Chapter 3 #2
“I’ll get changed,” I said. “I’m just watching today, anyway. So I can’t technically be ‘late’ for practice.”
Four hours later, practice was over, Iris had been dropped off, and I was meeting the new management.
Apparently, everyone was meeting them for the first time.
The old management had been let go. Every single one of them except for Ellis.
There was only one last person that we were waiting on, and that was the new CEO himself, Beaufort Vanderbilt.
I could see him up in the bleachers talking to Nettie’s man, Boone. He had his back to me, but there was something eerily familiar about him that had my heart rate picking up.
How would I…
Then he turned around and started heading down the stairs of the stadium toward us.
He had his head down, his hands tucked into his suit pants.
The blue striped tie he was wearing was blowing in the wind, and his hair was altogether different than it had been the first time I’d met him.
He also no longer had an untamed beard.
As he stopped at the edge of the wall that separated the stadium from the field, my heart leaped into my throat.
His eyes, such a beautiful amber, focused on mine.
And we both froze.
I’d stared into those eyes up close just twelve hours ago as he’d…
I cursed myself and tried to not think about our encounter.
I saw the same thought cross in his mind.
He opened his mouth, then closed it, his eyes frozen on me.
“Do you know him?” Nettie asked.
I forced myself to look away from Beau—Beaufort—and glanced at Nettie. “Uh, we met at The Mercantile yesterday. Kind of.”
“He’s great,” she said. “I’m excited to work for him. At least I know I won’t have a shitty boss that won’t work with me and my kid.”
My mouth went dry as he came down the concrete steps onto the pitch.
He looked at everyone before he said, “I know that it’s a surprise to find me as your new boss.”
There were murmurs that agreed with him.
“But we’re going to turn this team around,” he said.
“We have a veteran.” He looked around the team, searching for me, but not knowing who I was.
“That’s willing to come on to help focus us for our last year.
And we have Nettie.” He jerked his head toward my neighbor.
“That’s going to see to it that we lock our offense down this year.
” He looked at us all. “I’m sorry for the crazy change in… ”
He said more, but I got a bit lost in the sound of his voice. The timbre was deep. Deeper than many that I’d heard before. And he had a mesmerizing pair of lips that I knew tasted heavenly.
His hands, too, were sexy.
And, if I were being honest, so was his suit. It fit him like a glove.
There was no way that he got this one off a rack…
“Any questions?”
Shit.
How much had I missed?
Iris, who’d been surprisingly quiet until now, tugged on my shirt. Merrill had dropped her off after she’d gotten Iris fed and clothed. She’d been so good, considering the circumstances.
I looked down to see her signing.
Can I go over there?
She gestured toward the ice baths that were set out on the concrete near the locker rooms.
“Just don’t get in,” I ordered.
She loved ice baths.
I had no clue why.
But I chose not to overanalyze it.
If she wanted to get cold, who was I to tell her no?
Only, this time I didn’t want her getting in trouble without me there.
I should’ve probably left her with Merrill all day, but I wanted the people who would be taking care of her to meet her.
Iris was different.
According to her pediatricians, she had high-functioning autism.
She could speak, but she didn’t like to.
She signed anytime she wanted to get some information to you.
And at three, she’d mastered every bit of sign language there was to know.
I was somewhat fluent myself, after forcing myself to learn the language when I noticed that she’d sign to me instead of speaking around the age of fifteen months.
But still, I wasn’t nearly as advanced as Iris was.
She tapped my thigh and started running, her little legs carrying her across the field faster than most grown adults.
She was skilled at running as well.
She’d been a little escape artist since she’d started to walk and hadn’t slowed down since.
My theory was, she ran away because everyone and everything overwhelmed her.
I was just lucky I was in as good of shape as I was.
“Baker?”
Used to answering to my last name, I looked away from Iris’ feet and to my about-to-be teammate.
“Yeah?”
“What did you think?” Nettie asked.
I ignored the man who’d finished talking and was now staring at me as if he’d asked me a question. One that Nettie had to repeat.
I saw his eyes flare as he finally connected the dots.
I was the veteran that he’d paid an arm and a leg to get on the team. The one that he’d been corresponding with over the last week negotiating a contract along with Ellis.
“I think we have some mean girls on the team,” I admitted.
Beau crossed his arms. “That’s an understatement.”
It was.
The team had some work to do, and a lot of that work had to do with the mean girl mentality that seemed to infect half the team.
“Are you keeping them all?” I asked bluntly.
It was the first time that Beau acknowledged me specifically since he’d entered the field. “They’re all contracted until the end of the season. Yes.” He paused. “That okay?”
He was asking me?
“I think having Nettie here.” I gestured to her. “Will be a good thing.”
Nettie snorted. “It was you they were in awe of.”
“Hmm,” I snorted too. “I doubt that.”
Nettie patted me on the back. “On that note, I want to go lie down. This baby is going to zap all my energy.”
I watched her go, and all of a sudden, I was left alone with Beau.
“I didn’t know that you were…” He trailed off.
“I thought you were a high school teacher?” I grumbled, finally picking my head up and making eye contact.
His lips quirked up at one corner.
I hadn’t seen them clearly through all his beard hair yesterday.
But wow…he was beautiful.
Square jaw. Full lips. Defined cheekbones.
I liked the beard. But I really liked the definition in his jaw.
“Wasn’t really first-date material to tell you about how much my sister sucks that I had to take over her job,” he grumbled.
I toed a soccer ball, kicking it up to catch mid-air.
“It’s okay,” I admitted. “We owed nothing to each other.”
“No.” He looked like he didn’t like that answer. “I guess not.”
I handed him the ball. “I’m going to sign on.”
His head jerked up. “You will?”
I nodded. “I think you have the potential for a great team, Mr. Vanderbilt. Just have to work out a few kinks.” I paused. “And get your star forward to give birth.”
He chuckled. “So you’ll be here for the beginning of the season in a few months?”
“I’ll be here in a few weeks. Practices start up then…right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’ll be here in two weeks.”
He caught my hand before I could go. “I’ll try to behave.”
I backed up, my eyes not leaving him until I was several feet away. “Maybe at the end of the season, we can talk.”
He looked relieved.
“It’s a date.”