SLOW HANDS

Someone else signaled for Henry and he nodded at Timothy and Chloe. “I’ll be back later on to check on you, Miss Chloe.”

She smiled and patted Henry on the arm and thanked him for the hot dogs. When she turned back in her seat, Timothy leaned over to take his hot dog from her lap.

“Do you have everyone eating out of your hand, Miss Chloe?” he asked, mimicking Henry.

She actually blushed and ducked her head.

“Henry is a friend.”

Timothy chuckled, delighted at the rosy bloom of her cheeks.

“Do you have any other surprises in store for me today?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled around a bite of hot dog. “We will see”

The Tide took the field, and the very first batter walked. Chloe groaned in dismay along with the rest of the crowd.

“Our pitching has been what’s let us down in the past,” she whispered to Timothy.

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that not only did he know, but he could quote the stats for every one of the Tide’s pitching rosterAll content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

“This year should be better,” Timothy consoled.

She nodded. “Paul is our best. He usually starts cold, though. If we can get out of the first inning, he’s awesome.”

Again Timothy grinned and sat back to watch. Chloe bolted from her seat when the second batter grounded to second and Bryce scooped, tossed to the shortstop who turned the double play to first. Timothy could swear that Bryce looked straight at Chloe and winked. He looked between the two and finally shook off the absurd notion.

Paul struck out the next batter and the Tide was up to bat. Chloe clutched her hands like an anxious mother. Todd Cameron, the lead off, looked up at Chloe as he headed to the plate, grinned and waved. Chloe waved and blew him a kiss. Timothy stared but didn’t say anything. Things just got stranger and stranger. He was willing to put the first off as a fluke, but when the third batter came up and gave Chloe a thumbs-up, he wondered what the hell he was missing.

After the batter flied out to center field, advancing the two runners on a sacrifice, Timothy leaned over, intending to ask Chloe exactly what he was missing out on, but she put her hand on his arm and squeezed hard.

“Just a minute. Bryce’s up!” she said

Her fingers dug into his arm like little daggers, but he didn’t pry her away. He was too interested to see what would happen when Bryce Collins came up. And, too, he was interested to get a close up glimpse of what he hoped would be his company’s golden PR boy. Bryce’s face was drawn in concentration as he began the walk to the plate. He swung the bat a few times then stopped, two inches out of the box. He turned and glanced first to the right of Timothy and Chloe and dipped his head in acknowledgment. Then he turned and scanned behind home plate until his gaze lighted on Chloe. He lost the look of intense concentration, and his face relaxed into a smile. He gave her an exaggerated wink and then held up his fist. Timothy’s mouth fell open as he glanced between the two. Chloe’s hand tightened further on his arm when Bryce took the first strike.

“Come on, come on,” she whispered.

The next two were balls. Then he swung at the second strike. If he didn’t hit soon, Timothy was going to lose the feeling in his arm. The next pitch, Bryce fouled back. The next was a ball, making it a full count.

“Oh, I can’t watch,” Chloe whispered.

The pitcher wound up, threw a fastball and Bryce swung. The bat connected with a sweet crack that to anyone listening signaled a smash hit. The ball sailed over the center-field wall into the upper deck. Three-run homer to start the game.

Chloe lunged to her feet and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Did you see?” she yelled at Timothy. “Did you see?”

“I saw, I saw!” he said.

He laughed as she continued to bounce up and down. Bruce rounded the bases, taking high fives from the first-and third-base coaches. He met his teammates at the plate, where the group jumped up and down and pounded on Bryce. Bryce looked up at Chloe and pointed. She leaped to her feet again and pointed back, her smile so wide Timothy was sure she’d hurt something.

Then she glanced over in the direction that Bryce had first looked when he’d come up to the plate and then back down at Timothy.

“I’ll be right back, okay? I’ll just be a second.”

She hurried up the row of seats and then cut over to the section that adjoined the home-plate area. Timothy watched as she hugged two younger looking men and an older guy. They glanced over in Timothy’s direction once but then didn’t look back as they chatted with Chloe. A few minutes later, she returned and took her seat beside Timothy again. He was beginning to think he’d been dropped in an alternate reality. Was there anyone here she didn’t know?

When she’d offered Bryce to him on a virtual silver platter, he’d only assumed that she’d contacted him through his agent and offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse. He hadn’t considered that she had such a connection to his team. And what connection that was had Timothy insanely curious.

He leaned over so she’d hear over the still insanely celebrating crowd. “What am I missing here?” he asked her.

She smiled. “I’ll explain later. Just enjoy the game.”

Mysterious little lady.

The rest of the game followed a similar pattern. Chloe seemed to know every damn person on the team. He began to have uncomfortable thoughts, like whether or not Chloe was involved with Bryce Collins . It would certainly explain how she’d been able to get him to agree to the endorsement deal.

But it also brought up a lot of questions. Like whether she was using Timothy to further her career. He glanced sideways at her. No way. It would take someone pretty diabolical to do something like that, and he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t do it. Why would she even need to if she was involved with Bryce? The man made a lot of money, even without the million-dollar endorsement deals. He was one of the highest-paid baseball players in the league.