“You sound so cliché right now, girl,” Lilly pointed out.
“Besides, you are both in the same boat. You love guys who act the same way.”
Kiley raised her hands. “Hey, we never said we were any better. Hell, we are both probably the worst to give this sort of advice to.”
We all laughed together as we grabbed a few more beers from the cooler. I checked around to make sure my parents didn’t see. Generally, they didn’t care too much if I had the occasional beer at home, as long as they could pretend to care in the presence of company. I was glad they were happy to ignore us.
“I thought you were done with men?” Lilly said.
“I thought I was,” I said. “I’ve been known to make mistakes before. Besides, we are speculating that this guy will ever actually try to contact me again. He probably has a zillion girls after him and that sort of thing is hard for guys that age to just give up to be with one woman, right? I’m not about to take on a project, someone I have to try to change and spend so much time worrying about.”
And it was true. That’s precisely how I felt about it.
But damn, if that man did not have me feeling intrigued. What would it be like to date someone like that? I’ve never cared much for money, but every woman dreams about romantic dinners in fancy restaurants and being swept off her feet by a larger than life romantic figure. Would that be me soon?
I doubted it. I really didn’t think I’d ever hear from Kip Raynes again.
But, I was wrong.
Chapter Seven
Kip
Alexa Rae… now that girl was something special.
The moment I set eyes upon her beauty, she spoke to me, captivating my imagination in ways that I never knew existed. I’d been roped into going to that barbecue with Billy somehow. I wasn’t even sure why I’d gone. I’d planned to stay home watching some sports on television and having a few beers. I was tired. I was feeling a bit down ever since the fiasco with my dad and that stupid paparazzi jerkoid. That bastard had threatened to sue me for destroying his camera. My dad was good enough to pay for the camera and to pose for some pictures with the guy, as well as issuing a public apology for my actions. Coach Smith had tried to ream me out for drumming up bad publicity for the team and had threatened to bench me for two games. That fool wouldn’t dare do any such thing. He could get bent as far as I was concerned.
My father called me up yelling and screaming at me for being so incompetent and just trying to make him look bad. “What in the hell were you thinking? Do you realize how bad this makes me look? Do you understand how important it is to maintain the right public image when you are a celebrity? This is the game. You know better than that! You had better learn to control yourself buster or I will not be around to bail you out of hot water next time. DO YOU HEAR ME!”
I had put the phone on speaker and left it outside the bathroom door to enjoy a bowel movement while my father was blowing a few gaskets in his brain. He eventually realized I was no longer on the line and ended the call. I hadn’t talked to him since and I didn’t care if I ever talked to him again.
But the whole scene had gotten me a bit down. As much as I hated my father, a part of me still craved that connection to my parents. Without them I’d be pretty much alone in the world and that was a hard thing to face for anyone. So, I found myself often clinging to them in times of need, even as I tried to rebel against them.
It was during this down period that Billy had proposed the idea of me going to his family’s annual Labor Day barbecue. I didn’t really want to go, but he talked me into it and I eventually broke down and went with him. Billy and I had become friends right away at the beginning of the season. He was a fun, goofy sort of guy. He had a bad temper and it was hilarious to see him lose his mind every now and then. He acted like a tough guy and he thought he was a tough guy, but I could look into his eyes and see that deep down he was full of hot air. He was almost a bully in some ways, and intimidation was his main tactic. He talked a good game. That was his best weapon. I doubted he could fight for real and most people, like some of the other guys on the team I’d seen him try to mess with usually backed down either because they believed his hype, or because they knew he was an idiot.
But he kept me entertained and we seemed to get along for whatever reason, so I hung out with him sometimes. Although, I was waiting for that moment when he might get mad at me and try to impose his will on me. If that happened, I would put him in his place real fast. I’ve always been fairly tough and I’d studied boxing at a young age, moving on to martial arts during my teen years. These skills along with my size made me someone that nobody should have ever physically tried to push around.
So, I agreed to go along to the barbecue. And it was a lot of fun. But I hadn’t intended to meet any women there that struck my fancy, especially someone like Alexa. The woman took my breath away the moment that I saw her. Wow…she was incredible. And then when I actually started talking to her, it was like we’d known each other for years. She was sassy, spunky, and seemed just crazy enough to find me not so crazy.
I wanted to ask her out. I should have done it at the barbecue, but something told me that this girl was going to be a different nut to crack. I had to take my time and actually see where things might lead. Now, this could land me in a relationship if I wasn’t careful, and that was the last thing I needed right now. Therefore, pursuing this girl was dangerous for me. But I found that I wasn’t able to help myself. I needed to see her again. I wanted to hold her, touch her, and just be with her.
