Tour: Bottom of the Ninth by Jami Davenport

Can they conquer their demons and find love, 

or will they run from their pasts and abandon their future together?

BOTTOM OF THE NINTH

Seattle Skookums Baseball

Game on in Seattle #6

Jami Davenport

Released Oct 21st, 2016

This long-awaited story of the third Wolfe brother introduces the Seattle Skookums baseball team.

Zeke Wolfe, the man who’s written off his entire family, rescues a young woman and three children on a stormy Seattle night. Before he knows it, he has an instant family and a fake fiancé he’s certain he doesn’t want.

Paisley Madison dreams of having a real home for herself and her sister's children. When a handsome baseball player drops into her life, she knows a gift when she sees one and hires herself as his assistant.

As their business arrangement turns into something much more personal, Paisley and Zeke's pasts threaten to destroy their precarious hold on a future together. Can they conquer their demons and find love, or will they run from their pasts and abandon their future together?

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Paisley startled awake early. She bolted upright and winced when her back protested. Ignoring her whiny body parts, she blinked several times and squinted, attempting to get her bearings. The morning sun cast beams of light across the room and over the sleeping children. Last night flooded back to her in a rush of confusion and hope.

Being drenched. The hot baseball player. The old, creepy house. The pizza.

Checking each child to make sure they were all still asleep, Paisley rose, stretched, and padded out of the bedroom in her bare feet. The place didn’t look so creepy in the daylight. In fact, despite the obvious neglect, it was beautiful. She took her time exploring each room, except the closed door to Zeke’s room.

Zeke. Holy mother of all creation, he was hot. And he was wealthy. She wasn’t a gold digger by any means, but he had the money to pay her for a job well done, which had her wheels turning. She believed in making wine out of any beer that life threw her way. She’d keep her hands off and prove her value to Zeke. He needed someone to manage his life and battle the dust and spiders staking their claim on this grand old house.

He needed her.

Zeke’s house wasn’t just a house; it was a mansion by her standards. Much to her delight, it was perched on a hill among older homes overlooking Seattle and the water. She couldn’t wait to explore the stately old neighborhood. What she could see from the windows indicated the other homes were well kept, unlike Zeke’s. His yard needed as much work as the inside. She’d tackle that project, too.

Yeah, the poor man really needed her, and she’d make sure he knew it.

The house had seen better days and was in need of updating and TLC, but the potential shone through like an unpolished diamond among common rocks, and the view was priceless.

Last night’s deluge gave way to a partially cloudy morning with patches of blue sky. Rays of sun bounced off drops of rain on the leaves of nearby trees. The sun lit up the large expanse of water below. She hadn’t a clue whether it was part of the ocean or something else.

A few rooms in the house were stacked with boxes. Stray pieces of furniture were placed here and there. Zeke didn’t appear to have much in the way of personal belongings. She added shopping for furniture to her assistant to-do list. She’d create a design for each room with an overarching theme among them. Judging from the age of the house and the style, she’d opt for mission style, one of her favorites.

Paisley rubbed her hands together in glee, excited and ready to get started with her day. The kids could help. On Monday, she’d need to enroll them in a local school despite their lack of an actual home. During her nosy explorations she’d found a temporary option. The daylight basement level of this house had been converted into an apartment. It had big windows looking into the backyard and down the hill.

Perfect for her and the kids, and perfect for keeping them out of Zeke’s hair.

Now to work on selling her worth to Zeke. Her strict adherence to maintaining a positive outlook in all situations—last night being an exception—would serve her well. Zeke was a busy athlete just starting the season. Baseball players played over one hundred and fifty games a year, not counting playoffs. He’d be gone a lot to away games.

He absolutely needed her. Oh, yes, he did. She skipped up the stairs, singing a nonsensical happy song the kids loved. Cracking the door, she checked on them again. They were dead to the world. She couldn’t resist a glance into the room Zeke slept in. His suitcase was open on top of a rumpled comforter, but true to his word, he’d left early this morning. She’d heard his SUV as it backed out of the garage.

With a big grin on her face and a bounce in her step, she started her chores in the kitchen, giving it a thorough scrubbing after finding cleaning supplies under the sink. Later, she’d unpack dishes and put them in the cupboards.

The kitchen was beautiful under all the grime and dust. It’d been remodeled recently and had gorgeous wood cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances with a professional stove and oven. The previous owners must have run out of money during the kitchen remodel. The backsplashes were missing and the walls were unpainted, as if someone had stripped off layers of wallpaper, then left.

She stood back, hands on hips, and surveyed her work. The kitchen was gleaming. Everything was in its place.

Zeke would be pleasantly surprised.

Bottom of the Ninth is another fabulous addition to Jami Davenport's Game On in Seattle series.  This time delivering the story of Zeke Wolfe. 

Zeke tries to keep his life out of the media. He's known for his quiet down low lifestyle and for who his brothers are. Only the media doesn' t know that he has nor wants a relationship with them. So like everything else, he plays it off with the media, pretending things are just fine, while internally fervently denying it.  He's upset about his trade to Seattle, because he doesn't like the team but also becasue it pulls him right into his brother's line of sight again.  

Paisley is struggling, taking on her sister's kids and trying to protect them from their father and their traumatic past, she's come to Seattle prepared to help heal them and move on. But nothing goes according to plan, her living situation gets unsettled before she even really hit town and then her vehicle dies, leaving her and the kids stranded in the rain. To make matters worse, a speeding car just splashed them all to soaking. But the drive backs up and steps out and nothing is the same after. 

Zeke doesn't like kids, he doesn't want a girlfriend and he certainly doesn't want to have a woman and kids prowling around his new home, so why did he just agree to take Paisley and her crew home with him for the night? 

Bottom of the Ninth had me laughing often, but also broke my heart too.  Both Zeke and the kids have been through so much and have been deeply hurt by those that should have loved and taken care of them.  I loved how Zeke was falling not just for Paisley but also the kids, even if he didn't realize it.  

There was a lot going on for Zeke, his feelings of inadequacy and a desire to be loved were at the heart of most of it.  I felt sorry for him and knew that while it was fair that he was wary of his brothers, that he needed to talk to them to get some form of closure on that aspect.  And he needed to open himself of to Love.  

This was probably one of my favorite books in the series, because I really formed a connection to both Zeke and Paisley and their struggles. They felt like real people that I'd want to hang around in real life and their struggles were real and I could understand them. The kids added an extra bit to the story, they added emotion, they gave Zeke something to work with, he knew they had suffered and he didn't want them to remember it for the rest of their lives. I loved the interactions between Zeke and the kids. 

Bottom of the Ninth was a beautifully written story that was about so much more than romance. It was about family, it was about fighting your inner demons and winning, and it was about finding forgiveness, if not for others, for yourself, so YOU can move on.   I really loved that both Zeke and Paisley had struggles, they both had things in their past they fought against, and I really think that had they not found one another, they would have continued to drag their feet in moving past it all.  Together they found a way to heal. 

USA Today Bestselling Author Jami Davenport writes sexy contemporary and sports romances, including her two new indie endeavors: the Game On in Seattle Series and the Madrona Island Series. Jami's new releases consistently rank in the top fifty on the sports romance and sports genre lists on Amazon, and she has hit the Amazon top hundred authors list in both contemporary romance and genre fiction multiple times. Jami ranked Number Seven on Kobo's Top Ten Most Completed Authors, an honor bestowed on the year's "most engaging" authors based on an average page completion rate by their readers.

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