If I couldn’t play baseball, what the hell could I offer? I’d ignored my father’s warning that I’d want a college degree if anything went south. I barely earned any money playing in the minor leagues, something I’d supplemented with side gigs during the offseason. Brenna might’ve looked at me like I’d hung the moon when we were kids, but she had different priorities now. Chemistry mattered only so much when building a life. And she was doing it not only for herself, but also for her sister.
“I’m sure you’ll hear soon,” she said.
“Are you going back to school?”
“No. I, uh, took a leave of absence when Molly needed me.”
I shook my head. “Of course you did. You let Kathy ruin everything for you.”
“I’m not doing it for her.”
Her defensive tone nearly scared me off. I didn’t want to fight before she left, but Kathy was another topic we couldn’t avoid. She directly affected our future.
“But you’re still bailing her out. She has you bankrolling their lives. How long will you keep doing it?”
“Until I get custody.”
“And if you don’t get custody?”
Brenna didn’t reply, which was answer enough.
“You’ll put your life on hold as long as it takes.”
“Nathan, I can’t…” She stopped to take a steadying breath. “Molly deserves better—”
“Than you got?”
She stayed silent for a few moments before changing gears back to me. “We don’t have to sell the house. If you need to stay here.”
I shook my head, one violent swing. “You need the money to fight for Molly. It won’t be easy.”
Neither of us wanted to say the words, but we were both thinking them.How the hell can we make this relationship work with all the barriers between us?
“Nathan,” Brenna whispered.
I met her gaze, my heart launching into my throat, seeing anguish mirrored back at me. “I know, but I’m not letting you go. I’mnot.”
I didn’t know which one of us moved first. Maybe we both did, needing to squash the desperation and sadness gripping us. When our lips connected, it was messy.
Brenna slid back into my lap, maneuvering her legs until she straddled my waist, her feet hooked around my back. Neither of us broke contact—each kiss leading to the next, the force of our movements enough to bruise our lips. I tugged at the waistband of her sweatpants. Brenna lifted her hips so I could push the fabric to her knees. She gasped as my hands grabbed her ass, my fingers kneading her skin.
She broke our kiss to yank my basketball shorts and boxer briefs down. Her hand roughly palmed my cock, sliding up and down.
I let out a hiss.
“I don’t have a condom down here.” I forced the words out, my voice coated with agonizing pleasure.
“You don’t need it. I mean, I don’t. I have an IUD and haven’t been—”
“I don’t need it either.” I cut her off, not wanting to hear about the last time she’d been with another man. On top of everything else, my heart might wither and die in my chest. She’d never put me at risk. And I’d rather die than hurt her again. “You sure?”
She nodded vigorously. I yanked her panties to the side, lifted her with one arm wrapped around her body, and eased her onto my cock.
The feel of her without a barrier between us… fucking indescribable. A first for me. If she hadn’t already wrecked me for anyone else, this would’ve been the moment.
The sound of her satisfied moan at the feel of me inside her nearly made me combust. I took a deep breath, thinking of anything but the way Brenna was rocking her hips against mine. There was a joke in there, thinking about baseball, but my brain was too scrambled to formulate it.
Brenna found my lips again, her arms wrapping around my neck. We clung to each other, to this moment, to this perfect thing we’d found a second time against all odds. I wanted to tell her I loved her. It was all I could think, over and over, while we moved together, her moans mixing with my grunts, our eyes locked.
