Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/ Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART ONE (2 page)

Speaking of which…looking around, he realized they were on the highway heading out of town. “Where the hell is this place?”

“Oh, it’s just outside of Kingston.”

He eyed her closely. Her lower lip was caught between her teeth, and her color was still high. A memory flashed into his mind of the time they’d “borrowed” Bazooka bubble gum from the convenience store, intending to come back with a dime. But Caitlyn hadn’t even made it to the corner before she burst into tears and went running back with her half-opened loot.

“You’re hiding something,” he accused. “You’re the worst liar in Sapphire Falls. What’s going on?”

“Nothing! It’s just a little farther…” Now she was looking just the way she had at the age of seven, tears gathering in her big hazel eyes.

“Caitlyn…”

“Okay, okay. There is no car.” She whooshed out a breath, clearly relieved to not be lying anymore. “This is a…well, this is a kidnapping.”

“
What?
”

She turned to look at him with an exasperated expression. “Have you forgotten what tomorrow is?”

It was a Saturday. In July. Nothing special. Not his birthday, not her birthday, not Bryan’s birthday. He shrugged, at a complete loss.

“The tryout,” she said gently. “The San Diego Friars’ open tryout camp. The one the scout said you should go to after you got your fastball up to speed.”

Eli’s gut clenched as if someone had just rammed a fist into it. “Turn the car around.”

“No.”

“I’m not going to any fucking tryout, Cait.”

She set her chin the way he and Bryan had seen a million times when they tried to boss her around. “Why not?”

“Because I’m a hardware store owner, not a ballplayer.”

“That’s crap. People are all sorts of things before they become ballplayers. How do you know if you don’t give it a shot?”

“I can’t, Caitlyn. You know why I can’t.” He couldn’t believe she was making him spell it out.

“Because of your father? Well, guess what, he’s onboard with this plan. He knows exactly where you are right now. He even paid for the hotel room.”

“
What
?”

That was impossible. His father needed him at home and at the store. Anderson’s Hardware provided the entire family with its income, and Chip simply couldn’t handle it anymore. Eli no longer had time for childish baseball fantasies. Okay, so he’d kept working out. Kept honing his pitches. Added leg strength to help his fastball. But that was just for fun, because he loved the fucking game. His mind had let go of the dream of a baseball career, even though maybe his heart hadn’t.

Because right now it was beating so hard it might flop out of his chest.

“Yes, Eli. Your dad wants you to do this. So don’t use him as an excuse.”

“
Excuse
?” How could a stroke be considered an excuse? “I don’t have any of my gear.”

“It’s in the trunk. Ty and Bryan packed it up.”

Feeling a wave of dizziness, Eli gripped the handle on the passenger door. Ty and Bryan were in on this? Eli had always trailed after Bryan and Ty, the big star athletes, trying like hell to keep up. Ty was an Olympic triathlete, and Bryan was right up there with him—or had been before the accident that put him in a wheelchair part-time. Bryan had just moved back to Sapphire Falls from Denver about a year ago and had bought the Come Again, the only bar in town. He’d had the place remodeled so that he could manage it and bartend with his crutches, sitting on a stool or even in the wheelchair when necessary. Eli was still getting used to seeing one of his friends in a wheelchair. First his dad, and now Bryan. Sometimes life just wasn’t fucking fair.

“Actually, Bryan was going to take you, but now he’s got the bar and, of course, with the chair—” Caitlyn’s voice caught slightly. “It’s harder for him to just up and go now like he used to. And Ty’s got his training and Hailey. So I offered. And if you don’t go along with it, they’re going to murder me. So I would really appreciate it if you would just…you know…cooperate.”

“Like a good little kidnapping victim?”

“Exactly,” she answered cheerfully. “In other words, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The hard way, I get Bryan on the phone. Then we go back and tell your father that you chickened out.”

Caitlyn was boxing him into a corner, but he just couldn’t be mad about it. She was too adorable. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why Ty and Bryan had sent her. “What’s the easy way?”

“Here.” She handed him her iPhone and pressed a play button. A video popped up. Bryan in his workout gear in the new gym—i.e, Ty’s dining room outfitted with a new weight machine, recumbent bike and treadmill—Ty standing behind him.

Bryan addressed the camera first. “Dude, sorry for the ambush. But we thought it was the best way. Didn’t want to give you a chance to pussy out. Sorry Caitlyn, if you’re listening.”

Caitlyn rolled her eyes.

Ty stepped in. “Eli, man, we never said this before because…well, we’re guys. But out of the three of us, when it comes to athletics, you’re the best. You have the most natural skill, and you’re the best competitor. We took our shots. Now it’s your turn.”

Bryan leaned in to the camera. “You had to quit because of your dad, and that’s cool. We both admire the hell out of you for that. But he’s better now; at least he’s better enough so you can make it work out. So we all got together and came up with this plan. Don’t blame Caitlyn. She’s just the messenger.”

“She’s more like a chauffeur than a messenger,” Ty pointed out.

“Actually, she’s more like a babysitter. She has our authorization to do whatever it takes to get you to that tryout. So watch your back, because you know how she is.”

“Good luck, man.”

“Knock ’em dead,” added Bryan.

“Win or lose, might as well go down swinging, right?”

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

“’Til the fat lady sings.”

Bryan scowled. “And he doesn’t mean you, Caitlyn, so don’t get all touchy about your butt.”

Caitlyn reached over to snatch back the phone. “They go on like that for a while, but you get the gist.” She wet her lips, looking a bit nervous. “Any questions?”

Eli was quiet for a long moment while his stomach churned like a freaking spin cycle.

