Page 16 of Hard Ball

I bet she is. It takes everything in my power not to roll my eyes at her expense.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, Angela.” I keep my eyes on the game, hoping she gets the point as her hand slips onto my thigh. I look down, watching as her fingers spread across my jeans and grip me tightly. I know I’m supposed to feel something when a beautiful woman grabs me so close to my dick, but I feel nothing.

“Look, Angela,” I say, my eyes meeting hers as my hand takes hers off my thigh. “I appreciate you trekking all the way over here, but—”

She holds up her hand to stop me. “I get it. I’ll go back to my seat and let you get back to watching the game.”

I sigh, a wave of relief washing over me, so I give her my signature smile.

“Thank you, I really appreciate that.”

“I’ll see you soon,” she whispers in my ear, sending a jolt of fear through my system. I’ve become wary these past few years after hearing some stalker horror stories from some teammates, and from what I’ve seen of this chick, she checks a lot of those boxes.

Once she’s out of sight, I peer over at Will who just mouths “Wow,” and smiles into his beer. We both know that I just dodged a bullet with that one.

8

Harper

“Cole seriously showed up at the gym?” Mel is sitting on my couch, waiting for me to join her as she berates me about what happened this morning. I texted her after Josh left and she kept texting me nonstop until I agreed to a girls’ night so I could divulge all the details.

My apartment is small, but the second I saw it I fell in love with it. Usually when people hear my last name, they question why I live in a place like this when I can afford a mansion and everything that goes with it, but I’m not my father’s money. My mother, on the other hand, lives off the money that was left to her and is thriving because of it. Me? I love renting a small place. It allows me the freedom to be the person I want to become outside of my father’s shadow. Will I buy a house one day? Of course, but I’ll leave that for when I decide to expand my family.

The layout is mostly open concept, with the living room flowing into the kitchen. I decided, against Mel’s advice, to paint the walls yellow, because I saw on an episode of HGTV that yellow brightens up a room, and since I only have one window in this space, I needed the light. I’m currently standing in my kitchen, watching Mel from the island and holding two wine glasses and a bottle of our favorite rosé.

“And the hot guy from the bar, aka Josh fucking Anderson, was there and witnessed the whole thing?”

God, my life sounds like a really bad telenovela right now.

“Yes, and before you ask, yes it was just as bad as you think it would be.” I pour each of us a glass, adding a bit more to mine for good measure.

“So what did Josh do? Did he say anything?”

I shrug. “Not much, he told me not all guys are like Cole, blah, blah, blah.” I look up from my glass just as she gives me a knowing look. “What?”

“He likes you,” she teases as that blush starts creeping up my neck as I think of Josh having any kind of feelings toward me. I know better than to get caught up in this, I need to focus on the gym and not the way my body reacts whenever he’s near me.

“Seriously? That’s what you heard from that story?” I grumble, taking a large gulp of wine and feeling myself relax instantly.

“Well what else would I take from that story? That Cole’s a douche? We already knew that. Josh, on the other hand, he’s a new and exciting development.”

I roll my eyes, wondering why the hell I told her any of this in the first place. Oh yeah, because she can be one of the most persistent people I have ever met.

“Come on, Harp, I need to live vicariously through you.”

I give her a confused look. Did she not just hook up with a guy the other night?

“What happened to Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome from the bar?”

She shakes her head and I notice a flash of sadness across her face. “Yeah, that was a bust,” she admits matter-of-factly even though I still see the hurt that lingers in her eyes.

“Why?” I ask, pouring myself some more wine since all the Josh talk made that first glass disappear rather quickly.

“I don’t really know. I just wasn’t feeling it after a while.” I know she’s full of shit, I can see it all over her face.

“Did he hurt you?” I question, hoping to God that’s not the case because I don’t know what I would do if that happened. When all she does is shake her head, her eyes avoiding mine, I continue. “Mel, what’s really going on in that head of yours.” When she doesn’t answer, I turn toward her. “You made me talk about Josh, now it’s your turn.”

She laughs, taking a very large sip of her wine.

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