“What made you change your mind?” I refused to look at him and studied my ceiling instead.
“You, Raine. I changed my mind because I wanted to be good enough for you. Gwen’s reasoning made sense. By pretending we were a couple it would protect the person Robin cared about, and after seeing the team, the tabloids, and my fans, turn on you so viciously, I thought this was a good way to protect you too.”
“Trip, I’m a big girl. I don’t need protection.”
“I know you’re a big girl, but you could be put in a dangerous situation because of me. When people read the tabloids they react, not caring about the person they are talking about. A person with feelings. They can be ruthless. You could be thrown off the team and ostracized from school and the people you work with. This is the only way I can protect you.”
“I told you before. I’ve played my share of softball. It isn’t a big deal. If it wasn’t for you I would have never pitched again and been completely content.”
“And what about graduation? What about your reputation?”
“What about them? I don’t need to walk down an aisle in front of a group of people. I don’t know, just to prove my accomplishments.”
“What about your job? I talked to Dr. Bert the day the article came out. He wanted to remove me from your care. What if that isn’t the only thing he wanted to remove from you? You’ve planned to take over his office since you were in junior high. I can’t be the one to take that from you.”
I let Trip’s words circulate through my system. He was right about Dr. Bert. In fact, I purposely kept my conversation with Dr. Bert a secret from Trip.
“Whatever happens is going to happen. I don’t want you to have to live a lie just to protect me. If you haven’t noticed I’m quite intelligent, and I can adapt to what’s thrown at me.”
“I’m going to pretend to be with Robin until you graduate. That way no more rumors can hurt you or your reputation. You’re my best friend, and I’m going to do everything I can to protect you.”
“Why don’t you date someone you want to date instead of this sham?”
“Because I don’t want to date anyone right now. I want the right girl.”
“Aren’t you the self-proclaimed bachelor?”
“Things change. I see how happy Brian is with Renee. I think it would be nice to have something like that with the right girl.”
“Trip, I’m not going to tell you what to do, but it really isn’t necessary. What are you going to do after I graduate, just dump Robin?” My throat was doing its best to close as I tried to choke down the words he just shoved down it.
“Trust me. I don’t want our friendship to get ruined over something I can prevent.”
My heart wanted to soar at first when he said he wasn’t seeing Robin officially, and he was doing it to protect me as a friend.
But my soaring heart plummeted realizing there would be a day when Trip really would be dating someone. He truly wanted to shed his bachelor status. The sliver of pain I felt today would be nothing compared to what I’d feel seeing him with someone he truly cared about.
“I know it’s not necessary, but it’s the only thing I could think of to keep you out of the tabloids. I care about you and I don’t want to see you get hurt. You’re too much of a nice person to handle what they would do to you. I’m not going to change my mind on this, so you might as well just say thank you and move on.”
“Thank you, mighty friend.”
“You’re welcome.” Trip chuckled before sighing. “I tried to tell you this all day, but you play a pretty good game of ignore your friend.”
“I was busy. I wasn’t ignoring you.”
“What did you do today?”
I wanted to smack my forehead at what I’d just done. Somehow I had set a trap for myself and just stepped in the snare.
“Let’s see. I had breakfast with Renee and Norah, had lunch with your parents, played a shitty game of softball, and watched my best friend accept a proposal from your best friend.” My words rushed out until they almost blended together.
“Wait, you had lunch with my parents?” Trip turned so he was leaning on his elbow.
His eyes were wide in the darkened room. My heart sped up, having him leaning over me in almost a lovers’ embrace. I swallowed hard, trying to get my dry mouth to work.
“They invited me to lunch. We had some things to discuss.”
“What kind of things, Raine?”
