More than the Game by Jenni Bara

21

@CelebPeopleMag:She’s spending the night does that mean @HotShotDemoda and Elizabeth are moving in together soon?

Marc’s phone buzzed, but he reached for Beth before he opened his eyes. He wanted her warmth tucked against him, but when his hand connected with only the cold sheet, he was instantly wide awake.

The dented pillow was empty, the sheet on her side of the bed tossed back. One glance around the room showed that her stuff was gone too. What the hell? When did she leave? He smacked his hand on the nightstand a few times before finally encountering the phone, which was buzzing once again.

He would have ignored it, but Danny’s name was on the caller ID and Marc’s blood turned to ice. If Beth’s kids had an emergency and she’d left without waking him, he might lose his shit.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

“Well, let’s see, dipshit. I woke up to see my sister doing the walk of shame in front of your place on your Twitter feed.” Danny’s voice rose at the end of the sentence until he sounded like someone was stabbing him in the eye with a hot fork.

Marc winced as he switched the phone to speaker. He opened Twitter and frowned at the picture, then sighed. Two different gossip sites had tagged him in it, and about seventeen more had retweeted it, not to mention everyone who’d retweeted from there. Clearly the random security sweeps in front of his house weren’t cutting it. He’d have to pull back more from the media. For fuck’s sake. Every time his relationship with Beth took a step forward, Twitter screwed it up.

His fingers were already shooting off a text to his security guys and Austin when Danny added, “What the fuck, Marc?”

He finished the text and rubbed his hands over his face. Marc had no idea what had possessed her to leave his house without waking him. But it sucked. He’d thought for sure she understood that he wanted her here. So either Marc hadn’t been clear, or she wasn’t on the same page. And now he had to explain it to Danny before he even knew where he stood.

“Fucker, answer me,” Danny growled.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?”

“Why she left. I just woke up.”

“I can tell you, dumbass. The morning after a hookup is fucking awkward.”

“Don’t go there.”

“Go where?”

“I respect the hell out of your sister, so not only am I not going to diss her by calling her a hookup, I won’t let you do it either. I like her a whole fucking lot. I’m actually reeling a bit that she’s gone. So give me a minute to get my shit together and figure out where she is.” Marc pushed his hands through his hair.

There was a long pause, and Marc held his breath. This would tell him exactly what the brothers thought about him and Beth.

“Steve,” Danny finally said.

That answered nothing. “What?”

“Steve has a game at nine, at the Sunset Field behind the middle school.” It was begrudging, but it was an olive branch, and Marc would take it and run.

He blew out a breath. “Thanks.”

“You need to make it clear to her how you feel, asshole, because I don’t want to see any more walks of shame.” Marc could actually hear Danny’s jaw clench.

“I know,” he agreed.

“And you better not hurt her.”

“I won’t.” But even as Marc said it, he was looking on Twitter and seeing the comments, thinking about their arrangement, and wondering if that was a promise he could keep.

“You look much better,” Will said, sitting next to Beth on the bleachers.

“Yeah, you got some color back,” Clayton added. He regarded her carefully for a moment. “You look more than better; you look… happy.”

Beth smiled. “What’s not to be happy about?” Although she had gotten little sleep last night, she didn’t feel tired. She felt wonderful, and she couldn’t stop her smile.

When she woke up with Marc sound asleep next to her, she wanted to snuggle into his arms, but this type of situation was new to her. She knew from her brothers that most men didn’t like the morning after. She felt strange about waking Marc when she needed to leave for Steve’s game anyway, so instead of an awkward I’ll see you later, she’d slipped out of bed and headed home for a shower before picking up the kids from her sister.

Her cell phone rang before Clayton or Will could comment further.

“Morning,” she said to Marc, feeling a smile creep onto her face.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m in the parking lot,” Marc said, sounding grumpy.

“What?” she asked, standing up and spinning around to look behind her. Marc was leaning against his Viper, with one arm folded over his chest, looking in her direction. “How did you know I was here?”

“You have five seconds to get your cute little butt down here,” he said and snapped his phone off. He put one finger up in the air, counting. She didn’t know what he wanted, but she didn’t think he was kidding.

“Will, keep an eye on Mandy for me,” Beth said, then jumped off the side of the bleachers and headed for Marc. By the time she got there, he had all five fingers in the air. His silver aviator glasses were hiding his eyes, but from his tight-lipped expression, she could see he wasn’t happy. Her stomach clenched; he didn’t look like he was floating on the same cloud she was.

“Hi?” she said awkwardly. This was precisely what she’d been trying to avoid.

“Hi? Is that what you have to say?” he asked, crossing both arms over his chest. “I wake up alone after spending an amazing night together, and all you can say after I track you down is hi?”

“You’re… upset I didn’t wake you?” Beth asked, perplexed.

“I finally let a woman spend the entire night in my bed, and she slips out before she even gives me a good morning kiss. So yes, I am.”

“Steve had an early game,” she explained.

“Yes, I figured that out with Danny’s help,” he said wryly.

“Wait,” she said as his words hit. “What do you mean, ‘finally’?”

“You’re the first woman who has ever actually slept in my bed, sweetheart, and let me tell you, this is not how I imagined our morning going. Honestly, if I’d known they’d slip away without a word, I might not have kicked so many out in the middle of the night,” he said, frowning.

