Inside Out

By Ashley Ladd

Although Erica used to be Eric, it's Trey who's twisted up and feeling inside out when he finds out his former lover is now a very beautiful, sexy and infuriating woman.

Erica Metzger loves being a woman no matter what most of the world thinks. Although life is much better as a woman, she still faces obstacles. Her former gay baseball league doesn't want to play with a woman because they're afraid she'll get hurt. The women's team isn't an option either, so she can't play the game she loves. And she's afraid her uncle will disown her if she tells him about her transformation.

She's mortified, however, that she crawled into a bottle and threw away Trey, the love of her life, rather than reveal her real self and confide her innermost desires. When the game they both love throws them back together, she doesn't like it but can't blame him that he doesn't trust her and is turned inside out with mixed emotions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Apr 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9780857155269

Book preview

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Inside Out

ISBN #978-0-85715-526-9

©Copyright Ashley Ladd 2011

Cover Art by April Martinez ©Copyright April 2011

Edited by Andrea Grimm and Lisa Cox

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2011 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content, which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

Bats and Balls

INSIDE OUT

Ashley Ladd

Dedication

To Kim: I love you very much.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

American Idol: 19 TV Ltd and FremantleMedia North America, Inc.

Barbie: Mattel, Inc. Corporation

Coach: Coach, Inc.

Facebook: Facebook, Inc.

Mad Magazine: EC Comics

Madonna: Ciccone, Madonna DBA Madonna Individual

Chapter One

Erica Metzger felt funny being back on her old baseball field after a four-year absence. She itched to play, not merely call balls and strikes behind the home plate. Unfortunately, since her change, she was no longer welcome on the league.

Her palms grew clammy. Her heart sped up every time she saw a familiar face. When she’d been told she would be officiating for Trey’s team, ‘Doggy Style’, she’d almost backed out. Then she’d figured most of the guys would have moved on after four years in a place as transient as South Florida, Trey Kincaid included. Besides, she wasn’t ashamed of who she was. And it was doubtful they’d recognise her—she wore an umpire’s mask. They’d known her as Eric. Also, she’d had surgery on her vocal cords to make her voice feminine.

She winced at the thought. Inside, she’d always been Erica. Since age three, she’d known her outer body didn’t match her inner. She’d longed to play with Barbie dolls, wear tutus and take ballet, and paint her nails pink. Instead, she’d been given trucks and anthills, snakes and other creepy, gross boy things. Only on the baseball field had she felt at home.

Ironically, the sexual reassignment surgery that made her dreams come true also made it difficult to play ball. Adult women and co-ed teams only played slow-pitch in South Florida, which bored her to death. Therefore, she umpired until she could convince a decent team to let her play. And so here she was.

When Doggy Style’s coach Clay stomped onto the field, wearing his usual glowering expression, her skin crawled. He was all about the game but treated his players with as much tact as a hungry alligator. Less actually. And he had the personality of the rusty chain link fence penning in the fields.

Even when he’d been on her side, he hadn’t been friendly. She wondered what had happened to the man to make him as grouchy as a lion with a thorn in his foot. A lost love? Lost fortunes? Lost dreams?

She couldn’t imagine he would suddenly turn into her best friend much less a pleasant adversary now she was the umpire. Didn’t everybody hate the umpires? Sometimes even the other umpires?

The closer he came the more her spine stiffened. Not eager to be ridiculed by the jerk should he recognise her, she pulled her mask securely over her face. She made haste to join Grover, the other blue assigned to the game, who was putting on his gear on the far side of the field.

As she approached him, Grover stroked his piebald goatee and glanced at the players. He grinned wide enough to show several missing and broken teeth and to make his big ears protrude even further. The bottoms of his slacks were always tattered and the collars on his shirts yellowed. But he had a winning grin and a twinkle in his slate grey eyes that drew people to him.

What’s a pretty young thing like you doing hanging out with a bunch of gay guys? You won’t find a straight man around these parts.

Overwhelmed by memories of Trey—the man she’d met and played with here when she’d been Eric—she gulped. She still yearned for him in her dreams and being here was only going to give them more fuel. However, she bit her tongue and pushed the images to the back of her mind. They belonged to another life, a different person.

She lifted her mask and dabbed at the perspiration trickling down her forehead into her eyes. She so badly wanted to stop the river flowing between her breasts. Why did South Florida still swelter at 5:45 p.m.? In May? Why hadn’t her female relatives shared this drawback of having breasts? Why couldn’t people mind their own business?

I love the game.

Grover rubbed his fingers together as if he had a wad of money. "Yeah. Well, I’m in it for the bread. Extra cash doesn’t come easy down here anymore. You know it’s bad when the gas stations don’t have ‘Help Wanted’ signs