Page 74 of The Third Baseman

His thumb stopped moving and his lips rolled as he tried to hold back a smile. “Touché.”

I twisted slightly, relieving myself from his hands. I couldn’t concentrate when he was touching me.

His playful tone dropped. “Come on, Marn, when are you going to forgive me?”

“It’s not about forgiving you; too much has happened between us, I need time, but…” I looked up hesitantly, “I think we could be friends… if that’s okay.”

From the way his eyes darkened, I hastened a guess that it wasn’t. “Friends?”

I plastered on my best smile and nodded.

“We were best friends, Marn. We were more than best friends.”

“Were, Jupiter.” I sighed, not wanting this conversation when I was stinking of boxing, and desperate for a shower. “Wewere. We’ve lived half a lifetime since then. So much has happened. I got married…” I added, quietly.

His eyes bulged wider than I’d ever seen them, hot with a rage that had me stepping back, “What? You’re fucking married?”

“No, I’m divorced. I got divorced when I realized…”

I stopped talking.

Jupiter stopped moving, his brow furrowing deep. “Realized what?”

I took a beat. This wasn’t the time or place to tell him. I didn’t want him to know in the midst of a somewhat heated conversation. “It doesn’t matter.”

His face dropped closer, nearer to my height. He wanted to see the look in my eyes, because he knew exactly why I’d divorced my ex-husband.

Exactly what I’d realized in the D.C. elevator.

I’d always been a shit liar, and he could read me better than any book.

“Is that why it took you six months to get here after Shepherd offered you the job?” He searched my face, but I wouldn’t look up from the J.R. initials embroidered above The Lions logo on his t-shirt. But he’d always been able to read me, and that was his answer. His tongue clicked in confirmation. “And you still won’t admit we’re meant to be together? That it’s always been that way?”

I took another step back, needing air again, because my brain was on the verge of frying. “It doesn’t matter what I think. Friends is all I can offer you right now.”

He said nothing, just stood there shaking his head with a piercing glare as his jaw worked back and forth.

Suddenly all his rage transferred to me and flooded my blood. “You haven’t even apologized! You said you weren’t going to. You expect me to forgive you for something you’re not even sorry for!”

“I said I’m not going to apologize for bringing us back together.”

I stepped back, throwing my hands in the air. “Of course. How dumb of me to forget. You just snap your fingers and everyone trips over themselves to do your bidding. You’ve just assumed that because I’m in New York that we’re going to be together. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Marnie…”

But I was on a roll, and had no room for interruptions. “You know, I was asked out today. He asked me if I would do him the honor of letting him taking me on a date.”

Jupiter face screwed up, then he scoffed hard, which set my teeth on edge. He was laughing until he saw the look on my face. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. And I’m not quite clear on why you’re finding it so funny,” I spat.

“Because…” his jaw tensed while he searched for a reason.

“Yes?”

He pointed at himself. “Me, for a start.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, and narrowed my eyes. “You?”

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