The field was empty.
The grass freshly cut and watered.
I started to move again as I took it in. I had been to this field more times than I could count, sometimes up to four times aday. There was nowhere for me to hide in the shadows to lurk, not with the bright lights still turned on.
But then again, that meant there was nowhere my girl could hide from me, either.
A slight unease started to grow in the pit of my belly. What if this was too much for her? What if she sent me straight to hell once she confronted me?
And I was positive that was exactly what she was going to do.
I stepped onto the field and walked out to the pitcher’s mound to look around. I couldn’t spot her as I did, through to the bleachers and the outfield.
“I know you’re here, little bird!” I called out, but nothing happened. No movement or sound. “Sadie, let me explain.” Then I caught it. Saw her. Fuck, she was good. Sitting in the dugout, her backpack tossed on the ground, she stared at me.
“You’ve been watching me!” she called out, a slight tremble in her voice that made guilt slide into my veins.
“Yes,” I admitted. I promised Sadie no lies after all, and I would be damned if I didn’t keep my word to the girl I would one day marry.
“Why?” She stood up, and I slowly made my way over to her.
Even with the lights still on, the dugout was lower than the rest of the field, so it was darker thanks to the fence that covered most of the front and the light inside not being turned on. When I stepped inside, she stilled. And right in her hand? A bat. One that had probably been left out by accident. She stood at the far end of the long bench.
“Stay there,” she ordered, pointing the bat at me like a badass. My hands rose in front of me while I slowly approached her.
“Hey, come on now. What do you think you’re going to do with that, baby?—“
“Don’t cute-nickname me right now, Jason Evan Lucas,” she warned adorably.
Jesus Christ, I was messed up in the head! Her being this pissed shouldn’t be turning me on like it was, but my cock started to stir to life. Who the hell was I kidding? It was at full mast, the head of it pressing against the waistband of my boxer briefs, trying to get free from my joggers.
“I want answers.” She frowned, showing me she wasn’t going to budge. “Why?” she pressed, her tone steadier, surer of herself.
She was fucking magnificent.
Standing up for herself, demanding answers we both weren’t sure she wanted to hear.
And as I tried to think of how I could answer her, explain the situation, an odd, almost relaxed feeling started to grow inside me. That worry she would fear me, that she would call the cops or tell me to go to hell started to fade away to almost nothing.
She had come here for a reason.
She wanted us to have this little tête-à-tête not because she was going to end this as quickly as it had started, but because my little bird wanted the truth to come out under the moonlight before the beast inside me captured her for good.
I stepped closer, and she swallowed hard, slowly setting the bat down at her side.
“Why?” she repeated, the steadiness in her voice slipping.
“Because the moment I saw you, I knew.” Her brows furrowed, like she wasn’t sure what to believe. “I walked into the Blue Bird coffee shop, and you were sitting there. Reading. Studying. And when you looked up, you looked right though me.”
“I didn’t notice you until Friday. I didn’t even know we lived in the same building.”
“I know,” I rasped, daring to take a step closer. Her hold on the bat loosened, but it was still in her hand. “I told Jeremy you were the girl I was going to marry, and he thought I was crazy.”
“You what?”
“That was two months ago. I couldn’t…” I swallowed. My Adam’s apple bobbed almost painfully. “I couldn’t get myself to approach you.”
“Why?”
