“The amazing kiss, you mean?”
I roll my eyes. “After the amazing kiss—or during, I guess—something jarred me, and I felt so dirty and gross.”
“This conversation is a real self-esteem booster. Tell me more about how my lips on yours made you feel,” Hayes deadpans.
I chuckle, unable to hold back.
“I was my dad.” I shake my head, hating the feeling that saying those words out loud gives me. “I did to someone what my dad did to my mom, and even though I really enjoyed it—well, that’s why I ran.”
“Please feel free to continue to tell me how much you enjoyed the kiss.” There’s a cocky grin on his face now.
I swear I could still feel his lips on mine if I close my eyes and replay it in my head.
“It was like seeing a side of myself I never thought I would,” I say. “I swore for so many years I’d never do that to someone. Never. Not after I saw the effect it had on my mom. On me.”
His head rocks back, finally understanding why I ran.
“I gave in to temptation. I made a shitty decision that was going to hurt people. Callie, Colby, and you, although Callie said you found my replacement pretty quick that night.”
He tilts his head and studies me, frowning. “What?”
“Callie came home the next morning and said how mad she was because she saw you making out with a girl and apologized on your behalf for abandoning me.”
His eyebrows raise. “And did the girl in question have strawberry-blonde hair?”
I shake my head. “No.” I narrow my eyes. “It was a blonde. Because there were two girls you made out with, and I’m strawberry-blonde.”
I don’t blame him for moving on after I left, but it still stung to hear about it.
“So, Callie saw me making out with someone with blonde hair in a dark room with a strobe light going?” He picks up his bucket of popcorn and leans back in the seat as if a movie is about to start.
“Are you insinuating it was me she saw you with?”
“Well, since after you left the party, I went to look for you and then just sat by the bonfire, yeah. There were no other girls who had their lips on mine that night.”
“Oh.” How did that never occur to me? I thought Callie was upstairs with that all-star pitcher who’d just been drafted. “Are you sure?”
He nods. “I wasn’t that drunk, Leighton.”
“Really? All these years, I thought you just moved on.”
“All these years, I wondered what made you run. You could’ve stayed, and we could’ve talked about it and cleared it up. We might have been a couple by now.”
“That would have been a very mature decision for a girl my age who’d just kissed her best friend’s older brother.” I smile, unable to imagine me being that grown-up then.
“I guess.” He shrugs.
We both sit facing forward and staring at the field, deep in our own thoughts.
“I have one more thing to tell you.” I want to put everything out there. To be the grown-up version I should’ve been back then. Maybe the truth will set us on the right track, so we both understand there’s no option for us to be together, regardless of if we’re attracted to each other or not. “I can’t be your reason for not doing well this season.”
His forehead wrinkles. “Why would you be?”
I turn to him, and he’s so casual, leaning back as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. My confession doesn’t seem to even have fazed him.
“Because you’ve been drawn into all my drama. You’re going to pretend to date me so I can win custody, and that means all your free time will be taken up with me. I’m sure you would’ve used it to work out or train or whatever you need to do to get that Gold Glove.”
He shakes his head. “Newsflash, professional athletes do have lives. They have wives, kids, families. Sure, it’s more challenging during the season, but not completely impossible.”
