Page 133 of The Third Baseman

We both stood as the girls returned. “Can we call the driver?”

“Already done.” I looked at Emerson, who was now wrapped around Drew. “Want us to give you a ride?”

She shook her head. “No thanks, we’re going to walk a little.”

It took five minutes of hugging and organizing when we’d see them next for the car to pull up, then another fifteen to get back to Marnie’s apartment, where I pulled her onto the couch and planned to spend the next hour snuggling while the highlights played. According to the sleep schedule she had everyone on, I also had another hour after that to get lucky before it was lights out.

I caught her hand as she pushed it through my hair, and pulled her down into my arms.

“Thank you for dinner tonight, it was perfect.” She kissed my cheek, moving her legs to rest on mine, and I was only slightly disappointed she’d changed out of her dress.

Maybe if I asked nicely I could convince her to put the first one on again, even if it was ruined.

“You’re welcome.” I ran my palms up and down her legs while I flipped through the games played tonight. “I’m sorry about your other dress; I’ll buy you a new one. But you still looked so beautiful tonight, Marn. So fucking beautiful. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you.”

“It was totally worth it.” Her fingers were twisting the ends of my hair, which was almost long enough for her to wrap around her index finger now.

My eyes flicked from the Mariners game to her. “Happy fake early Birthday, my little Star. I love you.”

“Thank you. It was the best fake birthday I could have asked for,” she grinned, and slightly drunkenly scooched onto my lap. Her arms slid around my neck; her lips trailed a path along my jaw until they found home on my own. My dick got hard the second she’d flung her legs on mine, but now her hot little body was pressed against me it was throbbing. “Now, please stop talking and kiss me.”

My lips were a hairs breadth away from brushing hers when a flicker went off in the far,farrecesses of my brain.

When I think back, I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I didn’t kiss her. Instead, perhaps stupidly, I pulled away. I wanted to hear it. “Marnie, I love you.”

“I know,” she smiled, leaning in again.

I squeezed the tops of her arms, lifting her off my lap and stared her down.

“I love you.”

Her arms crossed defensively. “I heard you.”

“Why won’t you say you love me?” My jaw was clenched too tight for it to come out as a whine, though I was surprised it didn’t.

Her eyes flared, her mouth parted, and the way she looked at the floor had my belly twisting in on itself.

“Marnie, answer me. Do you love me?”

She sucked in her bottom lip; she needed to stop it quivering.

“What the fuck, Marn?”

She held out a shaky hand to me. “Jupiter, let’s go to bed, please. We don’t need to talk about this now.”

“Oh, yes we do!”

“Jupiter…”

I sat back. My world was in danger of shifting. As if I could stop it, my fists clenched and rammed hard into my armpits.

“No! Tell me! I want to know.”

She started to push her toes back and forth along the floorboards, focusing on her feet instead of my face like I wanted. It felt like I was waiting an eternity for her to speak, longer still when her eyes filled with emotion and her hands began balling into fists.

My heart stopped.

“Do you… do you not love me?”

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