Playing the Field (Hot-Lanta Series) Read online

  Jane hoped Lucy took her seriously and opened up to her on Monday. Jane wanted to get to the bottom of this. She didn’t like her friends not liking each other, especially a couple weeks before her wedding when everything should be moving around like clockwork.

  Chapter 6

  Lucy had not heard from Austin since she kicked him out of her apartment. She didn’t expect for him to come flying back into her arms and beg for her forgiveness but she thought maybe their friendship meant something. Apparently, she was wrong. She was not going to mope around about it though. She gave herself a day to cry and be sad but that was it.

  Lucy did not want to talk to Jane about what happened but she probably didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was nice of Brady to have Jane check on her. She wondered how he knew something went down. Would Austin actually tell the guys about their little escapade?

  Lucy decided to go to her favorite outdoor restaurant, Mossimos, to clear her head and some “me” time. Jane introduced her to the little hole in the wall and Lucy could not get enough of the Greek food.

  She put on a pair of worn out jean capris, boat shoes and a tight white t-shirt. She loved being able to just dress casually and didn’t get much of a chance since she worked all week and a lot of weekends. She parked herself at an outdoor table under a shade tree, ordered a Greek wrap and opened her Kindle. She loved getting lost in her books. They allowed her to escape from her reality for a couple of hours.

  Her food was delivered and she took a nice size bite of her wrap when a carrot flew out of nowhere and hit her in the head. What the hell?

  She looked up and saw Winnie, Molly’s daughter sitting across from her tossing carrots. Was she by herself? Molly was not that bad of a mother that she would leave her daughter by herself…was she?

  Lucy looked around and started to get worried that Winnie was in fact by herself when an extremely attractive man popped up from under her table scaring the living daylights out of Lucy.

  “Jesus! You scared the crap out of me.”

  The man was average height, sandy blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes with a day old of scruff framing his face. He looked oddly familiar but she couldn’t place his face.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” He said while running his hand through his hair, showing off his nicely sculpted biceps. “I was trying to pick up the carrots this little hellion of a girl was throwing around.” He looked down at Lucy’s plate and saw a carrot sitting next to her wrap. “Did she throw that at you?” He asked pointing at the stray carrot.

  “Yes, she got me right between the eyes. For almost being one years old, she has a pretty good arm.”

  The guy looked at her a little confused. “You must be a mom yourself if you know the age of a child from just looking at one.”

  Lucy laughed out loud. “Oh no, not a mom not even a wife not even a girlfriend for that matter. That’s Winnie, I know her mom.”

  Why did she feel it was necessary to give the strange man a detailed report on her dating life? She was nervous, when she was nervous she babbled. Wonderful.

  Who was this guy? Was Molly using him too? Lucy tried to divert her awkwardness.

  “Are you with Molly?”

  “With Molly? No, why would you say that?” He looked at Winnie. “Oh, because I have Winnie with me today?.” He laughed. “No, I’m her uncle.”

  Lucy didn’t know Molly had a sibling, she thought she didn’t have any living family.

  “I didn’t know Molly had a brother.”

  The guy looked down and said, “No, I’m not Molly’s brother, I’m Luke’s brother.”

  Damn, she felt like an idiot. No wonder the guy looked familiar, he looked like Luke. They both had that rugged just-popped-off-the-surf-board kind of look.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Lucy said awkwardly. “I didn’t know him too well but what I learned from our friends, he was an amazing guy.”

  “Thanks, he really was.” The man stuck his hand out and said, “Connor Cartwright and you are?”

  “Lucy Reynolds. I work for Jane, Molly’s best friend.”

  “Oh yes Jane, I had such a crush on her for a while. She’s now engaged to Brady Matthews from the Braves right? He proposed right before a game on the pitcher’s mound”

  Lucy couldn’t help but giggle. “Wow, you sure do keep up with your star magazines, don’t you?”

  “Hey a girl has to keep up with the times.” He said while acting like he was flipping his hair.

  Lucy laughed. “See, I knew you were too good looking and put together to be straight.”

  Connor grabbed Winnie from her highchair and pulled out the chair sitting right in front of Lucy. He didn’t even wait for an invitation, he just made himself at home. She didn’t mind though, she found him quite interesting.

  “Nah, not gay just very comfortable with my feminine side. Not every guy can say that you know. They walk around the streets puffing their chests out, stuffing their pants with socks and flexing every chance they have an opportunity. Not me, I sit back and let my natural beauty attract all the ladies.” Connor said with a devilish grin. Yup…he didn’t have to do much to attract the ladies, that was for sure.

  “Or you bring your niece out to lunch and let her throw carrots at innocent single ladies to get their attention so you can swoop in and apologize for the little rascal. Then you make your move and cleverly sit down next to said lady and woo her with your charms.”

  “Man, nothing gets past you, although in that little statement of yours I did notice you added the fact that you were single. Was that for my benefit?”

  Damn he was so cute holding Winnie and staring at her with those piercing blue eyes. Boy was she in trouble.

  “What’s it to you?”

