“Fuuuck,” I said under my breath, and I knew I was close.
Her lips formed a small smile as she looked up at me, her hazel eyes filled with desire and the need to please me.
Faster. I worked my hand faster, jerking and pulling, and still, her face was all I saw. I quickened my pace until I exploded. The white liquid flying out, coating my fingertips, dripping down my dick as I slowed down and finally opened my eyes to survey my otherwise empty shower.
My breathing evened out, and my heart rate steadied as post-orgasm reality crashed down around me. Before I could berate myself for getting lost in a fantasy with someone else’s girlfriend, I convinced myself that it was completely normal … that I hadn’t done anything wrong because none of it was real. It was just pretend. But it still ate me up inside as I finished the rest of my shower.
After getting dressed, I tried to force it all from my head. I walked down the hall toward Mac’s room and knocked on the door before opening it like he’d done to me.
“Ready?” I asked, and he perked up.
“Yep.” He hopped off his bed and reached for his baseball bag.
“I’ll drive,” I said without thinking, my distracted mind obviously ruining my life.
“Well, that’s good, considering I don’t have a car.” Mac laughed, and I knew I had been caught daydreaming or whatever. Thankfully, he didn’t call me out on it.
I blasted the radio as we drove, hoping to drown out the possibility of any uncomfortable questions from Mac, but it was all for nothing because Mac wasn’t even thinking about interrogating me. He had no idea the war that was raging in my own head. I was being paranoid and stupid.
When I parked the Beast, we hopped out and grabbed our bags before heading toward the cages. I saw the familiar shadow before he saw me.
“Hey, Dad,” I said, and he turned around immediately, a grin on his face, his baseball cap pulled low.
“Son. Mac. You guys are here early.”
“I need to work on my power swing, Coach,” Mac jumped in.
My dad nodded. “That’s good, Mac. Your swing is real pretty already, but it never hurts to add power. Show the scouts you can hit the long ball.”
“Exactly,” Mac said before hitting my shoulder. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about!”
“I’ll let you two get to it. But, Chance,” he said, and I refocused my attention on him, “you’d better schedule a dinner with your mom before she shows up here and decides to eat at the baseball house.”
“She wouldn’t dare,” I said jokingly with a little trepidation because that was something my mom would do.
He laughed. “She would, and you know it. She’d also bring your sister along just to torture you,” he said before frowning. “And to make me crazy. Jesus, Chance, call your mother!”
“I will!” I shouted back.
I did not need my mom coming to the house and bringing my boy-crazy sister of all people with her. I’d never hear the end of it from either side. The guys on the team would tease me about both of them, and Jacey would never shut up about who she thought was hot.
“Tonight. Call her tonight,” he added, and I knew we were both rattled.
“Promise,” I said and watched as my dad started mumbling to himself, kicking the dirt as he walked away.
“That was fun,” Mac added with a small laugh.
“Shut up and load the tee,” I demanded with a frown as he leaned down for a baseball and placed it on top.
After an hour of hitting with Mac, we cleaned up all the stray baseballs, putting them back into various buckets before we headed for our classes. We walked away from the baseball diamond and toward the large buildings in the middle of campus in the distance.
“Do you have tutoring tomorrow?” Mac asked, and my body instantly tensed, like I’d been caught doing something wrong.
I kept walking, ignoring the looks and gestures from the handful of girls who passed us in the opposite direction.
“Yeah. Why are you going anyway? You pass all your classes with ease,” I said, shooting him a look.
Mac always passed his classes with little to no effort. He was really book smart and great at memorizing concepts, which helped him pass tests. At least, that was what he’d told me once during our freshman year. I’d never forgotten it.
“I’m struggling already in Business Principles. Just reading the syllabus gave me hives. I just want to make sure I stay on track and don’t slip up. If I get lost at the beginning of the semester, I’ll be lost the whole time, you know?”
“Are you even taking Business Principles?” I teased as I pulled my baseball hat lower.
He scoffed at me, “Yes, I am. Why would I fake needing help? It’s not like I have a hot-as-fuck tutor working with me like you do. Have you even seen my tutor? I don’t think he even goes to this school.”
I almost tripped over my own damn feet but said nothing in response because, no, I hadn’t seen his tutor.
“You’re going to get drafted this year, Chance, but the rest of us need a backup plan, whether we want one or not.”
I stopped moving and held my breath. I hated when anyone insinuated that my getting drafted was a done deal that could never be altered. Anything could happen before the draft next June. Anything.
“Mac, you remember Bubba Watkins?” I asked, my breath coming out in waves of frustration as we both stood still.
“Yeah, of course,” he said, annoyed with my question. He continued, “He thought he was getting drafted and—”
“No, everyone thought he was getting drafted. The whole division assumed he was getting picked up. We all thought he was going,” I interrupted, wanting to make my point crystal clear.
“Yeah, I know. Everyone thought he was getting drafted,” Mac repeated, mimicking my tone.
“But what happened?” I asked, my jaw clenching so tight that I thought I might give myself a headache from the pressure.
“He didn’t get the call,” Mac said as he started walking again, and I followed suit.
“Right. He didn’t get the call. And then what?” I baited, knowing exactly what came next in the story because I’d thought about it a hundred times before.
“Then, he couldn’t play the next season because his grades were so bad that he wasn’t eligible. There wasn’t anything he could do to pull them up in time, and he lost a whole year of eligibility. His last year.”
“Exactly.” I never took baseball for granted. Nothing in life was a sure thing until it was actually happening and you were living it. Until then, fate could change her mind and completely fuck you over at any time. “Bubba thought he was getting drafted, so he stopped caring about his grades. Didn’t make them a priority. And when that didn’t pan out like it was supposed to, he lost his scholarship and his spot on the team. I will not be a story like Bubba Watkins. I refuse to be a life lesson whispered about for future Fullton athletes.”
Mac blew out an annoyed sound. “Oh, come on, Chance. Bubba Watkins wasn’t talked about on ESPN the way you are. He wasn’t rated in the top ten national rankings or on every scouting leaderboard across the country.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.” I shook my head, not wanting to sound like a dick because to guys like Mac, it did mean something. It meant everything to the players it wasn’t happening to.