The Perfect Catch (Kissing the Enemy Book 1)

by Maggie Dallen

  To be fair, though, there were about three decent summer jobs available and those were all taken by high schoolers like me who’d been able to work throughout the year. Not a lot of summer-only jobs in Upstate New York’s answer to Mayberry.

  I shifted uncomfortably in front of him, keenly aware of the gawking stares of my friends and trying not to get too royally pissed at the fact that Noah, my Noah, was looking over my shoulder like he was distracted, or maybe just bored by this conversation.

  “Look, I gotta run,” he started to say.

  At the same exact time, I’d started to talk too. “Can we hang out sometime this week?”

  The ensuing silence went beyond awkward. It was painful.

  His nostrils flared and for a second there I thought maybe I saw a weakness in his dickish demeanor. But then his gaze met mine and it was cold as ice. “Don’t you have to stay on campus? I thought you had a curfew.”

  He didn’t exactly sneer, but he came awfully close. He definitely managed to make me feel more like a toddler than an almost eighteen-year-old about to enter her senior year.

  “Yeah,” I said slowly. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t hang out for a little while. We could grab a coffee at the cafeteria, or—”

  But he was already starting to walk away. “Sorry, kid, I’ve got to run,” he said. “I’ve got this thing called a job. Why don’t you go ahead and run back to camp?”

  I stared after him. Anger simmered low in my belly, humiliation adding an extra special layer of awful to the churning sensation. I watched his retreating form and clenched my fists. Maybe there were some rocks close by that I could hurl at his head before he turned the next corner.

  I wouldn’t do it, but imagining it gave me a sense of grim satisfaction. That guy deserved to have some sense knocked into him. Because, seriously…

  What. Was. That?

  Who was that guy and what had he done with my friend?

  I turned back and saw my teammates gaping, their eyes wide and some filled with dreaded pity.

  I swear to God, I know him! We grew up together. We’re friends, I wanted to tell them.

  But when I strode over to them I just shook my head a bit and Maddie got the cue. She raised her voice and addressed the herd of staring girls. “Come on, guys, let’s get to the lockers.”

  She clapped her hands together loudly as if breaking the spell and that was enough to wake the silent audience. We all moved toward the locker rooms en masse, conversations starting up all around me.

  “You okay?” Maddie asked quietly.

  I nodded, even though that was a lie. I was so not okay. I was hurt. I was pissed…I wanted an explanation.

  And I’d get one, I decided. I had five more days here at Fairfield until that last day. The highlight of the week. What it all came down to. The main event. The showcase game, where the bleachers filled with friends, some family, and most importantly—recruiters.

  The recruiters, I reminded myself. That’s why I was here. And for me, there was one even bigger draw for the game. The coach for Fairfield University’s softball team always came as well. Fairfield was my dream school, mainly because of their stellar team, but also because of its relative proximity to my family and the fact that they had a killer sports medicine department, which was what I planned to major in.

  Still, even with the practices, and the bonding times with my camp friends, and with the showcase to prepare for—I’d find a way to talk to Noah. There was no way I was going to let him treat me like that, at least not without an explanation.

  Maddie looped an arm around my shoulders, her wild brown curls tickling my face as she pulled me against her in a side hug. She and the others couldn’t have heard his nasty tone or even the dismissive, condescending words, but our body language must have made it painfully clear that our interaction was anything but friendly. “Would it help if we snuck out for some ice cream tonight?”

  “Yes,” I said decisively. “Ice cream always helps.” Maybe it was the side hug, or Maddie’s cheerful tone, but just talking about going out for ice cream cheered me up considerably.

  “Amen to that.” I saw her look in my direction out the corner of my eyes. “Is that the guy you were telling me about? Your brother’s friend?”

  I nodded but kept quiet. I loved Maddie to death, our friendship had gone above and beyond teammates and camp friends. She’d managed to make ‘brother’s friend’ sound suggestive, like there was more to it than that.

