The Ninth Inning (The Boys of Baseball #1) - J. Sterling Page 0,78

it sounded. “What were you drinking?”

“I had some sake-bomb thing with the guys, and then I drank beer the rest of the time.” I sounded argumentative because it didn’t make any sense. I’d never blacked out from drinking beer before. “That’s it.”

“How many beers did you drink?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted, my shame engulfing me like a wet blanket.

“Where does Logan come in?”

“He’s the last thing I do remember.” I looked at her through watery eyes, and she looked sympathetic.

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

I reached for my phone and pulled up his text. “He sent me this.”

She read it, her face telling me everything I needed to know. It was bad. “Okay. Well, he could be lying?” she asked, and I wondered the same thing too.

“He could be.” I shrugged. “But I have no idea if he is or not.”

“We’ll just call him and ask,” she suggested before adding, “but then again, he could still lie to us on the phone.”

“I thought the same thing. But also, if Logan is lying about us hooking up last night, he has no idea that I don’t remember anything.” My thoughts started coming together more logically. “Do you get what I’m saying? Logan doesn’t know I blacked out. It’s a big risk for him to say we slept together if we really didn’t.” The words came out of my mouth, and I wanted to spit them on the ground and stomp on them with dirty shoes until they died a horrible death, never to be brought up again.

Lauren was shaking her head. “Not if that was his plan all along. Even if you did remember and nothing happened, it would be your word against his. Not saying that Cole wouldn’t believe you, but by then, the damage would have already been done.”

“How so?” I asked because I’d stopped following her train of thought.

“Meaning that Logan’s already started something. And whether or not it’s true might not matter. Because he’s hoping for a fallout of some sort. At the very least, he’s done this thing that will make Cole question you. And now, Cole will be rattled every time he leaves for an away game because he’ll be worried or concerned about you. You follow?”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice still clogged with emotion. “I see what you’re saying, but none of it matters.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t remember.”

“So, what are you going to tell Cole?”

My stomach twisted again. “The truth.”

I couldn’t—no, I wouldn’t lie to Cole to make this go away. And this also wasn’t something that I could talk to him about over the phone while he was getting ready for the last game of the series. I had to wait until he was back home and we were face-to-face.

Just as the thought entered my head, my phone beeped with another text alert. Reaching for it, I saw Cole’s name, and I exhaled before opening it up to read it.

What is this?

Attached to the text was a picture of me and Logan, his arm wrapped around my shoulders as I stood there with the biggest damn smile on my face, my head dangerously close to resting on his shoulder. I had no recollection of that picture. It felt like I was watching a scene from someone else’s life, a moment captured between two people I’d never seen before in my life—that was how disconnected I felt from the photo even though it was me in it.

“Lauren,” I whispered like the air had been stolen from my lungs before shoving the phone at her.

“Crap. Do you remember taking this?”

I shook my head and focused on steadying my breathing.

“Looks real bad,” she said, and my eyes started to water once more.

“What do I write back to Cole? What do I tell him?”

“Tell him it’s not what it looks like. Or it’s a long story. Or I don’t know,” she said, sounding flustered because this was something she knew she couldn’t fix. “Tell him you’ll talk when he gets home.”

“What if I really did sleep with Logan and he has more proof? What if there are more pictures from last night and he’s just holding out until the right time to use them?” I asked, but Lauren didn’t respond. There were too many what-ifs and not enough answers.

How the hell did I do this to myself?

I hated not knowing. It was the most helpless and horrible feeling ever. I couldn’t even defend myself when it was all I wanted to do. I sat, staring at my