Page 32 of Forbidden Love

“She was so impressed with your drawings, she jumped into bed with you?” he quipped.

I snorted. “Not exactly, yet oddly accurate.”

He set his bottle on the bar top. “Tell me.”

“I thought it would be a good idea to play baseball.”

Mac chuckled. “You really know how to court a woman.”

“I’m rusty, okay? And I’m not even sure what my intention was, maybe to spend more time with her.” I just knew I wasn’t ready for her to walk away.

“That’s fair. Then what happened?”

“She was pitching—”

“Baseball or softball?”

“Softball. Do the details really matter?” I asked, giving him an exasperated look.

Mac grinned. “I have a feeling they’re going to in a minute.”

My cheeks flushed at the memory of me dropping the bat, throwing my helmet, and charging at her. I’d lowered my shoulder and tipped her over my back in one motion, continuing to center field. I was like a caveman. There was no finesse. She must think I was an idiot, or at the very least, a Neanderthal. “I lost my head a little.”

Mac smirked, his bottle tipped back. “Define a little.”

“I might have made out with her in the outfield like we were a bunch of teenagers.”

Mac frowned. “Kylie lived in Paris. The men there are smoother.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. Whenever Kylie and I were together, I felt like no time had passed. I was back in the same headspace I was in when we were teens. “I didn’t think.”

“Obviously.”

“Afterward, I apologized for always deferring to her brothers.” There was zero chance I’d tell him about our night together when she was eighteen. I knew Mac wouldn’t like it either.

Mac winced. “You kissed her and then apologized?”

“The way you make it sound—” I shook my head. “I’m an idiot.”

“You are.”

I shifted as if to leave. “I don’t know why I asked you to come.”

He rested a hand on my forearm. “I’m sorry. I was just giving you a hard time.”

I faced the TV again and asked the bartender for another beer.

“I messed up with Natalie too. I tried to keep emotions out of it when I was incapable of doing that. I wasn’t clear about what I wanted. I let my past define the way I treated her.”

Was that what I was doing? Was I letting our past with her brothers define our future?

“If you want her, you need to get past her brothers. You need to tell them you’re interested in her and want to date her.”

Did I want to date her? “I don’t know that I want that.”

“Then why are we here?”

“I want her. But beyond that, I have no idea.” At Mac’s disgruntled look, I continued. “I like her. I want to know her. But I don’t even know if she’s sticking around. She doesn’t either.”

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