by Frank, Ella
However, I wasn’t out here trying to score some greasy fries. I was just trying to hide from someone. Someone very specific—Noah.
Not long after I got home this morning, Willa had sent me a text letting me know he would be coming to the game today. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, really—Noah had been one of the best baseball players in Chamberlin during high school. Of course he’d come to the Sunday game. But that had been the last thing I was thinking about this morning. I’d been too busy focused on the way he’d kissed and touched me the night before.
Heat curled in my stomach at the memory, and the ache I’d managed to ease this morning returned tenfold.
Great. This was hardly the time or the place for that to happen. I was here for baseball. Good, fun, family-friendly, PG-rated baseball. The last thing I needed was my body to start wishing it was off somewhere having a good time.
After a quick pep talk with myself, I tugged the bill of my cap further down in the hopes of covering my flushed cheeks, and cursed my fair complexion. I might as well have a GUILTY sign stamped across my forehead. It didn’t need to say of what, because I had a feeling everyone in town would draw their own conclusions after five minutes in Noah’s presence.
The fact that they’d be spot-on was enough to make me rethink my appearance today. I mean, would it really be so bad if I left? It wasn’t like I actually got called up to play all that often.
Just as I’d talked myself into making a break for it, I turned and ran straight into—yeah, thank you, God—Noah. Shit.
“You know, we really need to stop meeting like this.”
I brushed at the crumbs decorating my shirt and looked at the squashed basket of muffins I’d collided with. “It does seem to be a habit these days.”
“Not one you’ll ever hear me complain about.”
Aaaand there go my cheeks again.
“But how about we try this the right way?” There was that killer grin that seemed to have increased in potency over the years. “Good morning.”
“Uh, yeah, hi. I mean, you know, morning.”
I could’ve kicked myself for my rambling. My eyes flicked to Willa and Ryan, who were looking at me as though I was acting really weird—which I was.
“Hey, guys.”
Willa clamped her teeth into her lip, barely containing her laugh. “Hey.”
Ryan—the much nicer of the two—winked at me then bumped into Willa’s shoulder. “Hey, Laurel. How goes it?”
“I’m good. Just heading to the game,” I said, gesturing to the field I’d been in the process of running away from.
“Then aren’t you going the wrong way?”
My eyes shifted to Noah, whose grin had turned smug. Of course he’s smug. I’m acting like a high school girl with a crush—and he would know.
“I, uh, left something in the car.”
Noah looked like he believed that about as much as he believed in the tooth fairy. “What?”
“Huh?” I asked.
“What did you leave in the car?”
I narrowed my eyes, but when he didn’t react, I realized my death stare was being hampered by my glasses. “My water bottle.”
“You’re playing today?” Willa said, and when I aimed the death stare her way, she seemed to get it—glasses or not. “Oh, would you look at that? I see Miss Betty calling us, Ryan. We better take her the muffins.”
As they started off toward the gathering crowd, Noah called out, “I’ll be there in a few. I’m gonna keep Laurel company.”
Alarm and something much more inappropriate hit at the prospect of being alone with Noah. But before I could protest, Willa waved and walked off, dragging Ryan with her.
“Did you really leave your water bottle in the car?” Noah asked.
I turned to see he had moved a step closer, and with the midday sunlight shining down over us, it was difficult to look anywhere but at him. His eyes were magnetic, but it was his expression that made them extra hypnotic.
“I—”
“Yes?” Noah reached out and pulled my glasses down my nose.
“What are you doing?”
“I couldn’t see your eyes. It was bothering me.”
Deciding removing my glasses was a better option than having him reach for me again, I folded them in my hand and glared his way. “Better?”
“Much. Now, did you really leave something in the car, or are you running away?”
My mouth fell open. “And why would I be running away?”
“Because you heard I was coming to the game.”
“And you think that would make me run?”
“If it doesn’t, maybe it should.” Noah lowered his head until his mouth was by my ear. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night, and that sexy little sound you made when I—”
“Stop.” My voice sounded breathy even to my own ears. “I can’t do this. Not here.”
I was precariously close to losing sight of where I was, and with Jake only feet away, I could feel my two worlds beginning to collide.
“Then where?” Noah fingered the hair curling out from under my cap. “I want to kiss you. Taste you again. Last night wasn’t enough, Laurel.”
Okay, he needed to stop talking to me like that or I was going to overheat in the middle of Chamberlin’s baseball field.
“Come with me,” I said. Oh God, am I really about to do this? As I led him away from the field and past the amenities block to the football stadium, the answer was obvious—yes, yes, I was.
I looked around to make sure no one was near, and then directed him in under the bleachers. When I came to a stop, Noah looked at our surroundings and chuckled.
The low, sexy sound vibrated through me, sending a shiver up my spine. When his eyes landed back on me, it was all I could do to not reach between my thighs and ease the throbbing pressure that appeared anytime he was near.
“Well, it’s been a long time since I was under here…”
As his gaze roved over me, I stood tall and let him look. “Me too.”
