Redemption (Forgiven Series) (14 page)

Shit.

Deciding that I didn’t feel like dealing with him, I tried to step around him without saying a word.

“Lauren,” he said, grabbing my arm and spinning me back around to face him.

“Let go of me,” I snarled as I tried to yank my arm free of his grasp.

“Not until you listen to me. You’ve been avoiding me all week.”

The fingers wrapped around my upper arms tightened and my mouth dropped open in shock. “Seriously? You don’t think that I had good reason for avoiding you?”

“Look, I can explain. If I let go, will you listen to me?”

Rolling my eyes, I nodded my head and he let go of my hands. Not wanting to be touching him in any way, I pulled my arms up to cross them over my chest.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen. You’re the one I care about,” he said softly, reaching out to brush his fingers across my cheek.

I flinched and took a step back. “You can’t really believe that I would want to be with you after that, do you?”

The distance between us was closed when he took one long stride toward me. “You have to know how I feel about you? We’re perfect for each other. You’re the queen of the softball field and I’m the king of the baseball diamond. It doesn’t get any better than that. And I promise nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Was he delusional? Did he really not get that cheating was a deal breaker for me? I looked down at my watch. I needed to get to practice. Besides, knowing Josh was waiting to see me tonight gave me another reason to walk away from this ridiculous conversation.

“Ryan, what happened Friday night was a deal breaker for me. I can’t trust you and to be honest, if you’re going to cheat then you don’t deserve me.” I took another step back. “And now it’s time for me to get practice so I can be, as you put it, ‘the queen of the softball field’.”

I turned and walked toward my teammates, when I heard him call out, “This isn’t over, Lauren. I’ll get you back.”

I shook my head at his arrogance. Apparently, he was crazy enough to think that I was enamored enough with our ‘status’ as a couple that I would just ignore him screwing another girl. What an asshole.

Once warm-ups were complete, Coach Gardner sent us to our designated practice areas. “Jones, Sykes, Powell, and Baldwin, you need to head inside for batting practice. Work on the follow through of your swings. We need to get more distance on our hits. Coach Daniels is waiting for you.”

She turned to face me. “Pierce, I want you and Rogers to work on your cohesion. This is a new pairing for you and I need you to be able to read each other by the first game.”

Rogers was a freshman who’d been brought up to catch for me since Gabby was out with a knee injury and Julia had graduated last year.

“Everyone else is on the field with me,” she finished.

Turning to my new catcher, I offered my hand to her. “Hi, I’m Lauren.”

She smiled. “I know, you’re one of the best pitchers on the east coast. I can’t believe I actually get to play with you,” she said in awe. Then she flushed. “Oh, sorry, I’m Kendra. Sorry, I’m in fan-girl mode and forgot to tell you my name.”

I laughed. “Nice to meet you, Kendra, and don’t worry about it. There’s not much to fan-girl over anyway.”

I always felt uncomfortable in the spotlight. I played because I loved the sport but it didn’t hurt that I played well. It didn’t matter to me that I was good because the excitement and satisfaction that I got from playing was all the reward I needed.

“I’ll try to control myself but trust me, you’re one of the best pitchers out there. I’ve followed your career since you were in high school. I even heard you got invited to try out for the national team,” she gushed as we walked over to the practice mound on the side of the field.

Now it was my turn to blush. I’d been invited to try out for the junior Olympics my junior year of high school, but Mom had thought I was too young because, usually, they wait until your senior year or freshman year of college. I was pissed at the time but I realized she was right—it would have been too much for me.

Now there were tons of rumors flying around about me being invited to try out for the national team this year. It was exciting, but I tried to ignore it for the most part because I didn’t want to let it go to my head and interfere with my game and my team.

“Not that I know of, right now they’re just rumors.” I moved my right arm in a windmill rotation, warming up my arm and my shoulder while Kendra walked over and started to suit up in her padding. Even though I worked out and practiced year round, the first few weeks of practice still left me feeling stiff.

Kendra stepped behind the plate and crouched down. I threw my first pitch and watched Kendra throw up her facemask after catching it, shock written clear across her features. “Sorry, I forgot to mention that I usually start out with slower pitches and move up in speed the more I throw,” I called out across the field.

She chuckled and nodded. “Okay, you had me a little worried there.” She pulled the mask back down on her face and threw the ball back to me.

Once we got into a rhythm we moved onto different drills to improve accuracy and speed, but all I could think about was my upcoming date with Josh. Even so, I was still able to get in a good practice with Kendra. We laughed all the way to the locker room and I knew that we were going to get along well.

Rushing to get showered and changed, within ten minutes I was heading out to my car. Unfortunately, baseball practice ended the same time as softball and Ryan was waiting for me. Hadn’t he gotten the hint earlier? He looked up as I approached.

“Hey, babe, you wanna grab something to eat?” Ryan asked, reaching out in an attempt to pull me to him.

Once again I quickly stepped out of his reach. “Umm, no. I have plans,” I answered with disgust.

“With who?”

He stepped in front of me and blocked my path. “That’s none of your business,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You better tell me who had the nerve to ask my girlfriend out on a date.” As if the thinly veiled anger in his tone wasn’t enough, he reached out to grab onto both of my upper arms.

“Fine, I have a date with Josh Walker, and for the record, I’m not your girlfriend,” I seethed as I flipped my arms up to dislodge his. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

He next statement stopped me dead in my tracks. “You know he only wants to have sex with you.”
Too late
, I thought and turned to face him. “What happens between Josh and I is none of your business.”

