Chapter 2 Nate
Oh, fuck. I’m in love.
When Austin mentioned we were going to live with his sister and her son, I guess I expected some old married lady. Olivia’s blond curls teased me as she rode in the passenger seat on the way to the Little League game.
Her son, Cooper, talked my ear off. But I kinda liked him. One of my favorite parts of playing for the team, was when I got to meet the kids, sign balls, hear about their games. It reminded me of why I played the game.
Why had he made it sound like she was his older sister? She looked younger than him.
“Hey, Austin said your mom is older than him.”
“Yeah. They’re twins. She’s like a minute older. He won’t let her forget it.”
Interesting. That put Ashley at 29 years old. Um, definitely not cougar material.
“What position do you play?”
“Shortstop,” Cooper answered.
“I used to play shortstop. But I can also play the outfield, and that’s what the team needed.”
Olivia kept looking back at us, and when Cooper asked me his 9000th question, she caught my eyes and mouthed “sorry.”
Oh, fuck. Let me drown in those eyes. Blond curls, fierce blue eyes, and a killer body, she was perfect. And when she spoke, I had to remind myself to pay attention, focus Nate. Fuck you, ADHD.
Lips. Shit. My eyes dropped to her lips, and was it even possible that her lips were moving and no sound was coming out? Nope. It wasn’t. What the fuck. Now she was going to think I was a total fucking loser and couldn’t keep track of a simple conversation.
I flicked the spin ring I had, the one that was supposed to help me focus.
“You need that too?” Cooper looked at me, wide-eyed. He held up his hand and our spin rings matched.
“Austin, are we now responsible for two ten-year-old boys?” Olivia’s questions struck me like a god-damned knife to the chest. Here I was, thinking about how I wanted to get her naked, and she was comparing me to another child.
I pulled out my southern charm, “With all due respect, I’m 19. The only adult thing I can’t do is drink legally.” Take that.
She flopped back in the seat. “Shoot, now I have to lock up the liquor cabinet.”
“That won’t be a problem. I don’t drink.” I mean, I tried once, and didn’t like the way it made me feel. And if there’s one feeling I would do anything to avoid, it’s puking.
Olivia looked to Austin to confirm. “He hasn’t tried in my house.”
Thanks, bud. Just reduce me to a teenage boy who needs to be parented. Little does anyone know, I’d been parenting myself for years. Maybe the big cities intimidated me, but just because I was from a small town in Alabama, didn’t mean I was a dumb kid who needed a babysitter.
I would need to come up with a plan if I wanted Olivia to see me as a man and not some kid. I hadn’t been told no often, not when I played, and not off the field. I’d been the one telling people no. Now that I decided she was it for me, I had to figure out how to get her on board.