Free Catch by Michelle Congdon

amused me further. “I’m cursed. Out of all the athletes in the Majors, I get stuck with the worst.”
    I smiled again, knowing he’d given in. That was a lot easier than the last time I’d asked him for a favor. “Now, now, Colin isn’t so bad. Not the brightest, but hey, he’s a good guy. Helluva batter.”
    “ I wasn’t talking about Colin! ”
    “Thanks again, Phil. I owe you one,” I added before the guy had a heart attack.
    “You owe me plenty!”
    “Hey, I give you plenty!” I teased.
    “And I’d gladly trade back all the money I’ve ever received from you to switch clients.”
    “You don’t mean that. I think you’d miss me. No, you’d definitely miss me.”
    I heard him mutter something inaudible before saying, “Is that it? You just need this girl’s number?”
    “Yep, I’ll handle the rest.”
    “Do I need to prepare myself for harassment claims against you?”
    “Have you ever?”
    “Keep it that way.”
    “Phil, you don’t understand—”
    He hung up. I pulled the cell away from my ear and looked at it with a smirk. Oh, did I mention Phil was never one for goodbyes, either?
    With the cell still in my hand, I ripped off my shirt, throwing it over the sofa chair, and proceeded to make my way down the hall toward the kitchen when I bumped into my housekeeper, Rose.
    “Mr. Fox.”
    “Rosie!” I replied with a huge grin on my face.
    “Did something good happen this morning at training?” she asked, throwing me a suspicious smile while she continued wiping the bench top.
    “Nothing out of the ordinary, but something will soon.” I hoped, anyway. Leaning against the counter, I lifted a glass vase so Rose could clean underneath it. “Rose, can I asked you something?”
    “Anything, Mr. Fox.”
    “Did you always know your husband was the one ?”
    She immediately stopped what she was doing and turned to face me. After a moment of studying me closely, she said, “Not at first. But he seemed to think so and didn’t let me forget it.”
    I found myself smiling as I thought about Evangeline and the way she looked so angelic that morning while she was sleeping. “You think the girl from last night could be the one?” Rose’s voice filtered through and snapped me back into the moment.
    I looked at her, not knowing how to answer her question, when thankfully my cell rang. I looked down at the screen. Perfect timing, Phil. “Sorry, Rosie. I need to get this. Thanks for the chat.” I waved her goodbye and made my way out of the kitchen, but not before I caught the giant grin on her face.
    I jotted down Evangeline’s number using the nearest pen and paper I could find and thanked Phil. I was rewarded with another abrupt hang-up and a stern warning to make sure I didn’t ruin his career.
    I dialed the number as soon as I ended the call with Phil. To say I was excited would be a slight understatement. I couldn’t help it, but if any of the boys saw me right then, I would never hear the end of it and would’ve been the root of all jokes for the rest of the season.
    My premature excitement quickly died down when the call rang out, and I was just about to end it when I heard the sweet voice on the other end.
    “Hello?”
    One word was all it took before I was grinning like a teenage boy who’d just received a compliment from his favorite female teacher crush. Cool it, Fox; don’t fuck this up.
    “So, I rush home rather excitedly, ready to start my exploration, and I find that my apartment is empty.”
    “How’d you get my number?” she replied warily.
    “I have my ways,” I answered dismissively, even though I knew this wasn’t going to sit well with her. “So, couldn’t handle the wait?”
    “Ryan, I mean it. How did you get my number?” Bingo.
    “Calm down. I used your phone to call mine when you were still asleep this morning,” I lied. She definitely didn’t need to know how far I went to get it, and Phil’s warning was still fresh in my mind. “I had a sneaky