Dropped Third Strike (Portland Pioneers #1) (7 page)

For the rest of the night, that simple kiss on the cheek played over and over in her head. She flushed when she thought about the feel of his lips on her skin. It had been quite innocent, yet her reaction had been anything but. Her body didn’t seem to harbor the same resentment toward Reid as her head and heart did. That annoyed her. She gave herself a silent lecture about the price of letting Reid in again. As she tossed and turned, she wasn’t sure her inner monologue did anything more than delay the sleep she desperately needed for the following day’s events.

Chapter Three

Somehow, Kate managed to arrive at the ballpark early on Saturday. The sleepless night may have actually helped her on that front. Each time she managed to quiet her brain enough to doze off, she would awaken a short while later. She finally gave up on meaningful sleep at 5:30 and got up, heading for the shower to start her day.

Fan Fest was slated to begin at 10, but the previous year’s event suggested fans would start lining up around eight. To avoid the crowds and give herself enough time to prepare for the day, she sat down at her desk a little before seven. She had a large cup of coffee nearby and she turned on her iPod, hoping the combination would help wake her up and get her brain going. An e-mail regarding the hiring had been sent to coaches and players in the organization before the press release had circulated. There were a few replies to that e-mail in her inbox, and she scanned them, pleased to see all responses were positive and a few were even enthusiastic. She also saw a few notes of congratulations from some of her colleagues in other organizations. She smiled as she began typing up notes for her speech. She felt good about hiring Reid, but the affirmation from trusted peers was encouraging and provided some extra fuel as she worked on composing a speech to introduce Reid at Fan Fest.

She was putting the final touches on her speech when her office phone rang. She answered, expecting to hear Mr. Scott’s voice on the other end. But it wasn’t the team owner.

“Hey Katie. You’re in the office early. This is the only number I have for you, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I forgot to ask you last night – what time should I be there today?”

It took her a moment to shake off the shock of hearing Reid’s voice on the other end and respond, but only a brief one.

“I’ve scheduled the announcement for 11,” she said. “You should probably be here a little earlier than that. Feel free to park in the players’ lot. I’ve given the guard there your name, so you’ll be able to get in without any trouble.”

“Sounds good, I’ll head out now,” Reid said. “See you in a little bit, Katie.”

He hung up without another word, denying Kate the opportunity to remind him not to call her “Katie.”

She shook her head and turned back to her computer to print out the short write-up introducing Reid to the media. After reading through it a few times, she took a break and shifted her eyes to the windows and the field below. In a few hours, there would be people milling about in the dugouts as part of the full ballpark tour. The outfield would be open for fans that wanted to play catch. The rest of the action would be in the main concourse that circled the ballpark – autograph sessions, question and answer segments with various players and coaches, and a few kids’ games.

Kate turned back to her desk, reading over her agenda for the day and singing along softly to the Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song coming out of her iPod speakers. She didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until she heard someone else singing along. She looked up and saw Reid standing in her doorway. She stopped singing immediately and even turned off her iPod.             

“You still like that band, huh?” Reid asked. “It’s a shame they’re not together anymore. After you introduced me to their music, I’ve done pretty well at keeping up with them. Nothing can beat that first show we went to though.”

She ignored his attempt to discuss their past and commented on his appearance instead. He was dressed in the same suit as the previous day, but with a deep red shirt this time instead of black.

“Wearing the team colors is a nice touch,” she said, ignoring his mention of their past.

“Yeah, I’d like to say I planned it that way, but honestly, I just like this shirt,” he said, smirking.

Kate could understand why. The shade complemented his coloring very nicely. Then again, she’d never seen Reid look unattractive. He had even managed to make school-issued heather gray gym clothes look hot. More than once during her high school days, she’d lingered in the gym entrance during his class, watching him run laps and smack volleyballs with athletic ease. She didn’t notice she had studied him for so long until Reid cleared his throat.

“Are you ok, Katie?”