“Oh yeah?” Noah licked at his lower lip, raised his eyes, and began to stalk my way.
I took in a breath and backed up a step. “Mhmm. The last time was with you—”
“The day of our SATs.”
I nodded as my back hit the cool metal of the stands. Noah stopped mere inches from me, and I swallowed. He hadn’t even touched me yet and I could already feel myself getting wet. This was crazy. No one had ever affected me like this—no one except Noah.
He reached out and took off my hat, and when he put it on his head backward, I was thrust back into the past and that afternoon here under the bleachers.
“We were a lot younger then.” He moved in closer and ran the back of his fingers down my cheek. “A lot more…inexperienced.”
My legs trembled as his fingers continued down my neck to the V of my shirt. When I didn’t stop him, he smirked. Arrogant. Over the years Noah’s cocky schoolboy confidence had turned to arrogance, and God help me, it was so damn hot that I almost melted at his feet.
I tilted my head up, and when he took hold of my chin to hold me steady, I softly sighed.
“I had the hottest dreams about you last night. You were naked and straddling me, your hair all down around my face…”
He slid his thumb along my lower lip, and I sucked it between my lips. Noah cursed, let go of me, and put his hands on the rails by my head, then thrust his hips forward and rubbed his erection against me.
“Ah…” I grabbed at his waist.
“Yeah, there it is. That has to be the sexiest fucking sound I’ve ever heard. I replayed it over and over in my head last night, imagining you downstairs finishing what I started.”
Noah brought a hand down to my chest and grazed his fingertips over my nipple.
“Tell me, did you finish?”
I closed my eyes and thought about the satisfying orgasm I’d given myself thinking about this man. But I wasn’t about to give him that—
hell no. Noah had left me aching last night, teasing me on purpose. But I wasn’t some sweet, naïve girl anymore, and two could definitely play at this torturous little game.
I smiled against his lips then brought my hands to his chest and pushed him away. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Just when I thought he’d take my lips in a crushing kiss, a playful smirk crossed Noah’s mouth instead. “Have dinner with me.”
This time it wasn’t a request, more an order, and the demand did nothing to help quench the fire I was trying to extinguish. “I don’t—”
“Have dinner with me. We’ll go somewhere private, just you and me. I want to talk to you, get to know you again.”
With my body now back under some kind of control, I pushed off the rails and took a step toward him. “I don’t want to become the subject of town gossip, Noah.”
“I understand. I promise. No one has to know. You can even meet me at Willa’s. She can keep a secret, right?”
She could, and it had been months since I’d been on a date—and even longer since I’d felt the kind of attraction I did to Noah.
I could already feel myself caving when I saw him hold out my baseball cap.
“Come on, Bonnie, where’s that adventurous streak of yours?”
My fate was sealed. I’d never been able to resist a charming Noah, and it seemed that hadn’t changed.
Plus, maybe I’d be able to exact some revenge for his teasing the night before. That seemed like a win-win to me, and also a good way to justify the fact that I really wanted to go.
“One dinner.”
His slow smile made me think of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure about this decision.
“One dinner.”
Really, what harm could that do?
19
Laurel
THE GAME WAS well underway by the time I made my way back to the stands, and I made sure to sit far, far away from Noah, who was sitting with his brother on the opposite side of the field.
Betty’s Braves—the home team—were pitching first. So it was no surprise to see Jake standing at the pitcher’s mound waiting for his next victim, as he liked to call them. Walton’s Warriors had a man on second base but had yet to score a run, which was hardly surprising, and the fact that I even remotely knew what I was talking about still shocked me to this very day.
I’d never been one for sports, even back in high school when I used to go and cheer on Noah. I’d spent most of the game with my nose in a book, but he hadn’t cared as long I was there.
The memory made me smile. I stared out at Jake now and remembered thinking it must’ve been some kind of cosmic joke the day he’d come home and told me he wanted to play ball. Luckily, I’d had a town full of gossipy do-gooders who’d gone out of their way to teach him the game since he was old enough to hold a bat.
Ever since then he’d become obsessed with the all-American pastime, and I’d had no choice but to learn the ways of the bat and the ball.
Phil Granger, the local bank manager, walked out from the dugout with the bat by his side. He was a middle-aged guy with a pot belly and glasses so thick they resembled Coke bottles, and today he was the fifth batter up.
As he took his place at home plate, I sent out a take it easy on him prayer in Jake’s direction. But as Jake took his spot on the mound, cracked his neck from side to side, and eyed old Phil from below the bill of his cap, I knew there was no take it easy mode inside him.
Jake was here to win, and while he might play a little softer than he would against the neighboring high school kids, he sure as hell wasn’t about to let a chance to kick some ass pass him by.
Jake threw one hell of a fastball. The thing flew so quickly by Phil’s face that he didn’t even have a chance to blink. Once, twice, and then bam, he was out. And I wasn’t all that upset that Jake’s pitching usually meant that the first inning flew by in no time at all.
