The Ninth Inning (The Boys of Baseball #1) - J. Sterling Page 0,60

I stepped outside of class and ran straight into a set of rock-hard abs. Cole was standing there, waiting for me, a smirk on his gorgeous face, his baseball hat pulled down low.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said as he reached for me, and I heard harsh whispering mixed with sweet coos from whoever was watching us as we kissed.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him even though it was a happy surprise.

Our paths on campus didn’t usually overlap, so we had to make plans to see each other during the days when we could. Right now, outside my class, wasn’t planned.

“My class was canceled, so I thought we could go grab lunch before I headed over to the field,” he suggested, and as if on cue, my stomach growled loud enough for him to hear. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Sometimes, it was hard to reconcile the guy whose hand I was currently holding with the one who had busted my heart open on more than one occasion, bringing me to tears. Cole had worried so much about the kind of boyfriend he would be to me, worried that he wouldn’t do it right or that he’d disappoint me somehow. But he was so exceptional at it that it was hard to imagine how he hadn’t been raised with three sisters or at least a mom who had been present in his life.

“Yes. Feed me,” I agreed with a smile as I dropped a pair of sunglasses over my eyes and started walking across campus, his hand in mine.

I wasn’t oblivious to the stares, but I didn’t give them any extra attention. It seemed almost unbelievable that on a massive college campus, word could spread quickly about someone, but it did. And had it not happened to Cole and me, I probably wouldn’t have believed it or thought the stories were exaggerated somehow. It had only been a little over a week since we went to brunch, but everyone seemed to know that we were officially together. And every one of those people had an opinion about it.

“Hey, Cole,” some girl I didn’t recognize said as she flashed him a smile and fluffed her hair.

I was literally standing right next to him, but she couldn’t have cared less. Cole ignored her.

“Aren’t you going to say hi?” I asked in a snotty tone.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” he fired back as we continued moving toward the campus commissary.

“Rude,” I teased, and he stopped walking, causing my arm to jerk backward when I continued moving.

“Do you want me to go back?” He thumbed toward the Hair-Fluffer, and I stuck out my tongue at him and called him a brat. He laughed. “Didn’t think so.”

I was hit with a sudden thought, and instead of keeping it to myself, I blurted it out, “Do girls hit on your more or less now that they know about us?”

He glanced at me and gave me that famous panty-dropping smile. “Do you want the truth?”

“Always.”

“More,” he said, sounding bored.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why you girls do that kind of shit.”

“Uh, I don’t do that kind of shit,” I said slowly, throwing his words back at him as he gave me an obvious glare.

“I didn’t mean you but your gender.”

I thought about it for a second before realizing that guys had been talking to me far more this week than they ever had before. They hadn’t necessarily been hitting on me, but they had been chattier.

“What?”

“I was just thinking about your gender and how they talk to me more now that we’re together.”

His grip on my hand tightened, and I wondered if he even knew he was doing it. “Talk how? Like, ask you out?”

I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped. “Not so fun when the shoe’s on the other foot, is it?” I teased, and he stopped walking again even though we were almost at the doors.

“Christina,” he practically growled.

“Cole,” I growled back.

“Are they asking you out? Hitting on you when they know you’re with me?” He was being serious, and he was actually getting upset.

“No.” I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed his nose. “They’re just friendlier. Talk to me more. They aren’t even flirting, I don’t think. I think they just want to be my friend now that they know I’m yours.”

“We’re not friends,” he bit back as he messed with his hat.

“We most certainly are.”

“I meant,” he stumbled, and it was downright adorable to see this cocky, arrogant guy searching for the right words,