“I want to apologize.” He looks me in the eye as he says this. No one is forcing him to do this—he actually seems to want to say the words. “I was a complete asshole earlier, and that was stupid and immature.”
“Yeah, it was, and you were.”
He rubs a hand over his short-as-stubble hair. “I reacted without thinking, and I reacted poorly. I shouldn’t have called you a stalker or said you were a joke. That was shitty.”
I pitch a brow. “Thank you.”
He coughs out a laugh, his eyes shining bright in the blinding sun. “I thought I could scare you away. Should’ve known better.”
“Damn straight.”
“Yeah.” Now he glances at the ground for a second. “Anyway, can we start over?”
“Sure.” The corners of my lips perk up, and I know there’s no way I’m scowling anymore.
He smiles for real, and for the first time since May, I don’t immediately hate the thought of looking at him.
“Liv.”
“Jake.”
“How’ve you been? How’s your mom—the surgery go okay?”
Oh, my heart.He didn’t forget that Mom’s mastectomy was scheduled for the week after the state championships, even after we broke up. “It went well. She’s getting better every day.” Which is what she tells me, even if it’s not totally true.
“Good. Your mom’s a tough one.” There’s genuine relief in his eyes.
“How’s Max?” I ask—Jake’s little brother has always been a favorite of mine. There’s a ten-year age gap between the boys, yet they’re as close as Ryan and me. Like Jake, the kid’s hella smart, and probably going to rule the world someday. “Ready to crush second grade?”
“Don’t you know it. Already reading at a fifth-grade level like the badass he is.”
“Little genius. Teacher won’t know what hit her.”
“That’s a family specialty,” Jake says, laughing. He slings his hands in the pockets of his cutoffs. “So, uh, what brings you to the team?”
“Grey scouted me.”
Something passes across Jake’s face. “I don’t really like him using you like that.”
I scoff. “That’s a little possessive for a guy who called me a stalker four hours ago,” I say. It comes out a littleharsher than I meant, so I rush out the next bit. “He’s not using me. Iwantto be here. I was scouted and I said yes.”
Jake crosses his arms over his chest. “But why are youactuallydoing it?”
At this, I’m the one going sheepish. Might as well be honest. “Because I want to make the softball team,” I say simply. “Coach Kitt wants me to prove I can be a team player, and Grey gave me the opportunity. I couldn’t say no.”
“Even though you knew I was on the team?”
I smile. “Especially because you were on the team.”
I expect him to say “Because you knew I’d hate it,” but he doesn’t. Instead, he’s slightly more flattering to the both of us. “Because if you can be teammates with me, you can be teammates with anybody.”
At this, there’s a half smile—different from Grey’s, but nice all the same. We dated long enough that I know there’s something hidden in it, but I’d rather keep this newfound civility than call him out. Instead, I ask, “So, we’re cool?”
Jake nods with a real smile. “We’re cool. See you at four.”
“See ya.”
He walks off and I head to my car. The boys are sitting on Helena’s sunbaked blue hood, and Addie’s off to the side, staring down Jake as he jogs toward his truck.