“Yeah, I guess I’m just spacey today,” she said. “Yesterday was exhausting, and I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Reid laughed lightly. “With the time change and all the excitement, I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep either, but once I hit the pillow, I was out.”

Of course he’d had no trouble sleeping. Kate shouldn’t have expected any different, yet it bothered her quite a bit that she’d been so stressed and sleepless over their reunion, and he was unaffected by the whole thing. She wondered how he could be so at ease around her considering their history. Then again, awkward was her specialty, not Reid’s.

Katie and Reid studied together that entire fall, all through winter and on into spring. Other girls at school were extremely jealous of Katie and all the time she got to spend with the star athlete. They did everything they could to make her school days miserable, whispering behind her back, completely ignoring her in the hallways, and spreading lies about her. Fortunately, Katie didn’t care much what they thought. They’d never been her friends anyway so their opinions didn’t matter.

Her best friend, Amy, remained a steady companion. The two had been friends since grade school when they’d been paired up for a project on Theodore Roosevelt. Amy had taken notice of all the time Katie and Reid spent together, and she regularly interrogated Katie about it. It was clear she was curious, not jealous. Amy usually preferred to study alone, but she’d joined Katie and Reid a few times and had spent significant time observing the two together.

“I don’t know how you get anything done with that gorgeous creature sitting right there,” Amy said to Katie one day. “I’d just be staring at him the whole time.”

Katie shrugged. “I guess I don’t really notice he’s there most of the time.”

Amy shot her friend a look of disbelief and then shook her head.

“You might be able to tell yourself that, but you can’t fool me, Katie,” she said. “I was sitting next to you at the game the day you started drooling over him. There’s no way you’ve been able to hide your massive crush. You’re not that good of an actress.”

Katie made a face at Amy. “First of all, it was never a massive crush, just a little one, and I’m over it, so there’s no acting involved. We’re just study partners.”

“You spend four nights a week together. Something is going on.”

“We’re just studying.”

“The whole time? No one has that much homework.”

“We talk baseball sometimes. But that’s it.”

That wasn’t a lie. Katie and Reid’s conversations rarely veered from school or baseball, but occasionally they talked about other people in their school. She teased him about all the girls who fawned all over him – obnoxiously cheering for him from the stands (sometimes even when he hadn’t had anything to do with the play), handing him their phone numbers and bringing him baked goods. Katie had witnessed a lot of these moments and couldn’t help but smirk when Reid would dump the phone number in the nearest trash can or hand a plate of chocolate chip cookies to one of his teammates. He always waited until the girls were out of sight, of course. He may have been uninterested, but he wasn’t a jerk.

“Why don’t you like any of those other girls?” she asked him one night as they studied for spring mid-terms.

“Who said I don’t?”

“Well, are you dating anyone?”

“No.”

“Then that tells me you don’t like them.”

“They’re nice girls. Pretty, too. But I’m just not interested in dating right now,” Reid said. “I need to focus on school and baseball.”

“You know they’re all clamoring to get a prom invitation from you.”

“Well, they aren’t going to get one.”

“You’re not going to prom?” she asked.

She couldn’t imagine the most popular guy in school skipping out on one of high school’s biggest events.

“Oh, I’ll probably go. Just not with any of them,” he said. “I was actually thinking we should go together.”

Katie looked up at him in surprise, her World War II study guide momentarily forgotten. He was still staring intently at his own worksheet, which made her wonder if he realized what he’d just said.

“You and me? Why would you want to go to prom with me?” she asked when he remained silent for several moments.

“Because we’re friends and I like hanging out with you,” Reid said. “Plus, I figure it’s a good way to thank you for all your pre-calc help this year. I never would have passed on my own. I’ve brought my grade up to a ‘B’ since we started studying together. My other grades have improved too. I owe you big time.”

He looked up from his study guide and met her gaze.

“So what do you think?” he asked.

