The Ninth Inning Page 10

  When I walked through the front door, I saw some of the guys who didn’t live in the house were already hanging out, drinking and getting ready for the party. They called my name and waved for me to come into the kitchen. Ignoring them, I headed straight for my bedroom instead and locked the door behind me. Usually, one or two of my teammates would end up in my room to shoot the shit, and I wasn’t in the mood. I needed to shower and think in peace.

  As Lauren’s words played through my mind, I shook them away, refusing to get pissed off. I knew that she was only sticking up for her friend and wanted the best for her. What Lauren didn’t realize was that the best thing for Christina, was me. It damn sure wasn’t Logan. But the only person I needed to prove that to was Christina, and I still planned on doing exactly that. I’d let her have this date today with Logan even if it ripped me apart inside, but tomorrow, all bets were off.

  I’d wrongfully assumed that she wouldn’t show up here tonight. Especially not on Logan’s arm, with his hand wrapped around her waist as they navigated their way through the crowd of people blocking the doorway. My senses heightened the moment they arrived, calling my attention over my shoulder to where she stood ... with him. This scene was growing far too familiar—her in my house. But the rest of it, who she was here with, was all wrong.

  I shouldn’t have been so surprised to see her here, but I was. I’d looked in the stands for her today, called out my home run, and gone to her apartment with my heart in my fucking hands. If the girl was trying to show me that she didn’t need me in her life, I was starting to believe her. Because a private date was one thing, but showing up here, to my house for a party, was a fucking statement. A slap in the face. A knife in the goddamn back.

  Logan’s arm was still holding her, and I wanted to tear him limb from limb for even thinking that he could even though I had no right. My eyes moved from where his hand touched her exposed skin, to her baby blues, and back again. I couldn’t stop. She watched me, her expression unreadable. The heat that raged to life inside of me started radiating out of my pores, and it was a damn wonder that I didn’t light things on fire with my presence. I wondered if everyone else in the room could feel my rage as they grew closer to me in the kitchen.

  Like clockwork, my two shadows appeared at my side, flanking me.

  “Jesus, fuck,” I growled, and they only moved in closer. “Shouldn’t you be making out with some poor girl already?” I asked Mac.

  “There’s plenty of time for that,” he said with a laugh before growing more serious. “He’s only doing it to get to you,” he reaffirmed what I had already known, but it changed nothing.

  I didn’t give a shit about Logan or his reasons for doing anything. I only cared about Christina. And she had come here tonight with him, knowing that I’d be here and that I’d see them together.

  “He knows you have your head on straight. We can all see it. That your balance is back. He wants you off-balance again,” Chance informed me, and I shot them both annoyed glares. “Using her is his last-ditch effort.”

  “It’s all he has left in his arsenal,” Mac added. “He knows if this doesn’t work, nothing will.”

  I wanted to call Logan out on it. Make him admit that he was only using her to get to me, but I knew that it would embarrass Christina. And no matter how desperate I was to show her the truth, I’d never willingly put her through that.

  “Hey, Cole,” Logan said as the two of them walked straight up to me, Mac, and Chance. “You know my date, Christina, don’t you?”

  I looked straight at her. “Hi,” I said, only to her, but she didn’t respond.

  She looked uncomfortable as she wiggled her body to move out of Logan’s grip, but he refused to let her go.

  Instinctively, I reached out and removed his hand from her. “She wants you to let go.”

  He cocked his head and sweetly looked at her. “I’m sorry, babe. Was I holding on too tight?”

  “No, I just”—she stumbled on her words before recovering—“want to go out back and get a beer.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Logan started to say, but I put a hand up to stop him.

  “I’ll go with her,” I offered with a grin. “Unless you have an issue with that?”

  It was a challenge. One I knew that Logan wouldn’t accept. He cared too much about what people thought of him to act ruffled over me walking his date to the keg.

  “No issue,” he said just like I had known he would, and I waved a hand toward the backyard and waited for Christina to start walking.

  She kept her pace ahead of mine and didn’t look back at me. “You don’t have to come with me.”

  “I know I don’t have to. I want to,” I said as I reached for her arm, forcing her to stop moving.

  “Why are you doing this?” She sounded exhausted. But only like she was exhausted with me ... like I exhausted her.

  I wanted to tell her everything that I had realized during the game today ... everything that I had been dying to tell her since the second I figured it all out. But I couldn’t. Not here. Not right now. The timing was off, and I knew she wouldn’t believe me anyway. Christina would convince herself that I’d only said those things because she’d come here with someone else.

  “I didn’t want you to walk out here by yourself. And I really want a beer. We have the day off tomorrow,” I said with a smile as I reached for the keg and started filling her cup.

  “I know. I heard,” she said, the words grating on my nerves, knowing exactly where she’d already gotten the information from.

  Logan suddenly appeared and ruined the moment. “You were taking too long. I missed you,” he said, and I shot Christina a look, wondering how much of Logan’s shit she actually believed.

  She offered him an awkward smile, and I handed her a half-filled cup. “Only half?”

  “It gets warm otherwise, and you hate warm beer,” I said, remembering when she had told me that once before.

