Chapter 27 #2
The guys were at the field until noon and I used the free time to come up with a plan to get out of the house—only problem was, all the places I wanted to go were ones Tanner had shown me.
Great. Maybe moping and watching TV without love would be the best idea.
I did it all the time and they could ignore me when they got back. Wouldn’t be the first time.
After a bowl of cereal, three cups of coffee and a banana, I lounged on the couch, binge watching Criminal Minds and forgot to vacate the area.
To be fair, the episodes were getting intense and I couldn’t stop watching.
That was what I told myself, at least. It had nothing to do with waiting to see Tanner and wanting to know how he’d done on the field.
“Hey, Kenz.” Aaron dumped his duffel to the right of the entryway and plopped down on the loveseat. He smelled like sweat and sunscreen, clearly not having showered before heading home. “What season of the show are we on?”
“Fifth.”
“Sweet. Love this one.” He got himself real comfortable and I waved at Zade when he came in. His reaction—a grimace. Weird.
“Like my shirt, Z?” I asked, trying to smile to break the tension that clogged the air when Tanner followed him in. “Thought you’d appreciate it.”
“Jesus,” he scoffed, moving his gaze from me to Tanner a little too quickly. But he looked back at me. “I can’t believe you have that shit. I’ll burn it if you leave it out.”
“Can you sign it? It’ll help me get really popular when I move into the dorms.”
He rolled his eyes and lingered at the base of the stairs, watching Tanner move from the living room to the kitchen. “I was all for trading Jeff for you, but not anymore. You’re outta here soon, Ken. And not a day longer.”
“You’ll miss me, Zade. You all will.”
“Eh, maybe,” Aaron said, prompting me to smack him with a pillow. He laughed and looked up at Tanner. “You’ll miss having a friend here, won’t you, TJ? She was actually nice to you.”
The air stilled. Tanner’s face looked like a statue, with his jaw tensing and his eyes going wide.
Zade, too, stood taller. Aaron had no idea how heavy those words were and I waited for Tanner’s response.
He refused to look at me. Instead, he shrugged and unscrewed his bottle of water. “I guess, yeah.”
“You’ll be back over here though, right? You’ll come visit?” Aaron asked, giving me a worried smile. “I kinda liked having you here.”
“First off, I’m not leaving for another two weeks. Also, I’m not dying so you’ll all see me again. Secondly, I’m going to miss living with you too, brother.” I moved to give him a noogie, only to have him smack my hand away. “Are you all hanging out here tonight?”
“Probably. We leave for a tournament tomorrow—only going two days this time, so don’t carry around a bat trying to attack criminals.”
“You should’ve texted me, asshole. I was only protecting myself and I would’ve done a great job, thank you very much.
” I pointed my finger at Aaron’s chest and Tanner’s gaze hit my bare legs.
It wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t be able to give me those type of looks if he didn’t want to try.
My chest felt heavy again and I needed a distraction.
“I’m going to head to a café before my shift starts.
If I don’t see you guys later, good luck at your games. ”
“Thanks, Ken. We might stop by the bar tonight—Greta’s working and she’s experimenting with some new open mic shit.”
“Cool. See you then.”
I walked past Tanner with my head held high, not giving him a clue how messed up my heart was around him. My plan was in place—lose myself in homework and pick up every extra table at the bar so I couldn’t think.
“This duo ain’t cutting it for me. What do ya think, Kenz?” Greta asked, leaning on the bar and giving me a curious look later that night. “You’re frowning, so I take it they’re bad?”
“Uh, no. They’re fine.” I took another deep breath and focused on wiping the same spot with a rag.
The two guys on stage sang off-pitch and it was almost comical—but I couldn’t find it in me to laugh just yet.
Tanner, Aaron, Zade and some other teammates were at the bar and every time I wasn’t busy, I snuck a glance at him and felt slapped when he never looked my way.
In fact, he hadn’t acknowledged me once.
He has to still feel something, right? Why does he have to be here?
“Girl, you’re great at hiding your emotions, but you have this haunted look in your eyes. Are you okay?” She put her hand on my back and patted me. It was a kind gesture, but I would not be talking to her about what happened. Hell, I wouldn’t tell anyone.
I couldn’t.
“Yeah. Cramps.”
“Fuck. Sorry. Those are the worst. Need some meds?”
“Took some, thanks.” I gave her a tight-lipped smile and set the rag back in the bucket of sanitizing water.
A new group of people walked into my section and I gladly left Greta behind the bar to take their order.
It was three booths away from the back section with the guys, but it faced the other way so I didn’t have to see him.
I took the new group’s orders and moved back toward the kitchen but something slippery was on the clean tile, causing my foot to slide out from under me.
Air left my lungs and I defied gravity, flailing in the air as gracelessly as possible and hit the ground with my wrist bending the wrong way. “Shit! Ow!”
“Kenzie!” Tanner yelled my name, jumping from his chair to the spot on the ground where I sat with my legs in weird directions and my arm clutched to my middle. “Are you hurt?”
“Yes.” I winced and hated how every person now stared at me. It was mortifying. Tanner reached out to my forearm and pulled it back, tracing his fingers over the tendons. “Ah!”
“I never took you for clumsy. You had a bad fall there.” He was no more than three inches from my face, a smile playing on his lips and those deep brown eyes looking at me with so much warmth, I had to blink back tears. “Let’s get you some ice.”
I didn’t think about how it looked to my brother, Tanner helping me up and walking me to the kitchen.
Clyde freaked out, as per usual, and helped sit me on a chair to get me ice.
Tanner stayed there until Clyde left, and when it was just the two of us, the embarrassment hit. “Th-thank you for helping. I’m fine.”
“You fell hard.” He crouched so we were face to face, his breath hitting my skin and teasing me. I wanted him to kiss me, tell me everything was fine between us, but he didn’t. He frowned, a dark look crossing his features. “Rest in here for a bit. I need to head back out there.”
He stood, turning to leave the room, but gave me one more tender look. “Thank you, Kenzie. For everything. I needed a friend like you this summer…and, well, I’ll never forget it.”
If I hadn’t been certain before, those words solidified our end.