Page 76 of Trip Through Your Wires

“What do you mean wait for you?” He pulls my hand to his lap and clasps it with his other one.

I swallow and look down, hating to admit the catalyst that had driven the wedge between us. “With the money I spent changing my flight that weekend, I knew I wouldn’t be back to see you guys until Easter and I thought for sure you would be gone by then. I figured it was our last weekend together and it was time for us to move on.”

“Gone?” He shakes his head.

I look up and nod. “You’re getting drafted, Jake. Both you and Cruz are. It’s only a matter of time before you leave Highland, and when you do, Ellery will go with Cruz and you will go wherever you do. That’s why I didn’t call you back. I didn’t want to be longing for something that was no longer there. I put an end to our chapter before your future did.”

It takes a moment to process everything I just said, but once he finally does, he looks at me in a way that warms me from the inside out. “Sparky, I don’t care where I go, I want you in my life.”

“We will always be friends,” I smile slightly. “I know that now. But my future is here, and yours is wherever it takes you.”

“I don’t want to be your friend. I mean, clearly we are not in the friend zone.”

He laughs and looks down at his bare chest, then flicks his eyes to my bra.

I laugh and shake my head. “We have to be.”

“No,” he says with undeterred defiance. “You can’t deny the electricity between us. I mean, that night after the frat party and just now…” His eyes blaze with heat kindling the earlier fire in my chest. “Sparky, there is electricity every time we are in the same room together. And I don’t even have to say the obvious about the whole baseball connection because you know. I know you know.”

He’s right. When we are together, I get a high that is like being on the mound and a roller coaster, all wrapped in one.

“I want to be more than friends,” he continues. “I always have. I thought what happened that night after the frat party made my feelings pretty clear but since it didn’t, let me say it now—I don’t just want you in my life, Jenica. I need you in it.” He lets go of my hand and brings both of them to my face, cupping it. “There is no future without you in it.”

“You don’t mean that,” I shake my head.

“I do. Fuck, you have no idea how much I do.”

Sliding one hand to my neck, he wraps his other arm around my waist and pulls me toward him. Falling back against the bed, he pulls me onto his lap and the money in my hand falls to the floor as I open it and bring it to his chest with my other one.

“What you said that night, it’s not true.” He brushes a thumb along my lower lips “We aren’t just a chapter. We are more. We have the potential to be a book because there is something special between us and I know you feel it.”

I place my palms on his chest, the warmth of his body passing from him to me. “It’s not possible.”

“Why not?” He grabs both hands and squeezes. “With us, anything is possible.”

“Because you have your future, and I have mine. Doesn’t matter the bond we share. You’re you and you are destined for more.”

“More?” He shakes his head.

“Come on, Jake. You’re the whole package. You’re a great guy and an even better ball player, and one day some lucky girl is going to snag you.”

“No they won’t.”

“Yes,” I nod with determination, “they will.”

“No they won’t, because as long as I breathe I will want only one girl—you.”

“Jake…”

“I mean it, Sparky. You’re it for me. Why do you think I’m here? Would I have waited in an airport all night and then driven miles for anyone else?”

“I know you feel obligated…”

“Obligated?” He laughs. “Sparky, I am not here because I feel obligated. I am here because I need you.”

“You don’t need me,” I let out a small laugh, ignoring the twinge in my chest. “Your life is going to be amazing.”

“No it won’t,” he shakes his head. “Not if I destroy it.”

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