Page 42 of Off Pitch

“Not if you fall in love first,” Rory says, walking into the room with Sage on her hip. “Sorry to intrude, but Sage wants Daddy.”

“Ah, hey there, Lovebug. I missed you.” Sage smiles brightly as Lane positions her on his lap. Rory sits down on my other side so I’m sandwiched between them.

“So, we’re talking about Knox, are we?” Rory interjects.

“Oh, we are,” Lane replies as Sage nuzzles into him, resting her head on his shoulder. “We’re talking about how much better he’s been lately.”

“That’s an understatement,” Rory says. “I’ve known Knox since he was brought up to the team, and he’s always been grumpy. Seeing him smile was a rarity.” She turns her attention right to me. “But not anymore. Now it’s a daily occurrence.”

“Well, I’m happy about that. Like I was telling Lane, he’s not all that bad. He was just closed off. But he’s starting to open up, and his light is shining brighter.”

“Because of you,” she says.

“Maybe,” I reply. “I don’t think I can take all the credit for it. If anything, I’ve just helped him see what he didn’t before.”

“I can agree to that,” Lane says. “As long as you mean that what he didn’t see before was you.”

“You are both absolutely relentless, you know that?”

“We mean well,” Lane replies with a smile.

“But don’t worry,” Rory states. “You guys will see it on your own one day.”

As adamant as our friends are, they will be sorely disappointed if this doesn’t happen.

Whenthis doesn’t happen.

Definitely when. Knox and I are friends now, and that’s all we’ll be. And once this fake relationship ends, we’ll continue being friends because that’s all we want, regardless of what our other friends think.

nineteen

Harlow

“There she is,” Knoxsays as he walks up behind me as I chat with Lucia in the hallway outside the clubhouse.

“Ah, hey there, Slick,” I say, turning to face him. “You played a great game in the dugout tonight.”

“Such a goddamn tease,” he replies, sliding up next to me. I turn back around to find Lucia smirking right at us.

“What?” I ask her.

“Nothing,” she says, throwing her hands up. “Nothing at all.” I don’t believe her, but I’m not pressing the issue. I know what she’ll say, and I really don’t want to hear it.

The clubhouse door opens, and a few of the Stars players walk out into the hallway. Since these guys don’t know about the fake relationship, Knox puts his arm around my shoulder and plants a soft kiss on the top of my head. And even though it’s just for show, I can’t help but smile at the show of affection.

It makes me wonder what things would be like if this were real. Would he hold me close like this because he could? Would he kiss me around his teammates? Would he take me to bed andravish me? I’ll never find out, but there’s no harm in imagining it, right?

As more of the team leaves the clubhouse, Lucia chimes in with a bright-ass smile, “You guys are such a sweet couple.” She’s doing it to make us feel awkward, but Knox and I have been playing this game for more than a month now—we’re used to it.

So, in response, I simply say, “Thank you, Luc,” returning the bright smile she gave me. And Knox just pulls me closer.

“What are your plans tonight, baby?” he asks me, and I almost snort in laughter.Baby?I never took Knox for someone who would be interested in using pet names, so that catches me by surprise, but I can roll with it.

“Not too much,babe,“ I say as I jokingly push my shoulder into his ribs, earning me a low chuckle. “I’m going to make a frozen pizza, have a glass of wine, and write my blog post for Lane’s interview.”

“Sounds like a wild Tuesday night. Count me in.”

“You want to come over and eat frozen pizza?” I ask him incredulously.

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