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“Nick—”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say. Hey, I’ll see you at my place later, right?”
I smile at him, seeing the giddiness in his eyes. “Yeah. We wouldn’t miss it, man. Congrats.”
He nods and jogs back toward the field.
“Aaron?” The trainer sticks his head out of the tent.
I follow him inside. He gives me a hot pack, and afterward, shows me some stretches to do—almost all of which hurt.
Fuck. What am I going to do if there’s actually something wrong with my hand?
I pull up in front of Rae’s house, and walk around the back to the deck. We’ve been through a lot lately, but what I need right now is my best friend.
I’m scared as hell about my hand—my future in general. I have no clue what I want to study in college or do with my life. Baseball has always been my greatest passion. I never wanted to go pro, but I thought I would play in college and slowly figure out my future. With senior year coming up, though, all I can think about is college and what I should major in and what I want to do with my life. Add in my possibly injured hand and whatever is going on with Rae and me, and my brain is a mess.
I walk across her deck to the window, surprised to see the curtain closed. When I try the window, it’s locked. I knock on it, but after a minute, there’s still no answer. My stomach sinks. I thought we were past this.
Making my way down the deck stairs, I head in the back door.
There’s noise in the kitchen, and I hope it’s Rae, but it’s her mom—Kara. Kara and Rae’s dad—Charlie—have always been the type to insist we use their first names. It’s like that with most of the parents, but since they’re the youngest, they always encouraged it the most.
“Morning, Kara.”
“Hey, honey. How are you?”
“I’m good,” I lie, flashing a smile. “Rae here? The window was locked.”
She nods. “Yep. Upstairs. She and Sarah spent the morning together, that’s probably why. Go on up. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.” She smiles in a way that tells me she knows exactly how Rae and I feel about each other—even if we haven’t admitted it yet. Either way, that’s not what’s important right now. And I’m a little concerned shewon’tbe happy to see me.
“Thanks.”
I head up the back stairs, which lead to the hallway Sarah’s and Rae’s rooms are off of. I peek into Sarah’s room, but seeing she isn’t there, I make my way to Rae’s closed door and knock once.
“Yeah?” she calls.
I swing the door open and her eyes widen. She glances at the window, then back at me.
Not thrilled to see me. Great.
As I look closer, I see that haunted look in her eyes. She’s struggling.
Anything I wanted or needed to talk to her about drifts away.
Shutting the door behind me, I walk to her bed and sit on the edge. “Are you okay?”
She doesn’t move, and I can feel the distance she’s trying to put between us. I don’t understand why. I thought we made progress, and I’ve completely backed off since the kiss. I hate her shutting me out.
“Just a bad night,” she says softly, not meeting my eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shakes her head. “No. I—I wanted to be—nevermind. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” I lie. “I came to check on you.”
Her brow furrows. If she can tell I’m lying—which she probably can—she doesn’t call me on it. “Well, I’ll be fine.”
