Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART TWO (7 page)

She smiled at that and he imagined that was the same smile that would be on her face when she got the flowers at the Sweet Shop and read the mushy card he’d include. Because it would have to be mushy. Caitlyn deserved flowers with mushy cards attached.

“You can order flowers for delivery online, you know,” she said.

He nodded. Not that he’d ever done it. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d sent a girl flowers. Had he
ever
sent a girl flowers? The best he could think of was the corsage he’d given his prom date. He hadn’t been all about romance back then. Or ever. He’d been all about baseball. Period.

His chest felt a little tight as he again realized that with Caitlyn, he could have it all—baseball and romance.

He took her hand and lifted it to kiss the back. “I know. But I want to go into that shop right there, pick out flowers I know will make you light up, and dictate the card in person.”

Her smile turned even sweeter. “Sounds good to me.”

He kept ahold of her hand as he continued down the street. “And there’s the grocery store where I’ll buy the ingredients to make you dinner the next time you come down.”

“Ooh, what will it be?” Her light tone indicated that she was expecting him to say something simple like spaghetti with sauce from a jar.

He grinned. He had a few surprises for Miss Caitlyn.

“Teriyaki salmon, roasted asparagus and parmesan risotto.”

She was completely quiet at that. He looked over to find her staring at him with her mouth open.

“What?”

“Seriously?”

He gave her a wink. “Seriously. And Candy-girl, I’m even going to make you dessert. You might be the pro, but I’ve got some skills.”

“What will dessert be?”

“A surprise.”

Caitlyn turned slightly on her seat. “If you say crème brûlée, I’ll love you forever.”

Her teasing words slammed into him.

I want that
.

God, he wanted that.

He swallowed hard. “Crème brûlée it is then.”

He’d look up how to make that first thing tomorrow. After Cait and Ty and Bryan left. Eli was shocked by how much he hated the idea of saying goodbye to her. He worked on not squeezing her hand too hard.

They kept driving. “Okay, so here’s the café where I’ll bring you for breakfast the next morning.” He paused. “Make that brunch. No, lunch.”

She laughed. “They don’t do good breakfasts?”

He hadn’t actually been there for breakfast yet. But that wasn’t the issue. “I’ll be keeping you up too late to make it out of bed before lunch,” he said with a grin.

Her grin matched his when he glanced over and his chest and his cock tightened simultaneously.

Hell, they might not be able to do more than get a pizza delivered.

“Here’s the post office,” she said, as they rolled past. “This is where you’ll pick up the care packages I send.”

His heart thumped. God, how could he
not
love her?

“What kinds of stuff will be in these packages?” he asked, pulling up in front of the building.

“Cookies,” she said. “Of course. Copies of the
Sapphire Falls Times
. Some nuts and bolts because you’ll miss them.” She gave him a grin. “Bacon cupcakes.”

“That all sounds ama— Hang on,” he said, as the last two works sunk in. “Bacon
cupcakes
?”

She nodded. “Maple cupcakes with pieces of real bacon in the frosting.”

Damn. “You send those and
I’ll
love
you
forever.”

The words were not an accident. He wanted to tell her. He wanted her to know what he’d written in pink icing on her body. He wanted to tell the
world
.

“Well, then I wonder how you’ll feel when you see the dirty notes I’ll include,” she told him with a mischievous smile.

“Like the luckiest man in the world,” Eli said gruffly.

He leaned in and kissed her again. By the time he’d finished, she had the front of his shirt crumpled in both fists.

“Let’s go have ice cream,” he said, when he’d pulled back.

“Ice cream?” She blinked up at him. “Is that code for something else?”

He laughed and brushed her hair back from her cheek. He loved how much she wanted him too. “No. I want to buy you an ice cream sundae. I know it sounds crazy and cheesy and dumb but that seems like a date thing, a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. We’ve never dated. We jumped from friends to lovers and we don’t really need to get to know each other or share a lot of stories about our pasts or our families, but I want some of that sweet stuff too.”

She shook her head, her expression confused and touched at the same time. “I’m a sure thing, you know.”

He chuckled and ran a thumb over her cheek. “I want you to know that the sweet, romantic stuff is a sure thing too.”

She sighed, the sound a happy, contented one. “So, no taking me from behind somewhere semi-public in Kilby?”

Lust rushed through him. But there was something else too, something softer. Love.

“I didn’t say that, did I?” He gave her a wicked grin and began mentally cataloging all of the places he knew of that might work as he drove to Scoop, Kilby’s most popular ice cream shop.

He hadn’t been in Kilby long enough to really know. Over the back of the couch in the hotel suite seemed fine with him.

But ice cream first. Caitlyn Murray deserved to be wooed a little.

Ten minutes later, Eli had decided that buying Caitlyn ice cream was the worst idea ever. She scooped up a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and caramel topping and proceeded to lick the creamy mixture from her spoon. Slowly. Seductively. Her eyes on Eli’s the whole time.

He took a huge bite of his own ice cream with hot fudge, hoping to cool off a little. Turned out that wanting a woman more than his next breath made romantic wooing a chore. He wanted to grab her and the ice cream and head back to the hotel for a sweet, sticky snack. He was certain that her skin would taste even better with caramel on it than the ice cream did.

“No chocolate, huh?” he asked, trying to keep to friendly, innocuous talk rather than telling her all the things he’d rather she be doing with her tongue.

Caitlyn swallowed her bite. “Chocolate is great. Caramel’s just better.” She grinned.

Caramel is better. Noted.

Though he could make her like hot fudge
a lot
. Or strawberry. Or marshmallow…

“Hot fudge is your go-to though?” she asked.

