Earning A Ring. Kristina Mathews

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СКАЧАТЬ you can’t be serious.”

      “Oh, I can be serious.” He closed the distance between them. Standing so close she could almost feel his heartbeat, he leaned into her space. “I can be very serious.”

      He placed his finger under her chin, tilting her head so he could look into her eyes.

      “Please, Rachel, won’t you take a chance on me?” He rested his forehead against hers. The heat from his body radiated through her. He hadn’t showered yet and he smelled of sweat, glove leather, and that scent that was uniquely his. “Take a chance on us.”

      “You make it sound so simple. I almost want to believe you.”

      “So why don’t you?”

      “Because I don’t want you to hate me. I don’t want you to resent our child.” She could barely get the words out past the lump in her throat.

      “Never.” He shook his head. “How can you even suggest that?”

      “I know how you feel about your ex-wife. I’ve heard you say it enough times.”

      “That’s totally different.” He backed up, folded his arms across his chest.

      “No, Bryce, it’s not. You only married her because she was pregnant. You wouldn’t have proposed to me if I wasn’t pregnant.”

      “Ah, hell.” He fisted his hands, clenched his jaw, and exhaled. “There’s one crucial difference here.”

      “What’s that?”

      “I like you.” He shrugged, his lips twitching with amusement.

      “You like me?” Hope bloomed in her chest. But it was overrun by disbelief.

      “Well, yeah. I do.” He reached for her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed her palm. “I like you a lot.”

      She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So she did both.

      “Rachel, look at me.” This was a side of Bryce she’d never seen. Serious. Sincere. And very dangerous where her heart was concerned. “I know it seems kind of sudden, maybe a little bit crazy. But I just know that when I’m with you, everything feels right. You’re good for me. You’re good for my game.”

      “Your game?” She knew it was too good to be true. “You want to marry me because you think it will help your game?”

      “No. That’s not it.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “All I know is that everything I accomplished last season was so much better because you were there with me. We can be great together. Let’s take a swing at it.”

      She knew the odds were against them. They didn’t have a solid relationship, and bringing a baby into the world would be hard enough without the added pressure of the spotlight given to the reigning World Series MVP and his Emmy-award-winning fiancée.

      “I can’t marry you, Bryce.” She wanted to believe in him, but even he couldn’t pull this off. “It just would never work.”

      “But you already said yes.” He sounded a little surprised; it was the first time she’d ever turned him down.

      “I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of the camera.”

      “So what do we do? Break up after the next home stand?” Now he sounded angry. “Should we have a fight in front of the camera? How will that protect your job?”

      “I don’t know.” This whole thing was out of her control. “I just know that getting married isn’t the answer. And now that the whole world knows about our relationship, I doubt my career is going to go anywhere. Just this afternoon, my boss warned me to stay away from you. Then you go and propose live in front of everyone.”

      Rachel didn’t know how to stay strong, but she just knew she had to. She wasn’t sure why she’d said yes. Part of it was the lights, the crowd, the romanticism of the gesture. Part of it was wanting to believe he really did want her. That he wasn’t just trying to deflect the spotlight away from his game.

      “What do you want me to do?” He sounded bewildered. It wasn’t an emotion she ever expected from him. “Do you want me to take it back? To go on camera and say the proposal was a joke? I didn’t mean it?”

      “You didn’t mean it,” she said softly. “I know you don’t want to marry me. You don’t even want to date me. You just wanted to sleep with me whenever you had a good game. I was like your champagne.”

      He looked as if she’d just slapped him. But then he recovered and he moved in with that slow, sexy grin. “I do want to marry you.”

      “No. You don’t.” She knew in her heart that he couldn’t. “But don’t worry. I’ll think of something. You just concentrate on your game. I’ll figure out how to fix this.”

      “So that’s it?” His smile faded.

      She nodded, unable to say anything more. After taking a deep breath, she opened the door. Bryce followed her into the clubhouse. Someone handed her a glass of champagne and offered another to Bryce.

      “Congratulations to the happy couple.” Marco Santiago lifted his own glass.

      “Congratulations!”

      “Cheers!”

      Rachel knew everyone was watching her, expecting her to take a sip. Her hands shook both from having everyone watching her, and from wondering if one sip would hurt the baby. But if she didn’t take a drink, it would only raise further questions about their sudden, if fake engagement.

      She brought the glass to her lips, the lights of the clubhouse reflecting off the ridiculously large diamond on her finger.

      * * * *

      Bryce could tell Rachel was stressed about drinking the champagne. She couldn’t because of the baby, but not participating in a celebratory toast would raise questions neither of them was ready to answer right now.

      He leaned over, and whispered into her ear. “Pretend I’m saying something so funny you can’t help but spit champagne all over the place.”

      Like a trooper, she sputtered her drink and spilled what was left in her glass.

      “We appreciate your support,” Bryce told his teammates. “But we’d really like to celebrate in private.”

      He placed his hand on her lower back and escorted her out of the clubhouse.

      “Thank you for that.” She sounded genuinely grateful for his rescue.

      “Hey, we’re in this together.” Despite the fact that she was getting cold feet. But in a way he couldn’t blame her. This wasn’t exactly the scenario little girls dreamed of. He certainly hoped his daughter didn’t pretend to meet some guy at a bar, get knocked up, married, and divorced within a year like her mother had done. “Come to my place tonight.”

      She shook him off.

      “Look, СКАЧАТЬ