Rounding Third - Michelle Lynn Page 0,103

heard wrong.” I sip my drink, trying not to engage in more conversation. I’m not naive enough to think that she won’t switch the topic to Brad and ask me if he’s dating anyone else.

“Well—” she steps closer to me and lowers her voice a smidge. “I just saw Jake on the porch, and he was asking about you. I think he really likes you.”

“I think he likes my tits.”

A nervous giggle escapes her while my face remains straight.

“Oh, Piper.” She laughs.

I watch her manicured nail on her right hand swipe at my shoulder. Seriously, I need to get myself out of this predicament.

“Nice talking to you, Taylor, but I gotta find Beatrice and jet out of here.” I push off the counter and notice her fake smile turn down at the corners.

“Okay, Piper. Talk to you later,” she calls out to me after I’ve already escaped halfway across the kitchen.

I raise my hand and wave it in the air while sipping my drink. Not completely paying attention, I bump into a body. When I peer up to see who it belongs to, I regret not staying with Taylor.

“Piper,” Jake slurs, his hands reaching out for my hips.

I smack his hands away with my free one, and his eyebrows furrow. I try to stifle my laugh while remembering his bugged out eyes in disbelief when he thrust his tongue into my mouth last weekend, and I bit down hard with my teeth. He was shocked that I didn’t want Jake Lincoln’s hands and mouth on me. He’s another football egomaniac. Michigan is full of them.

I cross my arm around my chest, and his sight zeros in below my chin. When I glance down, I notice how I’m pushing my breasts up, giving him a clear shot of my cleavage.

Quickly unhooking my arms, I gulp another sip of my drink. “Jake.”

I attempt to pass him and his gang, but Jake sidesteps.

“Funny. Let me get through.” I try the easygoing approach.

I place my cutthroat façade in place, but the Neanderthals don’t care.

“Piper, I thought we kind of had something going.” His one finger twirls my strands of hair.

I smack his hand again, but this time, he doesn’t stop. Instead, he swaggers closer into my space, and I suffocate in the smell of pot embedded in his clothes.

“Wrong.”

“Wrong?” he questions.

Judging how sloped his eyelids are, I’m surprised he recalls my name.

“Yeah, fucking wrong,” the deep male voice of my savior rings out.

I suck my lips in to refrain a smile.

Jake twists around and releases a big, empty laugh. “Should have known Tanner McCain wouldn’t be too far away from Piper Ashby.”

He faces me, and I give a cocky shrug of my shoulders, secretly thankful that Tanner is here to rescue me.

Tanner squeezes between the two of us, swinging his arm around my shoulders. When he pulls me close to him, my heartbeat slows down from the safety he brings.

“You should know better than to mess with Piper. I thought we handled this already?”

I pull my head back and stare up at his chiseled jaw, but he never looks down.

“Well, I thought the agreement was off since I saw you lip-sucking with the redhead a minute ago.” Jake chuckles, thinking he got one up on Tanner.

Honestly, he did—if Tanner and I were a couple, but we’re not. Reflexively, I step to the side, away from Tanner’s nearness, but he tightens his hand on my shoulder and draws me closer.

“Jake, go find your dealer and smoke another bowl. Try not to forget what I told you before, and stay the fuck away.” Tanner releases me and steps up, chest-to-chest with Jake.

Tanner might have a height advantage on Jake, but Jake beats him in weight. Football versus swimming. Large and bulky compared to lean and toned.

“Let’s go, Jake.” Zeke, another player, pulls on his shoulders.

Jake shrugs it off at first, eyeing Tanner and then me, before ultimately taking a step back.

After Jake and his group disappear into the crowd, a breath releases from my mouth, and I lean against the wall. “Thanks,” I say to Tanner for the second time tonight. I don’t like this damsel-in-distress predicament I keep finding myself in with him. It exposes me to weakness because I enjoy when he saves me.

“Always.” He winks and smiles at me. “What are you drinking?” He swipes the cup out of my hand and swigs down a gulp. He swallows, and his face cringes. “Shit, Piper. This is crap.” He doesn’t hand it back to