The Ninth Inning (The Boys of Baseball #1) - J. Sterling Page 0,42

gaze to Logan, who was smiling now, his expression taunting me as my anger toward him multiplied.

Christina’s face twisted, like she couldn’t believe I’d just said that out loud. “Oh, right. ’Cause no one could ever want me since you don’t,” she bit out before grabbing his hand and interlocking their fingers together.

“It’s the truth,” I said, feeling like an asshole, but I couldn’t let him do this to her. I knew it was hypocritical since I’d been the one to hurt her so many times before. It seemed like I was saying no one else was allowed too mess with her, except for me, but it wasn’t like that. It fucking killed me to know that he was tricking her intentionally, maliciously. “Just ask him.”

“I don’t have to ask him. I wish I’d never met you,” she said, and the proverbial knife in my stomach gutted me clean and hollowed me out. “Can we go?”

“Of course.” Logan leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek but kept his eyes open and on me the entire time like a fucking creep.

That single action confirmed every one of my suspicions; Logan was only using her to get under my skin. To distract me. To make me angry, push all my buttons, and get me to fall apart at the seams like a battered baseball.

Chance and Mac both stood in front of me the second I took a step toward Logan.

“Don’t,” they each said before turning to face him in unison like they’d practiced it.

“Just get out of here,” Mac yelled at Logan. “Before we let him go.”

Logan laughed like he wasn’t the least bit intimidated as he walked out of the house with my fucking girl on his arm.

What the Hell?

Christina

The minute the front doors slammed behind us, I dropped Logan’s hand and turned on him, feeling a little more sobered up than I had five minutes earlier. “What the hell was that all about? I’ve never seen Cole so mad before. He looked like he was going to rip you to pieces.”

Logan kicked at the ground before walking to his car in the driveway. He opened the passenger door and practically shoved me inside, but I braced an arm against the cold paneling and refused to cooperate.

“Tell me. Is it true? What Cole said?”

“Which part?” Logan asked with a sickening laugh.

“The part where you’re only with me because you hate him.”

“No.” He repeated the word, “No, Christina. I’d never do that. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

He asked the question, and I couldn’t answer it because I didn’t know. I barely knew Logan at all, but he’d come on to me like a freight train out of nowhere and not stopped since the night at The Bar. Doing it out of vengeance didn’t seem like such an impossible notion.

I might be pissed off at Cole, but I could tell he believed what he said. The look on his face when he had seen me tonight almost brought me to my knees. I’d never seen that kind of pain in his eyes before or the way it grew tenfold when he saw exactly who I had come to the party with. It was more than just a knee-jerk, jealous reaction, more than him not wanting someone else to have me.

I had been stupid to ever agree to come here tonight with Logan, but even Lauren had pushed me to do it. She said it served Cole right to see me moving on and with someone else. I knew it was a bad idea from the start, but a part of me liked the thought of making Cole hurt the way he’d hurt me so many times before. I thought it would make me happy to see him in pain.

But when I had seen the agony on his face, it’d made me anything but happy. Hurting Cole hurt me as well even though it shouldn’t have. I didn’t feel vindicated or justified. His pain was my pain. We were connected, and we both sensed it. I was so tired of denying it or pretending like it didn’t exist.

“Christina, babe,” Logan said, and I scoffed at him.

“Stop calling me that. I hate it. Take me home, please,” I said as I folded my arms across my chest.

Logan knew that everything had changed. “Why are you listening to him? Why would you believe Cole over me?”

The aftertaste of vodka still burned in my throat, and I wished I’d never taken