Off the Hook by Laura Drewry Read Free Book Online Page B

your time.”
    He didn’t even like doing his workout with Jessie there, but Kate? Great . He could have turned around and left, and maybe he should have, but he didn’t want her to think she’d scared him off, so after a bit of warm-up, he went into the same arm stretches he did every morning and night. They were never fun, but he’d thrown hard last night, which meant he was paying for it a little this morning.
    It was a price he’d pay, though, because the last time he clocked himself, his fastball was still coming in at only a dismal eighty-eight miles per hour, which was a damn sight worse than what he used to throw before injuries and arthritis slowed him down. Sure, there were plenty of active pitchers who threw under ninety, but they had the ability to throw that consistently. In Liam’s case, all the therapy and practice he’d put in since he’d torn his rotator cuff still didn’t get him over eighty-eight more than a couple of times in a row.
    If he had any hope of making it back, he was going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that, and without access to his trainer now, he had to make damn good and sure he was pushing himself hard enough.
    One more reason not to leave the sweatbox, even if Kate was in there.
    Besides, Jessie was right: With only six weeks to opening, they needed Kate’s help, so it wasn’t as if he could ignore her forever; he was going to have to make the situation work somehow, but how? He had no idea what to say to her, and as the minutes ticked by in silence, it got harder and harder to figure out.

    It was Kate who finally broke the silence.
    “So,” she said, glancing down at her watch. “You and Jessie. Is that a thing?”
    “What?” he choked. “No!”
    “Okay,” she scoffed. “Relax; just making conversation.”
    Right. Conversation. And since the only thing he and Kate had in common that he knew of was their past relationship, it made sense that relationships would be her go-to conversation.
    Lying flat on the weight bench, he bent his knees, adjusted his grip on the barbell above him, and brought it down toward his chest. If he rolled his head back, he’d have been able to watch her run, which was why he stayed perfectly flat, staring up at the ceiling. The last thing he needed was to be distracted by her in that damn spandex.
    “The old man hired her right out of high school. She started out helping with the kitchen and the housekeeping and ended up basically running the joint, until the old man sent everyone packing.”
    “So she’s not with Finn or Ronan, either?”
    “Uh, no. My brothers and I might not be the sharpest tools in the shed when it comes to women, but we’re not crazy. It’ll take someone a hell of a lot tougher than any of us to take her on.” Lift, hold, down. “What about you? Are you and that Josh guy…?”
    “No. The whole hooking up with co-workers isn’t really my thing.” She sounded a little winded as she laughed lightly. “Besides which, Josh is getting married in a couple months to a great guy named Kyle, so even if I was interested in him it probably wouldn’t work out very well for us.”

    Liam didn’t know why that made him smile. Must have been hearing her laugh. Whatever it was, he needed to concentrate, before the barbell ended up on his head. Normally he liked it quiet when he worked out, but there was something oddly relaxing in the steady thump of Kate’s running. In fact, he found himself setting his own rhythm to every fifth step she took.
    Up for five, down for five.
    “Did you, uh, ever remarry?”
    When she didn’t answer right away, he twisted just enough so he could see her, but all she was doing was sipping water out of her water bottle, so he straightened out and gave up on her answering.
    “Nope,” she finally said. “You?”
    Liam’s grin faded. It wasn’t as if he’d ever held celebrity status like some ball players did, but a quick Google search would have given her all sorts of