Page 80 of The Third Baseman

If friendship was all she wanted right now, I was going to snatch that shit up and be the best friend she’d ever had. Again.

Weweremeant to be, I knew it as well as I knew myself, so I could wait for forever to begin until she was ready.

I checked the time; I had to get back to the club before I got called out for missing our stretching session.

I stole one last glance at her, just in time to see her jump out of his reach. I couldn’t hold in the bark of laughter, and if I didn’t want to break his fingers for trying to touch her, I’d have almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost, because he’d done the classic ‘oh, you’ve got something in your hair’ move. It was the sort of shit Ace would definitely attempt, right before the follow-up lean-in kiss.

Douche.

He could try if he wanted a broken face.

I peered back around the tree to find her staring directly at the trunk, and jerked back immediately.

Double fuck.

I’d been louder than I thought, and there was no way I could move until she looked away.

For no reason, other than it felt like I was now playing hide ’n’ seek with my niece, I held my breath and tried to shrink into the tree. At least I only exercised in exclusively dark colors, so was currently camouflaged.

I didn’t work.

When I peered round a second later, Marnie Matthews was standing right next to me, arms crossed over her chest, doing her best impression of snarling dog.

“Hey, Marn, what’s up?” I tried to play it off as cool as possible, and not like I’d been caught creeping.

She bought none of it, and we both knew I was busted.

“Are you following me?” she hissed.

“No,” I shook my head, because technically,technicallyI hadn’t. She’d already been here and I’d found her. “I happened to be jogging and I saw you.”

Both hands went to her hips. “Doesn’t look like you’re jogging. How long have you been standing behind this tree?”

“Um…” I looked at my watch again.

“How long?” she gritted out.

“Twenty minutes.”

“Twenty… Jupiter! Jesus,” she spat, her eyes narrowed. “You should be at practice.”

I held my mouth into a straight line, trying really hard not to smile, but my insides were skipping. “Do you know my schedule, Marn?”

Her jaw popped. It looked less threatening when the soft breeze blew the hair off her face like she was in an eighties music video, but I knew she was pissed.

I wasn’t about to make it worse. I’d done enough of that lately.

My shoulders sagged in defeat. No more jokes. No more trying to make her laugh. Just me.

“Marn, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I wanted to leave before you saw me, I promise.”

I peered around her to see Coffee Douche was staring at us, and from the way he was staring and craning his neck, he knew exactly who Marnie was talking to. Me.

That gave me less than a minute before he made his way over.

Always under a time constraint when I had something important to say; then again, I would never have enough time.

I wanted all the time with her.

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