Baseball and Other Lessons (Devil's Ranch Book 2)

by Aubrey Gross

  Once the shipping containers had been properly assembled, the next phase had been what Rebecca called their “preps.” Jenn had asked as few questions as possible—she’d had a bit of a hard time wrapping her brain around her parents’ sudden turn into crazy land—but one Sunday afternoon curiosity had gotten the best of her and she’d found herself watching a marathon of Doomsday Preppers.

  She was pretty sure her parents hadn’t gone that far off the rails, but she wasn’t entirely sure so she hadn’t asked any questions. Besides, after watching that marathon she’d come to the conclusion that it was kind of silly to prep for something as specific as an EMP, a New Madrid Earthquake or a massive polar shift. If you were going to prep for the end of the world as we know it, shouldn’t you play some REM and prepare for just a general collapse of society? That made a lot more sense to her than preparing for something that had a one in a bazillion chance of happening.

  So she hadn’t asked any questions, and had basically just nodded and smiled as her parents had talked about their preps, their storage container house, and the arsenal they were compiling. Her mom, a former teacher, had chosen to homeschool Lacey and Kyle. Jenn had nothing against home schooling—especially when the person doing the home schooling had been a teacher for almost thirty years—but over the past year or so it seemed as though the lesson plans had gotten stranger and stranger. Seriously? Lacey was stirring human feces for a science project?

  Jenn shuddered. Yeah, she was definitely glad they’d pulled this stunt well after she’d turned eighteen. Her life was enough of a hot mess as it was.

  Chapter Eight

  @Deadspin: Where’s Matt Roberts? Texas ace hasn’t been seen in weeks deadsp.in/7mAt9T0

  @BleacherReport: TX Ace Reportedly Missing, Hasn’t Been Seen in Weeks

  @ESPN: Team says haven’t heard from @MattRobertsTX in weeks es.pn/0JeE43n

  @TheFakeESPN: Matt Roberts missing. So is Taylor Swift. They’ll never go out of style.

  Matt barely resisted the urge to throw his phone across the backyard. He was seconds away from going into the windup when he pulled back. It would do him no good to play pitch and catch with his iPhone and a boulder.

  Instead, he set the phone face down on the table, walked away and climbed into the hot tub connected to Chase’s pool. Never mind the fact that it was at least a hundred degrees outside; he was just hoping the hot water would help loosen the muscles that had been tense since seeing Jenn the other night.

  His phone dinged again and he sighed. Taylor Swift? Really? She was ten years younger than him, for one thing. For another, he’d never even met her. The Fake ESPN Twitter account could have done a much better job with that one. Why not Hannah Davis or Kate Upton? Even if they were both currently taken, at least they both had a track record with baseball players.

  The crazy thing was, hot as both of those women were (and if he was being honest with himself, as hot as Taylor Swift was despite the age gap), neither of them turned him on like Jenn did. Jenn with her crazy curly red hair, green eyes, perky breasts and constant hatred of him. If the attraction hadn’t been simmering under the surface for the past ten years, Matt would have to wonder if that hit to the head he’d taken had been much worse than the doctors had thought.

  He sighed and closed his eyes. Showing up at her place the other night probably hadn’t been his best idea ever, but he hadn’t been able to stay away. Chase and Jo were in that newly in love phase and he had no desire to horn in on that. He and Owen were friends, but not the type that hung out together by themselves. His parents were great, but Mom hovered and babied him, which just made him feel itchy and angry.

  So that had left Jenn, since public places were pretty much out these days. In all honesty, the decision to unexpectedly show up at her place had been an easy one. He’d wanted to see her, simple as that. Even though she was constantly sniping at him and definitely threw up a “don’t touch me” vibe, he was finding it harder and harder to not touch her.

  Memories of their night together in San Antonio had filtered through his head more often than he cared to admit over the past ten years. He wasn’t sure if it was the memory, the way he’d left things, or the fact that his life had become a clusterfuck with one horribly placed line drive, but he wanted to see her, be with her and make her smile and relax with him like she had that night.