He watched the tip of her tongue pick up a drop of ice cream from her bottom lip.

“Eli?”

He looked up into her eyes. “Huh?”

“Hot fudge? That’s your favorite?”

“Caitlyn.”

“Yes?”

He gave her a half grin. “That’s my favorite flavor. Caitlyn.”

Her cheeks turned a little pink but her smile was huge. “Not an ice cream topping.”

“You’re right. You would be under the ice cream. How about we take some to go and I’ll show you how Caitlyn flavoring really goes with anything.”

She grinned and licked at her spoon again, nearly missing the drizzle of caramel. Which would have landed on her right breast. He could easily imagine the caramel sliding down the sweet mound to her nipple. He’d become a fast fan of caramel too.

“I’d like to take that spoon and—”

“Hey, Eli.”

He sat up straight and focused on the waitress standing next to their table.

Crap. She hadn’t waited on them tonight, but Eli knew he knew her from somewhere, he just couldn’t place it.

“Is this Caitlyn?”

He looked at Caitlyn in surprise. But she didn’t seem to know the woman either.

“Uh, yes. My girlfriend. From back home in Sapphire Falls.”

“Yeah, you’re the one that makes the Cracker Jacks, right?” the waitress asked.

Caitlyn laughed. “You know about that?’

“Stewart is my dad,” the woman said. “I’m Jill.” She offered Caitlyn her hand.

Jill. Right. The scout’s daughter. She’d stopped by practice the other day.

“Dad was raving about your stuff,” Jill said. “He was hoping you would make it on a regular basis.”

Caitlyn blushed. “How nice. It was just a recipe I was playing with.”

“Well, he said I should talk to you about selling it in here. I own this shop and we’re always looking for new treats. Do you do anything else that’s baseball themed?”

Caitlyn gave Eli a surprised glace but she nodded. “Um, yes. I do dipped strawberries and then decorate them to look like baseballs. And cookies in various shapes, of course—bats and gloves and bases. And then there’s my Take Me Out to the Ballgame cupcakes.”

Her eyes were sparkling as she spoke and Eli felt a warmth spread in his chest.

Pride. He was proud of her. Her skills in the kitchen were well known in Sapphire Falls but she deserved to be known beyond their tiny hometown.

“Wow, tell me about those,” Jill said.

“The cupcake batter has a light ale in it and then the frosting is peanut butter with crushed roasted peanuts on top.”

Jill’s eyes widened. Eli’s felt his doing the same. Holy crap those sounded amazing.

“I’m sold,” Jill said with enthusiasm. “Those would be a huge hit. We could even talk about setting up a little stand at the park.”

Caitlyn looked over at Eli again. He gave her a wink.

“Really?” she asked Jill.

“Yeah, let’s talk business. Put together a proposal and email it to me.” Jill leaned over and scribbled her email address and phone number on a napkin.

Caitlyn picked it up and stared. “But…” She looked up. “You don’t even know me.”

“But you’re with Eli. Eli’s a Catfish. That means you’re one of us,” Jill said. “And when Eli moves up to San Diego, we’ll figure something out. Maybe we can get our mail-order stuff and website finally set up.”

“When Eli… But…”

Eli jumped in when Caitlyn continued to stumble over her words. “Thank you so much, Jill. That’s really great of you.”

“Well, I know you’re gonna be a big star and make millions but I thought your girl might want something to do when she moves down here,” Jill said with a grin.

“Move? But… Eli…,” Caitlyn started again.

Eli couldn’t help but chuckle, even though he didn’t love her obvious shock over the idea of moving down here to be with him.

“Thanks, Jill,” Eli said.

“You bet. I’ll make some calls. I’ll be waiting to hear from you,” she told Caitlyn before she moved off.

Eli looked over at Caitlyn. He gave her a wink. “That your catfish impression?”

Caitlyn had been watching Jill walk away. She swung back to face him. “Huh?”

“With your eyes wide and your mouth hanging open, you look a little bit like a catfish.”

She snapped her mouth shut.

He chuckled.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “People are assuming a lot.”

Was she embarrassed by the idea that people were assuming they were so serious she would soon be moving down here and eventually going to San Diego—God willing—with him?

“I don’t mind that people are assuming we’re going to end up together, Cait. I want you here. As much as possible. All the time, if possible.”

She swallowed hard. “I’ve always wanted to have my own shop.”

“Yeah?” It occurred to Eli that, while he’d known Caitlyn most of his life, and knew all about how she’d grown up and her friends and family, he didn’t know about her plans,
her
dreams.

She’d been all about his dreams. She’s
taken him
to his dreams. She’d never stopped believing. And pushing.

But he didn’t know what she wanted.

“You’ve always wanted to own a bakery?”

She shrugged. “I think I always assumed I’d do desserts in a big fancy restaurant, actually. But I had thought about owning my own restaurant. A dessert-only place. I was going to call it Just Desserts.” She gave him an adorably abashed smile.

“That’s awesome,” Eli said. “I…never knew that.”

And suddenly he felt like kind of an ass. She knew everything about him, everything about what he wanted.

Okay, maybe she didn’t know
everything
about how he felt about her. And he most definitely wanted her. But she would know. Soon.

She tipped her head with a little smile. “How would you have known?”

Because he could have
asked
her. He could have taken her out on a date and
talked
to her. He could have taken her out on a dozen dates. He could have not assumed he already knew her and knew what was important to her. He could have not gotten so wrapped up in his own stuff over the past few weeks and done more than flirted with her via text.

He reached across the table and took her hand. “Tell me about it now.”

“There’s nothing to tell now.”

“What do you mean?”