Page 13 of Double Play

But California wouldn’t have Jim Lieberman. At least, not yet. And for some stupid,stupidreason, the moment he’d body-surfed into the stands in Albuquerque, the moment their eyes had met, she couldn’t think about anyone else. She couldn’t even drag her eyes away from him the rest of that game. His energetic, positive playing style had completelycaptivatedher.

Ever since that game, well over a year ago, no other man had appealed to her. She’d moved to Kilby to be with her brother, but when Trevor got called up to San Diego, she’d stayed in Texas. She’d even gotten a job at Catfish Stadium. Why? One reason. The adorable dark-hairedshortstop.

Why, oh why did she have to be fixated on someone who still hadn’t asked her out? She knew Jim liked her. She could read it on his face every time he looked at her, and everyone else told her the same thing. Was it really Trevor getting intheway?

Sure, Trevor couldlookscary, with his badass scowl and tattoos. But underneath his daunting exterior he was a caring, passionate man who would do anything for someone he loved. Why couldn’t Jim see that? What did he think Trevor would do if he made a move? Or was it some kind of misguided ‘don’t mess with the teammate’s little sister’ principle? In which case, shouldn’t the little sister have a sayinit?

Paige, her future sister-in-law, had even suggested that Nina make thefirstmove.

“Invite him to Crush and Wendy’s wedding,” she’d said on the phone just the othernight.

“He’s probably already invited. All theCatfishare.”

“If you’re both going anyway, why not gotogether?”

“The thing is, Ihavetried to sort of suggest we do something together, but it never works out that way. Like the time I asked if he was going to the Founders Day Picnic and he started talking about the Wade family sponsoring it and how he couldn’t support them, especially after we were nearlykidnapped.”

“That means he caresaboutyou.”

“That means he didn’t want to go to the picnicwithme!”

Just a couple days ago, Jim had called her about a charity dinner. Once again, no invitation. Just a whole lot of conversation. She was more than ready to ditch the conversation and move into the actionphase.

The whole thing was so aggravating, Nina could just scream. In fact, she did scream a little bit. When she reached the rearing bronze statue of Colonel Kilby on his horse, she tilted her head back and let out a “gahhhhh” of frustration. “You’re more decisive than him and you’re astatue.Can’t you teach him a thing or two?” shemuttered.

Neither Colonel Kilby nor his horse had much to sayaboutthat.

“Are you okay? Nina, what happened? I heard you scream.” She whirled around to find Jim Lieberman jogging down the street toward her. At five foot ten inches, he was one of the smaller players, but also one of the quickest and most graceful. She loved watching him scoop balls up from his position at shortstop and whip them to first base. Privately, she called him “not-so-tall, dark and adorable.” Not that she would ever tellhimthat.

She stopped and folded her arms across her chest. Maybe it was sweet of him to be so worried. But if he really cared about her, why didn’t heaskherout?

“Nothing happened. What are you doingouthere?”

He stopped a few feet from her, as if afraid to get too close. She rolled her eyes. Sweet Lord, give her patience. “You should go back to Dwight and Maggie. They don’t even know each other. It’s rude to leave them allalone.”

“Dwight told me to comeafteryou.”

That just made her even more mad. Why didn’t Jim think of these things himself? “Oh, so that’s why you came, not because youwantedto?”

“Of course I wanted to! But I didn’t know if I should because you saidnotto.”

It sounded reasonable when he put it like that, but in her heart, she knew it wasn’t. She looked at her shoes, chewing on her bottom lip. This was so pointless. She’d fallen for a cute ballplayer who could field grounders like a champ, but kept striking out when it cametoher.

Jim came closer still, so close she noticed a long coppery strand of hair on his denim jacket. That made her think about what he’d looked like in that Anna outfit, and her lips twitched into an unwillingsmile.

“You’re smiling.” Relief rang through his voice. “Does that mean youforgiveme?”

No. It didn’t. But he was so cute standing there with his hands in his pockets, a street light illuminating the earnest planes of his face. She always felt sorightwith him. She’d always, her whole life, followed her intuition on everything. And her intuition told her Jim Lieberman was rightforher.

Was that inner voice letting her downthistime?

“That depends,” she finally told him. “Are you afraid of mybrother?”

He gave her a steady, level glance. “A little. You know how he isaboutyou.”

Despair settled through her. She could never be with someone who was afraid of Trevor. How would that ever work out? She turned away from Jim’s eager dark gaze. He was just going to break her heart. Whybother?

“Wait.” He stepped to catch up with her. “I didn’t finish my thought. Trevor intimidates me, yeah. I respect him and I know you guys have been through a lot. He’s protective and I’mgladhe is. I would be too if I was him. But I still want to…I mean, I’m not so intimidated that…I mean …want to walk a little bit? There’s a great ice cream shop down thestreet.”

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