“Aaron, I’m being honest with you. I respect you as a captain on our team, but I’m not asking for permission. I’m informing you. It’s just one date.”
Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling real loudly, and I swore I saw red. I had to have misunderstood him. No fucking way he’d saiddateandKenziein the same sentence. It wasn’t—no.
“Why. Her,” Aaron fumed.
“We get along, like the same TV shows, we’re both new here. Dude, I don’t know. I asked, she said yes and I’m really excited about it.” Felix didn’t wait for Aaron’s reaction. He walked away with a small shrug, and while I would’ve admired his confidence at any other moment, I didn’t when it involved Kenzie. The girl I loved.
What the fuck? Love.
Aaron slammed his fist against the metal bar of my machine and turned his lethal gaze to me. “Who the fuck does he think he is?”
I couldn’t answer. My thoughts wouldn’t come out. He stared harder, letting out a slew of curse words before he rubbed his palms over his eyes. “I’m acting wild, aren’t I?”
Still no words. He took my silence—one filled with spiraling thoughts of regret—and nodded to himself. “I hate this idea, but that took balls telling me. Kenzie’s got a good head on her shoulders and if he hurts her, he dies. Yeah. One date. I can handle one date. Thanks for the talk, TJ.”
He didn’t acknowledge the fact that I hadn’t said a word. It was for the best—I wasn’t in the right mind to talk to him and I rushed through the rest of my workout, followed by my scalding hot shower and grabbing a bag of ice from Nicole for my leg. It didn’t pull or hurt, but I needed to rest it and take care of it so it didn’t happen again. Something like the panic I felt when I missed a fly ball and had to rush after it went through me. Without thinking, I sent her a text to see if she was home.
Tanner: Are you at the house? Can we talk?
Kenzie: I’m here and sure.
I hitched a ride with Zade and hated the silence between us. He glared at me when I entered the car, and I did nothing to ease the tension. If anything, I got angrier with him. He’d demanded I ended this, saying that this could never happen. Now Felix was asking her out…instead of me.Fuck.
“I noticed you haven’t been hanging out with Kenzie anymore. Things finally end between you two?”
“Yup.”
“You don’t seem real happy about it.”
“Great observation. Gold fucking star for you.”
“Don’t be a dick. It’s not my fault—”
“Yeah, it is! You fucking went off on me about how it’s a terrible idea and that it’ll cause tension on the team. Well guess what, Felix asked her out and Aaron accepted it.”
Zade gripped the steering wheel tighter and gave me a menacing glare at the stop sign. “Our team doesn’t need fucking lies. If this shit is for real for you, then tell him. It’s that simple.”
I didn’t respond as we got closer to the house. My chest felt like a million pounds, my heart racing at the thought of telling Aaron. What would I say? I wanted to date his sister for real? That I loved her? That we’d make it work despite him? My breathing came in pants and all thoughts of baseball left.
I don’t have to give up baseball and her.
Zade’s expression softened and he spoke with a calming tone. “Dude, this is more than just a fling, huh?”
“Yes. I don’t know when it happened, but it did and my life’s been pretty fucking sad since we ended it. No,Iended it. She wanted to keep it going but after our convo… I stopped it.”
“And hearing Felix asked her out kicked you into gear?”
“Yeah.”
Zade groaned, a reaction I didn’t appreciate, and turned onto our street. “Don’t tell her that. Trust me, chicks don’t want to hear about some jealous thing.”
I snorted, my nerves bubbling up my chest and into my throat.I’m going to try to get her back.Relief. Happiness. Hope. So many positive emotions ran through me at the thought of kissing her again. “Thanks, Z.”
“I hope I didn’t make the wrong call. You gotta do what’s right for you, man, but you owe it to Aaron to come clean.”
I nodded just as he parked in the driveway, and I didn’t wait before jumping out of the front seat and heading inside. The screen door squeaked like it normally did, the TV left on like Kenzie preferred, for background noise, and my breath caught in my throat when I saw her sitting on the couch with her glasses. She set down the cup of coffee she had and gave me a worried look.
“You look like an insane person. Are you okay?” she asked, moving her legs from the couch to the floor.
