We both laugh, completely naked under the night sky, before Miller lays down on top of me, nuzzling her head into the crook of my neck while I hold her, running a palm down her bare spine.
I keep her there, even though we’re teetering with getting caught, because I know as soon as we go back inside where we have two beds, she won’t be in mine.
Too intimate. Too attached for her. Because lying naked under the stars after making each other come together isn’t intimate as fuck.
“Thank you,” she exhales against my neck. “For making me forget about real life for a second.”
My eyes close at her words. This is real life. This is my real life.
As if I didn’t already know, this moment is another reminder that I’m going to be fucking ruined when she goes back to hers.
Chapter 26
Kai
“Isaiah, you’re coming over tonight.” I grab my car keys, wallet, and phone from my locker stall after practice on our home field. “Cody and Trav, you too.”
Isaiah struts out of the showers with nothing but a towel around his waist. “Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Cody’s brows shoot up. “Yes, Baseball Daddy.”
“You’re not allowed to call me that.”
“No,” Travis cuts in. “Only the coach’s daughter is allowed to call him that.”
“Yeah, well, for reasons I’m not going to discuss with you, she can call me whatever the hell she wants.”
“Trust me, Ace. We all know why the coach’s daughter gets to call you ‘Daddy’,” Cody says. “So why are we coming over?”
“Miller is working on some new recipes at the house tonight and I need people other than me to hype her up. So come over, eat, and sing her fucking praises with whatever dessert she puts in front of you.”
“You should’ve just said that. You wouldn’t have even had to ask me to come over. I would’ve just shown up.” Isaiah throws his shirt back on. “Maybe you should invite Kennedy too.”
“She doesn’t want to hang out with the team outside of work.”
“But she’s friends with Miller now, so she’d probably be into it.”
“Then go ahead and invite her.”
Isaiah sighs in defeat. “She’ll definitely say no if I’m the one to ask. Cody.” My brother turns towards our first baseman. “Will you ask her?”
“Why?” he laughs. “So I can trick her into spending time with you?”
“Well . . . yeah. Exactly.”
I grab my hat off the bench before leaving the locker room. “Come over around seven.”
Before I hit the parking lot, I take a sharp left and round the corner to Monty’s office. The door is slightly cracked already, so I rap my knuckles against the wood and let myself inside.
“Hey, Ace.” He barely peeks up at me over his computer screen. “How’s the arm?”
“Good.”
“Did you get some time in the training room? Let the staff work on it?”
I take a seat on the chair opposite his desk. “I did.”
Monty finally peels his eyes away from the computer. “I’m assuming you’re in here because there’s something you want to tell me.”
I exhale a shocked and uncomfortable laugh. Fuck my life.
“Want to tell you?” I ask. “Not a chance in hell. Is there something I should tell you? Probably.”
“Well, are you going to?”
Am I going to look him in the eye and tell him I’m sleeping with his daughter? Abso-fucking-lutely not.
“I’m gonna plead the fifth on this one, Monty.”
He laughs to himself, clearly entertained by how uncomfortable I am.
I change the subject. “Are you free tonight?”
“I am. Well, I was going to see if Millie wanted to get dinner.” He lifts a brow. “Or is she busy?”
God, this is weird. Six weeks ago, I thought I couldn’t stand the girl, and now I know her schedule better than her dad. And he knows as well as I do that if she’s not free, it’s because she’s with me.
“As far as I know, she is, but what do you say about having dinner at our—my house instead?”
A knowing smirk lifts on his lips at my slip-up. “I could do that.”
“Great. And after, I need you to stick around for a bit. Miller is working on some recipes for work tonight. Well, she doesn’t know she is yet, but I think it’d help her if you were there for that.”
Monty leans back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach, his tone full of suspicion. “What are you planning, Ace?”
I lean back too, sprawling my legs out in front of me. I guess if this man were anyone other than Monty, I’d feel uncomfortable being so honest, but more than being Miller’s father, he’s my friend.
“Look, the other night she got a call about work, and she was pretty upset because she hasn’t had much time in the kitchen. That’s my fault, so tonight, some of the guys from the team are going to come over and try whatever she comes up with. She needs to regain some of her confidence in the kitchen, and I know that more than anyone else, Miller wants to impress you.”
He shakes his head. “That’s ridiculous. I’m always impressed by her.”
“I know. Trust me, I know, but . . .” Fuck. How the hell do I tell Monty about his own daughter who he clearly knows better than me? “She’s putting a lot of pressure on herself to get back to the level she was at before she won that award and hearing it coming from you that she’s doing a good job would help ease that burden, I think.”
Monty pauses, a bit confused by my spiel, but eventually he relents. “Okay, I’ll be there.”
“Great.” With a simple nod of my head, I stand from the chair, but he stops me at the door.
“I know you don’t want her to leave, so why are you helping her do just that?”
Well, shit.
There’s no way to answer that question without him figuring out just how fucking deep I am.
I sink into the chair again with a heavy sigh. “Because it’s her dream, and I care about her too much to not help her chase it, even if that means I won’t be there when she gets everything she’s worked for.”
Monty watches me, looking for any signs of bullshit, I’m sure. I wish I was lying. I wish I wasn’t such a fucking sap that I could, in good conscience, do everything in my power to make her stay. But I won’t be the reason she gives up on her dreams.
“You’re good for her, Ace.”
“No, it’s . . . it’s not like that.”
“Oh, it’s not like that, huh? So you’re going to sit here and tell me you’re sleeping with my daughter but it doesn’t mean anything? Can’t wait to hear that.”
Goddamn. I should have never come into his office today.
“Hey, don’t look at me.” I hold my hands up in surrender. “If you want to have that conversation, you talk to your girl about the rules she made regarding sex.”
Monty grimaces.
“Jesus. I can’t believe I just said sex in front of you.”
“Yeah, let’s never do that again, especially in reference to my daughter.” He sits back in his chair. “Even if you two are too blind to see it or are too stubborn to admit it, I know what this is.”
“She’s leaving.” My two least favorite words that tend to fall from my lips whenever I’m looking for an explanation.
“She is,” Monty agrees. “Are you going to be okay when that happens?”
I look right at him across the desk and lie. “I’ll figure out a way to be.”
His smile is full of pity. I’m now getting pity from the man whose daughter I’m sleeping with. Fucking great.
“You remember our conversation, right?”
He’s referring to the time he requested I speak to him if I ever felt the urge to ask Miller to stay, to leave her dreams behind and settle into life with me and my son.
The urge is there every single day, but I won’t ask that of her. It’s not what she wants, and I don’t have the strength to hear her rejection.