Page 75 of Call My Bluff
Olivia stared slack-jawed at this revelation.
Lexie had the grace to blush under her best friend’s accusing glare. “I would have told you sooner, but you haven’t been in a listening mood,” she confessed. “The point is that you’re coming up with reasons to push him away just so you won’t have to admit you were wrong, and you’re making yourself and everyone around you miserable. And as for those girls?” She nodded her head toward the fence. “You can’t complain if you don’t stake your claim—but if you don’t, someone else will.”
Olivia felt both shock and awe at this outburst. Lexie had never spoken her mind like that before! Maybe Olivia had been a good influence on her all these years, after all.
Or a bad one, depending on how she looked at it.
Olivia turned her attention back to the field, though she stared at home plate with unseeing eyes.
Wasshe just making excuses?
And if she was . . . why?
The voices of reason started a debate inside her head, each mounting its own argument.
Because things might change!
Oh, come on, face it. You’ve been dating for a while. What difference would it make?
Because the year is almost over!
And you’ll both be in Chattanooga next year. You have time.
Because it might not work out!
So what? It’s not like you’re in love with him, right?
For once, the cynic had no response, and Olivia felt her chest squeeze tight.
Shewasn’tin love with Noah... was she?
She thought back to how much it had hurt to watch him step away the other night, even when she’d been the one to request it. She thought about the past week and how many times she’d wanted to ask about his day or share something from hers. She thought about the weekend at her parents’ house and how she could have danced through a thousand songs with him and never been tired.
He was the one who made her laugh when days were hard and the one who helped her forget why she was angry. He was the one she wanted to run to with good news and with bad. He was the one she leaned on and yelled at and trusted with the fears she couldn’t share with anyone else.
He was . . . the one.
Olivia nearly felt her heart stop as those words sunk in. She pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her shorts and unearthed a text message that was buried six names deep—one she’d been avoiding for days. She opened it and skimmed quickly through the part about the girl at the pool hall, but her eyes automatically slowed as she neared the end.
Noah:...there’s no one but you, Pix. No one who makes me laugh as hard or who drives me as crazy. No one I’d rather spend my days and nights with. I know this whole stupid game we’re playing started as a way to prove a point, but it’s more than that for me now. And I hope it’s more than that for you.
Olivia swallowed hard and read the whole thing again from the beginning, absorbing every word one at a time.
No one but you.
A cheer went up from the stands around her, and she blinked her focus back to the game. Someone on Jake’s team had hit a home run and was rounding the bases without opposition—but it wasn’t Noah. She scanned the faces in the dugout and finally spotted him standing at the end farthest from her, his forearms propped against the half-wall that separated the bench from the infield. He wasn’t looking her way, but she felt drawn to her feet anyway.
“Liv, where are you going? They’ll come up here when they’re done,” Lexie asked, but Olivia didn’t stop to acknowledge her. She was afraid that if she did, she might not have the guts to start moving again. Instead, she thundered down the bleachers and hit the grass at a jog. When she reached the infield gate, she pushed it open and stormed through.
“Campbell!” she bellowed, and several heads whipped her way in what looked like alarm, but Noah’s wasn’t one of them. “Campbell, listen to me when I’m talking to you!” she shouted again. This time, she got his attention, and his eyes went wide asshe made her way into the dugout. The men inside parted like the Red Sea, leaving Noah standing alone at the opposite end.
“You are the most infuriating, exasperating, maddening man I’ve ever met!” She came to a stop in front of him. “And I don’t want to play games anymore.” Then she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down until her mouth met his.
There was a second when he didn’t respond—a second where she wondered if she’d made a horrible miscalculation—but then Olivia felt her feet leave the ground as Noah lifted her up and set her down on the dugout wall. He kissed her back like he’d never had a reason to stop in the first place, and the whoops and catcalls of his teammates seemed far away as she threaded her fingers into his hair and tried to make up for all thealmostsandshould havesof the last six months.
“One chance. Don’t choke,” she whispered into the space between them, and Noah smiled so that only she could see.
“Stop talking.”
