that one.”
“Okay, if I can guarantee this guy won’t be wearing yellow, and that his name isn’t Bob or Steve, would that sway you?”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt, that’s for sure.”
“Okay, what else?”
“No one married, on the rebound, or recently separated.” When Jayne smirked at that, Ellie frowned. “What’s so funny about that?”
“Nothing. It’s good—that helps narrow it down a little, and so far, this guy fits.”
“Forget it, Jayne.” Her sense of humor waning, Ellie took a long sip of her wine. “Whoever this guy is, he’s not going to ‘fit.’ Not unless he’s about six feet tall with a dark blond brush cut, amazing blue eyes, a drop-dead gorgeous smile, and a giant flower tattoo on his right bicep.”
Jayne reached across the table and squeezed Ellie’s hand. “Sweetie, if I could do that for you, you know I would, right?”
“Sure.” Ellie shrugged, forcing herself back out of her pity party. “But in the meantime, you’re going to throw every Bob, Steve, and yellow shirt you can find at me, aren’t you?”
Lifting a teasing brow, Jayne grinned. “Maybe not every one.”
—
Even the weather cooperated on Griffin Game day. No surprise that the tickets had sold out within hours of going on sale, and Regan had been overrun with people willing to volunteer in the beer garden, run a 50/50 draw, line the fields, ump, or anything else that needed doing. Anything for a chance to get close to the one and only Griffin Carr.
It didn’t matter that he couldn’t hit, throw, or catch. It didn’t even matter that he never made it on base. He was there to put on a show, and he did that in spades. Between innings he signed autographs and posed for pictures with anyone who asked, all the while encouraging the fans to donate more to the hospital, which of course they did, because it was Griffin freakin’ Carr.
With the exception of Griffin, everyone on the team took turns on the bench. That didn’t mean Ellie had to like it, but at least Reggie was off this inning, too, so the two of them hung near the door of the dugout, Ellie leaning against the opening and Reggie peering out through the chain-link, her fingers curled through the holes.
“How’re you doing?” Regan asked.
“I’d prefer it if we were winning,” Ellie laughed. “But since every other person here seems to think we’re just here to ogle the movie star and have fun, I’m breathing my way through it.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.” She was going to leave it at that, but Regan kept looking at her, waiting for an answer. “I’m ridiculous, that’s how I’m doing. He’s been gone almost two months and every game I still look for him at short. Every time we go over to Jayne’s, there’s a little part of me that hopes he’s going to just show up like he always did, and what really pisses me off is that I still get that jumpy thing in my stomach whenever he calls or texts me. Which isn’t happening very often anymore.”
“Bastard.” Leave it to Regan to make her laugh.
“Right? You’d think after we spent all that time together—”
“That whole month.”
“Exactly. You’d think he’d be a little more devastated about leaving me.” She rolled her eyes and grinned. “I mean, come on—a little devastation is not a lot to ask.”
“Hell,” Regan agreed with a grin, slapping her glove against Ellie’s shoulder. “A chick like you—you gotta be worth a medium amount of devastation at the very least.”
The next batter cracked a high fly ball to straightaway center, right at Griffin, and as Ellie watched, it was like the entire world slowed. Silence fell over the crowd as everyone pushed to their feet, waiting, waiting, and then losing their minds when the ball landed right in his glove.
“Only took him eight innings to figure out how the mitt works,” Ellie snorted. “Not bad.”
Still cheering, Regan laughed over the roar of the crowd. “We didn’t bring him here for his athletic prowess.”
As they watched, they both tipped their heads a little and frowned.
“Ellie? Is it just me, or…”
“You mean…I know! I thought I was imagining it at first, but now…”
After tossing the ball to Carter at second, Griffin jogged back out toward his position, then did a slight detour and rounded over to left field to chat up the fielder out there again. It was the same thing between every batter, during warm-up, and in the dugout.
Ellie and Regan both nodded. “He’s totally hitting