“You? The one who stood in the therapy room that day and told me I had my head up my ass, then stood up in front of Manny, your boss, the team doctor, and the entire therapy team and told them all that their method of dealing with me sucked? And you’re afraid of Manny?”
She stood, kicked at the dirt. “I had a moment of madness. I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.”
“So you’re saying you have no idea how to treat me.”
She lifted her chin and glared at him. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
When her hackles were raised and she got defiant like that, he wanted to jerk her into his arms and kiss her. It was such a turn-on when she went all fiery and independent. “Good. Then quit letting Manny intimidate you.”
She blinked. “You know what? You’re right.”
“Of course I am.”
Alicia rolled her eyes and pointed. “Back to work for you. How’s your arm feeling?”
“Pretty good, actually.”
“Okay, throw me some harder stuff. And by harder stuff, Garrett, I don’t mean a blinding fastball or—”
“God, Alicia. I know what you mean. Put a little more effort into it but not game-situation strength. Just a little harder than what I’ve been throwing.”
She nodded. “Now you’re getting the picture.”
He turned and walked away. “You don’t have to draw me a fucking road map. I’m not a goddamn moron.”
“I heard that.”
He turned to face her. “I know. That’s why I said it loud enough for you to hear.”
She crouched down into position. “Are we going to talk all day, or are you going to throw me a pitch?”
More snickers from his teammates. He shook his head, wound up, and threw a pitch just hard enough that Alicia winced when it hit her glove.
That might shut her up for a while. She scowled at him but tossed the ball back without saying a word.
“Not quite that hard yet, asshole.”
More laughs from the other pitchers, but the laughs were still directed at him.
Good. Just where he wanted them.
*
GARRETT WAS OFF TALKING TO THE OTHER PITCHERS, so Alicia took a moment to update her notes.
“You look all official and therapylike.”
She turned around and smiled at her cousin Gavin, then gave him a quick hug. “And you look all baseball-like. How’s it going?”
“Good. How’s rehabbing Garrett going?”
“Great. He’s coming along.”
“So I’ve heard. Among other things.”
Alicia cocked a brow. “Other things.”
“Oh, you know. Word gets around pretty fast in a ball club.”
Crap. “Tell me what you’ve heard.”
“Some of the guys talking about how easy it is between the two of you, a lot of laughing and . . . things.”
“Things? What things?”
“Look. I don’t pay much attention to gossip and rumor, you know that. But I did watch you two together today. It’s pretty obvious there’s some body language between the two of you.”
“Body language?” She knew all she was doing was repeating what he said, but she was sinking fast. She had nothing to say in her own defense, so the longer she could delay the inevitable, the better.
“I know it’s none of my business, but is there something going on between the two of you?”
There would be no use denying it to Gavin. He’d find out eventually from Liz, who told him everything. “Uh . . . sort of.”
Now it was Gavin’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “What does ‘sort of’ mean? This isn’t high school, Alicia. There either is or isn’t. You know I’m not going to tell any of the guys on the team. You can trust me.”
She knew her cousin wouldn’t talk. “Yes, there’s something going on between us. I just don’t know that we’ve really defined it yet, and I’d really appreciate it if you could do whatever you could to not promote any talk among the other players. I’m rather fond of my job.”
“Hey, you know I didn’t come over here to get gossip from you.”
She nodded. “I know. Which is why I told you.”
Gavin looked over at Garrett. “He’s a good guy, you know.”
“Yes, he is. But my primary focus is on his recovery, not on dating him. I mean, we’re not even dating. We’re just—”
She gave Gavin a blank look. “I cannot have this discussion with you.”
Gavin looked as horrified as she did. “Thank God. Because I do not want to discuss sex with you.”
She laughed.
“Good thing Liz is in town,” Gavin said. “It might be better if you talk to her about this shit.” He pulled off his ball cap and dragged his fingers through his hair. “Why don’t we get together for dinner? You can come to our beach house.”
“I’d love to see Liz.” Then she thought about it. “You’re not going to grill Garrett about our relationship, are you?”
“Uh, no. Because then the whole sex topic would come up again, and believe me, that’s the last thing I want to talk about with your guy.”
Her guy. He wasn’t really her guy. Was he? “Okay, I’ll talk to Garrett about it and call you.”