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“You sure?” the redhead asked.
“Absolutely.” Someone may as well get lucky at this table, and it sure as shit wasn’t going to be him.
Jesus, he needed to talk to Peyton and get this figured out because apparently he couldn’t even cheat on his fake girlfriend. He didn’t owe her anything, so what the hell was wrong with him? Would she even care if he slept with someone on the road? His jaw clenched. Was she dating people? Fuck. Why did he care? He really needed to talk to her and set some ground rules because there was no way he was going to be the only celibate one around here.
“I’ll join you,” Pete said, vacating his seat for the brunette to saddle up closer to Gonzo.
Pete draped his arm around Ryan’s shoulder. “Look at us, just a couple of committed guys.”
“Fuck you.” Ryan picked up a pool cue and tested its weight.
“You seriously not going to date anyone else because the team thinks you’re dating Peyton.”
His gaze flashed over to the table with his friends and the women. “That’s not dating.”
Pete snorted. “Yeah, I’m aware. But it is part of the fun of being single on the road.” Pete picked up his own pool cue. “You like this girl or something?”
Did he? He wanted her, that was for sure. But like her? He didn’t have a clue. Everything Andy had told him said she was exactly the type of woman he typically steered clear of but the ferocious way she’d demanded he let her out of the car and how she’d stood up to Andy, she didn’t behave like a groupie. The two pictures he had of her just didn’t connect. Who was the real Peyton? The kind of woman who would date a guy like Andy. Or the kind of woman his dick kept trying to convince him she was.
“I want to fuck her. Beyond that, I don’t have a clue.”
“You really want to fuck someone who’s been with Andy?”
Pete may as well have thrown a glass of ice water in his face. Ryan’s stomach knotted. Why did she have to have been with Andy, of all people? “Just rack the fucking balls.”
Peyton hadn’t seen or heard from Ryan in a week. So much for their fake dating.
Unfortunately, after her last conversation with Kirsty, it had become abundantly clear that they needed to talk. Why had she agreed to this stupid idea? They didn’t even like each other. The man was far too cocky for his own good, which made sense given how successful he was. She’d have to live under a rock not to see his face plastered on sports magazines in the grocery store. And after her horrifying experience with Andy, she wasn’t ashamed to admit that she’d looked Ryan up online. For someone who claimed he didn’t date much he sure had been photographed with some beautiful women.
She looked down at her phone. Kirsty had said the guys had a couple of days off before their next stretch on the road. Would he call? They weren’t even dating, and the guy had her tied up, staring at her phone. She tossed her phone on her desk.
This was ridiculous. It wasn’t her problem.
She sighed. Except it was. Who was she kidding? God, she wasn’t cut out for all this cloak and dagger garbage. She prided herself on being honest. So why had she said yes?
She needed to get out of her head. Peyton grabbed her sneakers and threw them on before heading outside to see if she could find a game to join to take her mind off things. Outside, she eyed the basketball courts. A game was in full swing between several boys.
Cheering rang out from the baseball diamond. Peyton looked over as Markus threw the bat and started running toward first base. She scanned the field and pulled up short when she saw Ryan standing on the pitching mound with a grin on his face. What was he doing here?
“Nice hit, Markus,” Ryan called out.
As Peyton walked toward the diamond, she could hear several kids trash talking Ryan. Amazingly, he took everything in stride, joking with the kids with ease. She stopped at the edge of the dugout.
“Hey fancy seeing you here,” she called out to Ryan.
“Yeah, well, I had the afternoon off and thought I’d come see what this is all about. You were in a meeting when I got here, so…” He gestured to the surrounding field.
“I saw Markus just lit up your pitch there with a monster hit. That must be a bit of a bruise to the ol’ ego to get schooled so hard on your first day.”
“Ahh.” Raucous laughter and cheers rang up from the kids waiting to bat.
“Ouch.” Ryan placed his hand over his chest like he’d been hit. “I thought this was an anti-bullying place.”
“If you think that’s bullying, we clearly went to different schools,” Peyton called back.
Ryan laughed. “That’s fair.” He tossed the ball in his hand up in the air and caught it. “You wanna hit?”
Peyton eyed Ryan, then the group on the field. It might be fun to see what Ryan was like in this kind of setting. See what he was really like around the kids. “Yeah, I could use a run around the bases.”
