Page 72 of If We Never Met

A frown played across his lips. "This is starting to sound like goodbye."

"No, it's not goodbye. I'm not ready for that yet."

"Good. Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Well, if you come by McLaren Park around noon, my friend Gianna's stepdaughter will be playing softball, and I'll be cheering her on. It's Hailey's ninth birthday, so I'm going out to support her and the team."

Indecision played through his eyes. "Softball, huh? I don't know. I've been avoiding anything related to baseball."

"It's just going to be little girls who can barely hit. I want you to meet Gianna and her husband, Zach. Chloe will probably be there, too. Jake is the coach, so Hannah will also show up."

"Maybe I can meet you after."

She didn't love his answer. It made her feel like everything was on his terms. And it was, wasn't it? She wasn't having regrets, but she did feel like she'd just gotten a wake-up call. He was so consumed by his injury, his feelings about baseball, that he couldn't even watch a little kid's game, even if it meant spending time with her and her friends. "Sure, all right," she said shortly, sliding away from him. "I should get home."

He sat up, his brows drawing together as he frowned. "You're mad."

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are. The one thing I've liked about you the most is that you're really honest."

He had a point. "Fine. Your decision about tomorrow just makes me realize how much baseball controls your life. I don't want to forget that."

"It's not controlling me." He licked his lips, his gaze darkening. "I need to explain."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do. I'm not that great at expressing my feelings, but here goes."

She waited as he searched for words, fascinated by the play of emotions going through his eyes.

"Watching a baseball game feels like putting salt in an open wound," he said. "It reminds me of where I started, a little kid playing a game that became my whole life. Baseball kept me going after my mom died. Baseball gave me purpose. And being good at it gave me something to feel happy about." He paused. "Pitching is the one thing I'm really good at, Keira. I don't know who I am if I'm not a pitcher. I don't know what I'll do next, and facing that uncertainty is terrifying. Maybe that sounds selfish. No. It doesn't sound selfish; itisselfish," he added. "You want me to meet your friends, and I'm making a little kid's game about me and my problems."

His brutally honest and self-revealing words made her feel bad. "I'm sorry, Dante. I didn't realize what I was asking."

"How could you?"

"I was thoughtless."

"No, you weren't. You asked me a normal question, and I made it weird."

"Well, you did do that."

A slow smile spread across his mouth. "I haven't been this honest with anyone ever, Keira. In my family, if I had a problem with someone or they had a problem with me, we usually just resolved it by hitting each other in the face. Same thing with my teammates."

She grinned back at him. "You spend a lot of time with guys."

"Too much testosterone," he agreed. "But talking to you…I don't know. I can't seem to stop telling you how I feel. It's like I've turned into someone else."

"Don't you dare say a woman," she warned.

He laughed. "I wasn't going to say that. Because I've been with a lot of women who cannot get honest, either."

"A lot, huh?" she muttered.

"Maybe not a lot, but some."

"We were just talking about being honest," she reminded him.

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