AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grimace as I head out the door of the newsroom. Good to know she took my warning seriously.
I told Cassie I’d stop by the boys’ basketball game after the paper meeting, so I head out the front doors and make my way over to the sports complex.
It’s not the route I usually take. And it brings me directly past the baseball field. Despite the chilly temperature and the fact the baseball season doesn’t start until—actually I have no idea when the baseball season starts, but I know it hasn’t—I recognize enough of the navy-clad figures to realize the team is out on the field practicing.
Which meanshemust be out practicing.
I alter my course slightly, veering to the left of the parking lot and alongside the stretch of metal bleachers.
“Winters!” I disregard the half dozen guys gathered around Caleb and march right up to him. He’s leaning against the chain-link fence, tossing a baseball back and forth between his hands like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Must be nice.
Caleb says nothing in response when I call his name, just cocks a brow maddeningly.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Feel free.”
“Somewhere else?” I ignore the mutters the words prompt among the other baseball players.
Lunch earlier illuminated an alarming level of interest in my interactions with Caleb, and I’d like to avoid feeding further speculation. Caleb either doesn’t know about the gossip, or more likely doesn’t care, because he remains in place.
“I’m in the middle of practice.”
“You’re leaning against a fence.”
He doesn’t move. “You want to talk,talk.”
“Fine. What the hell is your problem?” I hiss.
Caleb doesn’t look nearly as apprehensive as I think he ought to. “You’re mad at me? That’s a nice change.”
I scowl. “If you stopped trying to purposefullypiss me off, you wouldn’t have to deal with me being mad at you.”
Caleb merely arches an arrogant brow.
“You told Andrew you wouldn’t do an interview with the paper unless it was with me? Why thehellwould you do that? It’s not bad enough we’re partners on that English project? You want to spendmoretime together?”
There’s a low, husky laugh behind me. I glance over one shoulder at Colt Adams. He turns the sound into a cough as soon as our eyes connect, but I’m not fooled. I narrow my eyes at him, then turn back to Caleb.
“Well?”
He sighs. “After three plus years of beingbeggedto do so, I agreed to do an interview with the school paper that will probably mean more than four people read it. I didn’t realize that was a problem. More like it merited athank you.”
“Four people? God, you’resucha jerk.” The fact he’s probably not wildly off on his readership count is irrelevant.
“Are you done? We’re still in the middle of practice.” Caleb gestures to the loose grouping of his baseball teammates, none of whom are making any attempt to act like they’re not hanging on to every word. I don’t know why girls are the gender associated with loving gossip.
“I’m not doing the interview with you.” I leave no room for argument in the statement.
But Caleb finds some. “Then why are you here, yelling at me about it?”
I grind my teeth, probably doing some damage to my molars. “Do the interview with someone else, Caleb.” I speak each word as if it’s a sentence, the final threads of my patience fraying like worn rope.
“You’re the best writer on the paper. It’s you or no one else, Lennon.”
Caleb emphasizes my first name slightly, and I know it’s to let me know he caught that I used his. But I’m more distracted by the fact he justcomplimentedme.