  “It’s so gross when it’s warm,” she said, and I agreed.

  “It’s chilly out here. Let’s go back in, yeah?” Logan asked, and she nodded before walking away and leaving me behind.

  I sulked for only a moment before I followed them back inside, heading straight for wherever they were. It was going to destroy me to watch her with him, but I figured that I deserved the torture for everything I’d put her through.

  Watching him with her was like throwing gasoline on my guts. I was afraid to breathe too hard, worried it might come out in flames.

  Watch me burn it all down, motherfuckers.

  “You good?” Chance sidled up next to me.

  “Not in the slightest,” I answered honestly as I took a swig of beer.

  “Why don’t we go sit over there?” He nodded toward the empty couch in the living room. “You can still see them from there. This is awkward as hell. You’re making shit weird.”

  As much as I wanted to throw some sort of childish tantrum and stalk off, pouting, I didn’t. If I left Christina and Logan alone, it would give them privacy, and I refused to grant them a single ounce of it. I was going to stand wherever they were and make it uncomfortable as fuck. If they even thought about leaving the room, I’d follow. If LeDouche wanted to touch my girl, he’d have to do it in front of me and pray to God—or whoever he believed in—that I didn’t rip his fucking arm off and feed it to him.

  “Then, it’s working,” I growled.

  “What is?”

  “My plan.”

  Chance laughed. “What plan? The one where you stand here, staring at the two of them like some sort of psycho? ’Cause that’s what you look like. Not to mention, bitter, jealous, and rageful. All things that are making Logan so happy that he looks like he might shit a rainbow.”

  I choked on my beer, the liquid going down the wrong pipe as I looked at Chance. “So, you’re saying we should move over there then?”

  “I think it might be a good idea,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Fine,” I grunted
like the caveman Lauren had called me earlier. “Where’s Mac?” I was getting used to his bodyguard tendencies.

  Chance pointed, and I saw him making out with some redhead.

  “Seriously, how does he do it?”

  “I have no idea,” he said as he walked with me into the living room.

  I sat down on the couch, noticing that it still gave me a perfect view of where Christina was, just like Chance had said it would.

  “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “I’m going to guess then. And you can tell me if I’m right or wrong.”

  Chance wasn’t going to quit anytime soon, and he was clearly trying to distract me from the shitshow I couldn’t stop watching.

  “Fine. Guess away.” I waved my hand toward him but kept my eyes focused on her.

  “You realized she’s worth it,” he said in a serious tone.

  I waited for whatever else he planned on adding to the end of that statement, but nothing came. That was it. Five words.

  I turned my head to look at him and almost let myself feel defeated before I swallowed it down. “I’m not even going to try to argue.”

  “Good,” Chance said with a laugh. “ ’Cause you’re a piss-poor liar.”

  In that moment, I watched as Logan tried to talk Christina into taking a shot of something, shoving the small glass in front of her. She shook her head, but he asked again, a giant smile covering his face so he appeared harmless.

  He had to know she didn’t drink that shit. Christina only drank beer. That was what she had always said to me. I was certain she would have told Logan the same thing. It was one of her hard rules. At least, I’d always thought it was.

  I watched curiously, wondering what she would do, as her eyes shot over to mine. She liked that I was watching her every move, got off on it maybe. It made her feel like she was in control, and I realized that for so long, I’d probably made her feel powerless. I mentally added that to the list of things I had fucked up and needed to make right when it came to her.

  Christina cocked an eyebrow in my direction, and I wondered what the hell she was thinking behind those mischievous blue eyes.

  Don’t do it, baby, I silently pleaded, hoping she wouldn’t drink it.

  Her lips formed a wicked half-grin as she reached for the shot glass and downed the contents in one swig, her eyes on me the entire time. Immediately, I pushed off the couch, the sound of Chance calling my name from behind me as I stalked into the kitchen.

  Grabbing her by the arm, I pulled her a few feet away from the crowd of shot takers. “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like I’m doing? Get off me,” she said, shaking my hand from her arm.

  I released her, but she didn’t move away from me.

  “I thought you didn’t drink hard liquor,” I whispered, trying not to create any more of a scene.

  “What I do or don’t drink is none of your business.” Her words were meant as a warning, but they were laughable at best. Everything she did was my damn business, and we both knew it.

  “You plan on accosting my date all night, or can I have her back?” Logan asked, and I turned my head so fast to look at him that I gave myself whiplash.

  I grabbed Christina by the shoulders and deposited her in front of Logan but not without a final warning to him. “Stop giving her shots. Only feed her beer.”

  “I think I’ll give her whatever she wants,” Logan sneered.

  I stormed away before I did something I’d regret. Like break his damn face and get thrown off the team for it.

  I thought I was strong enough to watch her with him all night, but this proved to be too much. When she acted out of character, it hurt me even more. I hated feeling like Logan knew a side of her that I didn’t or that she was willing to do things with him that she never did with me. Although I’d never asked her to drink anything other than beer because I respected what she had always told me. Was I an idiot this whole time?

  Striding into the backyard, I started pacing before tossing out my warm beer into the grass and filling up my cup.

  “What was that all about?” Mac asked, suddenly appearing, sans redhead.