When I tackled her during that football game, I felt that I’d been searching for this woman my whole life. I desperately wanted to be with her. I hadn’t felt quite like this in so long… if ever. There was this odd tingly sensation that had come over me when I held her briefly in my arms. I felt content. I felt totally at ease and happy. That was not something I was used to. My whole life I had been running from the fame of my family name and it had overshadowed everything and made me feel almost like I was never going to find my own identity, that sense of completion that usually comes to someone after they’ve left their adolescence and teenage angst behind. But I had yet to find mine. Yet, in that moment holding that beautiful, amazing woman in my arms, I knew that I’d found it. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was something new, something real there. And it scared the hell out of me. But I’ve never been one to give in to fear. I had to find out more about this girl. I needed it. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I did.
After practice the next day I finished my shower and got dressed. Then I sauntered over to where Billy was hanging out at his locker. He was checking himself out in the mirror as usual. The guy never stopped this behavior. He was about the biggest narcissist I knew besides me.
“Hey, man,” Billy said. “How’s it going? Great catch out there during that last play. I totally thought Chance overthrew you.”
I shrugged. “No sweat, man. My hands are magic. Don’t you know that by now?”
He slapped me a high five in solidarity. “So, what are you doing now? Want to head to the bar and grab a few beers?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
“Alright,” he said. “Maybe we will find a few fine ladies to chat up.”
“Well, I don’t know about me,” I said.
He gave me a puzzled look. “Oh, man. You aren’t doing that celibacy thing that these other guys are turning to, are you?”
I laughed. “Not hardly.”
“Then what gives?”
“Well, I was hoping I could get Alexa’s number.”
He stared at me with anger and confusion in his eyes as if he was actually trying to decide if I was joking or not.
“What are you talking about? Why?”
“Well, I thought we hit it off and I’d like to take her out.”
“Dude, you’re joking right? Knock it off.”
I shrugged and looked around. Some of the other guys were noticing this exchange, mostly because Bi
lly was adopting his macho voice and getting a bit louder. What a cheeseball.
“No, I’m not joking. You going to give me the number, or not?”
“No way. My sister… really? She deserves a good guy. Not some guy who is going to dump her after a fun night. I can’t believe you would suggest that to me. That’s my little sister you prick.”
“Hey, I never said I was going to do that. I’d like to take her out. She’s a grown woman and can do what she wants. She doesn’t need her big brother telling her what she can and can’t do.”
Billy stepped close to me. He was actually up in my face. He was so angry I thought he was going to lose his mind. His eyes were narrowed into slits. His chest was puffed out. It was almost comical. I could destroy this jerk in two seconds flat. What did he think he was doing?
“You listen to me,” Billy said. “If you go near my sister, you and I are going to have all sorts of problems. I’ll break you.”
I smiled, but never took my eyes off the creep. He was exactly the type of loser who would throw a sucker punch on you. That was his style. The guy was a joke. He’d never been in a fair fight in his life.
“You’d better watch who you threaten,” I said stepping forward. “It might have some dire consequences.”
I stood there another moment glaring him down. I saw a freckle of fear forming in his eyes. His body language stiffened as he realized that this could very easily be a big mistake. The jerk.
Billy stood another moment and then stormed off, slamming his locker door for good measure. “You’d better head my words!” He shouted to no one in particular.
I smirked watching this pathetic macho display unfold before me. In my experience the guys who acted tough and macho were yellow through and through. They were all chicken. But sometimes their machismo got the better of them and they found their asses in a sling they couldn’t get out of. I just hoped Billy didn’t try to cross that line with me.
I was going to talk to his sister. If she wanted to go out with me then we would go out and do whatever else we wanted to. Her maggot brother didn’t have a damn thing he could do about it. If he tried I’d break his arm off and shove it up his cornhole.
The incident with Billy had made me good and mad. I was done with the jerk for the time being.
He had refused to give me Alexa’s number, but I still wanted to contact her. So, when I went home I jumped on the laptop and pulled up my social media account. After a bit of digging, I found her profile and sent her a friend request.
Then I sat down to eat some leftover fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner while I watched a bit of a ball game on television and downed a couple of beers. It wasn’t long before Alexa accepted my request. Fantastic.
I pulled up the messenger and began to type out a message. “Hey, how’s it going?”
A moment later she responded. “Good. You?”
“Just finished football practice. The team is ready for the game.”
“Great.”
“Do you ever come to watch the games? Or are you not a football fan?”
“I am a fan. Sometimes I come to watch.”
“I’d love for you to see me play,” I responded.
“I’d like to.”
“And I’d love to see you, period,” I said.
“That would be nice.”
“Let’s get together tomorrow night for dinner.”
She waited a moment before responding. “Tomorrow, I’m busy.”
“Ah, that’s too bad.”
“Not really. I’m playing in a softball game. I love it!”
“Wow, that’s cool. Where you playing?”
“Saguaro Fields at seven,” she said.