Even though I didn’t care much about what Ryan thought anymore, seeing the look of fury on Ryan’s face I quickly climbed into the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

Despite being so sure all day, in the quiet of the car, I began to question the wisdom of going to Josh’s tonight. Pulling up outside his apartment I started to open the door but stopped myself. What the hell was I doing here? Leaning my head back against the seat, my head began to throb as my brain warred with itself. I couldn’t decide if I should go in, or if I needed to get the hell out of there. Finally, I got up the courage to get out of the car and walked to the door. As I stood there waiting, I realized that somewhere in the back of my mind there was the fear of getting hurt again, which was to be expected given that I’d already experienced a lot of that in my life. But I hadn’t let that fear control me before, and I wasn’t going to start now.

That decision made, I lifted my hand to knock on the door and as I waited for Josh to answer, I prayed that I wouldn’t live to regret it.

Leaving Lauren at the door to her class had been hard as hell. It’d taken more than I’d thought it would to convince her to give me a chance. Arriving slightly early for my “lunch” with Angie, I couldn’t believe what I’d heard her say and it killed me to think that she was ashamed of what happened between us. I hadn’t lied to her because what had happened between us
was
one of the best nights of my life. Lauren had a way of making me feel things that no other woman had ever brought out in me.

Walking into class I saw Andrew sitting there smirking, waiting to hear what happened after I’d walked out on them, no doubt. Unfortunately for him, I was more interested in his sappy ass comments to Emily last night. Sitting down in the seat next to him, I turned and beat him to the punch.

“What in the hell was that with Emily last night?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing. I was just trying to help you.” I noticed he didn’t look me in the eye when he answered me.

“Bullshit. That was more than trying to help me. Even Nick noticed, and he’s a pussy when it comes to girls’ feelings.”

“Fine,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “I love her, and if me being a little sappy makes her happy, then so be it.”

What? Andrew was in
love
with Emily? When I’d told him to get his shit together last Saturday night, I never imagined that he might actually be in love with her.

“Holy shit, dude!” I said smacking him on the back. “I never thought I’d see the day you admitted you loved a girl. So, you’re thinking long haul?”

“Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yeah. I have to admit that when I first asked her out last year, I just wanted in her pants, but who didn’t?” He shook his head ruefully. “I’d never imagined that her feisty attitude would be my undoing. Damn, I do sound like a girl.”

I laughed. “Yeah, you do. All that matters, though, is that you make her happy. She’s like a sister to me so you better not hurt her,” I warned.

“I’m not gonna hurt her. I want to marry her,” he said simply.

“Oh, you’re kidding me. What the hell is going on here? First Caleb, now you. Are you sure you don’t want to see what else is out there?”

“Dude, I’ve already done that. I can’t see my life without her in it,” he replied.

“So you’re really going to ask her to marry you?” I asked, my eyes as wide as dinner saucers.

“No… I mean yes, but not yet. I want to make sure she feels the same first.”

“I’m pretty sure she does,” I chuckled. “I’ve never seen her back off from and argument as quickly as she did last night. You may have actually found a way to tame Emily.”

He punched me in the arm when I started to laugh. “Stop picking on my girlfriend, or next time I won’t bother to save your ass.”

“All right, you win.”

“Now, tell me what happened with Lauren after you left.”

“Last night, nothing happened. Angie made me wait to talk to her until today,” I grumbled.

A look of shock crossed his face. “You mean, you did what Angie told you to do?” He shook his head in disbelief. “You must really like her to not go busting down her door last night.”

“I wanted her to listen to me, not throw me out on my ass,” I said sarcastically.

“Yeah, given how upset she looked when she left, that might’ve been exactly what happened,” he joked. “So, have you talked to her today?”

“Angie set her up to meet me for lunch, without telling her. It took some convincing, but she’s coming over tonight after practice.” I smiled, excited at the thought of seeing her again tonight.

“Dude, I see that dreamy-ass look in your eyes—you’ve got it just as bad as Caleb and I do,” he teased. “Have you ever seen her play?”

“No, is she good?” I asked, curious to know more about her.

“Good? She’s phenomenal. I’ve never seen anything like it. I saw her play last year when Em asked me to go to a game. Did you know the national junior team tried to recruit her as a junior in high school?”

Still reeling from the fact that she was good enough to possibly make the national junior team as a junior in high school, I almost didn’t hear when he dropped another bomb on me. “Em says there’s rumor of the national team looking at her.”

“Holy shit, she’s that good?” I exclaimed.

He nodded. “But I’m sure you’ll find out for yourself. I can’t imagine you missing her games now, especially with that look in your eye.”

“What look?”

“That sappy-ass look that means you can’t give Caleb and I a hard time about our feelings anymore,” he smirked.

Before I got a chance to respond the professor walked in and started class. Nervous about tonight, I struggled to pay attention and hoped I could get anything I missed from Andrew. I needed to keep my grades up because if I slipped again like last year, not only would Coach have my ass, but so would Emily and Angie. Between them and Caleb, I managed to just about stay on track and I’m sure with Andrew officially dating Emily, he’d be all over my ass too.

Usually after breaks and visits home, my grades suffered. Listening to my mom complain about all the awful things that my father had done always pissed me off and it usually took me a few weeks to shake those feelings off. Now that they all knew what my home life was like growing up, they made every effort to help me get over it when I got back to campus, and they never let me miss class because of it.

When Angie and I got back to the apartment, I went straight to the fridge to grab a beer while Angie went to put her bag away. Caleb had one more class on Friday’s, leaving Angie and I to hang out. She came out of their room and flopped down on the couch next to me. “Beer already? I’m guessing the conversation with Lauren didn’t go as well as you hoped?”