Game On(25)

She went crimson, but smiled back.

“Good night?” I asked innocently.

Mandy leaned back in her seat, half of the water in her bottle gone, and gave a long, satisfied smile. “It was amazing,” she said. “Completely amazing.”

“Tell me everything,” I said, though my attention was momentarily captured by the sight of Nathan coming out onto the field. My heart sped up at the sight of him, my palms went damp, and my mouth went dry. He was just so good-looking. And nice. That was the thing that kept surprising me. He didn’t have to be nice, but he was. From my experience with men, most guys in his situation relished the opportunity to be enormous dicks because they could. If they had the talent and the looks, they certainly didn’t care about being decent, let alone kind. But everything about Nathan pointed to him being a really good guy.

The world was going to love him. I could only hope that I could protect myself from the same feelings.

“He was so nice all evening and we were having such a good time. He was polite, and not pushy at all, though I kind of wanted him to be,” she said with a smile, one of her curls wrapped around her finger. “So, when he offered to drive me home, I had to invite him up.”

Good girl, I thought. Chris was clearly trying to be a gentleman, but it was also clear that Mandy had waited long enough for him to make his move.

“Bet he was pretty excited about that,” I said.

“You should have seen his eyes,” she giggled. “I’ve never seen them so wide. I’ve also never seen him move so fast. He was at the passenger side door in a flash.”

“He opened the car door for you?” I asked, trying to remember the last time I had seen a guy do that. Good for you, Chris, I thought.

“He was a total gentleman all evening,” she said. “Except when I kissed him.” Her smiled went positively wicked. “Then he was all man. All night.”

We went over each and every detail of Mandy and Chris’ date, the cheers of the girls in the stands and the thwack of bats propelling balls across the field providing the background noise. Occasionally I would feel that little twinge of jealousy. Followed immediately by a feeling of guilt. I was happy for Mandy. Of course I was. From the very first moment I saw her and Chris together, their mutual attraction had been obvious. It had basically taken everything in my power not to grab their heads and smush them together, yelling, “Kiss! Kiss!” I was really glad I hadn’t done that, since it seemed like they had just needed a teeny little push to get their act together.

As practice ended, the guys were sitting towards the shade, some spread out on the grass. They were all watching Chris, who appeared to be in the middle of some grand speech, and both the head coach and assistant coach stood with their arms folded shaking their heads.

“What’s going on?” I asked Mandy.

She looked up and smiled. “He’s doing the big speech.”

“The big speech?”

“Before a game Chris usually gives everyone a pep talk. He’s pretty good at—a good mix of encouragement and trash talk.” She got up, placing her camera gently on the seat. “Come on.” She pulled two large water bottles out of her bag. “Let’s see what he has to say about beating Baylor next week.”

“Are we allowed on the field?” I asked, but dutifully followed. She handed me one of the bottles and I and got a pretty good idea of what she was up to. Getting involved wasn’t a good professional move, but hell, I had gone to a frat party last night and behaved myself, surely I could raise a little hell this morning.

“Practice is over. The guys don’t mind.” Mandy unscrewed the lid of her water bottle and hid it behind her back. Some of the players on the field noticed her and wisely began inching away from Chris. He didn’t seem to notice, as he was completely lost in his own speech.

“And we’re going to kick their ass because we have the best pitcher in the league—” he shot a look at Nathan, who had been watching me. Mandy and I froze, worried that Chris would turn around, but Nathan’s eyes zoomed back to Chris and he crossed his arms.

“You still can’t decorate my truck,” Nathan retorted, to the amusement of the rest of the players who hooted and cheered.

“It’s a show of pride, my friend.”

“It’s my truck,” Nathan told him, firmly. “You don’t touch it.”

“Pretty rousing speech,” Mandy offered and Chris whirled around. His face lit up at the sight of her.

“Thank you,” he agreed. “I’m good at getting people worked up,” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Getting them hot.”

Mandy caught my eye and I quickly unscrewed the cap on the water bottle I had hidden behind my back.

“Well.” Mandy gave Chris a wicked grin. “Better cool off then,” she said as she dumped the entire bottle of water over his head. And before he could even respond, I did the same.

The team broke out in cheers and laughter as Chris sputtered, water soaking his uniform.

He shook his head, spraying all of us. Mandy laughed and Chris narrowed his eyes, a playful smirk turning up the corner of his mouth.

“You’re gonna regret that,” he told her.

“Am I?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“Oh yeah,” he promised, and before she could move, he had grabbed her around the hips and pulled her towards the water table where cups of water were neatly lined up. Grabbing one, he dumped it over her head. She shrieked and wiggled out of his grasp, but he wasn’t done.