his fingers excitedly. “Give you the split-finger.”
“Huh?” I said in confusion. A split-finger fastball was thrown with a grip like someone making air-quotes, but I didn’t see how that…
His hand slid over my hip and down between my legs, demonstrating what he meant.
“Ohh,” I sighed. “I like that. Give me a splitter. Drop it in there.”
“See?” he said, kissing my shoulder. “I knew we could figure something out.”
I sighed happily. “I’m really glad.”
“Glad about what?”
“Glad you decided to take me out, rather than sharing a girlfriend with Joel and Darryl.”
I felt his entire body tense against mine. Like I had said the wrong thing. I rolled over until I was facing his handsome face, which was twisted with confusion.
“What?” I said. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, no, not at all,” he replied. “It’s just… nothing. I’m glad too.”
“What is it?” I insisted. “What’s wrong?”
He pushed up onto one elbow and sighed. But unlike my sighs of contentment, his was the sigh of someone who had to give bad news.
“Oh no,” I said. “You guys found someone to share, didn’t you!”
“What? No!” he replied. “Well, not the way you mean it. I had kind of hoped…”
He trailed off and looked at me hopefully.
A quiver of excitement ran through my belly. “Oh,” I said. “You were thinking…”
He nodded.
I licked my lips. I needed to say it out loud. “You were thinking I could be that girl.”
“It’s stupid,” he quickly said. “I shouldn’t have said anything. You and I had a great time tonight, so there’s no need to involve the others if you don’t want to.”
If you don’t want to. There was the qualifier. He was considering it. He was considering sharing me with Joel and Darryl. I should have been appalled. I should have been upset that he waited until now to tell me.
But in the post-coital bliss, naked and sweaty under the covers with Rafael? My first reaction was intrigue.
He cupped my chin and kissed me. “Let’s forget I said anything. Can we go back to how things were a few minutes ago, cuddling and thinking of baseball sex jokes?”
“What if I was willing to consider it?”
His black eyebrow shot up.
“Would the others be into it? Into me?” I asked.
He let out his breath slowly. “Joel definitely would be. I’ve known him a long time—you’re the kind of woman he would love. Plus he said you were hot as hell.”
“Oh did he?” I asked. “You guys talked about me, huh?”
“We chatted briefly about how you came to Darryl’s party. We all agreed that it was nice to see you there.”
“Speaking of Darryl, what would he think? Am I his type too?”
Rafael hesitated. And that was my answer.
“He doesn’t like me,” I said. “Great.”
“Darryl takes a while to come around,” he quickly said. “He has to warm-up to someone before he commits.”
“Funny, he seems like the kind of guy who wants as little commitment as possible.”
Rafael snorted. “You’d be surprised. But I bet he would be open to it. I could convince him.”
I didn’t like the idea of having to convince Darryl of it. Either he wanted me, or he didn’t. And based on our interactions so far, I had the feeling it was the latter.
“Help me understand the details,” I said. “You took me on a date tonight. I didn’t think dates were part of it.”
He shrugged. “That was just to thank you for the pitching advice.”
“Right, and I’m sure you’ve thanked Coach Schultz the same way?”
He yelped playfully and clenched his eyes shut. “Agh! Why would you say something like that!”
I crawled on top of him and leaned close to his face. “Imagine Coach Schultz’s big beer gut covered with sweat.”
“Stop it!”
“I bet he would look good in a bikini. If his arms are that hairy, just think—”
Rafael clapped a hand over my mouth. “You’re not allowed to speak ever again. From now on you’re only allowed to communicate with hand signals.”
I smiled through his hand.
“The details of the arrangement are whatever we want them to be,” he explained. “Sometimes we’ll go out to dinner. Especially after a good game. Other times we’ll stay in. It’s whatever we want.”
I pulled his hand away from my mouth. “Right now what I want is that pretty face buried between my legs again.”
He grinned.
I yelped as he threw me off of him and climbed on top, pushing me into the bed with his body. My cries of playful protest turned into cries of pleasure as he kissed his way down to my