Slow Heat

“You sure? I have ways to tame kids.”

And women… “We’re fine.” She shut the phone and tossed it back to Tag. “Sorry, but it’s you and me, Tag. We can do this.”

Tag sighed and nodded.

Not exactly a vote of confidence.

Chapter 16

The great thing about baseball is that there’s a crisis every day.

– Gabe Paul

The blogs and newspapers continued to buzz with the fact that a woman had tamed Wade, and the Heat’s like-ability improved daily. The sponsors were happy. Gage was happy.

Then the Heat took the Padres at home on game two and the fans were happy, too.

Sam wasn’t sure what she was, but it didn’t matter. She was too busy to think about it. She had pre-game interviews, post-game interviews, and everything promotion-related in between, which included lots of standing next to Wade and smiling for a camera.

He seemed to get a kick out of it, making sure to touch her as often as possible. Before the third Padres game, the reporter asked Wade to kiss her, and with a grin, he bent her over his arm and did.

He kissed her long and wet and deep.

Sam made sure to pretend to like it.

Except there wasn’t much pretending involved.

Tag joined Sam and Holly in the stands, happy to dig into their standard tray of delicious junk food, but when she and Holly leapt to their feet to cheer Pace on during a tense third inning, he remained seated.

Until the fifth inning, when it was Wade they were cheering for. Tag got up for Wade when he hit a triple. Sam stared at him, grinning broadly.

“What?” he asked.

“You cheered.”

“It was a good hit.” And he calmly sat back down and grabbed another hot dog, as he was apparently a bottomless pit masquerading as a kid. Or maybe he had a tape-worm. She knew he was still dealing with missing home, missing Jeremy, the only real family he’d ever had in his life, and she worried every minute of every day that he was leaving his childhood behind too soon, that he’d suffer long-term from abandonment issues.

Especially since Jeremy didn’t call-either because he couldn’t, or because it didn’t occur to him. Either way, Samantha hated him for it. Tag deserved better. Hell, a dog deserved better. She’d managed to hire a tutor/nanny to travel with them-a guy, which seemed to please Tag. As did Wade, who took Tag with him to practices when he could, and also out to eat. He’d made Sam come, too, and she’d gone back to her office afterwards with her cheeks aching from laughing.

After the Padres series, they flew to San Francisco to play the Giants. Before the first game, Sam was working the clubhouse as she always did. She’d been worried about Tag being bored, but it turned out he wasn’t any harder to take care of than any of the other men around her. At the moment, he was in the guest clubhouse on a couch with a control box in his lap, playing a video game. His head was tilted back, his eyes glazed and locked on the TV, his mouth open as he worked the controls. He was decked out in Wade’s jersey, with someone’s far too large Adidas on his feet. He had a huge wad of bubblegum in his mouth, which was probably why it hung open.

And just looking at him squeezed her heart. How one little kid could worm his way into her life so damn fast, she had no idea. She brought him an apple juice and ruffled his hair, barely managing to resist hugging him because she knew he’d just squirm free. “Want a sandwich?”

He didn’t respond.

“Tag?”

He grunted, then shook his head.

Good Lord. He was already a guy through and through. Shaking her head, she moved past him. As always, the players arrived at least five hours early for the game, and even though they had a clubbie-a guy paid to make sure they had everything they needed-she always walked through to check on them as well. She’d been doing so since the beginning of time, so she no longer even noticed the half-naked men wandering back and forth from showers to lockers, or the behavior such testosterone brought out. In one corner Mason and Kyle were sparring with their gloves on for no discernable reason. She’d discovered guys didn’t need a reason for aggression, so she’d long ago ceased looking for one.

“Cool it,” Gage told them.

Joe walked out of the shower completely butt-ass naked. Mike snapped his ass with a towel and in return, Joe shoved him into a wall and kept walking, a big welt now blooming on one butt cheek.

Sam registered it all and saw none of it.

She turned to get herself a bottle of water just as one more player walked out of the shower room.

Wade.

He wore a towel and nothing else except drops of water and those lean, hard muscles. And unlike with the other guys, her mind went there, to him in the shower, all naked and soapy, and she felt heat slash through her belly. She opened her bottle of water and took a sip for her suddenly parched throat.

Wade was in his zone, his game face on, heading for his locker. When their eyes connected, some of the intensity left his face, softening his eyes and softening her insides, and for a moment, she wished that he wanted more, more of her and from her.

He was still looking at her, too gorgeous for words, and without her permission, a ridiculously helpless smile curved her lips.

In return, he let loose a smile, too, the warm, intimate one that he always gave her after kissing her stupid. They were staring at each other like idiots, surrounded by people. Uncharacteristically flustered, she turned away first, and plowed directly into Gage with her opened water bottle.

He was tall and built like the players. Solid muscle. Bumping into him was like bumping into a brick wall, but he absorbed the impact and caught her, holding her up as water splashed down the front of him. “I’m sorry,” she gasped.

He pulled his shirt away from his skin, his dark features twisting into a grimace. “Me, too. Where’s the fire?” He looked behind her to see what she’d been running from.

Wade was in front of his locker. He’d pulled on his compression shorts and was reaching for his jersey.

She winced as Gage’s eyes cut to hers again.

“I haven’t asked you,” he said evenly, with only a teeny tiny hint of irony, “how this whole pretend relationship thing is going.”

Oh boy.“Fine.”

“Is it going to stay that way for the rest of the month, no trouble?”

God, she hoped so. “Hey, no trouble is my middle name.”

Gage nodded, but his eyes reflected his concern that maybe she was lying through her teeth. She couldn’t reassure him because she had no reassurances. None.

Because just behind her facade was a bone deep certainty that she wasn’t fine. Not even close. She was falling for a man she had no business falling for, and for a kid that wasn’t hers.

Fine didn’t begin to cover it.

“Do I need to step in?” Gage asked, holding eye contact, raising a brow. “Kick his ass?”

She laughed, as he’d intended, even knowing that beneath the levity, he’d absolutely do it if she wanted. “No.”

He watched her for a long moment. Part of Gage’s brilliance was being able to see what people didn’t want him to. She had no doubt he knew exactly what was wrong. Just as he knew how important it was to her to handle her