Payoff Pitch (Philadelphia Patriots) by V.K. Sykes

Author:V.K. Sykes [Sykes, V.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Though Noah rarely went out with the guys after a game, he hadn’t hesitated tonight when Nate demanded that he help celebrate the Patriots’ win in the closing game of their series with Washington. Last night he’d plumbed the lowest depths of his baseball career, pitching like crap and getting demoted to the bullpen. But then suddenly everything changed, starting with those spectacular hours in the arms of sweet Teddy Quinn.

Yeah, this morning Teddy had looked and sounded troubled both by what had happened between them in his bedroom and by whatever the hell it was Cristina was up to. But the vibes coming off her body sent him a different message. When he’d taunted her with a couple of sexy come-ons, she’d pretty much glowed. And even when she made a point of saying she was going to shower alone, the very fact that a certain scenario had obviously come into her mind—one that involved a lot of naked, soapy skin that wasn’t just her own—confirmed for him that her hormones were still every bit as ramped up as his.

When he got home tonight, he had every intention of exploring the extent of her determination to keep him at arms’ length. She might try, but he had very long arms.

Ryan Locke hoisted his bottle of Stella in a toast. “You pulled our nuts out of the fire tonight, man. You really gutted it out.”

The other six men around the table in the South Philly pub voiced their agreement, and Noah clinked his bottle with each of theirs in turn. “Well, I needed redemption after I screwed up last night.”

God bless Jack Ault. Not only had the manager gone to bat for Noah with the front office to prevent him from being demoted to the minors, he’d had the guts to put Noah right back out there today. Not as the starting pitcher, of course, because starters needed four days off between outings. But because Noah hadn’t pitched that many innings the previous day, Ault had sent him in to relieve in the fifth when the situation was a disaster in the making. The Patriots’ starting pitcher had given up three runs in the inning already and had men on first and third with only one out. When Ault handed Noah the ball, he’d said he had every confidence that he would throw the next guy a double play ball—one that would get the team out of the inning with no further damage.

Noah hadn’t been able to get that double play. But buoyed by Ault’s vote of confidence and by the vocal encouragement of his teammates, he’d surprised himself by striking out the first Nationals batter with a wicked curveball that had the guy swinging a foot over top of the ball. Ault ordered him to intentionally walk the next batter, a tough lefty hitter, in order to load the bases. That had proved to be the correct strategy, since the following batter chopped a high grounder to third baseman Aiden Marriner who promptly stepped on the bag for a force-out.

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