  “Well, if you are in fact single, that would be a great thing for me because when I saw you sit down earlier, I did in fact hope that Winnie’s carrot tossing skills would come in handy for me. I hoped one might land near you so I could strike up a conversation with the mysterious Kindle reader under the tree. Winnie did me one better and nailed you between the eyes giving me the opportunity to beg for your forgiveness and apologize by taking you out for dinner to make up for the attack of the killer carrot.”

  Damn, he was smooth.

  “I see.” Lucy said while taking a sip of her diet coke. “If you really wanted to apologize you would have sent Winnie across the street to buy me an ice pack for the soon to be carrot shaped shiner on my head.”

  “You see I thought of offering such assistance but knowing Winnie, she would have bought some beer to go with that ice pack and how would that look on me? Letting my niece drink on a Sunday? That is just teaching the children of today ghastly ethics.”

  “You wouldn’t want to do that now would you?” Lucy asked trying to contain the ridiculous grin popping up on her face.

  “No, could you imagine the riots that would start? For a new guy just moving to this lovely city, the last thing I need are angry mothers picketing my house. That is just asking to be quarantined, especially when I’m trying to win the pretty girl at Mossimos over.”

  “Pretty girl at Mossimos? Did you forget my name already?”

  Connor laughed. “How could I forget the name Lucy Reynolds? No, ever since you shook my head and said your name its been engrained in my brain. There is no way I can forget it. So what do you say, can I apologize for my niece and take you out to dinner?”

  “I don’t know, I’m a pretty busy girl. When were you thinking?”

  “Tonight” Connor said with authority.

  “Tonight? My goodness what’s the hurry?”

  “I want to make sure I get to take you out just in case there are complications from the impact of carrot to your skull.

  “Well in that case, tonight it is.”

  Lucy noticed Connor smile even more brightly when she accepted his date offer. They exchanged information and he told her he would pick her up at her place and to wear a dress because they were going dancing.<
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  Lucy could not contain her excitement. This was the perfect distraction she needed from Austin and Connor was actually incredibly adorable and funny. She watched Connor pack up Winnie’s stuff and wave good bye.

  Lucy finished her wrap and paid her bill. She needed to go shopping to find a cute dress to wear for her date tonight because she knew there was nothing in her closet that screamed sexy and that was how she wanted to feel tonight, sexy.

  ***

  The Braves had a day game today and lost which put Marc in a terrible mood. He hated having to deal with a loss during the day. At least if they lost a night came he could just go to sleep, instead he had to think about his two strikeouts and the fact that Phil Montgomery could not throw a strike to save his life.

  Slightly depressed, Marc sat in his house staring at the ceiling drinking a beer. Brady asked if he wanted to come over but Marc didn’t really feel like socializing. His life was beyond confusing right now. For some reason he was falling head over heels for Patty which had never happened to him. He had always been very much a ladies’ man and would tell that to anyone who asked. But ever since he and Patty started becoming closer he hadn’t had the urge to go out and screw with some random girl. No, instead he sat at home, by himself, dreaming of taking Patty to bed with him. What the hell?

  He never pictured himself as a relationship kind of guy but ever since Patty came into his life, all he wanted to do was be with her, talk to her, hold her and kiss her. The worst thing was she didn’t want anything to do with him, romantically, and if he made a move on her he would lose her forever, thanks to the brilliantly-stupid idea he had for a friend contract. Boy did that idea back fire in his face.

  He was taking another sip of his beer when his pone beeped. Most likely it was Brady asking if Marc wanted to come over again. He looked at his phone and surprisingly, it was a message from Patty. She never was the one who initiated conversation. Marc sat up and read the message.

  Patty: Hey, sorry about the loss today. I think I could have done a better job pitching than Phil.

  Marc laughed, yes she could have and she would have looked a hell of a lot better than Phil as well. God he wished Patty was next to him making him feel better. Marc knew he was being a baby about the game. He was just irritated with life in general but he couldn’t help but wonder what life would be like if he came home to Patty after a hard game instead of an empty, cold home.

  Marc: I agree, especially after witnessing that mean Frisbee toss of yours.

  Marc thought about yesterday and Patty’s “touch down” dance. If he wasn’t already in love with her then he would have fallen in love with her the moment she started backpedaling in the park. She was so energetic and fun. If only she gave him a chance, gave a relationship between them a chance, gave love a chance.

  All of a sudden there was a crash at his door or what sounded like one. He got up to see what the commotion was. He opened his door and found a Frisbee sitting at his doorstep with a note attached.

  Let’s have a pool party. Meet you out back.

  PC

  Marc’s heart skipped a beat as he read Patty’s handwriting. Patty was in his backyard, wearing what he could only hope was a very skimpy bikini, swimming in his pool, getting all wet.

  He grabbed his trunks from the guest bathroom, threw them on as quickly as humanly possible and went outside. He was blown over when he saw Patty floating in his pool, wearing a green bikini that made her hair shimmer in the light. She was wearing dark sunglasses and had a beer in her hand.

  “About time, it’s sad partying by yourself.” She said with a smile.

  “How did you get in here?” He asked completely confused but beyond overjoyed that she was at his house, scantily dressed.

