From Left Field: A Hot Baseball Romance (Diamond Brides Book 7) Read Online Free Page A

word of Adam’s story. And Adam had to admit, he wouldn’t have believed it either. He cleared his throat and said to Haley, “Thanks for the crash space. I’ll get out of your hair now, head over to my place and take a look at the damage before I get to that Foundation meeting.”
    “Sounds like a plan.” She smiled as she said it, but her eyes still missed his.
    I’m sorry about what happened last night.
    Sorry about what didn’t.
    Right. Like he’d say either of those things, with Old Man Reeves sitting there, shoving bites of cake into his mouth like he’d never eaten breakfast before. Adam was saved by Haley turning a blinding smile on the old guy. “What do you think, Mr. Reeves? May I come over to the farm with you now, just to look around?”
    And this time, miracle of miracles, Haley did catch his eye but only to flash him a warning: Don’t mention all the times we sneaked onto Reeves’ property . Her voice was prickly as she said to him, “Mr. Reeves is thinking about selling the farm. I was just telling him it would be perfect for Paws for Love.”
    “Sounds great,” he said, backing away from the spikes beneath Haley’s words. Don’t let Reeves know we were all little juvenile delinquents . “Good luck with that.”
    And then silence settled back over the kitchen, thick and heavy. Reeves glanced between them, and the old guy obviously knew something was up. Haley seemed to remember she needed to turn that plate of little cakes around, just a little to the right, no, to the left.
    Adam shrugged. “Well, I’ve got to see how bad things are next door.” He nodded toward Haley. “Thanks again.” And he ducked out of the kitchen before he had to spend another second thinking about the bedroom upstairs.
    ~~~
    “Well,” Haley said to Mr. Reeves, bravely trying to breathe past the gaping hole in her chest. “Shall we?”
    She gestured toward the door Adam had just left through. Mr. Reeves obliged, pushing in his chair and carrying his coffee cup over to the sink. Haley told him not to fuss, and she led the way out of the kitchen, down the steps, across the damp grass of her back yard.
    She babbled as she walked, telling her neighbor about the great work Paws did. She wanted him to understand that he could be part of something bigger, something important in so many lives. But the entire time she chattered, she thought about that awful moment when Adam had walked into the kitchen.
    Awkward . She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if Mr. Reeves hadn’t been there. Part of her had wanted to blurt out the thoughts that had kept her awake all night. A wiser part, though, had told her to keep her damn mouth shut. She’d survived three decades of successful friendship with Adam Sartain. She wasn’t going to blow them now because of one crazy, overtired shot of lust.
    It was bad enough she was letting that soul-shattering swoop distract her from the business at hand. She shoved down her crazy fantasies and launched herself straight back on the road to normal. She was just in time to hear Mr. Reeves recite the history of the outbuildings.
    “There’s been some sort of stable here since 1829. This one was built in 1926, after a fire leveled the old one. There are twenty individual stalls, each opening off a central aisle, with a large tack room and a bunk room occupying the far end of the building. The stonework was completed by some of the finest masons in the tidewater area, and the carpentry was notable even in a time when handmade was the rule.” He exhaled and said, “Maggie made me memorize all that. We’ve been getting ready to show the place to real estate agents. But you don’t need me to tell you anything. Why don’t you look around inside, and then we can head up to the farmhouse?”
    Haley nodded and took advantage of the man’s gallantry, entering the stable in front of him. She caught her breath at how perfect the building was. The stalls had long ago been swept clean