It wasn’t the invitation Katie had dreamed of, although she’d never admit to anyone that she had dreamed of it at all. She’d even finally convinced Amy that she had no feelings at all for Reid beyond studying, discussing baseball, and a casual friendship. But now, with this invitation on the table and his eyes piercing her, waiting for an answer, her heart was pounding and she was having a hard time thinking straight. Somehow she got it together long enough to answer his question.

“You don’t owe me anything, but sure, I’ll go to prom with you,” she said, hoping she sounded casual.

There was no way she could have declined his invitation. She may have been in denial about her interest in Reid, but she wasn’t stupid. Every girl in the school would have given up manicures for three months for the chance to be Reid Benjamin’s prom date. She’d never even had a manicure, but she was already scheduling one in her head, along with a hair appointment and shopping date to prepare for what was sure to be a night she’d never forget. It didn’t even matter to her that he had invited her as a friend and as a ‘thank you’ for her tutoring help. She was going to prom with Reid Benjamin. The fact mattered more than the reason.

It took considerable effort to keep her smile from splitting across her face and even more effort to keep from bragging about it in school. In fact, she didn’t tell anyone for several days, until she asked Amy about prom dress shopping.

“I thought you weren’t going,” Amy said.

The girls had discussed prom a month earlier after Brady Berry had invited Amy. At that time, Katie stated quite vehemently that she wasn’t interested in attending. Amy was disappointed, but she didn’t push Katie. Obviously, she was pleasantly surprised to see her friend’s change of heart – and more than a little curious about what had caused it.

“Well, I wasn’t ... until Reid asked me to go with him,” Katie said.

She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling, even as her best friend gasped and started shrieking excitedly. This was exactly why Katie had waited until they were away from school and inside her house. She didn’t want to cause a scene, and she knew Amy would do just that when she heard the news.

“Reid Benjamin asked you to prom?!? When? How? I need details immediately.”

Katie shrugged. “He asked me Monday night, but it wasn’t a big deal. He just thought we should go together as thanks for me tutoring him.”

“That’s such a lame cover,” Amy said. “He could give you a card as thanks for tutoring him. He’s taking you to prom because he wants to. He likes you.”

“Don’t get all crazy,” Katie said. “He’s not interested in me. He’s not interested in anyone, really. He told me he just wants to focus on baseball and school. That’s why he’s taking me. He knows I’ll take it for what it is – going to prom as friends and nothing else.”

Amy wasn’t convinced. Despite Katie’s ongoing denial of anything going on between her and Reid, Amy insisted the prom invitation was not as innocent as it seemed.

“Well, we’ll make sure he sees more than a friend or math tutor on prom night,” she said.

Katie tried to keep her prom plans quiet, but the word got out anyway. This generated interesting behavior from the girls in the school – glares from afar and absolute butt-kissing up close. Their jealousy could not have been more obvious or intense. It would have been annoying if Katie didn’t find it so amusing. She wasn’t fooled by any of the antics. She knew none of them were genuinely trying to be her friend, but she had a little fun with them anyway. She accepted a few lunch invitations and gave vague answers or simply smiled when the girls asked if Katie and Reid were dating.

Her calm demeanor at school was a far cry from how she felt as she got ready on the day of the dance. Katie had searched five stores, trying on gowns of all lengths and colors before she found the perfect one. It was an ice blue strapless gown with navy blue beading that sparkled and danced in an abstract pattern from the sweetheart neckline, along the curves-hugging bodice and continued all the way to the ankle-grazing hem. A slit up to her left thigh showed a hint of leg and made it easier to move around. Amy was speechless when Katie stepped out of the dressing room in it, and that’s when she knew her shopping was done.

Her selection looked even better now with matching jewelry and shoes. With help from some professionals, her green eyes sparkled, her lips glistened with a soft shade of pinkish-peach, and her chestnut hair was currently half-pinned, creating a cascade of curls down to just below her shoulder blades.