“Hmmm, I might swing by,” I replied. I wanted to play it cool. She had actually rebuffed my advances, and turned down my invite for dinner. If I jumped at this chance to see her I thought it might send her the message that I was crazy eager. That was definitely the wrong foot to start out on.
“Cool,” she replied.
I ended the session by asking for her phone number. She gave it and I gave her mine. Then we ended the conversation. I sat there for several minutes reading the exchange over and over trying to see if I had done everything correctly. I didn’t want to overexpose myself. I wanted to keep that air of mystery between us. She was interested. I could tell, but she was also holding back, as was I. Why did she have so many reservations? Was she just naturally cautious, or had she been hurt by too many stupid guys wasting her time and trampling all over her heart? Was she just having fun and playing games so she could laugh about it with her girlfriends? I didn’t think that, but you could never tell. I didn’t actually know this girl. But I desperately wanted to.
I sat there watching the television for a few minutes before I decided to switch it off and go to bed. I was tired and it had been a long day. Yet, while trying to drift off, I just lay there for a long time thinking. I couldn’t sleep. My head was filled with too many things, and most of them revolved around Alexa. She had captured my heart and mind in a way that no one else ever had.
And what about Billy? We were supposed to be friends, but he was so mad at me now that I would have been surprised to see him speaking to me tomorrow. Needless to say, we did not hang out and have a few beers after practice that day. The other guys were all wondering when the fight between us would happen. They’d rarely seen Billy so mad. He was usually bullying people and messing with them just as a goof, or if he got pissed on the field about something. But this was different. He really wanted to rip me a new one. It was laughable. Those guys didn’t really think he had a shot in a fight with me, did they? Did he have them that bamboozled? It was idiotic.
He’d be so angry to know that I was going to see his sister the next day. I started coming up with a plan right then. I wanted to see a bit of Alexa’s softball game and then I wanted to take her out to a good bite of food and just hang out with just the two of us. That would be fun. We could talk and laugh and get to know what made each other tick, see if there was any chemistry between us without any outside interference at all.
I eventually closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. When I woke up I had only one thing on my mind. Alexa.
That girl had already changed my life in some profound ways.
Chapter Eight
Alexa
I stepped up to the plate and took a good look at the pitcher. The game had been long and tiring, especially for a slow pitch softball game, but I wasn’t going to back down now. My team was relying on me. I needed to focus and make this happen. There were two people on base, a runner at first base and third. A good base hit would score the winning run. I could do this.
I loved the excitement of competitive sports. It had only been a few months since I’d finished my regular softball season with my high school team, but it felt like it had been years. There seemed to be this gap, this huge leap from the last weeks of my high school career to now, the fall where I was ambling and floundering around without any real direction going for me. Why couldn’t I get a handle on things? I should have just gone straight to college instead of deciding to take that year to find myself.
I gripped the bat in my hands tightly and took a few practice cuts. Then I dug my feet into the dirt and waited for the pitcher to go into her wind up. She stepped forward and released the ball. I watched it hover in the air in its beautiful arc as it came across towards home plate. The ball got closer and closer and I waited patiently. That was the thing in slow pitch. You had to wait for the ball to come to you and then you had to step into it and swing with all of your might when it was just almost past you and you thought you might actually miss.
The ball was there. Right there in the sweet spot. I took a breath and swung hard as I stepped into the swing. The ball connected to the bat and I knew it was going to go hard. And hard it did. The ball ricocheted off the bat and flew high up in the air and deep.
I was already running towards first base and dropping the bat,
but I could not take my eyes off where the ball was going. It was heading far over the left fielder’s head. It was going close to the fence. Would it go? Would I end up with a home run? I always loved hitting home runs, but of course in a game it was not something you ever really tried for unless you wanted to guarantee an eighty percent chance of a strike out.
The ball bounced off the fence and hit the ground darting away from the fielder. No home run, but extra bases for sure. I hit first base and kept running hard towards second. I didn’t need to do this, as the winning runs were now scoring for my team, but I was on a mission to get that double.
I reached second base easily and waited for the ball to be thrown back to the shortstop who hurled it towards home. But it was too late. Jamie Patterson crossed the plate easily and the game was over. Yes!
I jogged over to join my teammates where we briefly celebrated. “Hell of a hit!” “Way to go girl!”
I enjoyed the praise, and I really missed it. I had been asked to play by my cousin Julie who was a little bit older than me, but her company needed an extra player for their team since their second baseman was out with an injury, so I said I’d be glad to step in. And now I had the game winning hit. It felt great.
As I finished celebrating and grabbed my bag to go home, I noticed someone watching me. It was someone I never expected to be there, but there he was. Wow, that was interesting. Standing off to the side was Kip Raynes with a big smile on his face. And he looked as fine as could be. Wow, he was hot. My face instantly got warm as a strong blush came on. I had to chill out and relax. This was just another surprise in my life. I could handle this.
My Friend’s Sister Page 6