Starting From Scratch (18 page)

pressed together, each of us raggedly trying to catch our

breath.

“My God,” I managed.

“I’ll say.”

“My God,” I said again and she chuckled. I could feel

her playing with the ends of my hair, tickling the side of

my neck, and goose bumps of pleasure broke out across my

skin. She rubbed her thumb across my bottom lip and it

took every ounce of strength I had left in my body to keep

from sucking it into my mouth. I was certain that, if she

pushed just a little, I would willingly and joyously have sex

with her right there in the parking lot on the hood of my

own car, and that knowledge both excited and mortified

me. Cliché as it was, I’d never felt such sexual compatibility

with somebody, ever. Elena and I were going to be a

bonfire in bed. I knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Which was exactly why we needed to slow things

down. I was afraid such heat would incinerate us both.

My throat suddenly dry, I swallowed hard and tried to

find my voice. And some logic when I spoke.

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“Early game,” I croaked, the reminder the best I could

come up with.

“Right.” She nodded, which took her forehead from

mine. Who knew a forehead could suddenly feel cold and

neglected?

“Will you be there?”

Her grimace was full of disappointment, which made

me feel the tiniest bit better. “I’ve got to work.”

“Crap.”

at made her grin, her teeth gleaming whitely in the

artificial light. “If I try, I might be able to catch the end.”

“Try hard,” I ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.”

I don’t know exactly why her answer turned me on so,

but when she said it, I felt a rush of heat between my legs.

I had no idea I was such a hussy. “And if you can’t make

it…” I trailed off, trying to think of something witty to say,

but her hips were still tight against mine and I was having

trouble formulating coherent thoughts.

“Don’t worry. I know where you live.”

Before I could process anything more, she kissed me

again, quickly, then backed away. I’m pretty sure I pouted

at the loss of her.

I waved feebly as she backed her car out and pulled

away, and I brought my fingers to my lips as her taillights

faded into the darkness of the night.

“My God,” I whispered into the air.

It was another five minutes before I could feel my legs

again and was brave enough to step away from my car

without worrying I’d collapse into a boneless heap on the

asphalt.

149

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I saw them arrive with Max, but I would have known

immediately who they were, even if they’d come without

him.

Elena didn’t look much like her father at all. He was a

big bulldozer of a man with broad shoulders and very little

left of what might have once been sandy blond hair. I

could see flashes of her in his smile, though, and her eyes

were the same rich brown as his. Her mother, however, was

a different story. I could almost hear Grandma’s voice in

my head, “She looks like she fell off her mother’s face.”

Elena was a carbon copy of the woman, who was strikingly

beautiful even in what must have been her late sixties. e

shape of her face, the way her eyes were set at a slight tilt,

her tall, lean frame; it was all Elena. I felt like I was getting

a quick flash of the future any time I looked in her

direction. Elena, thirty years from now.

ey paid infinitely more attention to Max’s playing

than Cindy ever had in all the times I’d seen her there.

ey smiled and cheered and every time Max looked in

their direction, Mrs. Walker gave a sweet wave of

encouragement. Mr. Walker shot his grandson a thumbs-

up more than once.

I tried not to stare into the bleachers at them, but it

was hard. Maddie had things under control as far as the

Georgia Beers

team went and I was trying to make myself as unobtrusive

as possible, only helping when she asked me specifically,

not wanting to step on her toes. I coached third base and

then first as the game went on, pleased to see that most of

our kids finally understood in which direction to run after

they hit the ball. Each time Max was up, he glanced into

the modest crowd and my eyes would follow his, my

stomach flip-flopping at the jolt of familiarity when his

grandmother smiled at him.

Max made contact with the ball every time he was at

bat, which I didn’t think was a coincidence.

“See my nana and papa up there?” he asked me

brightly as he stopped on first base during the last inning.

“ey’re watching me play.”

He was so adorable as he stated the obvious to me, I

wanted to hug him tightly. I settled for ruffling his hair

before I stepped back for the next batter and ordered Max

to pay attention. When I glanced over at the Walkers, my

heart did a weird little skip as I noticed Elena scootching

in to settle between her parents. She caught me looking

and gave me a little wave, and I couldn’t keep the stupid

grin off my face as my cheeks warmed.

Across the field at third base, Maddie arched a brow at

me, her expression very clearly telling me she had

witnessed that little exchange and was expecting details.

I tried to put my focus back on the game, but my

mind drifted a bit. I’ve always loved the smell of freshly cut

grass and I inhaled, taking the scent deeply into my lungs.

It was the epitome of summer to me; it’s what my

childhood outdoors smelled like. Inside it was chocolate

chip cookies; outside it was freshly cut grass. I was

reminded of how strong the sense of smell is to me as I

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stood there and watched the end of the game, reveling in

the fragrance of the air, knowing I only had a few short

months to enjoy it before the autumn chased it away with

the completely different, but no less wonderful, scent of

crushed leaves.

e game ended, but I was still caught up in the

pleasantly comfortable feelings that had distracted me.

Feelings of home, of summer, of knowing the gorgeous

woman in the bleachers had been kissing me last night.

Gabriel came up to me as the teams were cleaning up their

gear.

“Hey, Coach King, what was the score?” he asked,

sweat glistening across his forehead.

I checked my clipboard. “Seven to five. Us.”

“Hey, you guys! We won,” he touted as he ran back to

his teammates and slapped high fives with the few who

were actually listening.

