Miriam felt her cheeks warm with his intense eye contact and was the first to look away. She bent down to grab the box that contained everything else and started walking toward the front entrance of the store.
As soon as the automatic doors opened, Joe instantly appeared in front of them. “I knew it.” The store manager beamed as he looked at Silas and shot Miriam a smug smile. “I knew you were back.”
Silas instantly put on the charm, and even though Miriam wasn’t looking directly at him, she knew his dimple would appear when he put on his megawatt smile. “Glad to be back.”
Miriam rolled her eyes and left the guys to their conversation and carried the box to her usual location near the registers. She was happy to set up by herself—she’d planned on it even. But without a table, she was helpless. Miriam walked back over to where Silas and Joe still stood chatting like old college buddies.
“I’ve been hesitating on pulling the trigger on those season tickets,” Joe said. “But once my wife finds out that she was right about you being back, there’s gonna be no stopping it.”
“You’ll have to let me know where you’re at so I can wave to her at the season opener.”
Joe chuckled. “I wouldn’t hear the end of it, you know. She’s your biggest fan, though it broke her heart when you went to Wisconsin.”
Broke her heart?
Miriam couldn’t listen to another word. She snatched the folding table from Silas and stomped back to where she was setting up, ignoring the way her wrist burned from the sudden weight of the table in her hand.
She set it up—alone—and put the tablecloth over it. When she was done, she put all the little trinkets out. Plastic cups, rubber bracelets, and BOGO vouchers decorated the table.
Miriam stood back, put her hands on her hips, and cast a critical eye over everything. It looked fine, but there was still something missing.
The pop-up banner that Silas had carried in—and was still carrying while he chatted with Joe in what was surely the longest example of small talk in history. Silas had asked about Joe’s garden, for heaven’s sake.
Miriam took a deep breath before walking back over to the new BFFs. She tried to grab the banner just as she had the table.
Silas pulled his hand back. “I’ll bring it over.”
She gritted her teeth. “Considering the event starts right now, I’d really like to have it up already.”
Joe cleared his throat and looked down at his watch. “Would you look at that? I guess time flies when you’re having fun. I’ll try to come on over and chat a little later.” He walked off toward the baseball section.
“It sure does,” Miriam mumbled. She stomped back to the table, not bothering to see if Silas was behind her. She didn’t care about the sign anymore. She was just trying to figure out how she was going to survive the next four hours without her heart getting broken.
If time flew when you were having fun, then this event would feel like an eternity. It really was a shame that she couldn’t leave the players alone for the event and pop back in when it was over.
Speaking of the other players…
Miriam frowned and whirled around to face Silas. “Where is everyone else? I thought Grant and Vinny were supposed to show up too.”
Silas shrugged, but a suspicious tinge of red appeared on his cheeks. “Maybe they hit bad traffic.”
That was a possibility, except for the fact that Silas had shown up early. Miriam lifted her brows. “And yet you managed to avoid it?”
He smiled, his dimple flashing. “I hit all the green lights, what can I say?”
Miriam gave him another hard look before turning back to the Storm’s table. Without asking, Silas started putting the sign up. It almost felt like old times. The two of them showing up together for an event, putting everything out like a well-oiled machine.
Her hand gripped the corner of the table, and she took a deep breath to steady herself. This wasn’t old times, they weren’t a well-oiled machine, and Silas shouldn’t have shown up today.
She turned to face him just as he finished his task. “Why are you here?”
“Community outreach.”
Miriam pushed her lips together. She still wasn’t sure how Silas had found out about that day’s event in the first place. “I didn’t invite you.”
A sheepish smile touched his lips. “You didn’t have to. Grant told me about it.”
The kid better watch it or he’ll only be invited to the outdoor events in the rain.
Silas took a step in her direction. “It sounded like the event was for the new players, which I technically am this season.”
Even that one small step was enough for Silas to completely invade her senses. Unlike their last meeting, he no longer had the underlying scent of hard work and sweat, but he smelled just as masculine.
She needed to escape it somehow. Miriam leaned back so that her butt was pressed up against the table. “Did you stop to think that maybe me not inviting you was on purpose?”
All the playfulness left his face. “Of course I did. But you know I have a contractual obligation to show up to at least three of these. What did you think was going to happen? You could just ‘forget’ to invite me, and I wouldn’t get in trouble for breaching my contract?”
She winced. Well, when he put it that way. Miriam’s gaze went to the linoleum floor. “I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
Silas cursed under his breath, and Miriam looked up just in time to see him raking a hand through his hair. Little pieces stuck in all different directions when he pulled his hand away. “I would know. The other players would know.” He stopped and shook his head. “I need to show everyone I’m committed to this team.”
Miriam snorted. “Because commitment
