Page 21 of Sliding Into Love
Shit. Fuck.Shitfuck.
Slipping the headphones over his ears, Ethan composed a message to her in his mind. “Hi, this is Ethan, and I think you’re wonderful, but my coach won’t let me date so I’m trying to see you any way I can without getting kicked off the team?” Maybe, “Hi, this is Ethan, and while I truly want to help Jase learn about baseball, I also really want to see you, and this is the only way I can think of?”
Shit, he was so fucked.
Once the bus had deposited them at the private airport to load the charter plane, Ethan plunked his bag on the floor and sank into one of the oversized seats. Jen and Derek took the seats nearest him.
“So, what did you and Ivy talk about?” Derek nudged him with a shoulder.
“Uh. Baseball.”
From the seat past Derek, Jen leaned over and snickered at Ethan. Derek smirked. Ethan flipped them off and pulled his headphones back over his ears, still typing imaginary texts.
Fuck it all.Ethan pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Ivy
Hi, Ivy.
Ethan Ford, here.
You gave me your number, but I forgot to give you mine.
So, you have it now.
Okay. Bye.
Have a nice day.
Bye.
What the hell had he done? Instead of looking at the messages, Ethan closed the app and put his phone on airplane mode.
At cruising altitude, Ethan opened his window shade and stared at the ground beneath, trying to forget howawkwardhe’d been. The verdant, rolling landscape below slowly transitioned to a reddish, rocky desert, and he imagined traveling through the rock formations and sliding over sand dunes. The hours-long trip passed by in a blur, and when the pilot announced landing, Ethan had to pull himself from a daydream about freckles and dimples and sparkling eyes.
The moment the wheels hit the tarmac, Ethan found his phone, turning off airplane mode and anxiously waiting for it to connect. Disappointment curdled through him when he saw no new messages. He should’ve known better.
Before the shuttle deposited the team at the hotel, some of the players requested to stop in a convenience store, and Ethan followed his teammates, grabbing things off the shelves at random.
On his return to the bus, Derek seized the bag, pawing through its contents.
“Oh, man. Ivy must be rubbing off on you!”
Ethan choked on his water.
He wished Ivywouldrub off on him.
Shit, no, don’t think about her that way,he had to remind himself.You’re just going to help her kid to play ball. That’sit.
Derek pulled the items out of the bag one by one: a bag of chili lime Cheetos, chocolate and peanut butter coated Chex, a pack of apple pie flavored gum, cinnamon sugar cashews, ranch-flavored corn nuts, yogurt-covered pretzels, mango-chili flavored chewy candy, a sharing size bag of crispy M&Ms, pizza-flavored Combos, and white cheddar popcorn. At least he hadn’t forgotten to buy his regular large pack of spearmint gum and salt and vinegar potato chips, or the trip would’ve been a waste. The apple pie gum seemed particularly disgusting, and Ethan flicked it at Derek with his fingertips.
“What did you mean about Ivy?” Trying to be nonchalant, Ethan twisted the cap on his water bottle and ducked to place it in his backpack. The tips of his ears burned beneath his hair.
“She has this thing about trying new food, so whenever we travel, she always buys snacks she’s never tried. And it’s always random shit like this.” Derek tapped the package of atrocious gum.
“Weird. You can give her all this then; I don’t know why the fuck I got it.” Ethan pulled out the things he wanted and shoved the bag at Derek.
“She’ll love it!”
