Team Mom by Delaney Cameron

When Julie signs her nephew up for baseball, she’s not expecting his coach to be someone famous. Still less does she expect to fall in love with him. 

Julie Evans is thrown a curve ball when her brother arrives the night before his seven-month deployment asking her to take care of his son Jordan. As a preschool teacher, she’s used to dealing with toddlers, not nine-year-olds. Noting her nephew’s interest in baseball, she signs him up for little league. She’s anything but thrilled to find out his coach is a celebrity.

Eric Gibson returned to Georgia to lick his wounds and start over. But even in his hometown, he’s known more for his unfortunate appearance on a reality dating show than for his seven years in the major leagues. All he has to show for that poor decision is an ex-wife and a broken heart.

Julie’s obvious disapproval makes her the perfect choice for his team mom. If she doesn’t like him, she won’t cause any problems. But will that be enough to keep his growing interest in her in check? And as Julie’s preconceived notions about sports figures slowly unravel, will she be able to resist the man behind the public persona?

Excerpt:

When they entered the crowded lobby, Julie got her first taste of being in a public place with Eric. Heads turned, fingers pointed, and conversations stopped. She had to give him credit; he seemed oblivious to the attention he received. Maybe he’d just learned to block it out. But what must it be like to be so recognized? To always be on display? It couldn’t be easy. Didn’t he get tired of all the attention? The relentless scrutiny?

Todd Hamlin’s remarks ran through her mind. She hadn’t thought about it before, but was her presence with Eric going to be front page news or worse, cause problems with the baseball team? The last thing she wanted was for any of the parents to think she had any influence over the coach.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like butter on popcorn?” Eric asked.

Giving herself a mental shake, she hastened to reassure him. “Nothing’s wrong, and yes, I like butter on popcorn.”

“Whew! That’s a relief. I thought I’d messed up already.”

She looked around in confusion. “Where’s Jordan?”

“I sent him back for some peanut M&M’s.”

“I don’t think we’re going to want anything to eat after the movie.”

“You might not, but I can guarantee you that Jordan and I will. Here he comes. Let’s go see if we can find some decent seats in this madhouse.”

Once they got inside the dimly lit theater, Eric motioned Jordan to go ahead of him into the aisle. Julie went next. It wasn’t until they sat down that she realized Jordan might prefer to sit next to Eric.

“Do you want to switch seats with me, Jordan?”

“No, ma’am. I’m fine.”

Eric leaned down close to her ear. “Are you afraid to sit by me?”

“I don’t know. Are you going to behave?” she asked in a voice only he could hear.

“Before I answer that, we should probably settle on a definition of ‘behave’. I’m not sure we think about it the same way.”

She laughed. “I know we don’t.”

He threw her the boyish grin she found so hard to resist. “Let’s start with the obvious. Does behaving automatically exclude the infamous ‘movie move’?”

“Are we seriously discussing this?”

“I’ll take that for a ‘maybe’. How about the subtle, but effective, hand on the leg?”

“I think you’re forgetting we have an impressionable child with us.”

“Does that mean any or all of the above would be on the table if we were here without Jordan?”

Julie bit her lip to keep from laughing. Who would have thought he’d be so entertaining? “I couldn’t stop you from trying; whether you’d be successful is another story.”

“I believe you’re what they call a flirt, Miss Evans,” he whispered as the lights went out and the previews started.

She choked on the piece of popcorn in her mouth and had to be thumped on the back by Eric.

“That prize goes to you, Coach Gibson,” she replied when she could speak again.

Focusing her attention on the screen, she pretended not to hear his low laugh. Not even to herself would she admit how affected she was by it. If he had actually touched her, she couldn’t have felt it more. His remarks about behaving went through her mind. What would she do if he put his arm around her? Could she honestly say she wouldn’t like it?

The answers to those questions would remain a mystery for the time being because the only contact she had with Eric for the remainder of the movie was incidental: a brush of his arm or the bump of his leg when he shifted positions. Her romantic side felt decidedly ruffled at this apparent disconnect between his teasing words and any kind of action. Her rational side told her to stop being childish. She couldn’t afford to start having feelings for Eric. It would complicate everything.

* * * * *

Eric’s interest in the movie was tepid at best. No action on the screen could compete with the person sitting next to him. The more he got to know Julie, the more she fascinated him. He appreciated her quirky sense of humor, witty comebacks, and the way she laughed at herself and him. He also admired the way she threw herself into whatever task she was given. But he was most impressed by her selfless devotion to Jordan.

That he found her intensely attractive went without saying. Long denied any kind of closeness to a woman, his senses reacted to her like kindling to a match. Even here, separated by an arm rest, he was all too aware of her. His heart was knocking so wildly he feared she and everyone else could hear it.

Eric knew what was happening because he’d been down this road before. He was on the brink of developing feelings well beyond friendship. It wasn’t impossible, but it would be difficult to go back to thinking of Julie as just another parent. On the other hand, he wasn’t so out of touch that he couldn’t remember how far his expectations for his first serious relationship had been from reality.

The courtship with Sydney, played out in front of millions of avid fans, had been unconventional in every way that counted. He shouldn’t have been surprised when their marriage turned out to be anything but normal. Once the European honeymoon was over, Sydney slowly distanced herself from him. Within a few months, they weren’t even sharing a bedroom. To a man in love, this final rejection cut so deeply he hadn’t thought he would ever get over it.

It was ironic that all of this was happening in the midst of one of his best years on the mound. With his typical way of compartmentalizing things, Eric didn’t dwell on his failing marriage, but instead allowed baseball to become the balm for his unhappiness. Day after day he listened to everyone telling him how lucky he was to have a beautiful, loving wife. Night after night he came home with nothing to welcome him but a locked bedroom door. Why had she bothered to lock it? Did she think he would humiliate himself further by begging to come in?

He stirred restlessly, his leg briefly coming into contact with Julie’s. He turned to apologize and realized she was too absorbed in the movie to notice. It was a good thing he wasn’t the conceited type or he might get discouraged at being so forgettable.

Settling back in his seat, he tried to emulate her example. It would be embarrassing if his companions asked him something about the movie, and he couldn’t answer. He needed to forget how nice Julie looked with that blue thing holding back her curls and her lips parted in an adorable smile. If only needing to do something was the same as wanting to do it. 

Delaney Cameron

I’m a Georgia girl at heart if not by birth. I love to read, watch college football, and spend time with my husband. I’m a hopeless romantic so there will always be a happily ever after in my stories. I also like to write about second chances because love doesn’t always work out the first time.

My books are sweet romances set in both contemporary and regency settings featuring stories about the journey to love, from that first meeting to the point where two people know their hearts are no longer their own. My characters aren’t perfect. They make mistakes and have faults like the rest of us. They learn the sometimes painful truth that the path to love isn’t always smooth, but it’s a road worth traveling.

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