Changing the Game by Jaci Burton Page B

hitter, Dedrick was a powerhouse with a bat and held the team home-run record. Gavin leaned right.
    First pitch was a strike. Second was in the dirt, but the catcher smothered it, saving a run. Dedrick got a piece of the third pitch but sent it behind him into the stands, foul. He connected on the fourth pitch and let it sail over the left field wall for a home run. Hell yeah. All Gavin had to do was make a slow trek around the bases.
    As Gavin made his way to homeplate, despite the fans wild cheering, Elizabeth didn’t once look up.
    Dammit.
    They ended up winning the practice game seven to two. Gavin showered, talked to the press, and signed a few autographs. Elizabeth met him at the dugout when he was finished.
    “Next time I need to bring a hat. The sun is hot,” she said as they walked to his car.
    “Did you enjoy the game?”
    “Yeah. It was great.”
    As if she had any idea. “What was the final score?”
    She tilted her sunglasses down her nose. “Seven to two. You won and you scored twice. You’re crowding the plate a little, though. You need to step back, or someone’s going to bean you in the head.”
    Huh. So maybe she was paying attention.
    He opened her door for her and she slid in. He tossed his gear in the trunk, feeling stupid for being mad. He slammed the trunk door and got in the car, started it up and headed back to the house.
    When they got inside, Elizabeth went into the kitchen. “You want something to drink?”
    “A beer would be good.”
    He went outside and sat on the porch. She brought out two bottles of beer. He twisted the top off both, handed one back to her.
    “Don’t really see you as a beer drinker,” he said as she took a seat on the swing.
    She took a long swig. “You don’t know all that much about me, Gavin.”
    “True enough. Why don’t you tell me?”
    “I’m not really here for you to delve into my background, am I? I’m here because you want to fuck me. So let’s just leave it at that.”
    He’d hit a nerve. Something she didn’t want him to know about. But she was right. He didn’t know much about her other than she’d started working for one of the top sports agencies right out of college, apprenticed with one of the best agents, and pushed her way into getting her own clients by the time she was twenty-three. Right off the bat she’d signed some pretty impressive figures. Since then she’d picked up a portfolio of some of the best the sports world had to offer in a wide variety of sports—athletes from football, baseball, hockey, basketball, tennis, and NASCAR. She was known as an agent and public relations magician, and she was highly sought after. Athletes came to her, not the other way around.
    But losing someone as high profile as Mick had hurt her, put a dent in her credibility. He wondered how much.
    Actually, he wondered a lot about her, realized he knew nothing about her personal life at all. He’d never bothered to ask.
    “Where did you grow up, Elizabeth?”
    She didn’t answer right away, instead took a long swallow of beer. “Arkansas.”
    His brows rose. “Really? For some reason I thought you grew up in the East.”
    “You thought wrong.”
    He sat on the chair across from the swing and tipped his beer to his lips. “Where in Arkansas?”
    “A small town. You wouldn’t even recognize the name if I told you.”
    “You’re a small-town girl? I never would have believed it. You have big city written all over you.”
    “People can change who they are, reinvent themselves.”
    “Is that what you did?”
    She lifted her gaze to his. “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I wanted to get away from the girl who grew up in Arkansas and become someone else.”
    “Who were you back then that was so bad?”
    “I don’t want to talk about this, Gavin.”
    She swirled her thumb over the top of the bottle. It was obvious she was uncomfortable talking about her past. But something made him push.
    “Why not? Everything we are today is partly due