“Nope.”
“Carter …” She attempts to squirm out of my arms.
“Avery,” I say with mock seriousness, to which she stills, eyebrows shooting up in question, “my hands are on your ass. They’ll leave a message if it’s important.”
She smiles and rolls her eyes, but she likes it as much as I do. “You should answer it. It’s late, so I’m sure they’re calling for a reason.”
I don’t want to let her go, but she’s adamant, so I officially trash my playing-it-cool plan. “Am I staying here tonight?”
Her eyes don’t meet mine as she says, “I hope so.”
“Remember where we left off.” The promise of a night in her bed is enough for me to release her temporarily but not before I give her another quick kiss, then I set her back on her feet.
Pulling the phone out of my pocket, I see Dundee’s number. This better be good. “Yes, Coach?” I ask, watching as Avery walks into her kitchen, grabs a bottle of water, and props her hip against the counter. I follow her, accepting the bottle she offers me as Dundee continues his lecture from the plane. I had one rough inning yesterday, and he’s been on my ass nonstop. I’ve reassured him it was a fluke—I messed up, made a few wrong calls, and paid the price by giving up two RBIs and then a home run.
“Lowe, it’s important that we stay on track. All season. You’ll be there tomorrow for warm-ups, right?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it. Although, even seeing your decision to change from a splitter to a four-seamer for Hastings was unbelievable. We went over the lineup, and I know you knew the best call.” Dundee’s frustration matches my own, but mine is a little less on the surface than his. I know I made the wrong call which was shaking off the first sign for a splitter from Lynch. Even he hesitated, giving me the splitter signal again before he moved to the next sign for a four-seam fastball.
“Yes. I get it. I shouldn’t have shaken off the calls.”
“Carter, a few bad calls can be the beginning of many.”
Damn. One off inning and he’s ready to yank me from the roster. Or, at least that’s how it feels. “Then I’ll be sure to not make any more bad calls. Like I told you during your trip to the mound in the fourth, I just needed to regroup, and I appreciated the blow. Then I proved it after you were back to the dugout, right?”
I hear a sputtering cough and look over to see Avery wiping her mouth, slapping her hand against her chest as she gives me a strange look. “Are you okay?” I ask her, and she quickly nods.
I figure the only thing I can do is show Coach I’m still in the game. I can have Avery and still be a good ball player. I can. Only right now, all I want to focus on is her after being deprived for a week. Plus, I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on as she coughs again.
Needing to wrap up, I tell Dundee, “I’ll be there early so we can review everything I did wrong once more.”
“See you then, smart-ass.” Coach finally hangs up and my full attention is on Avery and those reddened cheeks.
“Are you sure you’re okay over there?”
“Yeah.” She takes a sip of water, clearing her throat.
“What has you all choked up then?”
Her cheeks blush a bit more as she asks, “What exactly did you mean by your coach gave you a blow? Because you don’t even want to know how I interpreted that.”
“Well, well, well. Look which one of us has their mind in the gutter.”
“Who wouldn’t?” She throws her hands in the air. “You just said he gave you a blow, any normal person would draw the same conclusion.”
“No, only a person who keeps her nose in those sexy books would interpret it like that.” I enjoy seeing her frazzled at the thought of her mind in the gutter, because I know mine has been there more times than not when I think of her. “But in my world, blow means breather. He saw my head wasn’t on straight, so he came out to the mound to settle me down. Gave me a few seconds to breathe.”
She shakes her head. “Why don’t y’all just say ‘breather’ when you mean ‘breather’？” I shrug and throw her a face. “Still doesn’t make sense to me, but okay. Glad your coach gave you a good blow and got you through the inning.” She’s unable to contain her laughter, and though it’s at my expense, it’s music to my ears.
Walking over to her, she smiles up at me when I stop in front of her. Placing a hand on the counter on either side of her, I kiss her smiling lips. “I missed you.”