Page 21 of The Nicest Thing

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"Nope, nothing."

I smiled brightly, hoping he wouldn't pry further, and thankfully, Finn let it go.As I watched, he flipped the short version of the contract over and wrote:

Rule #1: We always tell each other the truth.

Beneath that, he scrawled his signature then handed me the pencil.I took it, quickly adding my name.

Finn held out a hand, and I placed my palm in his.

We shook.

And that was that.

"I'm going to kiss your hand," Finn said.

My eyes widened as his lips met my knuckles.It was soft, warm, and lovely.He looked up at me from beneath his lashes and winked.

"Thought it was necessary."

I huffed a laugh, but as his lips lingered, my heart was racing.

"Hey, O'Brien."

We both looked to the field.The baseball player who'd called his name lifted his chin.

"Come play with us," he said.

"Not today, Graves."Finn nodded to me."I'm talking."

"Oh, we see that," one of the other guys said with a shit-eating grin."Been talking for a minute.But maybe when you're donetalking, you can help us out."

Finn waved him off.

Another guy said, "Looks like he'll betalkingfor a while."

"Can't blame him," the second guy threw me a nod."What's your name, sweetheart?You like baseball?What about baseball players?"

"Keep it up, Wasserman, and I'll stop helping you with that batting average."

The guy promptly shut his mouth.

"Hey, were my stats better today?" Graves asked.

"Yeah, you had a good practice," Finn said."Velocity's better, less drop off on speed.But if you want to level up, you still need to work on accuracy."

"Meaning?"

"Make the ball go where you want it to go.Less balls, more strikes, more control over the strike zone."

"Thanks, got it."

Finn turned back to me, but before he could say anything, someone shouted, "Heads up, O'Brien!"

Looking back to the field, I froze.

There was a ball heading straight for us.

It was moving fast—faster than my eyes could track.

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