Free Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/ Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART THREE by Erin Nicholas Page B

than any he’d breathed before. The grass seemed greener. The sky bluer. The leather of the gloves seemed softer, the stitches on the balls tighter and the lights on the scoreboard brighter.
    There was a feel here that he soaked in every time, like the warm tingly sports cream the trainer rubbed into his shoulder muscles after each game.
    Even the sports cream felt better here.
    It wasn’t his first game with the Friars. He’d been in California for three months now. It wasn’t his best performance. He’d pitched four innings a month ago, giving up only two walks and two hits. It wasn’t even the biggest game of the season. They were playing the Atlanta Braves, certainly not a big rival.
    But it was his favorite game of the season.
    Caitlyn was in her usual spot with the other team wives and girlfriends, just to the first base side of home plate. She sat next to Sadie Merritt, Caleb Hart’s fiancée. They’d clicked right away, which worked out well since Caleb Hart had become Eli’s mentor on the team. Between Caleb and Mike Solo, Eli had all the friends he needed in San Diego—or would, as soon as the Friars called up Trevor Stark. According to the rumor mill, any minute now the bad-boy slugger would be taking San Diego by storm. Eli couldn’t wait. With Trevor in the lineup, there’d be no stopping the Friars.
    Best of all, he had Caitlyn. She wore a snug white t-shirt advertising Scoop, the shop she was still working with back in Kilby. She looked gorgeous, as always, her smile bright, her eyes on him the entire time, her little hand signals—that they’d come up with one night while tangled in the bed sheets, talking and laughing—making him smile. Like when she put her sunglasses on top of her head. That meant he needed to stride out farther. When she tucked her hair behind her left ear it meant that he needed to throw harder. When she put her sunglasses back on her nose it meant he could relax, that he was doing well. And when she applied lip gloss that meant he was going to get a blow job later that night.
    She had very soft lips from all of the lip gloss she used.
    He’d bought her a ten-pack the other day at the store and left it on the pillow next to her when he’d gotten up to come to the park early today.
    But none of that was unusual. It made his games, hell, his life , better having her there and being connected to her during the games that way. But it wasn’t what had his level of excitement turned up to max.
    What really had his nerves jumping today, in a good way, was that the box also held his father and sister, Caitlyn’s mother, father and brother, along with a rowdy bunch from Sapphire Falls. Ty and Hailey were there, Peyton and her half-sister, Hope, with her husband TJ—who happened to be Ty’s older brother as well—had come along; Peyton and Hope’s dad, Dan, Levi and his wife Kate, and Levi’s brother Joe and his wife Phoebe.
    And they were making their presence known. They had signs, special chants just for him, and were, in general, being loud and crazy.
    Eli couldn’t get enough of it.
    This felt good. Right. Like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
    And while he always loved being on the mound, he was eager to get through the game and take them all out for a celebratory dinner.
    He ran his fingers over the ball in his glove. He glanced at Caitlyn and saw her cross her arms.
    That meant he needed to focus on what he was doing.
    He grinned. Yeah. He supposed he needed to close out the game, with a win, before they could have that celebratory dinner.
    He tugged on his earlobe. That meant, “yeah, yeah.”
    Then he looked to Mike Solo behind home plate.
    And got the sign for a fastball.
    Eli shook that off.
    He could practically see Mike’s eyebrow rise behind his mask. Eli almost never shook him off. Even though Mike was barely past the rookie stage himself, he already had league-wide reputation for brilliant pitch selection.
    But Mike did give him a new sign.
    The