Shit, his voice had changed and I sat up.
“I’ve never wanted to break my rules more than I do with you.” He grabbed my hand and kissed my wrist, never breaking eye contact. “I know we’re almost done with your list, and me returning to baseball, but, Kenzie, this is special.”
“It is.” I took his hand and stared at it, trying to memorize the way his tattoo moved when his hand did. “Why did you really get a tattoo of a triangle?”
“I view each leg as my mom, and two brothers. They hold me together when I get lost.”
Oh lord.My eyes stung at his answer. It was so sweet, and true. He lived his life for them and damn—it hit me, like slamming into a brick wall. The reason my chest felt heavy all the time, the reason I’d been so upset thinking about our time ending and the reason my heart raced every time he walked into the room.I’m in love with him.I cleared my throat, the daunting realization sending my task-oriented brain into a frenzy. There wasn’t a to-do list for this. No steps to take that were right.
“It’s stupid, isn’t it?” he asked after I was quiet too long.
I laughed and pulled him against me so we faced each other in my bed. “You’re an incredible guy, Tanner Johnson. One of the best.”
He grinned and pressed one more kiss on my lips. “This has been my favorite summer of my entire life. All because of you. Think we’ll get caught if I sleep in here?”
“Let’s chance it. What could he do, anyway? Kill you? He’d look awful in orange.”
Tanner laughed and pulled me against his chest. It’d be easy to get used to this, to feel safe and protected with him, but I knew it couldn’t happen. And that was the hardest part—I understood his reasons why.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tanner
One more day.I reported back to practice tomorrow—Nicole had checked me out the day before and even complimented me on my discipline. But that meant I’d be playing in games and practices, focusing all my energy on the sport that would secure everything in my family’s future.Baseball, draft, MLB, helping my mom.My chest hurt, thinking about being with Kenzie one final time. Technically, we had two more times on her list, but we’d agreed that once I returned to play, we’d end our fling.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pulse, when she smiled at her phone from her position on the couch. It was a lazy Sunday morning and Aaron had chosen to stay at the house last night. It annoyed me, but he hadn’t noticed me sneaking into my room early this morning.God, I love sleeping next to her.
She mumbled in her sleep and never moved once she was out. Yeah, I was a fucking creeper and had watched her sleep a couple of times. She was cute. She could talk baseball with me, give me attitude when I deserved it, make me laugh and we had the best sex I’d ever experienced. Why couldn’t we prolong it?
“TJ, you pumped to get back on the field tomorrow?” Aaron asked, reminding me why today would be the last day with her. He plopped down on the seat next to me. “Nice, watchingStep Brothers?”
“It’s a classic,” Kenzie said, looking up from her phone with her glasses perched on her nose. “It’s one of those movies you can’t skip. You know? LikeWedding CrashersorSuperbad.”
“The Godfatheris a movie you don’t mess with. Not those.”
“Incorrect, you weirdo.”
“Anyway.” Aaron directed his attention back to me. “I was thinking—I know you report back to the field tomorrow, but we should celebrate you feeling better.”
“Celebrate?”
“Yeah. Let’s go out tonight. Get a couple beers, enjoy the summer before our senior year. Zade’s already in. Carter and Felix said a couple of the other guys want you back. We could call it team bonding or something if Coach gets pissed.”
I glanced at Kenzie. She had her bottom lip sucked into her mouth and her eyes were wide—we hadn’t explicitly made plans, but it was unspoken.Our last night.“I don’t know, man, I don’t want to overdo it.”
“TJ. Dude. You’re going. This is to celebrate you, fucker, so you can’t back out. What would you do anyway? Watch a dumb movie with my sister for your class? Do that another night.”
I gulped, trying to think of anything that would make sense for me to get out of it. But the longer the silence went on, the more I sweated.Shit. Shit!Nothing came, and Aaron gave me a confused look just as Kenzie chimed in. “Are you guys getting together here? I might hang out with my new roommates tonight and can crash there if you want to have it here.”
“Sweet, we might just do that. Then precious TJ over here can’t worry about overdoing it.” Aaron hit my shoulder and I did my best version of a smile. “Dude, you need to get laid. You’re cranky. I can’t recall the last time I saw a chick sneaking out of here. You still hooking up with that girl…Mickey something?”
I froze, but Aaron didn’t notice. He kept talking, asking, “Kenz, have you seen any of his hook-ups recently?”
She slid me a coy look before responding. “You know…there was one redhead girl a couple weeks ago, right around the Fourth of July. Saw her sneak out after that night of beer and blowing shit up. She seemed really nice.”
“A redhead? Nice work, dude.” Aaron reached out his knuckles and bumped mine, and it took all my self-control not to react.
Kenzie snorted, the traitor, and I narrowed my eyes at her, but she did a great job of ignoring me. She moved her dainty fingers over her phone, chuckling at whatever was on there, and I was struck with something like jealousy. I wanted to make her laugh, make her smile like that and I had no idea who it was. “Those your roommates?”
