Page 77 of The Third Baseman

I didn’t look at him as he sat on the bench opposite me. One thing I’d learned about Stone was that he’d wait and wait, and wait some goddamn more until I talked. It was fucking annoying.

Not as annoying as the next person who spoke, but still annoying.

“Is this to do with Science – I mean Doctor Matthews?”

My eyes shot up to where Ace was standing in front of his locker, which reminded me that I needed to talk to whoever was in charge of lockers to have his moved far away from mine. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged, pulled off his shoulder support, and stripped off. “She’s got a date today, right?”

I was in front of him so quickly he didn’t have time to blink.

“What? What the fuck do you know about her dating?”

“Dude! Easy!” He took a dramatic step back. “You’re practically touching my dick!”

My head snapped round to where Stone was watching in amusement, though he was the only one, and translated my expression like an expert.

“Watson, answer the question.”

Ace grabbed a towel from the cubbies so slowly it was like he didn’t realize my brain was about to short circuit. Or maybe he did and wanted to annoy the fuck out of me. In which case, mission accomplished. “I came in early. I was getting coffee, and she was in the dining room with Shepherd’s fiancée and the hot chick from legal.”

“Ace, man, you gotta stop calling them chicks. They’re on the exec board, dude.” Stone got up then parked himself in front of Ace and me, like a fucking umpire.

I snapped my fingers to get Ace’s attention back on the topic in hand. “And?”

He focused on me, though he was still clearly confused about whatever Stone has chastised him for. “And they were talking about a date. I listened long enough to figure out it was your…” he looked to Stone then back at me, “lady friend?”

Stone rolled his eyes, but nodded.

“What else?”

“Um,” his brow furrowed, “only that it’s today at Riverside Park. She wanted a lunchtime date so that she could keep it on a time limit. Being honest with you, man, it didn’t sound like she wanted to go, but you’ve clearly fucked up enough that you got your lady dating someone else. What did you do?”

He grinned like only a twenty-two year old who stuck exclusively to one night stands could. My fist clenched.

“Reeves, sit down there.” Stone pointed to a spare bench. “Watson, you can get in the shower.”

Another loud chatter erupted as a couple of other guys walked in. Stone nodded to them then came and sat by me.

And fucking waited.

I groaned. “I think I fucked up, man. I know I did. Big time.”

“Okay, what did you do?”

I looked up at him, his eyes filled with concern.

“I think I’ve been pushing too hard.”

He sat forward, his mouth set in a hard line, though the edges were twitching, like yeah, he could’ve told me that for free.

“We’ve been spending time together for her program, and it was starting to feel like when we were kids again…” I raked my fingers through my hair, pulling hard on the ends. “Fuck. I’ve waited so long for this, and now she’s here and my chest feels as though it’s going to cave in from wanting her. I didn’t even realize how badly, and then she asks me if we can be friends.”

Fucking friends.

“And that’s not all.” I rubbed my chest; I swear I could feel every single crack. “She got married.”

“Oh shit! She’s married? Sorry, dude, that’s fucking rough.”

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