God, I hope I wear this jersey forever.
—Derek Jeter
Liam didn’t need any of them to try to explain their sides of what they’d done or why; none of it mattered anymore. All that mattered was that about an hour after they’d walked into the lodge, Kate had suddenly disappeared.
She’d been gone almost ten minutes, which wasn’t long, but he hated that she’d just up and left without saying anything. He’d tried again and again to cut his brothers and Jessie off so he and Kate could get out of there, but none of them were having it, which was made clear again when Jessie slid another fresh pint of Gat toward him.
They wanted to know everything, wanted to hear every detail of every game, and he felt obliged to answer, since they were part of the reason he’d gone to Oakland in the first place.
“I forgot how hot it gets down there. And standing up on the—”
The door between the kitchen and the pub swooshed open, and there was Kate.
“Holy shit.” Liam tried to swallow and couldn’t. He tried to breathe and couldn’t. Shit, he couldn’t even blink.
“You about done here?” she asked, her wide smile rendering him even more useless than he already was.
In the couple of minutes that she was gone, she’d let her hair down, so it fell all loose and wavy over her shoulders, and she’d changed her clothes.
Her yellow gum boots replaced the old running shoes she’d had on, and instead of her jeans and T-shirt, what she now wore—all she wore—was a jersey. Not the one she used to wear, white with the fancy “D” on the chest and Verlander’s name on the back.
Hells to the no.
The one she wore now was an Oakland home jersey, white with the green “Athletics” written across her chest and…
…she turned slowly and there it was: “O’Donnell—2.”
Liam was off his stool and around the bar before his name even finished registering in his brain.
“Hey!” Finn cried, laughing along with Ro and Jessie. “Where you going? I want to hear more about California!”
Liam didn’t even acknowledge that the idiot had spoken. He tripped through the mudroom after Kate, but as they hustled outside, she tipped her beautiful teasing smile up at him.
“You sure you’re up for this, Sporto? You probably shouldn’t be overexerting yourself too much, what with the bad arm and everything.”
“What? You mean this?” Trying not to wince too much, Liam jerked the sling off and tossed it over his shoulder as her smile faded to worry. “I could use a little overexertion.”
“You sure?”
“Damn right.” Liam yanked open her cabin door and waved her inside. “So long as the exertion is all on my left arm, we’ll be good.”
“Don’t you worry,” she said, as the smile inched its way back. “I’ll do all the heavy lifting tonight.”
Smitten. There really was no other word for it.