who made it to the pros. There have been a million interviews with him about his life, family, and career.”
“I guess I never paid attention,” I muttered.
“Jesus, Andie. The man is a legend,” she went on to inform me. “His parents live here and one of his brothers is even a firefighter for Silias County. The other one is an engineer or something.”
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told her.
“That’s the problem,” she joked. “The man just retired and the news about it was everywhere. Which goes to prove that you need to get the hell out of your house, Andie.”
“Rach-”
“Or, better yet, you know where the man lives,” she kept right on rambling. “Make your way up to his door with some sexy lingerie and get laid, girl.”
I choked out a laugh. “Rachel, if what all you’re saying is true, the man is a famous athlete,” I pointed out. “I’m sure he’s covered in that department.”
“The stuff I am saying is true,” she insisted. “But what does that matter? You’re sexy as hell, Andie. He’d be crazy to turn you down.”
Sometimes I wondered if she listened to the things that came out of her mouth. It was a wonder Charlie didn’t muzzle the woman. Of course, Charlie claims to have fallen in love with Rachel at first sight, so there was very little she could do wrong in his eyes. They’d met their sophomore year at Columbia, when Rachel had stormed into the student advisory office to dispute her dorm assignment, and Charlie had been the poor bastard who had been working the student advisory. She had called him an idiot, and he had chased her for three months before she had finally agreed to a date.
Over ten years later, he still adored the hell out of her.
“Rachel,” I said, sighing, “I am thirty-years-old, divorced, and have a kid who left plenty of proof of his existence on my body. I seriously doubt Nathan Hayes, retired professional baseball player, is going to even look at me as an option.”
“And-”
“And before you scold me because you think I’m being too hard on myself, I’m not,” I told her. “I’m stating simple facts, Rach. That man can get any woman he wants. He doesn’t need to resort to single mothers who don’t know anything about sports.”
“How do you know he doesn’t want something different?” she challenged.
“Different from perfection?” I asked, the sarcasm obvious.
“Don’t judge a man you know nothing about, Andrea,” she chided.
“I’m not judging him, Rachel,” I denied. “But I know you know what the man looks like.”
“Okay, so, yeah, maybe he looks like he should live on Mount Olympus, but-”
“Maybe?”
She sighed. “Fine,” she exhaled dramatically. “He’s beyond perfect and can get any woman he wants. But still, that doesn’t mean you can’t be that woman.”
Rachel was forgetting one very real and serious concern. “Rach,” I said sternly, “the man barged into my home and started arguing with Grant over baseball opinions. He’s clearly taken one too many bats to the head.”
“Why does he have to be crazy?” she countered. “Why can’t he just be passionate about the subject? He is a retired baseball player, after all.”
“Did you miss the part where he knocked on a stranger’s door to challenge an eight-year-old?” I reminded her. “He’s clearly crazy.”
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “If you had even a tiny inkling that he was dangerous or really crazy, you would have called the police, Andie. That man is not crazy.”
While she did have a valid point, I still couldn’t dismiss how he had barged into my home, like a lunatic, to argue baseball with a child. However, he hadn’t come across mean or threatening. He had actually seemed upset that Grant hadn’t chosen him as the best Condors player ever.
I shook my head. Maybe retirement was making him loopy.
And then a thought occurred to me. “Rachel, you can’t tell anyone Nathan’s my neighbor,” I blurted out. “If it gets out that he lives here, this place will start crawling with tabloid vultures and gold-diggers.”
“Firstly, I know better,” she retorted. “And secondly, I doubt he would have bought that penthouse if he hadn’t believed it was safe and private.”
“Well, if everyone knows he retired and has come back home, then-”
“Andie, he’d have the problem of being famous, no matter where he lived,” she pointed out. “I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”
The entire thing was…weird.
And not that there was a chance he’d ever be interested in me, but I couldn’t