Chapter 30
Tanner
This is a fucking stupid idea. The worst. Could ruin the team.
But I was going to do it anyway.
Aaron tapped his fingers on the wheel of the car, unaware of the bomb I was about to drop on him, and I gulped, putting on my game face. How to start? How did I go about telling one of my best friends I was in love with his sister?
There wasn’t a fucking handbook for this.
Zade rambled on about his plans for the day—the girls were going shopping for something before coming back to the house—and my palms sweated the closer we got to our shitty driveway.
My phone buzzed in my hand and I knew it was Kenzie.
I ignored it. I had to keep my word before I read what she texted.
Because even if she won’t take me back, I’m coming clean.
I would tell her brother. Now.
“Aaron, you got a minute to talk when we get back?” I asked, my voice scratchy.
“Sure, man.” He moved his gaze from the road to the rearview mirror, concern in there. “This about your family?”
“No, not exactly.”
“What are you talking about, TJ?” Zade asked, his voice growing stronger. He turned around from the front seat and widened his eyes at me, trying to convey some message, but I ignored it.
“Let’s wait until we get back.”
“Sure,” Aaron said, unaware of Zade’s odd behavior.
I flipped Zade off, took a deep breath and tried to figure out the best thing to say.
I loved her. I wanted to be with her and I wouldn’t hurt her.
She was perfect for me, and I thought I could be right for her.
The biggest hurdle was not telling Aaron…
fucking up our relationship on the field, and it was a risk I had to take.
It was stupid to assume I didn’t have room for her and baseball. Zade made it work. Aaron, too.
He pulled into the driveway and took his sweet-ass time getting out of the car. Zade lingered, and stood right in front on the porch with his arms crossed. “Talk outside, boys. It’ll be better for all of us.”
“Dude, why?” Aaron asked, but Zade pointed to me and when Hilly finally picked up my stress, he narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck’s going on?”
“I’m fucking in love with your sister.”
Silence. The only sound came from birds chirping, cars driving by from the busy street blocks away and my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
I continued, slurring my words together to ease the severity.
“I want to be with her, just her, and I’m pretty sure she wants to be with me, too.
” There. I’d said it. My chest heaved in anticipation of what he would say.
Or he could punch me, fight me, hate me.
I waited. Zade waited, but Aaron remained silent for a good minute before he smiled.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No.” I remained five feet away from him and kept my distance. “We didn’t mean for it to happen, trust me. But it did and the reason we aren’t together is because I’m a dumbass. But I’m going to earn another chance with her.”
Aaron ran his hand under his jaw, the smile no longer on his face, and his razor-sharp gaze darkened. “What if I say absolutely fucking not?”
“One punch.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, clenching his teeth.
“You get one punch, anywhere on my body.” I moved toward him. “I should’ve told you when I realized it was real. Zade convinced me it was a terrible idea—”
“Zade knew?” he fired back, glaring at our third roommate, who looked unamused at our conversation. “You knew he was fooling around with my sister and didn’t say a goddamn word?”
“Don’t bring me into this. I’m here to make sure you fucking idiots don’t injure yourself before our games next week. That’s it.” He held up his hands and scowled. “If I can say anything…it’s that I didn’t know it was more than a hook-up. That’s what I thought was a terrible idea.”
“You were hooking up with my sister? In our fucking house? With me there?” Aaron asked, his words getting louder each second, like a dam was about to break. “I’ll kill you.”
“I told you, one punch. But it doesn’t matter. I love her. I’ll treat her right. And I think she loves me too. We get each other. She fills that missing piece and I don’t care if you don’t like it.” The more I spoke, the more I felt it. The truth. Her being the piece.
“Fine.”
“Great.”
He moved fast, reared back his right arm into a fist and collided it with my face.
I froze, forcing myself not to duck out of the way when his flesh hit mine.
It felt like a fucking bomb went off on my right cheek, my skull pounding as the wave of his punch ricocheted through my skull.
I stumbled, holding my head in my hands as I fell to the ground. This was worse than a hangover.
So much worse.
Like eighteen semi-trucks had rolled over my face.
“Dude, you good?” Aaron asked. I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by, because my brain was swimming. It could’ve been a minute, or thirty, but I blinked a couple of times before finding my bearings.
“That hurt worse than I imagined.”
“No shit. I didn’t mean to get you right in the face. I was just aiming for something and fuck… Let’s get you some ice.” He pulled me up from the ground and clapped me on the back. “One punch was a good idea. I feel better.”
“Glad you fucking do.”
“I’m not the most approachable person. I’ve been working on that. I wish you would’ve told me earlier, but now that I hit you and got some aggression out, it kinda makes sense.”
“What makes sense?” I groaned when we went up the two steps and into the living room. Zade had a half-smile, half-scowl on his stupid face and I flipped him off. “Thanks for the backup, dumbass.”
