Page 24 of Never the Best

"Does it?" Luna cocked an eyebrow. "How did you figure that out?"

There was heat in her voice, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. "She told me."

"And you believe her?"

I considered her question and then shook my head. "No, I don't. Butshe wants me to, and what the hell else can I do?"

Luna nodded slowly. “Pearl is strong. Stronger than she realizes, sometimes. But she’s also had to deal with a lot of crap from people who were supposed to care about her,” she paused, turning to face me fully, “which includes her familyandyou.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“You know, I can’t reconcile the man you seem to be now with the kid I’ve heard about.”

I gave her a small, humorless smile. “I can’t either, honestly.”

Luna’s lips twitched into a smile. “Well, good luck figuring it out." She picked up her water bottle and drank it empty. She three-pointed it expertly into a trash can. “And Rhett?”

“Yeah?”

“You're engaged to another woman; if you want what Ithink you want, you're going to have to go against God and all of Savannah society. You may have changed, grown up and all that, but the fact that you're engaged to that crazy, lunatic bitch tells me you're still morethatboy than the man you want to be."

With that declaration, she walked away from me.

I watched her for a long moment, contemplating what she'd said before turning my gaze back to Pearl. Luna was right. About several things. First, I was engaged to a crazy, lunatic bitch, and that said more about me than my fiancée. Also, while I was engaged to another woman, I had no business staring at a woman hungrily. I wasnota cheat.

But is looking cheating? Yes, it is when your intentions are not platonic.

Fuck!

So, I was all but cheating on the fiancée that I didn’t want. Could my life be more of a shitshow?

Since I didn’t have a solution for where my life was at, I focused on the ball game instead of the woman who had been crowding my dreams, nightmares, and conscious mind for the past months.

The late afternoon sun was relentless as I rolled the softball in my hand, weighing its familiar heft. The game had been surprisingly competitive—Savannah Lace employees didn’t mess around. Both teams were hooting, shit-talking, and shouting encouragement from the sidelines as we neared the last inning.

Since Iwastrying hard to avoid looking at her, theuniverse decided to throwmea curve ball. Pearl was up to bat.

I stood on the makeshift pitcher’s mound, gripping the ball, as I watched her step up to the plate. Her hands were wrapped around the bat, and her stance was solid.

My focus, to the detriment of my team, was on her cut-off shorts and those gorgeous legs that went all the way upanddown. Her sneakers dug slightly into the dirt as she planted her feet. Her ponytail swung slightly as she glanced at me, a teasing smirk pulling at her lips.

"Hey, Vanderbilt, don't mess this up," Diego Perez, one of Savannah Lace's partners and a member of my team, called out.

"Not gonna," I said cockily. "You wanna slow ball since you're…you know, not too experienced playin' ball?" I was going to treat her, I decided, as I had been all the other players. Easy, comfortable, and casual.

“Don’t go easy on me, Vanderbilt,” Pearl called out, her voice carrying over the chatter of the crowd around us.

I grinned despite myself, shifting my weight. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Beaumont.”

The outfielders shifted slightly, readying themselves as I wound up. The ball left my hand with a clean arc, spinning toward her just over the plate. Pearl swung, the sound of the crack sharp and satisfying as the ball soared into the air.

“Go, go, go!” Nina shouted.

Pearl dropped the bat and took off like a shot, her sneakers kicking up small puffs of dirt as she sprinted toward firstbase. The ball arched high into the sky, heading toward left field, where one of my teammates fumbled the catch.

“Run, Pearl!” Luna’s voice rang out from the sidelines, followed by cheers and laughter from her team.

Pearl rounded first base and barreled toward second, her ponytail flying behind her as the outfielder scrambled to recover the ball.

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