  God, he wanted to be with her again.

  Even with her hedgehog vibe, he wanted her. He wanted sex, yes, but more so he simply wanted her. He wanted to get to know her, to talk with her again the way they had that night. He wanted to feel the way he had again that night, even if that feeling had scared the crap out of him then and still scared the crap out of him now.

  Matt groaned and lightly thunked the back of his head against the limestone rocks lining the edge of the hot tub. If anyone knew he was sitting here in his brother’s hot tub, going all True Confessions in his head about a woman he’d once had a one-night stand with, they’d think he was certifiably crazy.

  To be fair, Matt sometimes wondered himself. This constant need to be around Jenn had to be madness, right?

  “You okay? That was a pretty heavy sigh.”

  Matt opened his eyes at Chase’s voice and turned his head to see his younger brother standing a few feet away from the edge of the hot tub.

  “Just thinking too much about stuff.”

  “Anything you want to talk about?”

  Matt shrugged. “Go take a look at my phone and the latest tweets.”

  Chase didn’t move. “Haven’t we all told you to ignore Twitter?”

  “Yeah. But even if I turn it off I still get text messages and emails about what other people are seeing on Twitter. It’s easier to keep up with it myself rather than getting them second and third-hand.”

  Chase shook his head. “So what you’re saying is Baseball Yoda is more than willing to dish out advice, but not so willing to take it?”

  Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not going to argue with you.”

  “There’s a first.”

  Matt barely refrained from rolling his eyes. “So where’s Jo?”

  “She’s having a girls’ night out with Jenn. They’ve barely spent any time together over the past few weeks, and apparently margaritas and then dancing were called for.”

  “Dancing, huh?”

  Chase glanced at him. “Since when are you into dancing?”

  “I’m not. Was just asking a question.” He could totally be into dancing if Jenn were involved, but he wasn’t about to share that information with his brother who also happened to be pretty protective of the woman in question.

  “Actually, I was kind of thinking about crashing their girls’ night a little bit later. Jo hinted it would be okay, so if you want to get out and maybe have some fun, you’re welcome to come with Owen and me.”

  “Sure. I have nothing better to do.”

  Chase grinned. “I figured you would say that. And hey, turn off the fucking tweets for the night.”

  #

  “Don’t look now, but the boys just walked in,” Jo yelled in Jenn’s ear over the strains of “Uptown Funk.”

  Jenn kept dancing and didn’t bother to look towards the front door of April’s, the small bar she, Owen and Chase had been frequenting for the past few years. “I thought this was supposed to be a girls’ night out?” she yelled back, a smile on her face.

  Jo’s guilty look pretty much said it all. “Sorry!”

  “No worries! Let’s go say hi so you can make out with your man.”

  Jo’s skin flushed even pinker than it had been and Jenn laughed. They wound their way through dozens of dancing bodies towards the table the boys had co-opted. It wasn’t until they reached the table that Jenn realized Matt was with Chase and Owen. Their gazes met, and Jenn barely resisted the urge to smooth her hair and fidget with her tank top. Instead, she glared at him briefly before smiling at Owen and leaning in to hug him.

  “I wasn’t expecting to see y
ou tonight,” she shouted in his ear.

  “Chase didn’t want to crash y’all’s party alone. Where the hell have you been?”

  Jenn tried not to feel guilty about not seeing or really even talking to Owen all week. “Busy. I’ve been working on a bunch of lesson plans and dodging calls from my mom.”

  Owen was the only person who was privy to all the details about her parents’ new lifestyle, and only then by accident; he’d happened to be at her place one day when a shipment of MREs had arrived on her doorstep. Being ex-Army and a current member of the Army Reserve, he’d taken one look at the packages and asked her what the hell was going on. Really, she’d had no choice but to break down and tell him. He’d laughed and shook his head at most of it, and hadn’t judged her for her parents’ actions. Not that she’d thought he would but, well, her parents had kind of gone off the deep-end.

