a cheesy smiley face or something. It was as if something took me over when I put the pen to the paper. Sure, the thought had run through my head, but I sure as fuck hadn’t intended to tell her that.

In all my time playing baseball, all the road trips we’ve done, never once did I give a fuck about leaving home. Hell, it was a vacation in my mind. Nice hotel. Fresh crop of women. As I packed my bag today though, there was an ache in my chest. Then a thought of Everly. Then the realization that I was going to miss her.

That was a real fucking jolt for me.

A jolt that apparently my hand decided I needed to tell her even though I shouldn’t have.

The moment I left Advantage, I regretted it. Not because it wasn’t true or even that I cared that she knew I would miss her, but rather the fact that I don’t want to send her mixed signals. I don’t want to confuse her, make her read into something that isn’t there.

Isn’t it, though?

My head argues with my heart. A disagreement so foreign to me that all I want to do is figure out a way to get rid of it. The only thing I’ve come up with thus far is omitting Everly from my life.

Fat chance of that.

Only two weeks and still I know that I don’t want to let her go. Not now. Maybe not ever.

I feel the seat next to me shift. I peek open an eye and see Fox sitting next to me.

The complete opposite of me, Fox hates these trips, hates being away from his wife. Especially now.

“You okay?” I ask.

I keep my eyes closed because I don’t really want this to turn into a full-blown conversation, but I know he’s struggling this trip. His wife is pregnant. Damn near due. The idea of being away, being unable to get to her in time? It’s killing him.

While I might be a bit of a heartless bastard at times, I like Fox. He’s a good guy, and I feel for him. So I open the conversation while silently praying he keeps it short.

“I will be. As long as I don’t get a call saying she’s going into labor.”

“You won’t. You’ll be there.”

Fox chuckles.

“What?”

“Look at you being all supportive and shit. This woman must be doing a real number on you.”

“What woman?” Slade, the second baseman, asks.

“There is no woman,” I say, scowling at Fox. Here I am trying to be nice to the fucker, and he announces to the entire plane of assholes there’s a woman in my life. Fuck me.

“She’s just a friend. Right, Ambrose?” Maddox chimes in.

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