“Yes, it was. I took you out there because I knew it was the one place you couldn’t run from me.”
I take a breather, hopeful it will keep the inane thoughts in my head locked up.
My pause is a woeful waste of time.
Truths come flooding out of my mouth as if Dr. Cameron jabbed me in the ass with a truth serum. “When I heard Cody was taking you to his room, I couldn’t stop replaying the shit I overheard in the locker room this afternoon. It did my fucking head in and had me so desperate to get you away from him, I acted before thinking.”
Summer peers back at me with her brows pulled together. “What type of shit did you hear?” When my teeth grit, soundlessly advising my brain it willneverrepeat the things I heard yesterday, Summer rolls onto her opposite hip. “What type of shit, Lennox. Was it about me?”
Against the numerous recommendations of my intuition, I jerk up my chin. The stuff my teammates were jabbering on about is nothing out of the ordinary for locker-room antics, but Summer’s inclusion didn’t stop when Adam left. It continued long after my fist landed on the catcher’s chin and long after Coach Randall dragged me into his office before I could murder half his team.
The fuckers who are meant to have my back on the field were running a bet on who would cash in my best friend’s virginity—a virginity I know she doesn’t have but kind of wish she did so her first time could be with someone more deserving than Three Pump Paul.
That’s why half my team is on suspension. Coach Randall doesn’t care if your antics are on or off the field. If you fuck up, you pay the price of your mistake immediately.
I’m praying he doesn’t hear about what I did to Summer tonight, or our games this week may begin without a starting pitcher.
When it dawns on me that Summer is eyeballing me, I shut my eyes two seconds too late. She’s extracted the truth from them as only she can.
“The rumors Desiree heard today are true,” she murmurs more in confirmation than a question. “Your teammates have a wager on the already popped cherry of my pussy?”
Her last two words force my eyes back open. Summer usually refers to her pussy as ‘vagina’ or her ‘private parts.’ I’ve never heard her call it a pussy, but my god, does it have me dying for her to say the ‘C’ word so many women despise. She could totally pull it off. She very much has the I’m-innocent-until-you-get-me-between-the-sheets look.
Summer doesn’t wait for me to nod. The grinding of my molars tells her everything she needs to know, much less her truth-mining gawk. “Well, that just makes them idiots, doesn’t it? I’m not a virgin, so the terms of their wager are null and void.”
“Not entirely,” I push out before I can stop myself. When Summer’s brow arches, encouraging me to continue, I mutter, “They were basing it more on your innocence than the actual title of virgin.” When she remains appearing lost, I curse under my breath before saying in a hurry, “The person who alters the innocence in your eyes wins.”
“It’s more than a one-and-done wager?” She scoffs when I dip my chin. “And Cody was a part of it?”
The twitch in my jaw descends to my fists. “He wasn’t a part of the conversation I interrupted, but the way he rocked up here early tonight proves he knew about it.”
“Not necessarily. He could have genuinely wanted to spend some one-on-one time with me.”
Even knowing now is not a good time for us to bicker, I can’t hold back. “Then why did he walk away within a second of me carrying you into the ocean.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Summer squeals dramatically. “Perhaps because I assured him only minutes earlier that there wasnothinghappening between us, but then you dragged me out of his house like a jealous lover! Not everyone wants sloppy seconds, Lenigan69. Some have morals.”
Incapable of reining in my ego even when it’s being bitched-slapped, I murmur, “Believe me, if he were truly worried we were fucking, there wouldn’t be a wager for him to participate in! Your eyes wouldn’t have an ounce of innocence left in them by the time I was done with you. I’d fuck it right out of you.”
Summer’s body shudders for an entirely different manner. I assume it’s about the crudeness of my statement but learn it’s more about her building up courage for her next four words. “Then why don’t you?”
I slant my head and cock a brow, confident I misheard her. “What?”
I didn’t. “The innocence in my eyes. Why don’t you…fuck itout of them?” she whispers the curse part of her reply. “You don’t want me to date Cody because you think he only wants me for one thing.”
“Hedoesonly want you for one thing.”
She continues talking as if I never interrupted her. “But your theory will have no basis whatsoever if I’m no longer asinnocentas everyone believes.” She air quotes ‘innocent’ to emphasize her point.
“Sum…” This groan is more strangled by want than remorse. “We’re friends.”
“Aren’t friends meant to help each other?”
I nod, agreeing with her. “But not like this. We can’t do this.”
“Why?” Before I can give her a thousand reasons why this is a bad idea for her, she smacks me with a truth that will forever haunt me. “Because you’re not drunk enough to pretend it never happened tomorrow morning? Or are you too sober to find me attractive enough to touch me?”
“Sum… I…” I’ve got nothing except pleading, sorrow-filled eyes.