  “What crazy stuff are they up to now?”

  She grimaced. “She’s making Lacey stir shit as a science project.”

  “Do I even want to know what kind of shit?”

  “Human.”

  “That’s disgusting.”

  “I know, right!”

  “Why’s Matt glaring at me?”

  Jenn glanced over at Matt, who was looking down at his phone. “Um, he’s not.”

  Owen grinned before leaning back in and lowering his voice just slightly to say, “No, but he’s been watching you the entire time.”

  A tingle ran down Jenn’s back from her head to her toes, and she silently beat down the butterflies that suddenly erupted in her stomach. “You’re seeing things, Owen.”

  “No, I’m not. I don’t know what happened or what’s going on between the two of you, but that man can barely keep his eyes off of you.”

  Jenn snorted. “Now I know you’re full of it. He’s Matt freaking Roberts. He can have any woman he wants!”

  “I can’t believe I’m about to say this because you’re like a sister to me, but Jenn, I’m pretty sure he wants you.”

  “You might want to go get your eyes checked, dude. In the meantime, I’m going to go get another drink.”

  She spun away from Owen and the supposedly hot stares from Matt and marched up to the bar. She caught Shae, the bartender’s eye, and signaled to the younger woman that she would like another margarita. She briefly thought about switching drinks since she, Matt and margaritas didn’t seem to be the greatest of combinations. Oh hell, she was willing to risk it. Mostly because she wasn’t about to allow herself to be alone with Matt tonight.

  Or ever.

  Maybe.

  Disgusted with herself she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. This was getting beyond ridiculous. If she wasn’t mad at him she was pretending to be mad at him just so she wouldn’t jump his bones again.

  And that pissed her off. The man had walked out on her without so much as a goodbye and yet she still wanted him.

  Maybe her family’s crazy had rubbed off on her.

  Shae set a margarita in front of Jenn, leaned across the bar and asked, “Is that Matt Roberts over at your table?”

  Jenn nodded and sipped the icy, fruity concoction. “Yup. The one and only.”

  “Jesus, he really is hotter in person than on TV, isn’t he?”

  Oh, you have no idea. “I guess, if you like assholes.”

  Shae glanced at Jenn, a confused expression on her face, but before she could say anything else Jenn brightly said, “Anyway. I better get back over there. Thanks for the refill!”

  She took her sweet time walking back to the table, steeling herself for being close to Matt again. She sidled up and between Jo and Owen, which put her across from Matt, and smiled before drawing another drink through her straw.

  His eyes narrowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Jenn smiled even wider. Jo and Chase had eyes only for each other, and Owen had been drawn into conversation with some guy she didn’t recognize. Jenn licked margarita sugar off her lips before taking another sip. Across from her, Matt shifted in his seat.

  She dared to glance at him through her lashes. He was watching her like a hawk watches a rabbit, and warmth that had nothing to do with tequila sluiced through her body. Suddenly nervous, Jenn pushed her glass a couple of inches away, turned and walked back to the dance floor. Maroon 5’s “Sugar” gave way to Kelly Clarkson’s “Heartbeat Song” and Jenn closed her eyes and tried to make her mind go blank so she could lose herself in dancing and the music.

  She was moving with the song, unselfconsciously, singing along quietly with the words when suddenly there was a warm body behind her seconds before there was a pair of big hands on her hips. She didn’t bother to open her eyes—her stupid body recognized Matt——and continued to dance. He pulled her closer so that their bodies brushed against each other with every movement.

  Aware that their friends were just tables away, Jenn pulled away slightly, even though she wanted to move in closer. His fingers tightened on her hips and she couldn’t help but smile. Some little demon must have inhabited her body tonight, because she allowed herself to briefly press against him before pulling away again and spinning to face him.

  His hands dropped from her hips and she leaned in, put her mouth to his ear and asked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Dancing.”

  “I didn’t see you as the dancing type.”

