There’s too much going on in my head as I try to process the pain in my sister’s eyes. In Nico’s. The hollow ache in my chest. Every cell is screaming for me to run.
My knees give out, and I stumble, but Nico, my steady foundation, catches me before I hit the ground. He wraps his arms around my body, hugging me tight, allowing me to bury my face in his shirt as a sob breaks free and the tears I’ve been holding back fall. Nico provides me comfort even as I’m pushing him away. Sacrificing his own feelings and needs for mine. Putting me first.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers into my hair.
“Me too,” I murmur too low for him to hear.
Minutes pass before Nico cups my cheeks in his palms, as if I’m precious treasure, and tilts my chin back to look me in the eye. His glacial eyes are glassy. “As much as I don’t want to let you go, I will. But I can’t watch you leave.” He tenderly kisses my forehead. “Go before I change my mind and beg you to stay. But don’t forget,gattina.Ti appartengo. Ti aspetterò.”
With another kiss to my forehead, Nico leaves me by the door and disappears into his bedroom.
I rush out of his apartment, and my heart breaks with every step I take away from the man who has somehow come to mean everything to me.
The man who holds my heart.
thirty-seven
Nico
Nofuckingmessages.
I slam my phone down in my locker and bite back a growl in frustration.
“Damn, what did your phone ever do to you?” Heath chuckles at his locker beside me.
“Fuck the phone, you douche nozzles. We sucked ass.” Reed groans, stripping out of his shirt as he plops into his chair. We just lost to Seattle.
Reed’s not wrong. We really sucked tonight.
I sucked. Hard.
I let four guys steal bases on me; I fumbled a fucking bunt, the batter made it safely to first, and I couldn’t hit for shit. All because I’m in my freaking head. Have been since Savannah walked out of my apartment this morning. I’m becoming unhinged at the possibility that she won’t come back to me.
“I think it’s more than that. Care to share, Romero?” Lance asks. He’s hunched over in his seat watching me with curious eyes.
“No,” I bark.
“Lady trouble?” a deep voice asks. I turn around to find Cam, legs crossed at the ankles and leaning against the weird columns in the visitor’s locker room.
Without thinking, I blurt out, “Did Talia say something?”
The guys burst out in a round of laughter.
I flip them all two birds. “Fuck off.”
“You have a girl?” Blake asks, his jaw hanging open. “Since when?”
“Probably around the same time the fucker stopped hitting the clubs with us.” Reed rolls his eyes. That’s exactly the time Savannah came into my life.
“Give Romero a break, guys,” Heath says, putting his arm around Blake’s shoulders and giving him a noogie. “Our catcher needs our help.”
“The fuck I do. Leave me alone,” I grunt, shrugging him off.
Their help is the last thing I need. What I need is Savannah.
Cam scoffs. “Then why are you asking if Talia said something?”
“If you’re asking about her, then you’ve definitely got troubles.” Lance shakes his head as he unties his cleats.
