Liam smirks, dropping his hands into his pockets. “Feels good,” he mutters.
“What does?”
A small shake of his head. “All of it, Paige. Just… all of it.”
Chapter 14
April, Four Years Ago
“Does the shortstophaveto be short?” I ask. “Is that a biological necessity for the position?”
“That man,” Zara drawls, nodding at the baseball player we’re analyzing on the field, “is no taller than five five, which must mean he’s either the exception or the rule.”
“Maybe it’s about being close to the ground,” I reason. “He can more easily catch a lowball.”
“Alowball?” Zara mocks. “You made that up.”
“Obviously.”
She cackles and shoves a buttery hand back in our bucket of popcorn. “I’m having the time of my life!” she exclaims. “Go, sports!”
A group of girls wearing matching sorority T-shirts in the row below us turn and glare.
“We’ve been here for three minutes,” I remind her.
“And I’ll be bored in twenty, so let me enjoy this while it lasts.”
“Is this your first sporting event as a student?” I ask.
Zara shoots me a patronizing glare. “Of course not, Paige. I attended one quarter of a football game, three years ago.”
I sit crisscross on the bleachers, tossing my hair into a ponytail. It’s late April, but already, I feel summer coming on. I take a slurp ofmy frosty Diet Coke and steal a handful of popcorn. In the infield, on the pitcher’s mound, my eyes snag on Liam.
Today is his first home game in weeks. The team has been on a winning streak and the stands are packed. I haven’t seen him in person since our kiss during baseball practice nine days ago, though we’ve texted every day in between.
Liam’s curls are covered by his baseball cap but still peeking out on all sides. I can’t make out his face at all, only the way his knee bends up to his chest before he throws. The way his arm moves like a windshield wiper, looking completely disjointed from the rest of his body, as the ball hurls toward the batter.
“That thing is movingfast,” Zara comments. Then makes a slurping noise as she downs her soda. It’s momentarily drowned by the smack of the ball against the bat. I watch the batter sprint for first base, but quickly, my eyes sneak back over to Liam, who has his glove up, ready to catch the ball as it heads his way from outfield, caught by the shortstop. The batter kicks his feet in the dirt and peels back to the dugout.
“He’s good, right?” Zara asks.
I turn to her. “Who, the shortstop?”
“Quit playing dumb, dummy. I’m talking about your new boyfriend.”
I push my sunglasses onto my head and glare. “He isnotmy new boyfriend.”
“That’s odd. I can’t think of a single other reason you and I would be at a college baseball game if not to support your new boyfriend.”
“Zara! You saidmonths agoyou wanted to come to a baseball game on your farewell tour before you graduate!” We’d made the agenda after Zara got an editorial assistant job offer in New York. She starts this summer.
She smirks. “So my reasons have become numerous.Yourshaven’t.”
“Why did I tell you?” I wail at the sky.
“Please. You could’ve said nothing, and I’d still have gotten knocked over from your yearning pheromones when he dropped you off that night. Besides, why can’t I be happy you’ve got someone else in your everyday life I actually like for once?”
“What did Maisy Morgan ever do to you?” I ask.
