Page 63 of Curveball

He pulls his hand away, clearly annoyed by my comment. “I hate when you say stuff like that.”

“Quincy, I don’t think I can spend any more time alone with you. It’s confusing for me. I’m moving on. I have a date coming up, and I need to see it through.”

I don’t officially have the date yet, but that’s semantics.

I see his jaw stiffen.

“You can’t have it both ways. You don’t want to be with me—”

“I’d happily be with you.”

“You want to have sporadic booty call sex with me. Not date me. I’m twenty-eight. That’s not what I’m looking for.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Let’s talk about something I know we can agree on. I assume you realize who we play tonight, right?”

I nod. “Of course.” They’re playing the team Marc Whittaker, Arizona’s ex-fiancé, is on. “Arizona doesn’t want to go to the game even though you’re pitching. We’re gonna chill at our place and watch a movie.”

“I don’t blame her. She should stay away from him.”

“Don’t bean him again. It’s enough with that.”

A small smile finds his lips. “We’ll see. Sometimes the ball just…slips out of my hand.” He shrugs. “I can’t help it.”

“You’re going to throw at him, aren’t you?”

“You bet your sexy ass I am.”

“You’ll probably get suspended.”

“Worth it.”

“She doesn’t want you to.”

“Too bad. He has it coming.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

QUINCY

Today was Arizona and Layton’s bigSports Illustratedbody image photo shoot. I wonder how they dealt with Layton’s bruised cheek after our bench-clearing brawl with Whittaker and his team last night. I smile at the memory of Layton and I both pounding Whittaker with our fists over and over until our teammates and coaches pulled us away.

If nothing else, I know Lancaster cares about my sister. He was a man possessed last night. I got choked up with emotion over him taking the brunt of things so I didn’t get suspended, though we both got ejected from the game.

Then my mind drifts to the photo shoot. I cringe at the thought of them half-naked together all day. I know she was nervous about it, so I want to check on her.

I dial her number, and she answers after one ring, completely out of breath. She pants, “Hello.”

What the hell! “Where the fuck are you?”

“You’re cheery as ever, grumpy. I’m out on the river jogging.”Phew. “What’s up?”

“Oh, I just wanted to see how today went.”

“It…it was fine.”

“Did something happen? Did he try to touch you inappropriately?”

“Ugh, no. Cut it out. Layton was fine. It was just a long day. I’m beat.”

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