Page 32 of (Un)Rivaled

Maybe it was because I’d grown up behind the back of a bar, but I didn’t see the appeal. Not only did you make a fool out of yourself, but the following day was always a nightmare. I wasn’t interested in that, not when I spent every morning on the pitch, trying to perfect my fastball.

I’d just pushed open the back door when I heard someone call my name. Wade sat on a lounge chair on the other side of the back porch, playing with the beer bottle inhis hand. For a moment, I debated going back inside, pretending I hadn’t heard him. Wade might have been my best friend at one time, but our friendship changed after he dated Devyn. Even after they broke up, there was tension between us. I’d tried to get past it, but he made it clear he wasn’t interested. We were teammates, nothing more.

Wade glanced up at me, his expression stormy. “Can you believe we’re out of here in a few months?”

“Nah,” I said as I took a seat in the chair next to him. “Feels strange.”

He nodded, understanding what I meant. This was a small town, one most of us had lived in our entire lives. The most time I spent away from the lake was when my family went to Washington for a week last summer. But that was about to change. In a month, I’d be in a big city, on the opposite coast.

“Everything’s going to be different,” Wade sighed, taking a pull from his drink. He glanced over at me then looked back down at the bottle, like he was ashamed of his next question. “Where’s Devyn going?”

“Columbia,” I answered. “Pre-law program.”

“Good for her,” he said, and the words seemed genuine. “How are you guys going to handle that? Being on opposite sides of the country?”

“What do you mean?” I bit out. “We’re friends. Best friends. Distance won’t change us.”

“Okay,” Wade snorted.

I leaned forward, my voice lowering to a lethal level. “You know nothing about us, about our friendship.”

“Seems like I know more than you.” He shook his head. “There was a time when I almost felt bad for you two. You’ve been circling each other for so long, but neither one has the balls to make the first move.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

He shifted to sit up, meeting my narrowed stare head on. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re never going to, Anders.”

Wade stood and tossed his empty bottle into the recycling can. I stayed in the same spot, barely hearing him head back into the party. His words echoed in my mind, making me question my future with Devyn. It was hard enough knowing we’d be apart for the next four years, but to think we’d lose touch? That almost knocked the wind out of me.

Truth be told, the last few months had already felt different. We were just as close as always, but our schedules kept us apart. Between my constant baseball and her demanding extracurriculars, it seemed like we were always missing each other.

Hopefully, it’d be different when Devyn came back for the summer. I’d circled the date on my calendar months ago, marked off each day as it passed. Now that it was less than a week away, I was getting impatient, needing to see her again.

I glanced over my shoulder at the party still raging behind me, but I was done. Emma had moved on, happily snuggling with Mike on the couch. At least he’d gotten her to drink water, which was probably in both of their best interests.

Standing, I walked over to the gate at the far end of the porch, lifting the latch to get out to the driveway. Maybe I should have gone home, but Wade’s words kept playing in the back of my mind, and I needed to work out all this extra tension.

Jetting down main street, I cut across the field to the local mini-park. The owners were only seasonal residents, coming back for the summer rush of tourists. The rest ofthe year, they lived in a senior community in Florida. Like most people in town, they were close to my parents, so they’d given us a key before they left for the winter. Even though they were back in town now, they had no problem with me coming by to use the batting cages as long as I was smart and didn’t make a mess for them to pick up in the morning.

After I started up the machine, I grabbed a helmet and my favorite bat, then stepped inside the cage. I paused, waiting for the rhythmic movements to wash away the world around me. After a lifetime of trying to block out all the extra noise surrounding me, this was the one place I didn’t have to try. The whirring of the machine soothed me, giving my mind something to focus on.

But today, it wasn’t working. The extra noise was all inside my head. Between Wade’s comments and Devyn’s distance, everything felt like it was closing in on me. For years, I’d pushed aside my feelings for Devyn, first because of her relationship with Wade, and then because of my own with Calla. This was the first time in a long time we were both single, but I still wasn’t ready to confront how I felt about her.

Maybe it was cowardice, but with so many other changes happening in my life, I wasn’t ready to risk our friendship too. I needed Devyn. She was the other half of me. She was my port in the storm, my safe place to land.

She believed in me like no one else, not even my parents.

A flash of her smiling infiltrated my mind, the image so gorgeous, I had to step away for a moment. It was bad enough she’d crept into my mind the last few times I’d gripped my cock, but now, I couldn’t stop thinking about her spread out for me, letting me taste her supple skin. Justthe thought made my cock harden, and I cursed as I willed it away.

I had no right to think of her that way. But even though we were just friends, in my mind, no one compared to Devyn. She had always been pretty, but in the past couple of years, her confidence had grown, making her downright stunning. And not just because her body was a work of art, worthy of lining the pages of her sketchbook—no, it was because her smile lit something inside me. It could be the worst day, but if I got one of Devyn’s rare smiles, it made all the difference in the world.

Maybe it was selfish to hold on to her so tightly. After all, Devyn had the world laid out at her feet. She was so fucking smart. Even though she struggled with the decision to go to law school, I was so fucking proud of her for getting into Columbia. There was no doubt in my mind she’d make an incredible lawyer one day.

Meanwhile, I only had one skill, and if baseball didn’t work out, I had no idea what I was going to do. Come back here and work for my dad? I might not have any options. There was No Plan B, not for me.

Fuck, I was spiraling. A ball rushed through the air and almost hit me because I was in the wrong position. Cursing under my breath, I moved to the side of the cage and pulled off my helmet, dropping my head into my hands. I needed to get it together. Maybe things were changing between Devyn and me, but I wasn’t going down that easily.

Reaching into my pocket, I dug out my phone, searching for my best friend’s number. But as the line trilled, the familiar ringtone echoed in the darkness. I brought the phone away from my ear, turning around to meet Devyn’s smile.

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