“Whatever, Ash. You know the chances of me dating are non-existent, especially a jerk like him.” I nod toward the field where Jace stands on the pitching mound, the kids filling in the other positions around him. We turn our attention back to the hottie in the center of the infield.
“Wow, what do you have against him?” Ashley glances at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Oh geez, Laurel, don’t tell me you’re one of the groupies that went to spring training and hooked up with him!”
I swat her leg and laugh. “No! You really think I’d keep that kind of secret from you?”
“Ow!” She rubs her leg like I really hurt her. “You’d better not. If you hooked up with him, you had better give me all the details… and I mean all.”
I turn to face her. “Is your sex life that bad that you have to live vicariously through me?”
“Hell no! I’m just saying that if you ever got in bed with a baseball god like Jace Richards then I’d want a play by play. Don’t get me wrong, Kurtis and I have a hot sex life, but his body is nothing like that.” She nods to the field again and we both subconsciously sigh at the sight in front of us.
“Duly noted, I’ll add that to our friendship pact. If I ever get laid by a baseball god, take notes and tell you.” Giggling, we pinky promise and watch the kids practice. We met in elementary school and some days, we still act like we’re still in fifth grade.
After a few minutes, Ashley asks again, “So for real, what’s your beef with Jace Richards?”
I shrug. “Everything I’ve read about him says he’s a cheater. He cheated his team, he cheated the system, he cheated on that trainer he was dating…”
“Oh, so you hate him because your ex cheated on you?”
Jace winds up again, whizzing another ball past the batter. “You know what they say, once a cheater, always a cheater.”
Ashley lifts her eyebrow. “Well, haven’t you heard, don’t always believe everything you read?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. Ashley has a point, I don’t know this guy. Maybe the tabloids lied about him, maybe there’s more to his story. I sigh, maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt. Then again, last time I gave a man the benefit of the doubt, I wound up divorced.
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
Another at Bat was my first introduction to the books of Ms Layne but I’ve already 1-clicked a couple to my kindle and added a few more to my wish list – I really enjoyed her story, characters an writing style!
Although I didn’t know anything about Jace Richards when I started reading, as I hadn’t read ‘The Right Pitch’, I got the idea pretty early on that he had been a real lad and had some issues to deal with – but even so, I adored him pretty much from the start.
Having messed up big time – including badly hurting someone he claimed to love – he’d been kicked out of MLB and found himself down in Florida coaching a boys team…. not where he thought life would take him it kinda sucked to be him, right?? … except his initial thoughts were knocked on their head when he met Laurel, the mum of one of his young players.
Laurel – I loved her from the get go. She was straight-talking, strong, determined, independent, feisty – and oh yeah, she was hot. She didn’t let Jace pull any crap – with her, the team or himself, she took him as he was (well ok, that wasn’t quite her attitude to begin with but Mr Richards drew her in by letting her see the real Jacen and she began to see him differently)
Our girl had a fair bit of baggage following her divorce and was still having to deal with her ex-husband – boy was he a piece of work, I really couldn’t stand Adam and wished him gone often!!
Everyone (well, almost everyone!) deserves a second chance and Jace turned out to be a really good guy – hell, he was a sweetheart (a smokin’ hot one at that!!) – who does his damnedest to straighten his life out, turn things around and get his girl.
His interactions with Grey and Sam are fabulous – you could tell it was because he genuinely liked the kids and not just because he was trying to get into HotShots pants!! 🙂
The build up of the relationship between the couple was perfect – both had issues that they had to deal with and overcome and I liked that they didn’t rush into things, they took their time and it all felt right and very natural. Lyssa, in my humble opinion, got that spot on!
Another at Bat was a fantastic read – it was sweet, funny, emotional and at times I thought my heart might stop!! Great supporting characters added to the story – the boys especially.
I give AaB 5* and have to say that it’s one of my fave reads of this year!
* Oh yeah, one thing I meant to say…… I totally agree with their thoughts on nipple rings!!!!! 😉 *
T xx
Book Loving Pixies 