Behind the Plate (The Boys of Baseball #2) - J. Sterling Page 0,57

the kind of people who settle!” she exclaimed as she stood up from my bed. “We don’t settle in love when we could have so much better. Am I right, or am I right?”

I smiled, her words reminding me of the ones my mom had said to me all those years ago. “I don’t want to settle. I just don’t want to be wrong either.”

“You aren’t wrong. Take it from someone on the outside, looking in. Things between you two changed way before you ever realized it.”

“What does that mean?” I asked in my go-to defensive tone, feeling like, once again, Sunny wasn’t telling me something.

“I just meant that your heart’s been unhappy for way longer than your brain has.”

A knock on the door alerted us to Jared’s arrival.

Sunny stepped closer to me and grabbed my hand. “Just remember one thing: how you’re feeling about Jared and his suckiness has nothing to do with Chance and the fact that he’s awesome.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I know that.”

“But Jared will try to convince you otherwise. Don’t believe him,” she said before walking out of my bedroom and shutting her own door instead of answering the one Jared stood behind.

She really does hate him.

Walking to the front door, I sucked in a long breath before pulling it open. Jared stood there, a fist filled with roses and a smile on his face. I hadn’t expected that.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said as he walked in, giving me a heavy kiss on the lips instead of what had become our usual quick peck in greeting.

“Uh, hi.” I tried to sound composed but couldn’t.

“These are for you.” He handed me the flowers, and I instinctively brought them to my nose, so I could inhale their scent. I didn’t even like the way roses smelled, and here I was, breathing them in like they gave me life or something.

“Thank you. They’re so pretty. What’s the occasion?” I asked, realizing that he wasn’t going to make this easy.

“No occasion. I just know that things haven’t been great between us lately, and I wanted to fix that. I’ve been negligent. And jealous. I wanted to apologize and let you know that I’ll be better.”

Damn. I hadn’t counted on that coming out of his mouth. I hadn’t counted on any of this. His sudden change of heart. His willingness to see his faults and correct them. But they were just words, and he’d said them all before. I needed to remember that actions told the truth and that words could lie.

Walking into the kitchen, I reached for a vase and shoved the roses into it. I figured I’d deal with them later—cut the stems at an angle and trim the extra foliage, like my mom had taught me once before she died. When I turned around, Jared was right behind me, his body hovering as his arms wrapped around my middle and pulled me tight.

They were the wrong arms, and even though I knew them by heart, I struggled to get out of his grip.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” he said as he set me free.

“Nothing. I just …” I hesitated, and it was in that second of silence that he continued.

“Danika, I really am sorry for how I’ve been lately. I’ve been a jerk, and you deserve better.” He leaned his weight against the counter, watching me.

I stood there, staring back, wondering what the hell the right thing to do was. Before he had walked through the door, I had worked up the courage to tell him that I thought we needed a break. But now, with all of his self-awareness and declarations, I wasn’t sure that I could.

“Why’d you call me over here tonight? What did you want to talk about?” He actually sounded nervous, and I knew in that instant that he knew what I had planned on doing. “Danika?”

I swallowed hard before letting the words spill out, “I was going to tell you that we needed some time apart.”

He instantly pushed away from the counter and reached for me. “No. Don’t do this. We’ve been through too much together to just throw it away because we hit a rough patch.”

“I know we have, but—”

He cut me off, “No buts. I’ve been a shit boyfriend, okay? It’s all on me. I’ll fix it. I’ll fix us. Don’t give up on us yet.”

My eyes burned as I held back the tears. I felt like I was being torn in two. I wanted the break, but I owed Jared