“I did,” Jayden says with a nod, his eyes softening on me as his lips perk up into a faint smirk.
Sad. This all definitely makes me sad.
“Oh, I see. You two were you a thing back in the day?” Chet waggles his beer back and forth between Jayden and me, and it starts to foam. “Oops,” the burly man says, licking the spillage from the neck of the bottle, then chugging the remnants. He’s veering beyond buzzed. I’m not sure how many of those he’s had, but my guess is he’s been downing them in pairs.
"We were never a . . .” I waggle my finger between Jayden and myself as my words trail off.
Jayden drops his hands in the pockets of his jeans and clears his throat, glancing down at the floor while what appears to be a strained smirk pulls his mouth up at the corners.
“Oh, my bad. I was just sensing some history or shit.” Chet slips his arm from around Jayden, and my former . . .whateverclears his throat.
“Yeah, we didn’t date. Colby Kessler was off-limits.” Jayden salutes the empty space between Chet and me before shifting his gaze my way. I must not be hiding my reaction well either, because he quickly shrugs and utters, “What?”
I shake my head, my eyes narrowed on him.
“Nothing,” I say, adding an eyeroll in the mix before turning my attention to a quickly diminishing Chet.
“We were friends, and I think what he means is my dad was his coach, so yeah, even if we wanted to—” I shrug, not bothering to finish. Unfortunately, Jayden does it for me.
“Oh, I wanted to. But you know how it is, timing and all that,” Jayden says in an amused tone. My stomach beats with my pulse. I might be sick if I remain in this conversation much longer.
“Anyhow, Chet—” I turn my full attention to the swaying big man who is playing my highlight videos on his phone. I take hisdevice in my palm and close the stream, then curl the fingers of his free hand back around his phone. Our eyes meet.
“I’d rather the rest of the team not know Jayden and I know each other. It’s hard enough being the only female on staff. People can easily get the wrong idea.”
Chet’s brow furrows, and I can tell he’s passed over to full-on drunk. It happened so fast. I can’t imagine the shit Daisy deals with in this place, drunk ballplayers left and right. Then mix in the college kids, half of them trying to pass off shitty fake ID’s, and it sounds like a nightmare. I’ll take breaking the gender barrier in coaching over her gig any day.
“So you and Jayden don’t know each other?” Chet says, somehow boiling my request down to a lie that sounds good to me.
I glance in Jayden’s direction, my eyes squinting a hair in warning.Hush your mouth,I try to convey.
“Correct. We don’t know each other. But you can share my highlight reels all you want. Because you’re right—I am a badass.” I pat Chet’s shoulder and urge him toward the bar, where Daisy already has a cold water waiting for him.
Chet chuckles as he takes a seat, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb and sliding the empty beer bottle on the bar top for Daisy to discard.
“New coach is a badass. You heard it straight from her lips to yours,” he mutters.
“Yep,” Daisy says, commiserating with me via eyeroll. “Straight from her lips to mine.” She chuckles and leaves Chet alone with his water, which—thank God—he’s drinking.
“So, we don’t know each other, huh?” Jayden’s voice is soft behind me. I turn my attention back to him, and his mouth pulls in tight on one side with what I sense is disappointment.
I sigh. I can’t spend my summer managing his feelings.
“Don’t take it personally, Jayden. I have to prove myself, and it’s hard enough without having the clubhouse rumor mill churning. You get it, right?” I lean my head to the right and return to my stool, which is a few seats down from where Daisy parked Chet. Jayden slips onto the one right next to me, though, so I quickly stand again.
“See, that’s what I mean,” I sigh out.
“What?” he says with a chuckle, holding up his hands. He acts as though he’s becoming exasperated, but it’s been so long since we’ve talked regularly that I’m not sure how well I read him anymore. Is he playing it up for attention, or is he genuinely confused about why this situation is a minefield for me?
“You can’t sit that close to me. It looks bad. And if people know we grew up together, or that my dad was your coach, or?—”
“That we kissed once?” His right brow lifts.
I exhale and drop my chin to my chest with a defeated chuckle before pinching the bridge of my nose. I don’t want to finish my beer anymore. I think I’ll abandon it.
“Yeah, Jayden.” I lift my gaze to meet his sweet, brown eyes. “I don’t want the talk in the clubhouse to be about me sitting too close to you, or on our family ties, or yeah . . . that you kissed me once.”
I bite my tongue before I tack on the bitter words that usually follow my walk down this memory lane—that Jayden kissed me then ghosted me.
