The Ninth Inning (The Boys of Baseball #1) - J. Sterling Page 0,45

you let me in?” he said, and I looked at my front door like he might magically appear there.

“Let you in where?”

“I’m here. I’m outside your building.” He sounded upset, and I wondered if he was mad at me for showing up with Logan to the party even though he had no right to be.

“I’ll be right there,” I said.

“Who’s here?” Lauren poked her head out of her room and asked as I made my way toward the front door.

“Cole.”

“Interesting,” was all she said in response before disappearing back into her room.

I walked down the hallway, and when I turned left toward the front entrance, I saw Cole standing behind the glass door with his head down. As if on cue, he looked up, his eyes locking with mine. A small smile formed on my lips, and I tried to make it go away, but my mouth refused to listen.

When I reached the door, I pushed it open and held it as he walked inside, and it slammed behind him, making me jump.

“Are you okay?” he said, looking me up and down, like he was checking for battle wounds of some sort.

“I’m fine. Why?” I cautiously asked him, the look on his face giving me pause. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck no, I’m not okay,” he said before reaching for me and pulling me into his arms.

I struggled against him, but he only held me tighter, so I relented, knowing that I was no match for his strength. I melted against his hard chest, hating the way I always fit into his body like we had been molded for one another. We stood that way, our breaths synchronized in the too-bright hallway of my building, neither one of us moving or breaking contact until someone cleared their throat.

“Didn’t want to interrupt,” the guy said as he moved around us and headed out the door.

“We should probably go inside,” I suggested, and Cole nodded.

He looked awful, but I still had no idea why. Any anger I had felt toward him earlier had diminished the second he showed up, looking so devastatingly broken. He had always had that affect on me. And that was how we always ended up like this, year after year.

Opening up my apartment door, we walked inside, and I closed and locked it behind us, knowing that Lauren would be paranoid if she didn’t hear the dead bolt click into place.

“Hi, Cole.” She popped her head out and looked at us. “Twice in one day. How lucky for me.”

Twice? I looked between them, not knowing what they were talking about.

Cole read the confusion on my face and answered the unspoken question, “I stopped by after the game.”

“You did?” I asked him before glaring at Lauren. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“ ’Cause you were On. A. Date,” she clarified.

“You still should have told me,” I argued.

Lauren only shrugged. “Looks like it didn’t matter. You’re ending the night with him instead of that other asshole.”

Cole’s head snapped toward me. “Did he hurt you?”

“Hurt me how?” I cocked my head and stared into his blue eyes. They looked so pained, and I realized that he was suffering for me.

His hand reached for my arm, and he moved it up and down, as if to comfort me when he was so clearly the one in need of comforting. “Did he try anything with you after he took you home? He didn’t force you to do anything, did he?” Cole stumbled on the words, asking the questions through clenched teeth, as if to hold back the emotions it made him feel.

“After he took me home?” I realized Cole didn’t know that Logan had left me in the dark driveway. “He didn’t take me home, Cole.”

“What do you mean? Where did he take you?” he asked before he started pacing, like my answer might be too much for him to stomach hearing.

“Cole,” I said, but he kept moving. “Cole!” I reached for him, and he stopped, his expression distressed. Pulling him by the hand, I led us to the couch and sat down. “Logan didn’t take me home. He told me to find my own way. I called Lauren, and she picked me up.”

Cole shot straight back up. “He did what?”

“He’s a real asshole,” Lauren shouted from her room.

“Can I get some water?” he asked as he moved into the kitchen and helped himself before I even answered. He downed an entire glass before filling it up again and doing the same thing. “Okay. He left