Actually, that was the one part of the game I used to love watching with Noah too, when he pitched. His fastballs had been legendary.
My stomach growled as Phil trudged off the field, and as the next poor soul made his way out, I headed over to where Willa had set up her muffin stand.
Seated under a large tree in a fold-out chair, Willa had her Converse sneakers propped up on an icebox as she flipped through the latest gossip magazine.
She glanced up as I approached, and smugly smiled when she spotted me.
“Ah, I see you found your way back. And here I was about to send out a search party for you. I was starting to worry you got lost on the way to your car.”
“Yes, I can see you were very concerned.”
Willa chuckled as she sat up and closed her magazine. “I was. For a minute there I thought you might’ve tripped and gotten trapped under something…hard.”
I scoffed and reached for one of her muffins, but she slapped at my hand.
“Don’t think for a second you’re going to pull this silent routine a second time this morning. You give me the goods. I give you a muffin. You say nothing, you go hungry.”
“Well, that’s just mean.”
“I’m a mean person.”
That might’ve been the most ridiculous statement I’d ever heard in my life. Willa didn’t have a mean bone in her body. In fact, I couldn’t remember one time I’d seen her lose her temper. She was patient, kind, and one of the most generous people I’d ever met. Even if she was currently holding my muffin ransom.
With a quick check to make sure no one was around, I leaned over the table and said, “He asked me out on a date, and I said yes.”
“That’s exciting.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“You’re not excited?”
“I am, but I’m also, I don’t know, wary?”
Willa frowned. “Why? He seems like such good guy whenever we’ve talked.”
“I know, and that’s half the problem. He is a good guy, but he’s only here temporarily. I’ve been down this road with Noah before, and I didn’t like the ending.”
“Yeah, but you were kids.”
“I was old enough to have my heart broken.” I thought back to that morning after graduation. To the morning that my world shattered. “I can’t go through that again. One date, one night, that’s what I agreed to, and I think that’s for the best.”
“Oh, Laurel.”
I could tell by the look on her face that she disagreed, but before she said more, I gestured over my shoulder. “I’m going to head back now. I don’t want to miss the game.”
“Okay, well, take this and an extra one for Jake. He’s heading over here now.”
“Thanks,” I said as she finally relinquished her muffins, then I turned to greet my son. “Hey, you—did you finish obliterating the other side with a new personal record?”
Jake smirked and plucked the choc-chip muffin from my hands. “You know it. I shaved two minutes off my last record.”
“Somehow I don’t think it’s very sportsmanlike to keep tally of how fast you can knock the other team out.”
“Strike them out, Mom. And it’s not like I tell them.”
“Oh, and I suppose you never brag to your friends about it either, do you?”
Jake popped some of the muffin in his mouth and shrugged. “Maybe to a few of them. But not here. I’ll wait until we’re back at Caleb’s tonight.”
“Uh huh. Well, just be careful what you say, okay? There’s nothing wrong with being proud of yourself, but you don’t want to be arrogant about it. That just makes you—”
“An ass?”
“Right. But you also need to know that it’s okay to lose sometimes.”
“I know that.”
“Good. I’m just—”
“Being a mom?”
“Well, that is what I am.”
Jake laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “Yeah, but most the time you’re much cooler than this.”
�
�Hey.” I poked him in the ribs, and he laughed.
“I know how to be a good sport, Mom. You raised me right. Don’t worry.”
“Okay, then.”
As we walked back to the field, my heart just about stopped as I spotted Noah walking out to the pitcher’s mound.
“Hey, isn’t that your new boss?” Jake asked.
“Yes.” I nodded as Noah inspected the plate under his feet. “That’s him.”
“I didn’t know he played.”
“Uh…” I was about to tell him how Noah had been on the high school team, when Noah cracked his neck from side to side and eyed the batter from under his cap—the exact same way Jake did.
The hair on the back of my neck rose and I stumbled back a step, before turning to see that Jake was no longer beside me—he was walking toward the chain-link fence. I hurried to catch up as Noah threw two practice pitches, then he smirked and tossed the ball in the air.
“He’s a pitcher?” Jake said.
“He was in school, yes.”
Jake’s narrowed eyes as he watched Noah with keen focus made my stomach churn. He was usually such an upbeat kid that it was strange to see this sudden shift in his demeanor. But he was smart, sharper than most, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d just seen what I had.
No, that couldn’t be it. He was probably just eyeing up his competition for the day. But the niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach wouldn’t leave me be, as the alternative scenario lingered in my mind.
“Jake? Are you—”
“I better get out there. I’m first batter. You can go home if you want.”
“Hey,” I said, grabbing his arm before he could make a break for it. “Are you okay?”
Jake looked me dead in the eye, and I slowly released my grip. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Before I could say another word, he ran out onto the field. I moved to stand off to the side of the crowd and watched as he positioned himself in front of home plate. My eyes shifted between the two about to go head to head, and I suddenly felt the walls of my carefully constructed life closing in.