Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I smirked. “Damn straight, buddy.” I hugged him again, and he ruffled my hair with his hand in a victory cry.
“All right, Team Blue, you know the deal. Get to work,” Laurelin said, clapping her hands together from the stands. “Everyone else can head over to the barn house. I have a few snacks I tossed in there before brunch is ready.”
My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard as Nathan walked over to me. He held a hand out my way. “Good game, Coach.”
I shook his hand. “Great game. Too bad we smoked you.”
His dimples deepened as he shook his head. “You always were a sore winner.”
“What can I say? I get cocky with this game.”
“Cockiness looks good on you. You can beat me every week at this game if it keeps making you smile like that.”
An odd swirl of butterflies fell into my stomach from that comment.
I dropped my hold on his hand and rubbed my hands over my ponytail, trying to shake off the flurry of electricity that just raced through my system. I shoved him lightly, trying not to show him that he had some odd effect on me simply from his touch and his words. “I like my eggs scrambled, Nathaniel.”
He smirked bigger. “It would be an honor to scramble your eggs, Avery.” He slightly bowed and winked before he headed off to get the meal going.
Oh crap.
I think I just orgasmed on the field.
Screw Nathan Pierce and those damn winks of his.
I didn’t think they still had that much power over me, yet there I was, feeling slightly weak in the knees.
“Can I sit with you?” Laurelin asked as I sat at one of the long tables in the barn, waiting to be served by the other team.
“Of course, please.”
She sat across from me and quickly made herself comfortable. She grabbed a slice of the sourdough bread in front of us and started spreading butter onto it. “What a fun game it was today, huh?”
“Gosh, yeah. I forgot how much fun it was to play an actual game as opposed to just coaching it.”
“I get the feeling Nathan felt the same way out there,” she said, gesturing to her smiling son, who was bringing in a tray of hash browns to put on the bar with the food warmers. “You know he’s been back in town for over a year, but this is the first time he actually took part in the Sunday Funday baseball game.”
My eyebrows arched in disbelief. “What? He never played before?”
“Nope. He always said he was too busy doing stuff around the property. That was until today.”
“He made it seem like he looked forward to these games when he told me. I wonder why that is or what changed.”
Laurelin smiled. “Yeah, I wonder.” Her eyes moved back to her son, and her smile slowly faded. “I do worry about him, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because he’s like you. Resiliently strong. That worries me as a mother. I don’t want him to feel as if he needs to always be strong. I don’t want him to feel as if he needs to be so serious and driven every second of every day.”
“My father says the same thing about me.”
“The curse of being the eldest child,” she semi-joked. “I was the middle child in my family. I never realized how much my sister Stacey dealt with until I grew up. She took on a lot more responsibility than she should’ve had to. Nathan did the same thing, especially after his father passed away. After that happened, I know Nathan felt a responsibility to the family. He struggled a lot to have a life outside of looking after us and the game. When he lost the game with his injury, after losing his good friend, too, he focused so much on the farm life. Nathan puts so much weight on his shoulders to help everyone out. I don’t know the last time I’ve seen him have as much fun as he did today. It’s good to see him like this,” Laurelin explained.
“Like what?”
“Happy and free.” She smiled at me. “Why do I feel as if you might have had something to do with that, Ms. Kingsley?”
I shook my head. “No. I honestly think it’s just that he got back into coaching. I think helping the team is helping him. I felt it on the field today, too. I had nothing to do with his happiness. He just rediscovered something he loved again.”
“Yes,” she agreed in an all-knowing way. “He did.” She smiled a smile that matched her son’s and patted my hand. “Well, I should get to helping around here. But if there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you, Laurelin.”
“Thank you, Avery,” she said before she walked away. I didn’t know exactly what she was thanking me for, but the words stayed dancing in my head for a while.