Innings and Kissing- Chapter 1

Stacey Daniels never thought she’d seen her best friend, Alexa Grey, this happy. Watching from the front of the crowd near the dance floor, she watched the couple in center. In the past year, Alexa had fallen in love with Yankee’s starting pitcher, Nick Steele. The wedding was being held in an enourmous white tent in a small meadow, a few minutes from the city. It seemed as though they had just met, and now Alexa was pregnant and dancing in her wedding gown. A long and flowy ivory gown, made of silk. She looked stunning, as did her husband. He was wearing a fitted suit and a matching black bow tie. But her thoughts weren’t focused on them, she was focused on the over six foot tall specimen that screamed male perfection. Brett Daniels. Second baseman for the Yankees and number one on the batting line up.

He usually used the fact that they had the same last names as a conversation starter. She smirked, knowing he would never find out why her last name was Daniels. Not only was he beautiful, but he knew it, and he took advantage of it. As the couples’ dance was coming to an end, she threw her long, chocolate brown hair over her shoulder and excused herself through the crowd. She needed a little quiet, and then she would come back for the rest of the wedding.

“A few more hours, Stace,” she reminded herself as she made her way to the front of the tent.

Brett Daniels’ eyes followed the sex kitten, Stacey, as she made her way through the crowd and out of the tent. In a short black dress that was so tight, it might as well have been bandanged on her, she made the prettiest damned view he’d ever seen. He watched her ass sway, and noticed a cut made in the dress, sparing him a view of her bronzed back. His view traveled down to the most dangerously sexy legs he’d ever seen in his life, before they quickly dissapeared. Dancer’s legs. She had told him once, during a wedding rehearsal. Him being Nick’s only groom’s men, and her being Alexa’s only bride’s maid, they were stuck together for many events. He had no problem with that, he enjoyed spending time with her, especially dance rehearsals. She had taught him to let his body sway to music while he got to press his body against hers. Many of those times, he hard-on rested against her belly, and he didn’t seem to care. Images of her tight little body flooded his mind, dressed, and not so dressed. His erection strained against the fabric of his slacks, and he downed the rest of his drink before starting out of the tent.

Adjusting himself through his pants, he made his way through the crowd before Thalia crossed his path.

“Damn,” he muttered to himself, before looking up to smile at her.

Thalia was the niece of the Yankee’s owner. She was also the girl who had been pursuing Brett for the last two years, and counting.

“Dance with me,” she said, taking his hand.

“I can’t, Thalia, but it was really nice to see you.”

She did something with her lips, he supposed was meant to be a pout. She was good looking and genuinely nice, but she didn’t measure up to the bars Stacey had raised. No girl in fact had met those standards, he realize.

“Next time,” she said with a glimmer in her eye.

Oh hell, he took her hand and headed towards the dance floor.

“One dance, Thalia.”

Stacey mentally patted herself on the back for inserting gel supports in the soles of her stilletos. Checking her appearance in the mirror in the corridor of the small chapel, she headed out towards the tent once again. The short distance from the building to the tent was chilly, and she noticed the sun was setting. She smiled as she stepped into the tent once again, and heard the band play, Feeling Good, by Frank Sinatra. The dancer in her wanted to sway her hips and move to the music but she lacked a partner. She made eye contact with Alexa and smiled. The couple was saying their goodbye’s and prepared for the honeymoon. They would enojoy it, she knew it. She had planned it, after all. With help from a hulking man who starred in many of her wettest dreams.

Her smile stopped short, when she saw a heart breaking picture ahead of her. It was as if her thoughts had summoned Brett into her path. He was dancing, with a girl who seemed vaguely familar. Thalia, ah, yes. She remembered Thalia making appearances at every event Brett was at. How dare he? How dare he used the moves she showed him, and with another woman. His hands were wrapped around her waist, and her face was nuzzled in his neck. She had said something, because a few seconds they were laughing. It seemed so, intimate and normal.

And the first crack in her shiny armor had been made.

She scolded herself because she knew better. Coming from a terribly shady past, she built a barricade around her heart. Lacking parents and bouncing from foster home to foster home, Stacey had never known real love. She vowed to herself she would never love someone else, she couldn’t. Love had too many risks, risks she wasn’t willing to take. Not until Mary Phillips, her adoptive mother.

Mary had saved her from the hands of a cold foster home, and promised her a sunny future. Mary was her mother and guardian angel. She was sitting a few tables over, in a long, pleated skirt. The pale color of the skirt matched her graying hair, and Stacey made her way towards her mom.

As the last strums of the song were played, Brett inwardly sighed in relief. He didn’t mind Thalia, he would just rather spend time with Stacey. Or inside her. Since the first time he looked into her eyes, he was sucker punched. The deep chocolate color trapped him in a vise. There was something more, something unholy. There was no doubt in his mind that she had been to hell and back.

“Thank you for the dance, Brett,” Thalia said in a breathy voice.

He smiled, knowing she meant for that to sound sexy.

“The pleasure is mine, Thalia."

Before she had the chance to say anything else, Brett felt a firm hand clasp his shoulder.

He turned to see Nick’s shit eating grin, “Sorry Thalia, I need Brett for a moment.”

She smiled and politely excused herself.

“Nick, I don’t think I’ve ever loved you more.”

“What’s wrong, Irish, can’t handle a small blonde?”

Brett rolled his eyes at the nick name he adopted over the years.

“Lex and I are leaving, and I just wanted to say thank you, man. For everything,” Nick said before embracing his best friend.

Nick knew in the bottom of his heart that Stacey and Brett were destined for each other, he just wondered how long before they realized it.

“Oh you sap, get on. Tell Lex I said congrats,” Brett said as Nick turned and headed for his wife.

A ping of jealousy washed over him as he saw them both react so naturally to each other, so warm. He wanted love, but he knew he could never have it. He was incapable of it, he never knew love. When his father died, and his mother took a vow of silence, he was forced to raise himself. At the age of 14, Becca and Carrick had saved him. He was an angry adolescent, but they saved him. Raised him, and loved him. They were his saviors and he would never be able to pay them back for everything they had done for him.