  “I didn’t see you as the dancing type,” he threw back at her.

  She shrugged, closed her eyes again and continued to dance along to the music without paying too much attention to the lyrics. Because, yeah, Matt had definitely turned her heartbeat up.

  The final notes of “Heartbeat Song” faded into Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me,” and Jenn abruptly opened her eyes and walked off the dance floor. There was no way in hell she was staying out there with Matt for that particular song.

  She grabbed her margarita as soon as she reached the table, and promptly downed the rest of it. The tequila hit quick and hard, blurring the hard edges enough that she could breathe again.

  She hadn’t planned on getting drunk tonight, but it was beginning to sound like a damned good plan. Matt sat back down on his barstool across from her, and she turned her back to head towards the bar again.

  She had to get that man out of her head, and in her slightly buzzed state more tequila seemed like the best way to go about doing that.

  #

  Since Matt had stepped out on the dance floor with Jenn, she’d successfully avoided their table—and him. Instead, she’d danced almost every dance, with small margarita breaks. She danced and laughed, drank, and did a pretty damned good job of ignoring him.

  The pop tunes from earlier had switched over to country, and he watched as she chatted with some cowboy as Mike Ryan’s “Dancing All Around It” poured through the bar’s speakers. She’d definitely been dancing all around the tension between them all night, seemingly preferring to get drunk and ignore it rather than be an adult and talk about it.

  Matt rubbed his hand over his face. What the hell was wrong with him? Since when did he want to talk about his feelings?

  Christ, the woman had him all kinds of mixed up.

  The cowboy leaned closer and then looked down her shirt. Jenn didn’t seem to notice, or if she did notice she didn’t mind. He shouldn’t mind, but he did. Dammit.

  She finally clued in to the creep staring down her shirt, grabbed her margarita, smiled politely and turned away from the cowboy. As she walked back towards their table, Wade Bowen’s “Trouble” began playing.

  Jesus, did the DJ have some sort of super mind-reading powers or something?

  Jenn set her half-full glass on the table opposite him, hopped up on to her seat and grinned. “I love this song. It’s just…sweet.”

  Matt raised an eyebrow. “Wait a second. Are you actually starting a conversation with me?”

  Jenn frowned and started to slide off her barstool. “If you’re gonna be an ass, Matt Roberts, I’ll go somewhere else.�
��

  He reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “I wasn’t trying to be an ass, promise.”

  Her forehead puckered just above her nose, but at least she slid back on to her seat.

  “So you’re a Wade Bowen fan, huh?” Scintillating conversation topic there, Roberts.

  “Yup. Where is everyone?”

  Matt tilted his head to the left. “Playing pool.”

  “Oh, I guess I should maybe join them.”

  “Running away?”

  Her green eyes met his and he felt her sadness all the way to his toes. “It’s called self-preservation, Matt.”

  Apparently Jenn was an honest drunk.

  “Why self-preservation?” He knew why, but he needed to hear her say it.

  She looked away. “You know why.”

  “I’m not sure I do.” He was pretty sure he did.

  She blew a curl out of her face. “Yes, you do.”

  Like the soundtrack of a movie, “Trouble” faded into The Civil Wars’ “The One That Got Away,” and Jenn thunked her head on the table before looking back up at him and saying, “Okay, is it just me or does this DJ have some really weird, screwed up sense of humor?”

  Matt laughed. “I’ve been thinking the same thing all night.”

  “I mean, seriously. There are times when I really wish I’d never, ever seen your face.”

  Matt considered her words. “I get that. There are times when I wish I’d never, ever seen your face, too.”

  Green eyes narrowed. “You’re a dick.”

  “No, I’m being honest. Seeing each other’s faces and being the ones that got away sure as hell didn’t make life simpler, did it?”

  She shook her head. “No. It didn’t.”

  She slid off her barstool and grabbed her glass. “In the meantime, Pooh Bear, I’m going to take my face over to the pool table so that you don’t have to see it.”