If We Never Met (Whisper Lake #5) - Barbara Freethy Page 0,90

Every move he'd made had been a good one, a step closer to ultimate success. But this time felt different.

The past two months had come with a lot of self-analysis and fear for the future. He'd had to face the possibility his career might be over, and even though the injury was now just going to be a blip on his record, a short time away from the big stage of his life, he had changed because of it.

He had been forced to think about a life without the game he loved, and it had been terrifying. He loved being a pitcher. He loved baseball. He loved the guys on his team and the fans who came out to cheer them on. He'd been forced to imagine a life where he didn't get to go out and pitch, where he didn't hear the roar of a crowd or feel the pressure of a game on the line, and his future had seemed bleak until he met Keira. She had wrapped him up in her smiles and her arms and her body. She'd brought him back to life, made him realize that what he did for a living wasn't all that he was.

He could talk to Keira in a way he'd never talked to anyone else. They'd gotten deep so fast and so easily. He knew her, and she knew him. It hadn't all been serious. They'd laughed a lot. In fact, being with Keira had brought simple joys back into his life. She'd opened up a new world to him, one where he was just one of a gang of fun, friendly people, who lived and loved without being on a stage, without running from the tabloids, without needing to be better all the time. It had been an incredible break.

But that's all it had been—a break. His life was in Miami, and Keira's life was here. They couldn't be together. Unless…

Could he find a way? But what way? Could they do long distance? Could he come back to Whisper Lake in the off-season? Would that be enough?

The baseball season was March to the end of October. That didn't leave many months for any other kind of life. And he wasn't close to retirement, not if his arm was truly back to normal. He could play another six to eight years.

And what about Keira's dreams?

Even if she were willing to follow him to Miami, how could he let her do that? She needed to think about putting herself first. If she was going to move anywhere, she should go to New York. She was too good not to do what she was meant to do. But she put other people before herself.

They really were opposites. He'd always put himself first, and she never had. Maybe they needed to rub off on each other. He needed to think more about other people, and she needed to think less.

He sighed once more as his brain grappled with unsolvable problems. Finally, he got out of bed and hit the shower. He needed to get to rehab and keep working on his recovery. At least it looked like his arm could be fixed. He didn't know about anything else. But he did know that he wasn't ready to end it with Keira; he just needed to convince her that five more happy days were worth whatever else might be coming.

Keira started getting texts from Dante shortly after lunchtime, but she didn't reply. She didn't know what she wanted to say. He wanted to get together for dinner. He wanted to take her out. And yesterday she would have said yes in a heartbeat, but now…she was torn. She liked him way too much, and she sensed a world of hurt coming her way. Why make everything worse by drawing out their goodbye? And it would be worse, because every day she fell a little more in love with him.

It was crazy. They hadn't known each other very long, but she couldn't deny her feelings. She'd dated enough men in her life to know what she wanted, and Dante checked off a lot of boxes, except the big one. He didn't live in Whisper Lake. He didn't have a life in this town. He'd asked her before if that was a deal breaker. She hadn't said it was, but maybe she hadn't been honest with herself.

She looked up as the door opened and two teenagers walked in. She gave them a smile as they asked