  There wasn’t.

  He was Eric’s best friend. My friend. We were neighbors. End of story. But of course Maddie wouldn’t see it that way. I hadn’t told her much about our last interaction or even that I’d known he’d be here this week. But we’d been friends long enough that she knew all about my other friends, and she knew just how important Noah was to me.

  Not only was he a close family friend, he was the one who’d turned me into a softball player. Maddie was one of few who could understand the significance of that.

  Judging by the mischievous glint in her eyes now as she eyed me, Maddie was trying to make this something it wasn’t, like a lover’s quarrel or something ridiculously dramatic like that.

  Sure enough, her next words proved me right.

  “What happened between you two? Did he make a move or something?” She arched her brows. “He had the look of a jilted lover if I ever saw one.”

  I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. If I tried to protest it would just encourage her. Trust me, I had experience in this department. Maddie was beyond stubborn when she got an idea stuck in her head.

  The year before she’d been convinced that we should double date while I was in town. The guy she’d been dating—a guy who hadn’t lasted beyond that week—plus his best friend.

  As if I’d wanted to think about dating when I was here for training.

  Needless to say, Maddie and I had a different view of boys and dating and romance in general. Basically, she was all for it. Some might even say the girl was boy crazy. I, on the other hand, had never really been all that into the romance thing. One day it would happen to me. One day I’d have a crush and maybe then I’d understand Maddie a little better. But until then I was content to focus on my game, work on my skills so I could get a scholarship to college, and be entertained by Maddie’s dating stories and her guy drama.

  This was all to say that when I’d first mentioned Noah, way back when she and I had first met, she’d leapt to all kinds of conclusions about my friendship with him. The more I’d protested, the more she’d been convinced that I’d developed romantic feelings for the guy.

  That was so not the case, but I really didn’t want to have that conversation again, at least not now. In fact, I didn’t want to think about Noah at all right now. I had bigger things to worry about, like how I was going to make the best impression imaginable on the coach from Fairfield.

  But first and foremost, we had ice cream to grab.

  This was kind of a big deal. Noah hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that I wasn’t allowed to leave campus, or that we had a curfew. Ridiculous as it might sound, the college didn’t trust us to leave the campus so getting an ice cream meant sneaking off campus and then slipping back to our rooms undetected before lights out.

  The whole thing was pretty silly, but it was something of a tradition at camp. Since Maddie lived in the town of Fairfield, we used her car. It wasn’t all that hard to sneak out, and as long as we were back before bed check we were fine. It was a camp, not a prison. But half the fun of our little ice cream adventures was the sneaking in and out. For a bunch of dedicated, nose-to-the-grindstone, wannabe professional athletes, that little dose of devilry was akin to jumping out of an airplane.

  I got a rush of adrenaline just thinking about sneaking out, because yes, I was totally a goody two-shoes and there was no denying it.

  “Come on,” I said, “Let’s go shower and then change into our ninja-wear.”

  Maddie’s laugh had a few of the
other girls looking in our direction. “Ninja-wear?” she echoed. “I hope you mean you brought something black and slinky.”

  I arched my brows. “For ice cream?”

  She shrugged. “You never know who you’ll meet when you’re out on the town.” She lowered her voice and widened her eyes suggestively. “Maybe your hottie neighbor will be there.”

  I rolled my eyes as I laughed. “You have such a one-track mind.”

  “I’m just saying…” Her grin turned mischievous as she sang her response in a taunting sing-song. “You never know.”

  Chapter Two

  Noah

  So maybe I hadn’t handled my first run-in with Callie as well as I would have hoped.

  I stared down blankly at the transfer applications in my hand for spring semester. This was what I was supposed to be focusing on.

  Instead, I was sitting in my room in the house my friend Neil and I had rented for the summer to avoid the dorms.

  And I was obsessing. Reliving every second of that interaction and trying not to physically smack myself. Because let’s face it. That had not gone well. At all.

