Page 25 of (Un)Rivaled

I forced the thought out of my head, deciding I’d head down to the beach for a couple of hours. There was a great view of the stars over the lake, and it always made me feel better when I could stare out at the open sky like I could be anywhere else in the world for a moment.

However, when I placed my hand on the exit, someone lightly grabbed my elbow and turned me around. Gray met my eyes, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Where are you going, Ace?”

“Home,” I sighed, not willing to tell him my plan. “I’m ready to call it a night.”

Gray kept staring at me, the crease in his forehead only deepening. “It’s not even nine.”

“That’s late.”

“Coming from the girl who never closes her eyes before midnight?” He shook his head as he stepped back. “I’m not buying it. Did you and Wade have a fight?”

“You could say that,” I chuckled, rubbing my arm where his hand just sat. “We, uh, we broke up.”

Gray’s eyes flickered with some unknownemotion, and he swallowed before choosing his next words. “Are you okay?”

“Does it make me a bad person if I say yes?” I played with the strap of my purse. “Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’m actually doing okay.”

Gray stared at me for so long, I started to squirm. Usually, he couldn’t get under my skin, and I’d match his intensity with my own. But tonight, I already felt too raw, like the weight of my secrets was threatening to tear me apart, and with Gray staring at me like that, it made my mind wander, wondering if I should follow Wade’s advice and tell Gray how I felt.

But before I could make up my mind, Gray pushed the door open behind me. “Then c’mon, Ace. Let’s go for a ride.”

“Where’s Calla?”

He jutted his chin out behind us. I turned and found my sister in a large group of girls, laughing as they started up the old dance game. “A bunch of the camp counselors were coming to celebrate the end of the first session. She’s going to hang with them tonight.” He walked outside and held the door open for me. “So let’s get out of here, Ace. Just me and you.”

“How areyou so good at that?”

Standing on the edge of the lake, I watched as Gray tossed his rock with surprising ease. The thing skipped almost four times before dropping down into the water. I glared down at the stone in my hand. No matter how many times Gray tried to show me what to do, I couldn’t make it move like him.

Gray smirked at me over his shoulder. “Maybe it’s from all those drills Coach made us run last week. He’s been on my ass about pitching and trying different styles.”

He moved to the edge of the woods and called me over to join him on a fallen log. I loved this place, this secret cove that seemed to belong just to the two of us. During the summer, tourists invade our beaches at all hours of the day. While the town needed their patronage to survive the winter months, it was sometimes hard to deal with, especially on nights like this, when I just wanted to clear my head away from the rest of the world.

Gray waited until I sat down at his side, then stretched out his arms behind us, leaning back so his head dropped between his shoulders. He’d already yawned a couple of times, exhausted from his early morning practices.

I stared at him, noting the dark circles lurking under his eyes. But despite his exhaustion, a small smile played at the corner of his lips. “How are you liking it?” I asked as I fidgeted with my bracelet.

This past year, Gray had become the breakout star of the high school baseball team. I wasn’t surprised, not with his talent and work ethic. He spent almost every single day training to better his skills. But when this past season started, the coach decided to switch him from third base to the pitcher’s mound. When he first made the change, Gray hated it but trusted his coach to do what was right.

It turned out, itwasthe right call. Gray was a natural on the mound, having near-perfect control of the ball. College scouts had already been asking about him, offering all sorts of incentives to get him to visit their schools. He’d put them off this summer, enrolling in a pitching clinic instead, but it would be coming up soon, with only two more years untilgraduation. The thought instantly made my hands tighten into fists. I tried not to think too much about how our lives would be going in different directions soon, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“It’s getting better,” Gray eventually admitted. “It’s a lot of pressure, but I think I like that.” He kicked the rocks at his feet then turned to study my face. “We gonna talk about baseball all night, or are you going to tell me what happened with Wade?”

I furrowed my brows as I shifted to face the water. I couldn’t talk to Gray about this, not yet. Not when my mind was already so jumbled and I had no idea how to unravel it. So instead, I tried to play it cool. I shrugged. “I told you. We broke up.”

Gray let out a half-hearted chuckle. “Yeah, Ace, I got that. I meant more aboutwhyyou broke up.”

“It just wasn’t working,” I said, unable to look at Gray. “He wanted us to get more serious, and I wasn’t ready for that.”

“What do you mean?”

Gray’s tone forced my eyes up to meet his. There was a dark storm in his expression, and if it was anyone else, I would have been terrified.

“Gray?”

“Did he try…” He shook his head and clenched his jaw. “Was he pressuring you?—”

“Oh God, no!” I said, forcing out an awkward laugh. “Nothing like that. I meant emotionally. He told me he loved me…” My voice trailed off, realizing I’d already told Gray more than I meant to. I didn’t want anyone to know what had happened that night. It was already hard enough, knowing I’d hurt Wade so badly. The last thing I wanted was for anyone else to know about it. But I trusted Gray, more than I trusted anyone else in this world. I needed to talk it out before my self-loathing became a permanent scar. I sighed as I turned back toward the water. “Do you think I’m capable of it?”

---