Page 69 of Chasing Forever
I laugh and fall into him, my head on his shoulder. He doesn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around me, turning me so we can start walking.
Before I realize it, the girls in my family have swallowed me in a huddle, each asking me a bunch of questions at the same time. All except for Sadie, since I had that conversation with her before the escape room date with Brooks.
Instead of going to the dugout, I sit on the bleachers with them.
“You each get one question, but this is where we’re at. Brooks and I…” I look over my shoulder to see him stretching on the field. I shake my head. Another thing I used to make fun of him for, but what’s the problem with him putting everything he has into something? Isn’t that what he did with me?
“Can you focus on us for one second? Brooks and you what?” Scarlett asks, always the impatient one.
“We’re…” I glance at him again. “Together. A couple.”
“Well, you are married,” Romy says, as if I don’t remember.
“Yes, but I mean, we’re actually dating now.” God, I can’t believe it. Adrenaline bursts through my veins for a second.
Walker Matthews steps up to the fence line. “Can we stop the high school drama and actually play softball?” His fingers are wrapped around the metal openings, and his cocky smirk is firmly in place on his face. Mostly, his attention is on Scarlett.
“There isn’t a start time,” Scarlett says.
“Technically, there is. It’s six o’clock.” He turns his wrist to face him. “And it’s 5:58 right now.”
Scarlett crosses her arms and pretends to look at her watch. “Then we have two minutes.” She shoos him away with her hand. “So go round up your boys who probably don’t even work on your ranch.”
“Let’s remember you have Brooks, and last I checked, he didn’t work on your little ranch.”
Scarlett’s nostrils flare at the word little because it’s nothing of the sort.
“Well, he’s working someone on the ranch.” Poppy comes shoulder to shoulder with her sister as if that’s an actual comeback.
Snickers ring out from everyone, and my cheeks heat.
Walker’s gaze finds me in the middle of all the women. “That was evident when I found them steaming up the windows of his truck in the parking lot.” He steps back and taps his wrist. “One minute, Scar.”
She inhales a deep breath and turns around, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. “I swear to God, we’d better beat him today.”
“I’m not sure how we got so unlucky that Wild Bull is our first game of the season,” Poppy says.
Sadie grabs my wrist before I can leave the bleachers. When I turn around, she’s smiling at me. And it conveys everything she wants to say without any words. She’s really happy that I was able to step out of my own way and explore things with Brooks. I smile back at her, and she squeezes my wrist before releasing me.
Those of us playing head to the dugout, since knowing Walker, he’ll find some loophole and make us forfeit if we step on the field a minute late.
Sadie turns toward the field, and she, Gillian, and Briar—who are all adorned with Jude’s Girl, Ben’s Girl, and Emmett’s Girl T-shirts—clap and cheer for us.
I round the dugout, and Brooks comes over to me, handing me my mitt and kissing my cheek. “I have no idea how I’m going to get through this game without touching or kissing you.”
“Who said you had to?”
He pats my ass. “Don’t tempt me, or I’ll be tugging you down on home plate in front of everyone.”
“Can we please focus? This is Wild Bull, for fuck’s sake,” my cousin Jude groans, clipboard in hand. “I’ve moved some things around this year.”
“What the hell?” Ben says.
“I better be batting third,” Emmett says.
Scarlett raises her hand. “Can I not pitch anymore?”
“I don’t want to bat. It gives me anxiety.” Poppy crosses her arms.