  I scrubbed a hand over my face, but that did nothing to block out the memory of Callie’s hurt expression, the pain in her eyes as I’d pushed her away.

  God, I sucked.

  I’d just wanted to put some distance between us, was that so wrong?

  Maybe not, but the way I’d handled it had been. Ugh. I groaned as I threw the papers to the side. It was useless to look at them now, anyways. After a full day of working in the athletic department offices my eyes were ready to cross if I read one more document. My completely menial task for the day had been entering the enrollment forms for the softball players, making sure all their info was up to date in the system.

  That had been the first time Callie had come on my radar. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known she’d be there. My mom must have told me a hundred times that Callie was coming to Fairfield this week. In her super subtle way, my mom outright told me to be nice to her.

  “I don’t know what happened between you two, but Callie is a good girl. You be nice to her.” Those were her exact words.

  No, my mother didn’t know what happened between us. No one did.

  That was because nothing happened. I’d made sure of it.

  But now…aw hell, now I’d gone too far. I knew it. I’d known it as I was talking to her but I hadn’t been able to stop myself. It was like Christmas break all over again. I told myself to be cool. Keep my distance but be polite. Calm, cool, and in control, that was me.

  Except that nothing about me was cool when Callie was around.

  One life-altering injury had made sure of that. Nothing was the same now, but that didn’t mean I had to ruin everything.

  I dropped my head into my hands as I heard my roommate calling my name.

  I knew what I had to do. I’d known ever since I’d walked away from her this afternoon. I had to apologize. I couldn’t explain my psychotic behavior, but I could try to smooth things over between us. She deserved at least that much.

  “Hey man,” Neil said when he leaned into my room and saw me slumped over my desk. “The new team is heading over to Cazmo’s for some burgers, you coming?”

  I didn’t want to but I should. Neil had convinced me to coach the intramural co-ed softball team he and his best friend, Avery, were forming to take part in a charity tournament in a few weeks.

  I wasn’t entirely sure why I’d said yes to coaching. Maybe because I missed being part of a team, or maybe just because Neil was that persuasive. Either way, I’d made the commitment and I’d see it through. I’d do my damnedest to make sure we won. Because for charity or not, I always played to win.

  The only problem was, I wasn’t entirely sure we’d have a team. That was a fact that Neil either hadn’t considered or wasn’t concerned about. “We don’t have a full roster yet, Neil. You know we need at least four girls to be eligible.”

  He ignored me like he always did when I brought up logistics that interfered with his plans. “That’s your problem, coach,” he said with a grin.

  “It’s not just my problem if we don’t get enough players to compete.”

  I hadn’t been at Fairfield last summer but as soon as Neil had convinced me to coach, I’d read up on the event. It took place over the course of one weekend with a round-robin style tournament that drew a big crowd to support Fairfield’s youth programs.

  Since Fairfield housed Fairfield University, which prided itself on its athletic department, the competition was notoriously intense. Just the way I liked it.

  The only problem was, each team had to have a minimum number of females playing on their team—the organizers were all about ensuring that this event was at least close to equal when it came to the sexes. And while Neil and I had no problem gathering a group of team members from the Fairfield baseball team, finding girls was a whole other matter. Most of the girls on the college softball team were either already on a team—a small group of them were all playing on one team—or they’d gone home for the summer.

  “We have one week until the tournament starts,” I reminded Neil. “Where do you expect me to find three more girls.”

  This tournament was for charity, and it was for fun, but it was also pretty darn competitive, at least among our friends. It sucked that I couldn’t play for the team but since my injury was diagnosed I’d gotten used to watching everything from the sidelines.

  I’d heard enough about this tournament to take it seriously. And, to be honest, that’s the only way I knew how to treat sports, in general. I’d never really understood those people who could just play for fun.

