Baseball and Other Lessons (Devil's Ranch Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

instead. Luckily the place was pretty empty—the only other occupants were a teenage couple in a back corner, and they were more interested in eating each other’s tongues than the hamburgers in front of them——which helped him relax a little.
    He loved his job. Loved baseball. He usually loved meeting fans and signing autographs, especially if those fans were kids. Ever since the accident, though, he’d found himself wanting privacy in a way he never had.
    He guessed having a near-death experience would do that to a person.
    Matt pulled his phone from his back pocket and pretended to look at the screen while he really took the opportunity to watch Jenn.
    Something about her got under his skin. Sometimes she pissed him off. Others she confused him. When she wasn’t doing either of those she was making him laugh.
    And all of those times he wanted her.
    He couldn’t wrap his head around it, either. He’d been with some gorgeous women; models, actresses, a former beauty queen. He’d been pursued by no shortage of jersey chasers over the past ten years, most of whom looked (and acted) like they belonged on the set of a porno rather than hanging out at the ballpark.
    Matt knew he was attractive in a logical, simple aesthetics sort of way, just like he knew that his fame, athleticism and money were attractive in a different sort of way. If he wanted sex, he could find it. If he needed a date for some swanky fundraiser, he could find one. His contact list wasn’t exactly on the small side.
    So why Jenn?
    He knew himself well enough to realize that part of it was probably the challenge—as a competitive guy, he hated to lose, and she’d definitely thrown down the gauntlet more than once.
    It was more than that, though. No, she wasn’t his usual type, but she also didn’t treat him like his usual type did.
    She treated him like a human being.
    She wasn’t afraid to get snippy with him, or insult him or let him know just what she thought of him. She never had been, and quite frankly, it was refreshing.
    An exacerbated sigh met his ears. Jenn was glaring at him.
    “What’d I do now?”
    “You were staring at me with this faraway look in your eyes.”
    He shrugged.
    “You’re not still having concussion symptoms, are you?”
    Not at the moment. “No. I was just thinking.”
    “Don’t hurt yourself.”
    “Original.”
    “Fuck off, Matt.”
    “Such a dirty mouth Ms. McDonnell. Do you teach English with that thing?”
    She balled a white napkin up in her fist. “You want dirty, I’ll show you dirty.”
    “Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea of how dirty you can get, Jenn.” He winked at her, just to piss her off more.
    Her skin flushed red from her chest to the tips of her ears, just like he knew she would.
    She threw the balled up napkin at him. He was nice and didn’t duck out of the way, let it bounce off his nose instead. Really, it was the least he could do, all things considered.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    “Why haven’t you come to see me more, young man?”
    Matt bent down and hugged his mom. “Sorry, Mama. I still can’t drive and haven’t wanted to bother Chase too much.”
    “Bullshit,” Chase coughed into his hand.
    Sarah swatted Chase before poking Matt in the chest. “You know good and well that Dad or I would gladly come over here, or pick you up if you needed us to.” She placed her hands on her ample hips. “So what’s going on?”
    Matt shrugged and enveloped his dad—Bo—in a hug while trying to formulate a believable answer for his mom.
    “It’s good to see you, son.”
    “Good to see you, too, Dad.”
    The four of them moved from the front entry of Chase’s house to the kitchen, where Chase had been in the middle of preparing hamburger patties for the day’s Fourth of July festivities. Comfortable in his brother’s kitchen, Matt went to the fridge and retrieved a beer for his dad and a bottle of water for his mom.
    Sarah leaned against the kitchen island and pinned