Read Online Center Stage: A Hot Baseball Romance (Diamond Brides Book 8) by Mindy Klasky - Free Book Online

open window, and his gut tightened as he saw the perfect red teardrops of her manicure. “Keys, please,” she said.
    “You planned this all along,” he said.
    She ran her right hand over the dashboard as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. “Can you blame me?” she purred.
    Shit. He didn’t like handing his keys over to someone else. Especially not someone who had nearly gotten herself T-boned by a minivan the night before.
    But that was then. This was now. Tonight, she wasn’t running away from the church where she’d been jilted. She looked calm, relaxed, and he had to figure she’d gotten some sleep the night before.
    Hell, he was the one who’d somehow appointed himself the one-man Bridal Recovery Team. He’d agreed to head out to Chester Beach without a second’s hesitation, even though he was supposed to be getting the final treatments on his hamstring tomorrow, even though he should sit in the dugout with the team and watch the guys thrash Atlanta.
    But he could see a trainer on the Satellites staff; he’d already figured that out. And heading to Chester Beach gave him a chance to check up on Dad, to live up to the promise he’d made his mother. Hell, Lindsey had made the decision on her own; he was only keeping an eye on her, exactly the way Ormond would want him to.
    Christ, he was a damned good liar.
    He swung around to the passenger side. If Lindsey showed any lack of judgment behind the wheel, if she slipped up in any way whatsoever, he’d have her pull over to the shoulder in a heartbeat. Hell, it was only a two-hour trip to Chester Beach. What could happen in two hours?
    He passed her the snacks once he’d closed his car door. Peeking inside the bag, she looked like a kid with a Christmas stocking, and she squealed about the peanut butter crackers like they were caviar on toast. She gulped down three before she looked up at him, orange crumbs caught in the corner of her mouth.
    “Want some?” she asked, delicately licking away the evidence with the tip of her tongue.
    He shook his head, not trusting himself to deliver a civil reply. Instead, he grabbed for one of the Cokes, drank a quarter of it and barely resisted the urge to press the cold bottle against the pulse point in his wrist.
    What the hell was he doing? This was Lindsey Ormond , for God’s sake.
    Time to retrench. He had to get Lindsey to Chester Beach. Get her tucked away safely in the guest bed at Dad’s place. Walk down to the ocean with her to see the sun rise, make this crazy Senior Skip Day a reality. Take her out for cotton candy and French fries on the boardwalk in the afternoon, then drive her back and leave her with her sisters. Maybe even leave her with Zach.
    That’s what friends did.
    He started reciting the litany again: Chester Beach, guest bed, French fries, home. He hadn’t cleared the word bed , though, when Lindsey cleared her throat. He recognized a pointed question when he heard one. “What?” he asked.
    “Keys?”
    Right. He handed them over, telling himself this was all going to work out just fine. Chester. Beach. Guest. Bed.
    She started the ignition, and the Ferrari’s powerful engine thrummed beneath them, ready to tear up the road. “Okay?” she asked.
    And for just one second, he saw a question in her eyes. She wasn’t a Bad Girl Bitch, intent on driving him nuts with her sexy smile and her straight-to-his-cock teasing.
    For just that moment, she was his teammate’s baby sister. She was a wounded girl, who’d been hurt by some guy she’d trusted, who’d been embarrassed and torn apart in front of the people she wanted most to impress. She was scared. She was unsure. She was Lindsey.
    So he made himself smile. He locked his seatbelt into place, and he grabbed the handhold above his door. “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go.”
    She waited until they were back on the freeway before she floored it.
    ~~~
    Lindsey concentrated on the road in front of her. She knew she should be