Ever since he’d first picked up a baseball, it had felt like
his thing
. The right thing. The only thing. His father had taught him to play, even coached his Little League team. Like everyone else in Sapphire Falls, they’d rooted for the Kansas City Royals. He and his dad had even gone down to spring training a couple of times. He’d won a baseball scholarship to the University of Nebraska. He and his father had spent hours discussing his chances of playing for the Royals, and what he would do if—God forbid—the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him. Giving up the dream of pro baseball had been like cutting out a piece of his soul.

But he’d done it. And now he was supposed to just turn a one-eighty and pretend he still had a chance? Compete against guys who’d been training for this? Who had actually
planned
to be there tomorrow?

“Eli.” Caitlyn’s soft voice interrupted his panicky thoughts. “You can do this. And I’m not just saying that to make you relax. I’ve seen you working out. I’ve seen you throw. You. Can do this.”

“I don’t know, Caitlyn.” With anyone else, he might have trouble expressing his self-doubt. But Caitlyn was different. “I don’t want to go out there and make an ass out of myself.”

“You won’t. They’re going to be blown away. Anyway, so what if you do? It’s in Kansas City. No one will know except me. And if you’re worried about making an ass out of yourself in front of
me
, you might want to rethink that booger wall next to your bed.”

“I was
nine
. Are you ever going to let that go?”

“How can I? It’s burned into my brain. It would take surgery to get it out. Which seriously might be an option. It was
so disgusting
.” By now they were both laughing, and Eli realized all his anxiety had drained away. He shot her an appreciative look.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“What, re-traumatize myself to distract you? Yes.” Her smug smile was completely adorable. “Did it work? Are you ready to play ball now?”

He sat up straighter, fingers flexing on his thighs, longing for a ball to handle. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to get on a mound, any mound, and show someone, anyone, what he could do. “Tell you what, Candy-girl. If I actually do this, if I actually pitch well enough to get a contract, we’ll celebrate big.”

“What do you mean?” She shot him a sidelong, nervous glance.

He winked back. “I’ll buy you a car on Craigslist. This hunk of rust is a blight on the automotive world.”

Sassy as ever, she stuck out her tongue as if she were six again. But damn…it had a whole different effect this time.

Little sister
, he reminded himself.
Immune
. Besides, he had to focus on this amazing opportunity that had just sailed in from left field. Tryout camp. A chance to pitch before members of the Friars’ scouting staff. And at nearly twenty-six years old, it was very likely his
last
chance.

* * *

Oh, if only Caitlyn could reach across the seats and deck Mr. Celebrate-Big-by-Buying-a-Car-on-Craigslist. But Eli wouldn’t understand. And a bloody nose wouldn’t help him at the tryout, and Ty and Bryan would
not
be happy with her. How would she explain it? “Eli keeps treating me like his little sister when I’ve been crushing on him hard for the past…oh…year and no one has even noticed? Especially him?”

No. Those words were locked in the vault. Forever. Or at least until Eli showed some awareness of the fact that she was a
female
of date-able age, single and generally considered attractive. Why was it so hard to drill that into his oblivious skull?

And how was she going to handle a night in a hotel room with him? Even now, on the road in her ugly mustard-mobile, her glance kept straying to his big hands as they rested on his thighs. If she had to pick one word to describe Eli, it would be “strong.” Not just because of his powerful physique, which definitely qualified. Or because of his face, with its square jaw and clean, blue-eyed all-American look.

It was more because of the way he’d shouldered the entire burden of the family business without ever complaining. How he’d been there for his mother when she fell apart after Chip’s stroke. How he’d gotten his sister Lindsay to school when his mother couldn’t even get out of bed. Whatever progress Chip had made was at least partly thanks to Eli. The fact that Lindsay was one year from graduating high school at the top of her class—Eli’s doing. The entire family would have collapsed without him.

Strong—that was Eli. Almost as strong as the crush that had been tormenting her for the past year. It was all Bryan’s fault, really. If she hadn’t followed him back to Sapphire Falls after his accident, she would now be using her culinary arts degree at some five-star restaurant instead of at Scott’s Sweets Shop. And she would still be in blissful ignorance of the magnificent, irresistible, sexy glory of Eli Anderson.

If Bryan had any idea how hard it was for her to be around Eli without throwing herself into his arms, he would never have sent her on this trip.

She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and glared at the highway. Hey, she was a big girl. She could handle herself around a hot guy, even one as devastating as Eli. She could do this.

“What’d that steering wheel ever do to you?” Eli’s teasing drawl interrupted her. “I mean, aside from being attached to the biggest piece of junkyard scrap metal in Nebraska.”

She seized on the chance to get back to familiar ground—teasing. “Are you going to mock my car the entire trip to Kansas?”

“Got any other ways to pass the time? I’m open.”

“We could try conversing. That’s a thing people do.”

“Fine. Conversation it is. Ladies first.”

She swallowed hard. Eli sure knew how to call a bluff. But this opportunity was too juicy to resist. “Why don’t you have a girlfriend, Eli?”

He swung his head toward her, an astonished look on his face.

Really? Did he think she hadn’t noticed his chronically single state? She’d been living in dread of him finally starting a real relationship.

“I have…women. I mean, one woman at a time.”

“I know. For about a month. Then they’re gone. And they’re always about ten years older than you.”

“Keeping track, are you?”

Yes.
Lord, yes. Like “one step away from stalker” yes. But he didn’t need to know that. “Lindsay’s worried about you,” she answered primly. “She asked me to find out what’s wrong with you.”

“There is nothing wrong with appreciating a slightly older woman who knows what she’s doing.”

Caitlyn seriously reconsidered her first idea of decking him right in the nose. But then Eli went on, in a more thoughtful tone.

“I guess…you know, I was only nineteen when my father had his stroke. The girls my age were still partying every night, same as I used to. I guess I just clicked more with women who’d been through some stuff. Seemed like I had more in common with them.”