I shake my head. “You’ll be back next week. The team will be fine.”
“No. We need you.” He places both hands on my shoulders. “I’ll admit I didn’t think much about your effect on the team when I dropped your name to Coach Shanks. But now that I’ve seen how hard you work and witnessed how that work motivates the other players, I know we need you. You have to be there.”
When I hesitate, his big hands gently squeeze my shoulders.
“Youneed this,” he says. “We both know why you signed on to begin with—”
“Yeah, for softball. Which is exactly why Dad doesn’t want me to play.” Dad’s line of questions runs straight through my heart as each echoes in my ears yet again.
What if you get a concussion? Tear your ACL? Smash your collarbone in two like this Grey kid?
I blink at him. “How’d you break your collarbone?”
“Not playing football, so your dad can chill on that if he’s worried the same thing will happen to you.” He brushes another lock of hair behind my ear. “Look, I know what it’s like to have pressure on you to be the best. What do you think it’s like to be the only child of a softball ace and a college football star?”
Probably not that much different from needing a college scholarship to do more than work for minimum wage after high school. Same pressure, completely different reasons to crave success.
But still.
“Look, my dad said no football. The Pope wouldn’t be able to convince him I should play.” Which is completely accurate. “He’s worried about me getting hurt, because then where would I be? No softball, no college.”
“Maybe I can talk to him. Or Shanks can. Or even Coach Lee—” When I shake my head, Grey throws his own head back and reads the sky, sunglasses bobbing. “What about my mom? What if she sat down with him? Told him her concerns?”
I figured he’d overheard some of my conversation with his mother that day in her office because of how he pitched joining the team. But now I’m staring at him, trying to figure out what else he’s said. He startles when he sees the look on my face, so I just decide to go for it. “Did you talk about me to her?”
“What—no, I… Wait, the whole point of you joining the team was for me to talk about you. I mean, right?”
“Okay, yeah, but I… It’s weird,” I finish, not sure why it bothers me, even if it was him just living up to his end of the deal. But considering we’ve made out and I’d love to do it againrightthehellnow, the thought of our deal suddenly makes me feel sort of… cheap.
His lips pull up in the corners, and though the smile is subtle, it meets his eyes with a shine and a sigh. Which makes me feel cheaper. Or, I don’t know,something. “Look, she knows I think you’re a super addition to the team, and she saw the evidence for herself Friday night. She was there; she saw you enter the game. She knows you’re kicking ass.”
My head is already shaking. “She’s not worried about my athletic talents, Grey. She’s worried I’m a bitch whose mere presence will suddenly blow up the girls’ batting averages and tank Kelly’s ERA.”
“Well, you’re not a bitch. And if either of those things happen, it’ll be their own damn fault.”
I smirk, the ick from five seconds ago already dissolving with the fire of his clenched jaw. “Yeah, well, that’s what she’s worried about. That’s the whole point. I need to prove I’m a great teammate. And even though I had a good game, I’m off the team now. So that’s all the collateral I have. I’m not getting any more unless I join cross-country or something.”
A little pang hits me in the chest when I think about how I really did lie to Danielle. God, I hate that.
“While I do love the idea of you in those little shorts,” he says, and smiles wide enough that I want to kiss him again. Like,now. But I don’t, because the thumping of a basketball on the sidewalk is too close to ignore, which means Ryan is probably making his way down the street,most likely with a full view of the stoop. “I really would rather see you in pads next to me under the lights.”
My chin is caught in his fingers, rough from the day’s practice. He tips my face up, and the light haloing down behind his head makes those eyes almost look blue.
“I didn’t get to ask you this last night…” The memory of his mother watching from the window passes between us. “But at the risk of complicating things with the team… would you go out with me?”
My heart thuds to a melty stop.God, yes.I answer him with a kiss. Hard and full and undeniable from literally any vantage point on Danielle’s street. And it’s totally worth whatever the hell Ryan is going to say to me the second he rolls up.
But instead of Ryan’s voice echoing toward me, I hear one come from behind me.
“Liv?”
I jerk apart from Grey so violently, the back of my head bonks off the doorframe.
“Mom! Grey was just leaving—he knows I’m grounded,” I blurt, hoping to hell she didn’t see that kiss.
“Wait, this is Grey? Coach Kitt’s son?”
Mom may just have been napping, but damn if her eyes don’t light up like the Fourth of July. The inflection in her voice hides exactly nothing, and if he hadn’t just kissed me and had no idea how I felt about him, I’d be about ten thousand times more embarrassed right now. Though I’malready pretty good and embarrassed as it is, and it appears Grey might be a little bit, too, a light blush crawling across his cheeks as he realizes we’ve clearly discussed him before.
