Hardwood - K.M. Neuhold Page 0,51
called and told me to pull my head out of my ass, and Cole would’ve skipped the call all together in favor of showing up here with the whole crew to force me to pull my head out of my ass.
“I’m fine,” I assure him. If it was Stone or Cole, I wouldn’t even consider the small amount of information I’m about to give him, because neither of them would let it go, but Ollie isn’t as much of a gossip as the other two. “Just between you and me, I started seeing someone.”
“No shit?”
“It’s still early on,” I hedge. “But I like hi-” I cough to cover up my near slip. “I like them.”
If Ollie catches my pronoun mishap, he doesn’t say anything about it. “Come over today. I’ll cook and have the rest of the guys over. Or we can hang out just the two of us,” he offers.
“Yeah, I’ll come over,” I agree. “I was thinking I might hit the batting cages for a few, but then I’ll head straight over.”
“Why don’t I meet you at the batting cages?”
“Sure, that sounds good. I’ll see you soon.”
Ollie is already waiting for me in the parking lot of the sports complex when I get there. He’s leaning against his car with his arms crossed over his chest. It occurs to me that it’s been ages since the two of us have done anything together. He tends to get so caught up in whoever his boyfriend of the moment is, and I guess I’ve gotten just as bad since I met Watson.
“Hey, man.” He claps me on the back when I reach him, and we head inside together.
The smell of sweat and nachos is heavy in the air as we make our way over to the batting cages, the crack of wooden bats and the distant crash of bowling pins resounding from the other side of the building.
I wonder if this would be the kind of place Watson would enjoy coming. He doesn’t strike me as the athletic type, but it might be fun to show off for him. That idea makes my stomach flutter a little, and I file it away as an idea for our third date.
We rent some equipment and find an open batting cage. The great thing about being here is there’s nothing to overthink, nothing to feel guilty about, nothing to do but hit the ball. The crack of my bat connecting with the ball resounds over and over, my back and arm muscles burning with exertion. When the machine stops spitting balls at me, I switch with Ollie.
We go back and forth for over an hour until we’re both worn out.
“The guys should be getting to my place in a bit. I figured I’d cook up something for lunch and we can all hang out,” Ollie says after we turn in our equipment.
“Cool.”
I follow Ollie back to his place, and we find Cole and Stone already inside.
“I gave you a key in case of an emergency, not to walk right into my apartment whenever you feel like it.”
Cole shrugs and grins at his brother. “It was an emergency. We needed the beer that’s in your fridge.” He holds up a bottle in salute. “Good to finally see you, man,” he says as an aside to me.
“Yeah, what’s the deal?” Stone asks. “You decide you’re too good for us?” he teases.
“I’ve always been too good for you dumbasses,” I joke back.
“You wish.” He smirks at me. “But seriously, you’ve had your head in the cows the past few weeks.”
“I’m sorry, where exactly has my head been?” I arch an eyebrow and try not to laugh.
“In the cows. You know, you haven’t been paying attention to anything because your head is up a cow’s ass,” he explains.
“You know, I think I actually like that better than the real saying,” Cole says thoughtfully, fighting laughter.
“I’ll admit, it would be more distracting to have your head up a cow than in the clouds,” Ollie agrees.
“In the clouds?” Stone repeats. “What the fuck sense does that make?”
“Stone is right, pull your head out of the cow’s ass and tell us where you’ve been,” Cole says.
“I haven’t been anywhere. I’m just busy,” I answer vaguely. “Val has had to take a couple of overnight shifts without warning, and her boyfriend is out of town for work.” That happened once, so it’s not like it’s a complete lie. I cut a glance at Ollie to see if he’s going to call