Behind the Plate (The Boys of Baseball #2) - J. Sterling Page 0,28

much of it is true, but from what I’ve heard, it was apparently pretty brutal. The point is that he doesn’t let anyone get close to him now. Anything he does with a girl is on his terms.”

“What does that mean, on his terms?” I hadn’t heard the rumors about Mac’s broken heart before, but I wasn’t surprised.

“It means that he tells you up front what he wants from you and what you can expect from him in return.”

I must have given her a dumbfounded look because she started laughing and held her hands up in the air before I could say anything.

“For example, at the party, he told me that, if I’d let him, he wanted to kiss me all night long, but he wasn’t going to wine and dine me or call me the next day. Then, he asked me if I was okay with that and waited for my answer.”

“He said all that? And you still let him put his tongue in your mouth?” I practically shouted between my disbelief and shock.

“I know it sounds insane, but it was actually kind of refreshing.”

“Refreshing to know that you’re going to be used up front, so you can lower your expectations to having absolutely none?”

“It was only kissing, Danika. And Mac was a great kisser, so I didn’t mind.”

“But what if you wanted to see him again? Or what if you wanted him to call you the next day?” I found myself as perplexed by this concept as I was fascinated.

“Um”—she shrugged both shoulders—“I did want all that. But I knew he wouldn’t give it to me.”

“And you were okay with that?”

“Well, I was until you started harassing me and making me overthink it all,” she whined, and I apologized.

“He really didn’t try to have sex with you?” I asked because I found that hard to believe.

She shook her head. “No. I mean, at least he didn’t with me.”

“Mac sounds even more bizarre than Chance.”

“Probably why they’re best friends,” she said with a devilish grin, and I realized what I’d just done … I’d brought Chance back into the conversation when we hadn’t even been talking about him.

I was so screwed.

Friends Eat Together

Chance

My jealousy turned me angry. And cold. And I was shit at hiding it from the one person I wanted to keep it all from. Danika read me like a fucking book, calling me out nonstop on my “attitude problem,” as she liked to name it. The next tutoring session was painful as I tried my best to keep my distance, both physically and emotionally, from her, but she was like a damn magnet, pulling me closer in every way without even trying.

Anytime I broke protocol and asked her something even remotely personal, she’d chastise me and refuse to answer.

“That’s a question for friends. And we’re not friends, according to you, remember?”

I knew she wanted me to change my mind on that front, but I didn’t know how to be her friend when all I wanted to do was bend her over the table and make her sorry for accepting this tutoring job in the first place. And I hated myself for it. All of this was new to me. Wanting her. Feeling this way about someone I shouldn’t have any feelings for in the first place. I’d never been in a position where I didn’t like the person I was becoming. I was a good guy who didn’t fuck around and who rarely did anything he needed to apologize for.

Unlike most guys my age, I thought about the consequences of my actions. Whatever science said about our frontal lobes not being formed yet didn’t matter in the Carter household. I had been raised to be aware of my choices and what could come from them. So, yeah, thinking about being inside Danika until we broke through the fucking wall didn’t sit well in my mind. It sat perfectly fine in every other part of my body, but I needed to do my thinking with the right head, not the one in my pants.

I knew it was wrong, wanting her, but it wasn’t going away. I thought that being cold and unfriendly would help me pull it together, but it only seemed to make it worse. The more I tried to avoid her, the more I found myself wanting her. Which was some pretty fucked up mental shit, if you asked me.

“Chance, are you even listening?” Her voice filled the space between us, and I shot my