Page 31 of (Un)Rivaled

Devyn laughed, the sound lighter than I remembered. She wasn’t someone who showed her emotions easily, often hiding them behind a tough façade. But those littlemoments when I got to see the real her? Those were everything.

“Should have remembered that,” Devyn chuckled. “You’ve always been technology averse.”

For a moment, I thought about telling her the truth: I just wanted to hear her voice. After being starved of it for so long, I was desperate to talk to her, to listen to all her thoughts. Even when she was annoyed with me, it was better than not talking to her at all. I chuckled, keeping all that to myself. “Not as bad as I used to be.”

“Good to know,” Devyn sighed. “Because if you didn’t have cable or Wi-Fi at your house, this whole deal might have been off. Calla’s got me hooked on all these reality shows, and now I’m just as addicted. If I miss aReal Housewivesreunion, there will be blood.”

I laughed, the sound filling the room. “Don’t you worry, Ace. I’ve got both set up for you. No need to get blood on my new rug.”

The line paused, and for a moment, I thought she was going to ream me out for calling her Ace. I’d done it a couple of times today already. The first time was a slip of the tongue. It was too easy to fall into old habits with Devyn as if no time had passed. But after that, I was almost testing the waters, waiting to see if she’d say anything about the nickname. Each time she let it go only emboldened me, wanting to know how much further she’d let me in.

She cleared her throat. “I should get going. I want to make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow. Can we meet at the house at 10?”

“Works for me.”

“Cool…” she sighed. “I’ll see you then.”

Disappointment filled me at how our conversation ended, hating we’d only talked for a couple of minutesbefore I ruined it. But before I could pull the phone away from my ear, I heard her voice call out. “Thank you, Gray.”

I smiled to myself. “Stop thanking me, Devyn. It’s not needed.”

“Yes, it is,” she insisted. “There aren’t many people who’d do something like that for me. Just Calla, maybe Laurel, and they’re obligated because they’re my sisters. But you…” Her voice trailed off, and I wished more than anything she’d finish the thought. I needed to know where her head was and how she felt about being around me again. She cleared her throat. “So thank you, Gray. It means more than you know.”

“Anything for you, Devy.”

FIFTEEN

EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD

“Baby, please…”

My eyes darted down to the brunette wrapped around my waist and grimaced. We’d barely been at the party for two hours, and I’d already asked Emma to stop touching me multiple times. At first, she’d listened and backed off a little, but with each drink, my boundaries were becoming more and more a joke to her.

“You’re no fun,” Emma pouted. Maybe that was on me. I should have known why she asked me for a ride to the party, but I didn’t really know for sure until I walked into the kitchen earlier and listened to her brag to her friends that I was going to be her summer conquest.

Never going to happen.

The party raged around us, almost our entire senior class filling the small lake house. It belonged to the parents of a guy on the baseball team. They’d gone on a cruise earlier in the week, and he decided to throw a huge party for graduation. No one was more grateful to be done with high school than me, but parties like this weren’t my scene. However, this was the last time I could celebrate with myteam. While we might not be best friends, we’d worked well together, making it all the way to the state championship this year.

During the past four years, baseball had been my life. While at first, I used it to help me learn how to focus, now, it was everything. There was something about being out on the ball field, where I could zone out everything else. When I was at school, I had to spend so much time and effort trying to drone out all the extra noise. But once my mitt was on my hand, my focus was singular: strike out the batter, get a home run, move as fast as my legs would physically let me.

Luckily, all that effort—early morning practices, sprints in the afternoons, extra time with the coaches—had paid off. I’d gotten a slew of offers from different colleges, but decided to head to Seattle. Not only did they offer me a full ride, but I liked the program and the coaches.

As much as I hated the idea of leaving home, starting fresh somewhere new sounded pretty fucking amazing. Growing up in such a small community meant I’d known most of these assholes since birth, and I was ready to meet some new people. Besides my parents, there was no one else I’d really miss, no one else I’d care about leaving behind.

Well, my parents and one other person.

“You ssshud taske me up shere,” Emma mumbled, pulling me away from my thoughts. She giggled as she flicked my earlobe. Yup, definitely not into that. “Wez have sosh much fund.”

No fucking thank you. Maybe that offer would have tempted other people, but I had no interest in going anywhere with this girl. In fact, I’d decided I was good with dating after Calla and I broke up a couple months ago. It was mutual, both of us agreeing we were better off as friends. We probably never should have dated, butCalla was fun, and that was what I needed for so long. She was great about getting me out of my routine, forcing me to enjoy my last years of high school. I would always love her, but I never felt like I was in love with her. There was never any drive to take things further than surface level, never any need to cross any lines. In fact, beyond a couple of drunken make-out sessions, we’d barely touched, settling into a routine that worked.

But as high school graduation grew closer, it seemed like we were both ready for something more. Calla wanted to be all in with someone, and I wanted to focus on baseball when I went to school. Considering the sizable scholarship I’d gotten from Seattle, it was the least I could do.

I shifted on the couch, trying to give Emma some space. “You should drink some water, try to sober up.”

“Thatsh stuhphad,” she pouted again as she climbed into my lap and tried to nuzzle my neck. I abruptly shifted, dropping her in the lap of one of my teammates. Lucky for me, it was Mike Dougan, who’d always had a thing for Emma anyway. He was a good guy and would make sure she got home safe.

As I stood, I looked around the room, hoping to find someone else to talk to. But given that everyone had been pounding shots for the better part of an hour, the party was already becoming a giant fucking disaster.

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