  She sat up from her float and tipped her glasses so he could see her eyes. “I work with Jane, who is engaged to Brady, who knows how to get into your house. All I had to do was ask. You should really have better security, you know.” She set her glasses back in place and put her head back down on her float.

  “Apparently.” Marc said with a smile.

  “Oh, do you not want me here, I can leave.”

  “NO! Please stay. You made my day.”

  “Well come join me but I must warn you I’m not keen on splashing and remember the friend contract don’t take this as an opportunity to stare at my fantastic bikini body.”

  “Too late.” Marc said jumping into the pool forming a canon bomb right next to Patty tipping her off her raft and into the pool. When he surged to the surface, so did Patty completely soaked. She looked at him with the intent to kill.

  “You are dead, Sully.”

  “And what are you going to do about it? I probably have about a hundred pound of muscle over you.”

  He watched Patty look around the pool area. She quickly grabbed a pool noodle and swung it in his direction. He was so caught off guard that she hit him square in the jaw with the Styrofoam floating device. She laughed hysterically and floated away.

  She hopped out of the pool and went over to a cooler that was next to a patio set with a fire place. He could not stop staring at her fantastic body. He thanked God for the invention of a bikini. This day was turning out to be better than he expected.

  ***

  Patty grabbed a beer from the cooler knowing the whole time Marc was staring at her. She got out of the pool on purpose. She was not feeling like herself lately, she was feeling extra flirty. She told herself that she didn’t want to be in a relationship and she was not ready but all she wanted to do was be around Marc. She sat at home watching the game, begging for it to be over so she could see him in person.

  She planned on a little pool party for the two of them because frankly, she wanted to see him with his shirt off. She had not gotten any in two years and was past the point of horny. She just needed a little look at Marc and that would hold her over.

  When she saw him come out to the pool area she thanked God for her sunglasses because she knew her eyes must have popped out of their sockets. Marc had the best body she had ever seen. Marc was older than her and in baseball years considered old and ready to retire but by no means did he look it. Patty had to really dig deep to remember the reason she didn’t want to be in a relationship. She didn’t want to get hurt again and could not trust people she thought loved her.

  Marc lifter himself out of the pool and Patty just watched the water drip off of him. She swore the world switched to slow motion and his every step toward her was drawn out so she could see every muscle in his body ripple. Sweet lord, what did she get herself into?

  “Is there a drink in there for me?” Marc asked throwing Patty back into the real world.

  “There might be. What are you looking for?”

  “Shirly temple?”

  Patty pulled out a beer and said, “We ran out of those in the 30’s but if you would like to strap your balls back on and have a beer you can take this one.”

  Marc smiled at her and said, “I guess I don’t have a choice.”

  They sat down at the patio set and just watched the sun disappear. Patty in the back of her mind wished they were sitting together but instead they were sitting across from each other. Patty rested her feet on the fire pit and watched Marc’s eye start from her toes and wonder up her legs. He was not coy about checking her out at all and Patty loved it.

  “So what made you want to have a pool party? Not that I would really call this a party. Two people and some beer does not quite classify as a rager.”

  Patty decided to be honest. “I wanted to see you with your shirt off.” She knew Marc would take that as her joking.

  “Now if I was stickler Patty Cakes I would say that comment falls under a breach in our contract as flirting but I’m going to take it as a science experiment.”

  “Science experiment?” Patty asked confused.

  “Well yea, you said you wanted to see me with my shirt off and clearly since I am the perfect example of a male specimen that means you are che
cking me out to learn about the perfection of male anatomy.”

  Oh Jesus. Patty rolled her eyes at him and took another sip of beer…more like a gulp.

  He continued. “So what do you think?”

  “What do I think of what?” Patty asked.

  “Of the epitome of the male body sitting before you.”

  Two could play at this game Patty thought.

  She got up and stood right before him and said, “I think it’s lacking a little in the pectorals.” She cupped her breasts and leaned over his body saying, “These are breasts see how they are soft and jiggle with the slightest touch?” She saw marc gulp. Then she poked his pec and continued. “See how that just jiggled? You need to tighten up a bit Marc.” She turned away from him and laughed to herself. Then was hit hard by a massive bare chest from behind and was carried to the pool.

  ***

  Marc could not take it any longer, he needed an excuse to touch her and if that meant tossing her in the pool then so be it. When she leaned over and shook her tits in front of him he thought he was going to come right there in front of her. She was being a tease and she knew it. This was good news for him because it gave him hope for the future of their relationship Marc so desperately wanted.

  He flung both their bodies in the pool making sure to take the impact of the water first so Patty didn’t get knocked out by his heavy body. They both kicked around reaching for the surface. They popped up at the same time and treaded water only an arm’s length away from each other.

  They didn’t say anything they just stared at each other. Marc didn’t know how long they were like that until Patty made the first move. She turned and headed for the stairs. He grabbed her wrist and asked her where she was going.

  She looked into his eyes and said, “I’m a little chilly, maybe we can start a fire?”

  “Of course, I didn’t hurt you did I?”