Read Online Stopping Short: A Hot Baseball Romance by Mindy Klasky - Free Book Online

I talked to a friend at the Times . They didn’t run an announcement of your engagement.”
    “Really, Mr. Parker? You and I both know they only list a couple of hundred engagements a year.” Again, Image Masters came to her rescue. In four and a half years, she’d used the postings to bolster a few clients’ reputations. “Drew and I aren’t the country club types, and neither of us went to an exclusive university. We’re hardly the typical subjects for a Times engagement announcement. Try again.”
    He pounced. “Have you set a date for the wedding?”
    Keep it simple . If they didn’t have a date, he couldn’t follow up on a venue, on photographers and caterers and a band. “Not yet. It will be after the regular season ends, of course.”
    “Things can get tricky, timing-wise, if Marshall goes for a Caribbean League.”
    What the hell is that? It sounded as made up as Drew’s Backwards Run. “As I said, we haven’t set a date.”
    The hotel door opened, and a blast of damp air ushered in a knot of players. Jessica hoped Drew wasn’t with them—it was too soon for him to come back after meeting up with his imaginary friends.
    She was in luck. No Drew. She tamped down her illogical disappointment.
    “Is there anything else, Mr. Parker? I was heading up to my room.”
    “I was going to ask you about that. I talked to one of the clerks at the front desk, and she said you had a room reserved in your own name before you came down here. That seems an odd way to plan a reunion with your fiancé.”
    If she ever found out which clerk had ratted her out, she’d get the girl fired. For now, though, she narrowed her eyes to angry slits. “How quickly everyone forgets a scandal! Three weeks ago, your newspaper was telling the world my fiancé was a cheater and a statutory rapist. I came down here with the intention to get the facts, to reconcile anything that needed to be reconciled. I reserved that room in case I needed a little private space. I’m sure your source told you I never slept in that room.”
    He nodded amiably, conceding the point.
    “Any further questions, Mr. Parker? Or may I go upstairs now?”
    He bent a little at the waist, offering a mock bow as he gestured toward the elevator. “Have a good evening.”
    She didn’t bother to say, “Good night.” But the instant the elevator door closed behind her, she had her phone out. It took three texts, but she got all the facts out to Drew. Even if Parker waited for him till last call, her fiancé would know about her ring, their wedding date, and her phantom extra room. Under the circumstances, it was the best she could do.
    ~~~
    The maid was rolling her cart out of the service elevator as Drew slipped his keycard into the hotel lock. He’d taken off his shoes in the hallway, hoping to keep from waking Jessica. He’d undone the buttons on his shirt so he could tug it off in silence.
    Better yet, he’d sleep in it. He probably couldn’t get a T-shirt on without grunting. Not with the bruise across his back, the pressure like a giant thumb pressing down against his spine. She hadn’t seen his scars yet, and he definitely didn’t feel like going into them now.
    He should have drunk more. A lot more. Hell. There wasn’t enough beer in Florida to make that ache go away. And he’d just have to get up to piss, if he was stupid enough to try. And that would mean moving his back… again.
    He flinched as the latch clanked closed. Goddamn hotel room door.
    “I’m awake.”
    He peered into the dim room and saw Jessica sitting up in bed. She was leaning against the headboard, her knees pulled up to her chin. Something glinted in her hands, but he couldn’t make out what it was.
    “Go back to sleep,” he said.
    “I haven’t been to sleep.” She stretched out one hand and turned on the bedside lamp. Now he could see she was holding that big watch she usually kept strapped around her wrist. She must have been tracking the time all night long,