Page 6 of His Team

Taylor rolls her eyes. “You too? My roommate is just weird. She embodies everything I feared about a college roommate.”

“I hear you.”

I don’t tell her I might already have a plan for that. As an out-of-state student, it’s a requirement to stay in the dorms as a freshman. I already know that’s about a money grab.

Lucky for me, I have a cousin who has an apartment here. She’s a flight attendant and never uses the place. I’ll be using her apartment as much as possible.

That stink-face chick can have that shoebox dorm room to herself. I don’t know Taylor yet, so I don’t want to tell her this. I don’t want to get busted.

We sit, getting to know each other as we giggle about the nervous look on the faces of some of the others who enter the auditorium. Taylor was right. Not many of the people here look like the cool kids.

This is why a blonde a few rows ahead of us draws my attention when she starts to wave her arms in the air. She looks like a supermodel. When I turn to see who she’s waving at, my mouth falls open. Two blond guys who are equally as gorgeous as the girl are heading down the stairs.

They are huge. Both look close to around six-six or six-seven. The one who grabs my attention most is slightly shorter than the other, with shorter blond hair. I feel like I’m watching a movie as they move in what now feels like slow motion.

The same one who I’ve been staring at locks eyes with me and gives a cocky grin when he notices I’m staring with my mouth gaping. The other guy with him looks exactly like him with a bearded face. They have to be identical twins.

I bite my lip to hold back a smile. Then realize I have my hair in a fucking messy bun and I’m in sweats. Not the firstimpression I want to make. I turn forward and slump down in my seat, wanting it to swallow me.

“Wow, the guys here are hot,” Taylor whispers beside me.

“Yeah, they’re cool.” I shrug.

Guys are the last thing I need to think about. I need to keep my focus on getting a degree I can use to avoid being married off. I’m not about to allow my dad to use money, or lack thereof, to lord over me.

“This is going to be an awesome four years,” Taylor says excitedly.

“We’ll see about that.”

CHAPTER 3

Pressure

Cameron

Caleb and I should be settling into our apartment or hanging with our team and building chemistry, not heading back home for one of Mama’s parties. I’m so annoyed with this shit. We haven’t been gone an entire week and here she goes with the bull.

If we don’t go, she’s going to lean on us with the guilt trips. I’ll get it the worse, but Caleb will take it the hardest. He doesn’t have time to shake Mama and her mess off.

He needs this time to adjust to school and the new environment. We still have so much to figure out on top of entering hell week. Hell week will kick off fall training for the baseball team. The last thing we need is for our mama to become a distraction.

Although the woman is a master at it. I’ll be happy when she and Daddy are back on the road, traveling to God knows wherewhile staying out of our hair. Cal and I will have Aunt Judy and Uncle Rusty here for moral support as always.

“I wanted to read the text for class and study my pitching film,” Caleb says as we ride in my car, heading home from our apartment.

Daddy purchased us a place right off campus to allow Caleb to have a safe place away from the student body when he needs it. I agreed with the decision. Living on campus might be too much for our goals.

Yet we want him to feel like he’s a part of the college experience as much as possible. Certain things come with a thin line—now at least. We’re hoping that by the end of college, Caleb will be able to adapt to everything more smoothly.

I know my brother. He just needs a chance. Placing him in the action will give him time to acclimate. He needs to be able to observe, process, and adjust. Every now and then, he’ll need to back away, and our apartment will give him that.

“I hear you, man. We’ll leave as soon as we can. I have some shit I wanted to do at the apartment too.”

“What is this party even for? I don’t want to talk to people. I’m not in the mood today.”

I snort. It’s not like Mama is going to give him a chance to speak, even if he were in the mood. It’s one of the things that infuriates me about our mama.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t know what the heck this party is for, but you head on up to your room. I’ll deal with the party and Mama,” I say to my brother.

---