  Neil leaned against my dresser by the door. “We’ll find some, don’t worry.” My roommate was one year older than me so he’d played in the tournament last summer. He was our resident expert.

  “We’ll find some,” I muttered with a little roll of my eyes. “We” meant “me” and we both knew it. As the newly minted coach, the team members we did have were looking to me to organize and unite the group.

  “Ones with talent,” he added.

  “Uh huh.” I tried with all my might to fight the image that was currently bombarding my brain. It was the picture of big brown eyes and a heart-shaped face. It was the image of a dimply smile that had the power to make everything right in the world, just as long as that smile was aimed in my direction.

  Oh freakin’ hell. Callie had to get out of my damned head already.

  I shoved my chair back and came to a stand. “All right, let’s go meet with the team and see if they have any suggestions.”

  When we arrived at Cazmo’s my manager arched his brows. It was my night off, after all, so what was I doing here?

  Good question. I should have been home and in bed. I should have been figuring out what I’d say when I ran into Callie tomorrow on campus. And I would run into her. The universe was cruel like that.

  On top of that, she was impossible to ignore. If she was anywhere in a ten-mile radius, I’d be aware of her.

  But instead of being home where I ought to be, I was here, sitting at the head of a long table, watching my rag-tag mix of high school and college athletes eat their food as they made small talk. Some of them knew one another but not everybody.

  A cohesive unit we were not. It didn’t help matters that aside from Neil, the rest of our team seemed to be the quiet type. So was I…also not helpful. We needed someone with some energy around here, someone who united us, who was good for morale.

  Yet again, there was that image in my head. The smile, the eyes…the smokin’ hot body.

  I set my water glass down on the table way too hard and everyone shut up to look at me. I cleared my throat and shifted. Nothing to see here, folks, just trying to exorcise some demons.

  They were waiting for me to speak, however, and as the captain I supposed I should. Still, I spared Neil a quick glance. Mr. Chatty chose that moment to inhale the fries that had just been set down in
front of him.

  No help there.

  “Look,” I said. “I’ll be honest with you. We’ve got to get some girls on our team or we’ve lost before we’ve even begun.”

  Neil glanced up from his fries with a grin. “That’s the spirit.”

  I ignored him. “Anyone have any suggestions?”

  Silence.

  Finally, Neil shrugged helplessly. “All the best female athletes from Fairfield U have either been snagged by another team or they aren’t interested.”

  “Aren’t interested in you or the tournament?” That came from our as-of-now sole female team member, Avery. She was a junior at Fairfield U and a friend of Neil’s…not that anyone could tell by the way they bickered.

  He grinned at her. “You’re just pissed because I didn’t mention you.”

  “I assumed it went without saying that you’d already scored the best of the best,” she said, stealing a fry from his plate.

  Neil leaned over the table slightly and lowered his voice. “Are you telling everyone that I scored with you?”

  Avery tipped her head back with a laugh, her auburn hair flying over her shoulder when she sat up straight again. “You wish, Pakowski.”

  I sighed. All right, clearly someone had to take control here. I turned to the two guys who sat at the end of the table, one seat between them as if they’d declared it a buffer zone. Levi and Ox. They were both going to be seniors at Fairfield High School in the fall. “What about you guys?” I asked. “Any luck finding some girls from your school who might want to play?”

  Ox didn’t acknowledge the question. I had no idea what his real name was, but his nickname was fitting. The guy was a beast and, according to Neil, a phenom on the football field. Luckily for us, he was an all around athlete who apparently just wanted to be out on the field, whatever field that might be.

  He wasn’t ugly, but he was intimidatingly large and overbearingly silent. Not, I’d imagine, a hit with the ladies. Maybe that was why he ignored my question and continued to chow down on his burger.

  Levi was all teenage angst. Slouching down in his seat, he toyed with the food on his plate as he glowered through some long dark hair that had fallen into his face. He shook it out of his eyes as he shrugged. “Not that I know of.”