Love from Left Field Read Free

forcing everyone to look up at him. Biding his time. But one day soon he’d have that seat.
    Seamus frowned at him and punched a button on the conference phone, ending the call. “Don’t get comfortable. You’re not staying.”
    “I have papers that say otherwise. You borrowed money from major league baseball. I’m the strings that come with that loan.” He smiled, knowing the pleasant, easy-going attitude would drive the intense, older man crazy.
    Seamus scowled, as if the truth was a sour taste on his tongue. “Fine. Miranda will show you to an office and get you what you need. Now, we have work to do.” He waved his hand and shuffled some papers in front of him.
    “No.” Lucas pushed off of the ledge, the word falling flat like a rock in the conversation and everyone quieted immediately. “You don’t tell me what to do. I tell you what to do. I approve every order, every decision, every output of capital.”
    “The Knights are my team, not yours. You lost your team years ago when your father sold shares to me.”
    Lucas smiled, sensing the frustration, knowing he had the upper hand. “Don’t mistake me for my father. I won’t roll over for you, especially now with our roles reversed. Your only chance to save your team is to work with me.”
    Miranda stood and walked around the table to stand by her father before Seamus could respond. “Gentleman, would you excuse us?”
    The two other men in the room exchanged glances and gathered their things. Lucas settled against the ledge again, waiting as they took their time, using the opportunity to study his opponents.
    Seamus had always been a bit grumpy and ill-tempered from what Lucas remembered, but the years had not been good to him. His face was craggy and deeply lined; years of bad temper and not enough smiling or rest were etched deeply on his countenance, adding to the overall negative impression. He had replaced the team photo with a picture of himself in front of the team. Not surprising, the photo was his own deluded view of himself, the hardscrabble team owner demanding perfection in everyone around him.
    Of course, Seamus was far from perfect himself, not that he’d ever admit it.
    The differences between his father’s ownership and Callahan’s were in every line of the team offices, in every person hired, in every picture on the wall. Jacob Wainright had once counted Seamus Callahan among his closest friends. He wondered what his father would say about the current state of the Georgia Knights, the team he founded during the expansion era?
    Lucas mentally cleared his mind, dispelling the thoughts. He had no time for distractions, especially the past he had thought was buried. Now, he had to focus on the present and the mess he was sent to clean up. Miranda stared at him, her face a mask of icy calm, as if his presence was irrelevant, a bother to her. He missed the lovesick teen, the former beauty queen who had crushed on him in high school yet was always out of reach, mostly due to her age but also her father’s insistence that Lucas was not good enough for his daughter. Had any man ever made the cut with her father, or with Miranda?
    Miranda had certainly grown into the beauty her junior pageant days promised. Her blond hair was twisted up in a smooth, chic style, emphasizing her calm image. Where was the bouncy young woman he remembered, dancing around the owner’s box on game days, chattering like a blue jay and bringing sunshine into every situation? He caught himself smiling at the memory of her exuberance and unabashed joy at life, a joy that seemed not only dimmed but completely crushed by her father and life. What would it take to catch a glimpse of the child inside? Was she even there anymore?
    She arched a cool eyebrow at him, clearly trying to let him know he didn’t belong there and she did. She studied her perfectly manicured nails, avoiding him as if he didn’t exist, and he realized the happy girl was gone, buried in the beauty