She wasn’t sure what to make of this. “Oh. I would have gone home last night. I didn’t realize you wanted me to.”

“If I had wanted you to leave, I would have told you. I wanted to wake up, roll over, and kiss you. Preferably followed by another hour in bed. But I would have settled for a quick shower with you before getting Steve for his game. What I didn’t want was to wake up and find myself alone.” Marc glared at her.

“I’m sorry,” Beth said, but she was smiling.

She was trying not to make a big deal out of the fact that he’d never wanted a woman to stay over before, but her heart was going pitter-patter all the same. Last night hadn’t made Marc want forever, but his admission told her she was different from his other women. How different she wasn’t sure, but at the moment, different was enough.

“Damn right. Next time you better wake me, even if you have somewhere to go,” Marc said, but he was smiling at her now too. “So let’s start this morning over.”

He reached out and pulled the belt loop of her capris until she was snug against him. He planted a kiss firmly on her lips before stepping back and pulling two cups of coffee from the car. He handed her one and then grabbed her hand, leading her back up towards the bleachers.

Beth smiled as she took a sip of her coffee. Then her smile faded to a puzzled expression as she stared at the cup. “Hey, this has my creamer in it.”

“I know how you like your coffee, Beth,” he said simply, like it was no big deal—but it was. To her, anyway. And just like that, she lost a little piece of her heart.

“Morning, boys,” Marc said as he made his way up the bleachers. “How’s the little man doing?” He settled in, and Beth sat on the bench in front of him, leaning back into his thighs. Marc smiled down at her and rubbed her shoulder with his free hand.

“Oh shit,” Will said suddenly.

“What?” Clayton asked, and Beth’s eyes flew from Mandy playing in the dirt in front of the bleacher to Steve on the mound.

“Are you two sleeping together?” Will demanded.

Beth’s eyes closed; she should have known she wouldn’t be able to keep the change in their relationship to herself.

“The entire world doesn’t need to know, Will,” she said.

“You’re sleeping with him?” Clayton asked, shocked, looking from Beth to Marc. “I swear, dude, we had this conversation.”

“What?” Beth asked.

“Danny asked him,” Clayton explained. And didn’t that figure. “Marc was looking at you like—like he was starving. And Danny wanted to know what was up.”

Beth couldn’t believe her brothers. Well, yes, she could. They all believed it was their personal right to know about her sex life, or lack thereof. Now they were going to put Marc on the spot. If they started the whole ‘What are your intentions’ speech, she was leaving.

“When did this start?” Will demanded.

“Oh my God. If you must know, it started last night. Now please butt out.” Beth sighed. “I didn’t realize I needed to ask permission.”

“I think it was me who was supposed to ask permission, sweetheart.” Marc chuckled. He didn’t look embarrassed, and that made her even more annoyed. “So I guess you two are going to have to speak for the group. I like your sister.” He smiled down at her even though he was talking to them. “She’s pretty great, and I’d like permission to date her—and sleep with her sometimes too, if that’s all right.”

“Marc!” Beth said. He was ridiculous. She wasn’t about to let them decide this. He laughed and squeezed her shoulder again, acting like he knew what he was doing.

“Not if the kids are in the house,” Clayton said pointedly. Beth was the one who had established that rule.

“Glove up; be respectful,” Will said. Another Beth rule.

“And don’t mess around on her,” Clayton added.

“We’ve had this discussion before, guys. As long as I’m sleeping with Beth, I’ll only be sleeping with her.” Marc turned Beth’s head so she was looking at him. And although he was talking to the boys, he stared straight into her eyes. “I won’t sleep around on her, ever.”

Beth swallowed. She’d never heard him use this serious tone. And she believed him.

“We’re good then,” Clayton said, shocking Beth and breaking the spell of Marc’s intense gaze. They were good? That was it? She waited for one of them to add something.

“I should’ve known you got some last night with that smile you got going on,” Will said, laughing. “You can see your afterglow.”

“Can you now?” Marc asked, and she heard the smile in his voice.

“Can you what?” Danny said as he appeared and sat in front of Beth.

“See her afterglow from sex with Marc.” Clayton chuckled. “We’re cool. We talked.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Danny said, and Beth sent him a questioning look. He shook his phone at her. “You’re trending; apparently you two are moving in together. Naturally, I had some questions.”

“I should start following you. What’s your douche handle—something about being hot, right?” Clayton asked as he unlocked his phone.

Beth sighed, but Marc leaned forward. “Austin’s taking care of it, I promise,” he assured her.

She trusted Austin, and honestly, she trusted Marc too. She turned to look at him, and the stress was clear in his eyes. She sent him a small ‘it’s okay’ smile, which he returned with another shoulder squeeze.

“So, I gotta ask,” Danny said, smiling at Beth a little too sadistically. “There’s been so much talk about both Demoda and Matthews having ‘million-dollar hands.’ So I thought you, as the resident expert, could settle the debate: Which Metros pitcher has the better hands?”

Everyone, including Marc, looked at Beth.

Oh, great, here they go.

“I am so not going there,” Beth said, shaking her head, but Marc leaned over to her ear.

“It’s okay. I was there last night; I already know.” He chuckled as he kissed the top of her head. His never-ending confidence still amazed her, even if—this time—he was right.

The guys all laughed, then turned back to concentrate on the game. It seemed they were all good with Marc.