I felt Maddie’s scolding look before I actually saw it.

“We don’t keep score, remember?” she said, shaking a

finger at me.

“Oh, we do, too,” I argued back. “We just don’t talk

about it.”

“I’m surprised you even know what the score was.”

I looked at her, puzzled, and waited for her to

elaborate, which she did.

“Who’s the hottie in the bleachers?”

“What hottie?” I knew in a nanosecond she wasn’t

buying my feigned innocence, but she snorted, just to make

it ultra clear.

“e one you couldn’t keep your eyes off of. e one

with the cute little wave.”

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Georgia Beers

“She’s…” I wanted to say “nobody,” but I couldn’t do

it, mostly because it was so far from the truth. “She’s Max’s

mom.”

Maddie squinted towards the bleachers where Elena

and her parents were gathering their things. “Wait. I

thought that other one was his mom. e one who looked

at you like you were a piece of meat and she was a starving

wolf.”

“Right. She is. is is Max’s
other
mom.” I watched in

excited anticipation as Elena held a finger up to her

parents and gave them the universal sign for, “I’ll be right

back,” then headed in our direction.

Maddie gaped at me. “Max has two moms? How did I

not know this?”

My smartass answer was stalled in my throat as Elena

reached us.

“Hi,” she said to me.

“Hey, you,” I replied, trying to keep my eyes from

roaming over her body. She wore dark dress slacks and a

cream silk shirt with short sleeves, obviously having come

right from work. A wink of a lacey camisole teased me

from the V at her neckline and I seriously entertained the

thought of throwing her to the grass and unbuttoning her

blouse with my teeth.

“My dad says it was a good game,” she commented,

interrupting my filthy thoughts. ank God.

“It was. Max played great,” I said. Maddie cleared her

throat in a not-so-discreet fashion. “Oh. is is Maddie.

Maddie, this is Max’s mother, Elena Walker.”

“Oh,
Coach
Maddie. Max has talked about you. It’s

very nice to meet you,” Elena said as they shook hands.

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Starting From Scratch

“Same here. Your son has quite a lot of potential. Is he

enjoying the game?”

“He loves it,” Elena said, her smile growing as it

always did when she spoke of her son. “He’s having a great

time. Tee-ball is all he talks about.”

“Well, if he keeps it up, I think he’ll make a terrific

ball player as he grows.”

Trying to busy my hands so I didn’t look like an idiot,

I smiled politely as they talked about baseball and how

they each had brothers who played in college. When the

conversation stalled, as it almost always does with new

acquaintances, Elena said her goodbyes, thanking Maddie,

then turning to me.

“I’ll catch up with you later?” It was a question, not a

statement, and I realized she wasn’t sure where the

boundaries lay for me there on the field.

“Definitely,” I said, putting as much conviction into

the one word as I could.

“‘I’ll catch up with you later?’” Maddie asked as soon

as Elena was out of earshot. “What the hell does that

mean?”

Hesitation borne from fear of loss swamped me then

and I stumbled over an explanation. If I spoke it aloud,

would I jinx any chance I had of creating something good

with Elena? Was she too good to be true? I was being

ridiculous and I knew it.
We’ve only had one date, for Christ’s

sake,
I told myself.

“It means…that she lives in my development.” I hoped

to leave it at that. No such luck; Maddie could read me like

a book.

“Okay. And?”

“And…we met for drinks last night.”

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Maddie blinked at me, torn, I was sure, between

excited happiness for me and annoyed hurt that I hadn’t

told her ahead of time. I could almost see her calm herself

down, force herself to speak calmly and not bite my head

off.

“And…did you have a good time?”

e smile wouldn’t stay tucked away. It blossomed on

my face, making me feel a little silly. “Yeah. We had a

fantastic time.”

“You sleep with her?”

“What? No!” My indignation was real, though I knew

the question was to be expected.

“Oh, like you’ve never gone to bed with somebody on

the first date.”

I pursed my lips, unable to think of a comeback.

“Well, I didn’t with Elena.”

“Yet,” she supplied.

“Yet,” I agreed with a wink.

“She’s gorgeous.”

I nodded as both of us watched her walk toward the

parking lot with her parents and Max in tow. After several

seconds, Maddie spoke again.

“Did you want to say something about the beauty of

that ass, or should I?”

1

Saturday mornings had become a little rough on me.

Spending all that time with a dozen over-excited kids,

keeping track of the game, answering parents’ questions,

and trying to stay professional and organized was energy-

sucking. Add to that my chat with Elena, my attempts to

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dodge Maddie’s questions, and the anticipation of maybe

seeing Elena again that night, and my brain was totally

fried.

I read an article once on introverts and it gave me

certain facts that I already knew, but had never seen

written as public, scientific knowledge. It said that

extroverts
gain
energy from being around a lot of people,

that they need it. It also said that introverts have energy

drained
from them being around a lot of people and that

afterwards, they need to be alone to recharge. I never really

understood my need to be away from others, my intense

enjoyment of being alone with a good book or a DVD or

on a long walk until I read that article. I felt vindicated,

strange as it may sound.

I had a friend in college who was the poster child of

gregariousness. She was the life of every party, charming,

people loved her and wanted to be around her because she

was a hoot. She stated to me one day that she was going to

make it the mission of her junior year to “pull Avery out of

her shell.” I suppose I should have been flattered by the

attention, but instead it pissed me off. It never once