Chapter 11
Istared at the ceiling fan spin above my head as I breathed in and out.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Trying to keep myself in check and in my fucking room instead of creeping into Sadie’s like everything inside of me was yelling at me to do.
I missed her, and the idea of just being around her things helped take the edge off.
I fucking missed her.
The heat of her body next to me, her hand tangled in mine, the scent of her body and sweat enveloping me like a throw blanket.
Shit. Who the hell was I kidding? I missed every little molecule that made her who she was—her smile, the way her dark strands danced in the wind, the sound of her laugh. Everything.
I was completely and utterly fucked.
Obsessed wasn’t a big enough word for how I felt when it came to Sadie.
The weekend had come and gone in a blur.
The hike had ended up being the two of us since it seemed the Omega party had lasted a little too late into the night and Ferguson had woken up hungover.
I could still remember the way she’d looked up at me with a warmth that shot right through me saying she was glad I’d decided to join her.
It was cute she thought she had a choice.
If I hadn’t made a move last night like I had, I would have followed her onto this thing because I’d be damned if she explored the desert trails on her own.
I’d let her lead us on the hike, and she hadn’t been kidding about how much she loved it.
I didn’t mind it. I mean, I wished there were more trees and we weren’t in the middle of the desert, but as she pointed things out, I started to see the beauty where our school was located for the first time since I’d transferred.
She’d told me about how busy she had been with work and classes, that she hadn’t had a chance to go on a hike since early summer.
Which made sense why I hadn’t known about this side of her.
I liked knowing so much about her yet still discovering new things.
Hiking might not have been my idea of a good time, but I could get into it if it meant she kissed me the way she did once we had reached the peak of the canyon we’d climbed.
She’d tried to do more than kiss, but I’d stopped it, not sure of who else could be out there.
I wasn’t willing to risk anyone seeing what belonged to me.
A knock sounded at my door, and I lifted my head just in time to see Jeremy pop his head in.
“Hey,” he called. I jutted my chin towards him. “You coming to weight training?” I grunted my confirmation. “Man of few words today. Wonder if that’s because a certain someone isn’t with you,” he teased, and I glared at him. “Fine,” he sighed heavily, knowing how to read my mood.
Not that I was in a bad one; I just missed my girl.
The weekend had been great.
The hike. Cooking dinner together at her place and watching a movie downstairs before taking her out for ice cream down in the main part of town before heading back to her room, where I took my time exploring and discovering every fucking inch of her body.
I’d lucked out that Sadie’s roommate was going to be gone, so I could work my sweet little bird into singing nice and loud for me all through the night and early morning. Speaking of…
“What’s going on with you and Sadie’s roommate?” I asked, not bothering with jokes or small talk.
“None of your business. What’s going on with you and Teresa’s roommate?” he countered. My lips twitched into an evil smirk.
“None of your business,” I volleyed his words back at him.
“Hmm,” he sighed, shaking his head. “That right, huh? So, if I told you I saw Fergie sniffing around just a couple of minutes ago, you wouldn’t give a shit?”
“Fergie? Ferguson, our pitcher? What do you mean, sniffing around?” I sat up on my bed and stared at my friend.
“I mean exactly what I said. Fergie looked pretty chummy with her—“
“When?” A muscle at my jaw twitched with annoyance.
I’d kept my distance today, trying not to follow her around, keep an eye like I had for the past two months. I’d tried to be… normal. It’d rubbed against the grain to do it, to put space between us, but fuck me, now I knew I’d messed up.
“Just a couple minutes ago. Downstairs. She was working at the—“
“Dining hall,” I cut him off. There wasn’t a fucking thing I didn’t know about her schedule.
I got up and tossed a shirt over my head.
“Wait, what are you going to do? You know you can’t go kicking every guy’s ass who talks to her,” he said, as if that somehow made logical sense. Logically, maybe it did, but my fucking brain had been rewired and fucked up, so things like common sense and logic had been Alt-Control deleted.
“Wanna bet?” I slipped into my sneakers. When Jer’s heavy hand touched my shoulder, I turned.
“You can’t do that.” He sighed. “He’s on our team.”
“And?”
“And he’s a good guy. He doesn’t know about the two of you.” I hated how much sense Jeremy made.
“Well, it’s time everyone at the fucking school knows she’s mine, then, don’t you think?”