“You earned this all on your own.”
Aaron shoved me onto the couch. “You and she spent a lot of time together. You have dumb senses of humor. You’re both quiet. Just…if you hurt her, I won’t be able to forgive you.”
“I understand. Your friendship means a lot to me, Hilly, but I’d regret it forever if I didn’t try with her. She’s…she’s what I need. She makes me happy and I think I make her happy too.”
“You can make me happy,” a female voice said. I knew that voice. Oh my god!
I jerked my head toward the door, regretting it immediately. Kenzie stood there, in our doorway, looking so fucking cute in black shorts and a faded jersey that my heart lurched in my throat. “You’re here.”
“Yeah. You said you were going to tell Aaron everything and I wanted to make sure you’re alive.” She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, eyeing her brother and me in the process. “You’re going to bruise. Let me get some ice for you.”
She brushed past us and rustled around in the kitchen, coming back out holding a zip lock bag. She sat on the coffee table and leaned forward to press the ice against my face. “So.” She glanced between me and her brother. “I take it you know.”
“Yeah. I know,” Aaron responded, but not in the angry tone I expected. “I got to punch him.”
“Thanks for letting me know. I couldn’t pick that up on my own,” she fired back. When her warm gaze landed on me, she smiled and my stomach fluttered again. She’ll forgive me. I know it.
“Kenzie.”
She stilled, looking at me through her glasses, her long lashes fanning her cheeks, and fuck, I felt stupid all over again for thinking I’d be fine without her.
I reached out, taking her hand in mine and trying not to wince when I adjusted my position to get closer to her.
She blinked and her mouth parted when I set the ice on the table and cupped her face.
“I’m sorry for how I handled everything.
This is new for me…I have no idea what I’m doing but all I know is I want to be with just you as long as you want me.
If that means boyfriend, girlfriend, exclusive, whatever. I don’t care.”
“Labels don’t matter to me,” she said, her voice shaking a little bit. “And you’re sure…you really want this?”
“God, yes. I let your brother punch me. And I didn’t block it.” I moved to pick her up on my lap—forgetting Aaron was sitting next to me. He jumped up.
“Hell no, none of this shit when I’m in the room.” He covered his eyes with his hands and backed into the TV console. “No, no, no. I barely gave you permission two minutes ago.”
“Permission?” Kenzie snapped, wiggling her cute body on my lap. “We don’t need your permission to do anything we want, Aaron. So nice fucking try.”
“I’m going to—uh, go somewhere—not here.”
“Let’s visit Callie and Greta. I’m sure we can give these two a couple hours,” Zade said, returning from upstairs. Aaron gagged and strode out of the room. But he turned back and pointed at us.
“I will take Kenzie’s side every fucking time. We’re brothers on the field, Tanner. This is a one-chance-is-all-you-fucking-get type of situation.”
“I don’t plan on messing up again.”
“Good. Good. Cool. Well, uh, I need some time to not fucking think about this.” He opened the door and let it slam shut.
“Glad you pulled your head out of your ass, TJ. Not the best way to do it, but it worked. Happy for you both. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything crazy.”
“Thanks, Z,” I said, waiting for him to leave.
The second he did, I moved my hands to Kenzie’s ass and pulled her against me.
My face pounded, my head hurt, but she was with me and the coil that had wrapped itself around my chest sprang free, and my life didn’t seem so empty. “It’s going to be messy.”
“Yup.” She rested her forehead on mine. “I didn’t want to fall in love with you. I had all these plans.”
She loves me. Fuck yes. “I had mine, too.”
“We really going to do this thing? Whatever it is?” I asked, moving my lips from her forehead to her jaw, giving her a line of kisses until I reached her mouth. I stopped and waited for her to make the next move.
“I want to. Let’s start slow, yeah?” She breathed a little more heavily and ground against my erection.
“I’ll go whatever pace you want. I just want to be with you.”
That did it. She brought her mouth to mine, kissing me with all her energy and passion, sloppily bringing her tongue into it. Her kiss felt like a claim, as if she was making me hers, and, fuck, I loved it. “You’re kissing the hell out of me right now.”
“Well, I want to make sure you think about that kiss for a long time.” She ran her fingers over my shoulders, looking at me with so much heat in her eyes that my breath caught in my throat.
“Job well done, then.”
She giggled and I brought her back down to me. I could spend hours kissing her, telling her how incredible she was and how excited I was to be in her life…but I could only say three words. “I love you.”
She let out the littlest sigh before smiling so large it took up her entire face. “I love you, too.”
“Let’s say we move this upstairs and you can play nurse and take care of me?”
“I think we can add that to my to-do list.”
And we did, completing a bunch of other tasks I had on my list, too.