Page 32 of Pitcher Perfect

A knock on my door startled me. “You in there?”

I sighed. “Yeah.” I loved Ty, but I didn’t want to deal with his teasing or, even worse, his perceptiveness. I spun around in my chair to face the door.

He strode in and sat on my bed like he owned it. We’d spent countless hours like that over the years—when we shared a room while I lived with his family, in college, when we would crash at each other’s places after a night of drinking as adults. It became a regular occurrence once we all moved back in together, for however long that lasted. If things went well with the competition, that might give us a level of stability that would mean we all would move out of Dom’s place. The thought made me sadder than I expected.

“How’d it go with Caleb?”

“Fine,” I managed.

He frowned and tilted his head. Ty scanned me like an emotion-seeking robot that had identified a target. “What happened?”

“He’s a great cook, and I underestimated his ability. The stuff he made showed how broad his skills are. I think we’re in good shape.”

“Aus, what happened? You look like someone spit in your beer and said it tasted like PBR.” Ty sat up. “He didn’t say anything about our beer, did he? Because if he thinks we don’t have the chops—”

“No! Not at all. He loves our beer. Truly.” I dropped my hands into my lap and tilted my head back to stare at the ceiling.Should I tell Ty?Ethan knew I’d already met Caleb. But if I told Ty, then I would need to tell Dom because it wouldn’t be fair to leave him out.

It wasn’t like I needed to hide it. I didn’thaveto tell him about the kiss or anything either. And if anyone on Earth understood my complicated feelings about my dad, it was Ty. Telling him might help—but fuck, I hated talking about my feelings, especially ones about my parents.

“Caleb and I met before, in Portland.”

Ty’s eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. I caught him up on how we’d first met and tried to minimize how interested in him I’d been, but Ty saw right through me.

“So, when he showed up at the brewery, it was better than Matt Bomer showing up in nothing but a jock?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “In a way, yeah.”

“Then why are you in here acting like Eeyore?”

“He knows who my dad is.”

“A lot of people do, man. Your dad is kind of famous.”

I tried to think of a way to explain it without oversharing about Caleb’s life. It wasn’t my place to talk about his mom. “We were chatting—”

“Bonding, but go on.”

I flipped him off. “Talking, and I asked how he got into cooking. He told me this big story about how someone important to him bought him a cookbook that ended up inspiring his career, and—”

Ty’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit. No.”

“Yup.”

Ty grimaced. “So, your dad was his hero? Fuck. Okay, yeah, I understand the emo schtick a bit more now. What are you gonna do about it?”

“Emo? Pfft. I’m not moping.” I ignored Ty’s look that told me to cut the bullshit. “The only sensible action is to pretend that my dad is someone else and hope to god Caleb doesn’t ask me a bunch of questions about him.”

He snorted. “That sounds healthy. But Caleb’s cool. I don’t think he’ll do that.” Ty scooted back on my bed and leaned against the wall.

“Five minutes ago, you were ready to chew him out for talking shit about our beers, but now you think he’s cool?”

Ty scoffed. “Worrying he has no taste isn’t the same as him being an insensitive prick. He seems like a good guy.”

He confirmed what I felt deep in my gut. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“Does it really matter if he idolized your dad? I’m sure he can separate professional respect from understanding the shitty circumstances you grew up in.”

I didn’t know how to verbalize my concern without sounding like an idiot, but Ty had seen me idiotic many times. “We barely know each other, but I like that he seems interested inme.”

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