  “Where’s your lady of the night?” I asked.

  He shrugged his shoulders before pointing lazily toward the house. “In there. Out here. Who knows?”

  Chance was clearing out the few people who were lingering around us, telling them all to give us some space and go inside. They all listened. He was lucky that he garnered that much respect as a sophomore. If he were anyone else, they would have told him to fuck off and stayed put until he physically forced them to leave.

  “I saw the whole thing. The way she was looking at you when she took that shot,” Chance said once the three of us were alone. “Then, you flipped out.”

  “She told me she didn’t drink hard alcohol. Only beer. It was one of her rules,” I said, trying to explain why I’d gone so crazy.

  “Okay.” Mac shot Chance a look, and I knew they both must think I was losing my mind. “Then, don’t look inside right now,” Mac added, and of course, I did the exact opposite.

  I watched as she downed a shot, quickly followed by another. “ ‘Alcohol makes you stupid,’ ” I said, repeating the words that she had once told me.

  “What?”

  “That’s what she always said. ‘Alcohol makes you stupid. And gives people something to talk about.’ Why is she doing this?” I asked to no one in particular.

  But Chance answered, “That’s obvious.”

  “Spell it out for me then.”

  “She’s trying to get your attention. She’s mad at you. She’s hurt. This is her way of lashing out,” he said, sounding so sure of himself.

  “Mac, do you agree with that?” I asked, looking for either a consensus or an opposing viewpoint.

  “Sounds about right to me,” he said.

  I continued to watch Christina. When she stumbled on her feet and Logan’s arms wrapped around her, I’d had enough.

  “Oh shit,” Chance and Mac said from somewhere behind me as I threw my cup to the ground and started moving indoors.

  I didn’t have to look behind me to know they were following. It was a good thing. I might need them.

  “Oh, goodie, you’re back,” Logan sneered, still holding Christina, and I zoomed in on his fingers splayed across her lower waist.

  “Stop giving her shots. I already asked you nicely,” I ground out, my tone dead. Fucking. Serious.

  He let her go and took a menacing step toward me, his hands balled into fists at his sides, and I almost prayed that he’d hit me first, so I could finally end this shit between us. But his maneuver was too quick, and Christina swayed, clearly unbalanced on her own two feet. I rushed to her side before she could topple over and held her upright, all thoughts of Logan wiped away.

  “Let’s get you home, huh?” I said protectively.

  She looked up at me and batted those long, dark lashes. “I didn’t come here with you,” she said, her words slower than usual.

  “That’s okay. You can still leave with me.” I tried to be cute, but she wasn’t having any of it.

  She swatted me away, forcing me to let her go as she braced herself against the counter. “No. I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m not your property or your problem, Cole. Stop acting like I’m either.”

  “I want you to be both,” I admitted quietly, but I didn’t think she’d heard me.

  “Logan?” she said out loud, and he was suddenly at her side, pushing me away.

  His hand splayed across her ass, and my eyes burned as I stared at his fingers, wishing they’d fall off one by one.

  “Right here, babe,” he said the words so sickly sweet that they soured my mouth.

  “I’m ready to go now.”

  “Christina.” My voice came out pleading, and I swallowed hard to clear my throat as I prepared to say the one thing I had just promised myself I wouldn’t say in f
ront of an audience. “He doesn’t want you. He just really fucking hates me.” I leveled my gaze to Logan, who was smiling now, his expression taunting me as my anger toward him multiplied.

  Christina’s face twisted, like she couldn’t believe I’d just said that out loud. “Oh, right. ’Cause no one could ever want me since you don’t,” she bit out before grabbing his hand and interlocking their fingers together.

  “It’s the truth,” I said, feeling like an asshole, but I couldn’t let him do this to her. I knew it was hypocritical since I’d been the one to hurt her so many times before. It seemed like I was saying no one else was allowed too mess with her, except for me, but it wasn’t like that. It fucking killed me to know that he was tricking her intentionally, maliciously. “Just ask him.”

  “I don’t have to ask him. I wish I’d never met you,” she said, and the proverbial knife in my stomach gutted me clean and hollowed me out. “Can we go?”

  “Of course.” Logan leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek but kept his eyes open and on me the entire time like a fucking creep.

  That single action confirmed every one of my suspicions; Logan was only using her to get under my skin. To distract me. To make me angry, push all my buttons, and get me to fall apart at the seams like a battered baseball.

  Chance and Mac both stood in front of me the second I took a step toward Logan.

  “Don’t,” they each said before turning to face him in unison like they’d practiced it.

  “Just get out of here,” Mac yelled at Logan. “Before we let him go.”

  Logan laughed like he wasn’t the least bit intimidated as he walked out of the house with my fucking girl on his arm.

  What the Hell?

  Christina

  The minute the front doors slammed behind us, I dropped Logan’s hand and turned on him, feeling a little more sobered up than I had five minutes earlier. “What the hell was that all about? I’ve never seen Cole so mad before. He looked like he was going to rip you to pieces.”

  Logan kicked at the ground before walking to his car in the driveway. He opened the passenger door and practically shoved me inside, but I braced an arm against the cold paneling and refused to cooperate.