“Shit.” He followed me out of our apartment and down the hall.
“You can’t hit him. We have media day for this upcoming pre-season,” he reminded me.
“Coach would lose his shit if our pitcher had a black eye and needed makeup to cover it up.” I shot him a look to let him know I didn’t give a shit if I pissed off Coach.
“Bro, don’t you remember what happened with Aaron last year? ”
“Aaron was a dumb fuck who deserved getting hit by that Kappa Sweet after the way he talked to her,” I reminded him.
“Agreed, and Coach agreed, too, but he wasn’t happy about all that damn makeup on him for the team photo.
” He wasn’t wrong about that. Coach was pissed every time he looked at that damn picture and made us do extra bleachers or run extra laps whenever he was reminded of it.
Which you wouldn’t think was a lot, but the school had printed a huge banner and had hung it by not only the playing field but our practice one, too.
“Fine,” I grunted, crossing my arms over my chest as we stepped into the elevator after pressing the button that took us down to the lobby. “But that just means I can’t hit Ferg’s pretty boy face,” I mumbled, and Jeremy snickered.
“Fair enough.” His chuckles died off and I heard him clear his throat. “So, you’re really gone for her?”
“You have no idea.” I glanced at him.
Jeremy was a big motherfucker.
A lot bigger than your typical catcher, and maybe that was one of the many reasons scouts were checking him out as much as they looked at me and a couple of the other guys on the team.
“I do have an idea.” He made a face of understanding he wished he didn’t have.
“Teresa?” He simply looked at me with an expression I knew all too well. “You follow her around?” A slow, almost scary smile dawned on his face.
“Worse,” he confessed. My brow rose with curiosity, but ignorance was bliss in these kinds of cases, so I didn’t ask.
The moment the elevator doors opened, everything disappeared from my head.
I had tunnel vision as I got out and hurried towards the dining hall.
I could faintly make out Jeremy calling after me, telling me to calm down, but I ignored him.
All I could think about was getting to Sadie as quickly as possible.
She was working in the dining hall, thanks to her work study program.
It was one of three jobs she had on campus, not to mention the side gig she had of tutoring.
She was probably working at the smoothie station, a popular spot of the athletics dining hall. I picked up speed, half-power-walk, half-jog that ended abruptly when I passed the main entrance of the hall and saw her.
She was standing by one of the tables, a spray bottle in one hand and a white cleaning rag in the other.
Ferguson, the star pitcher of our team, leaned against a table with one ankle crossed over the other, clearly in no hurry of hitting the weight room, where we should be.
Nope. Instead, he was chatting her up. Talking animatedly about who the fuck knew what as she stood there.
Listening.
Laughing.
Smiling.
And it fucking made me see red. The green-eyed monster took hold of me. She was mine, not his. She can’t do that, the thing inside me growled. Before I took a step forward to barge in on their conversation, a familiar heavy hand covered my shoulder.
“You go in there like some jealous asshole, you can kiss whatever future you want with her goodbye,” Jeremy quietly warned.
My back teeth ground together, my jaw clenched, but I stood still, knowing that Jeremy was right.
“Be smart,” he advised. I pulled my shoulder back from his hold and heard him mumble something about how we never learn as I made my way towards them.
I took a long cleansing breath with every step I took until I reached them.
And when her eyes caught mine? I felt like an ass for thinking someone could ever come between us. Her dark stare was warm and bright and so genuinely fucking happy to see me it nearly gutted me.
“Hey, handsome.” She smiled. With things still in her hand, she stepped closer, and something in me softened.
I loved how she came to me without hesitation or pause despite how new we were.
My eyes glanced over at a confused Ferguson staring at our interaction. Without thinking, I pulled her into my arms and hugged her the moment she was within reach. Fucking grateful she let me.
“I thought you had practice,” she murmured against my chest.
“I missed you.” It wasn’t a lie. “I still gotta go but wanted to see you before I left”.
“And we ran out of protein in our place,” Jeremy cut in. “Ferg, you want a protein shake?”
“Sounds good. See you later, Sadie,” Ferguson said. She half-waved, but it didn’t matter, not when her attention was set fully on me.
“What happens if you play hooky from work?”
“I don’t get paid.” Her lips twitched. “What happens to you if you play hooky from your work?”
“My work?”
“Baseball. If you don’t go to practice, do you get hit with some kind of fine or—“ I shook my head.