Page 20 of Caught Stealing Your Heart
“What about it?”
“The now. The outcome.”
“Does it scare you?”
I turned around to face her. “It does. Mainly because this is all new to me, and I’m putting my all into it.”
“It’s the same for me, Banks. You’re not in this alone. Sometimes, it keeps me up at night because it’s not going how I thought it would.”
“How did you think it would go?”
Leilani ran her hands through her locs and sighed. “Things are going too good. That’s scaring me. I thought we wouldn’t be spending time together outside of your games and social media. The extra time we spend together, it’s tugging on me. You’regrowing on me, Banks. I guess Banks and Boss are two different people.”
“See, there you go with the jokes,” I teased, laughing. “I get what you’re saying Leilani. I do because that’s the battle for me too. Maybe let’s not think too deeply into this and keep going with the flow. We’re only two weeks into a six-month contract. Why not continue making the best of it? We want things to be good, right?”
“You know what, you’re right. I’d much rather it be like this than us secretly hating one another or something. Us getting along and getting to know one another is making this easier to do.”
Leilani feeling the same as me, eased my mind some. While I didn’t go in-depth with everything, we touched the surface on my emotions. Between us talking and the cages, the noise in my mind wasn’t as loud anymore. Leilani was a new outlet for me. She was becoming a new safe place for me to build trust in.
All we could continue to do was go with the flow and build on what we were creating for ourselves. Everything would fall into place as it should. It always did.
One month.
One month of Banks and my contractual relationship, and people were eating it up. It was a bit weird to see my name on blog headlines or pictures of us out, but all the time and energy we were putting into everything was working.
Banks made it easy.
The way things flowed between us, so naturally, caused anxiety to tighten my chest anytime we were around one another. Willow and Mamie encouraged me to continue going with the flow and not allow my anxiousness to mess anything up, but it was easier said than done.
At times, I found myself pulling away from Banks. We were spending too much time together, and I was getting attached.Attachment scared me because it could break at any moment. The biggest thing was, after six months, we would no longer be contractually obligated to be together. We could post our “breakup” on social media and go on about our lives, but when I thought about it, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Banks had become a constant in my life—a constant I didn’t want to be without so abruptly.
I finished packing my bag and checked around my house to make sure I didn’t leave anything on before going out to the Uber waiting for me. Banks had an away game in about four hours, and I was going to surprise him. Like any other social media influencer, not that I was one, I was documenting everything to post later. It was the cutest way to celebrate our month milestone.
Plus, I missed him.
Since we’d been doing our thing, we hadn’t gone more than two days without seeing one another. Baseball season was in full throttle, which meant our time together would lessen during his away games. I had absolutely no problem getting on a flight and popping up on him, and he would see that in a few hours.
“So, I’m on my way to the airport. My flight leaves in two hours, so I should be landing in Spring Valley Hills around noon. The game starts at two thirty, which will give me time to shower, get dressed, and head to the field. I’ll check back in when I land.”
I stopped the video and saved it to my phone. As if he knew I was thinking about him, Banks texted to check up on me. The Chesire cat-like grin hiking my cheeks up toward my eyes was shameful. The effect that man had on me was crazy. He made me feel like a teenage girl finally being noticed by her crush.
What’s up, beautiful? Just checking in on you before my game. What are you up to?
Nothing, about to get into my next piece. How are you? You ready to play?
Truthfully, I wanted to let Banks know that he was on my mind, but I opted not to. The best thing I could do was keep it casual.
I’m cool, getting my mind right. You know what I was sitting here thinking?
What?
You’re becoming my good luck charm. I feel off at away games because you’re not here.
I was speechless. My eyes scanned over his text multiple times before my fingers finally found the rhythm to respond. The surprise I had for him meant much more knowing he felt that way. I tapped the edge of my phone against my lips, thinking of how to respond. Once again, I wanted to keep it casual, but I also wanted to test his temperature with us.
Oh, really? You don’t have to say that, Banks. No one can read our messages.
