Catching His Heart (Love And Baseball Book 1)

by Kelsie Swaney

  Catching His Heart

  By; Kelsie Swaney

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Copyright © 2017 by Valiant Publications

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  A Letter to Those Who Made This Possible

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon

  Sneak Preview of Book 2

  Dedication

  I want to give a huge thank you to my real life Alara! This book would never have been possible without your crazy life! I would also like to thank my best friends because you plied me with coffee and loved me even when I was going crazy. Without you guys none of this would have been possible!

  This book is dedicated to all those people who let fear hold them back. I hope this book helps you find a way to fight for what you want.

  A Letter to Those Who Made This Possible:

  I may be a good writer, but I am under no illusions that I am good enough to do this alone. I couldn’t have made this book work without my support system! From my muse to my friends to my publisher.

  Let’s start this off right, with the two most important people who made this possible. To my muse, you gave me access to your life, and that takes a serious amount of trust. You trusted me to write this story, and I hope I didn’t disappoint. To my publisher, you took a chance on a first-time author, and that still amazes me, so I want to extend a really huge thank you to Valiant Publications, who made publishing this book possible!!!! You made seeing this book a reality instead of the dream it has always been.

  A special thank you to one of my best friends and writing partner Macie! I could never have gotten this book long enough to put out without you! I am forever grateful! Besides that, you show me cute pictures of your precious baby, who reminds me that there is good in life and that we should hold on to that good, which is what writing is for me.

  To my other best friend, my ride or die, my person. Emilie, you inspire me every single day. You showed me an example of love that I admire and hope to one day find. You keep me grounded in reality when I start to get too lost in my work. You never let me take my life too seriously for too long. You remind me to have fun and to relax.

  Last, but not least, thank you to my characters. When I started this book I was sitting in a college classroom coming up with ideas, but I was unsure of how everything was going to play out. When I really got into it, I wrote ten pages in a day and my characters started to write themselves. They drove the storyline and made it easy to get a rough manuscript in a short amount of time.

  All of these people made it possible to follow my dreams. I am taking a huge leap into what I love, but I couldn’t see this happening any other way.

  Prologue

  I’m writing because I was once a girl who was afraid. I was too afraid to speak up. Too afraid to be myself. Too afraid to see that the person I fell for had fallen for me too. It took a lot of courage and strength, but I became the person I was meant to be. I’m hoping my story will help anyone else who goes through what I went through. I hope it lets them see that fear can hold you back in a really negative way. Anyway, enough of this. What’s important isn’t when this started, but when I started to wonder if I could be brave.

  Chapter 1

  My story began on a typical Friday night. Nothing special, but it’s the mundane things that lead to the most amazing ones. I was sitting on the bleachers with my best friend Kami, just watching our other friend’s baseball game. The crowd cheered, the game ended. Carson’s team had just won the season’s opening game. Carson pushed his catcher’s mask up and looked back at me with a blinding smile, which, of course, sent my heart into my throat. I returned his smile and gave a small wave, before looking at Kami, who was going wild cheering. I let out a sigh and put my hand to my heart, trying to calm it. If I hadn’t looked away Carson might have been able to figure out my secret: I am head over heels in love with him.

  My heart was pounding faster than Reed’s fast ball, and I wanted to run. I wanted to hop in Kami’s car and just drive until I was anywhere else. I couldn’t stay here and let him figure out how I feel, not now when everything is so perfect. Not when my friendship could be on the line.

  You see, Carson and I had been friends since we were little, and I had been in love with him ever since the time it became “cool” to like guys. Carson was the catcher for our college baseball team, obviously, and he was a senior just like me. He was tall, dark haired, and intriguingly smart. He was studying to become surgeon. While I was studying to be a family therapist.

  “Alara,” Kami said as she grabbed my arm, effectively pulling me from my thoughts.

  I forced myself to focus on her and smiled. We talked about the game as we headed towards where all the guys came out after they changed. After we had exhausted that topic she looked at me, a particular thought evident in her expression. She stopped me, looking into my eyes, and put her hand on my shoulder. She stared at me for a second, really looking at me and getting a feel for my emotional state.

  “Are you ok Lar?”

  “It’s just that I’m a little weak today Kami. If I had continued looking at him after he smiled at me that way,” I paused recalling that stunning smile. “I would have broken down and told him.”

  “Well, why not just tell him?” she said simply “I mean; you love him! Take a chance for once,” she said as she shook my shoulders.

  We have had this conversation one too many times. She always insisted that I should just tell him but I can’t. No matter how much I want to I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything to him. There was too much at stake and I was too afraid of being rejected by the person who, unknowingly, holds my heart in his hands.

  I pushed her hands off my shoulders and shook my head. I ran my hands through my hair instinctively and let out deep even breaths. I wasn’t going to let this crush; that’s all I would allow myself to call it now stop me from being friends with Carson. Because I would rather keep my secret and have him in my life than tell him and risk not have him in my life at all. I could do this, I could hide my love for him and still be friends with him, even though it hurt to do so.

  Kami opened her mouth to say something but I was saved from further conversation by some of the guys walking out. When the door opened I heard Carson’s voice echoing down the hall and knew he was close. When he walked out he didn’t see me right away because he was talking to some of the guys. So I took that time to just look at him. Don’t get me wrong, he looked good in his baseball uniform, but he looked so much better in his jeans that fit just right and his tight t-shirt. Finally, he saw me and the smile he wore while talking to the guys grew.

  When the guys saw that I was who he was looking at they smiled and waved. I had spent a lot of time with everyone on the team just so I could hang out with Carson, so we were all pretty friendly. I waved back and Carson continued talking
to the guys but his eyes stayed focused on me. Kami threaded her fingers through mine and stood there beside me.

  “He so likes you. He can’t keep his eyes off you even when talking to the guys. You need to tell him,” she whispered in my ear.

  I turned to her and frowned. I thought we had dropped this subject for the night, so chose to I ignore her, and turned back to Carson. He was watching me closely. When he saw my frown he pushed past the guys, saying his goodbyes, and started making his way to me. Without speaking he wrapped me up in a quick hug before looking down at me. He looked so happy that I wasn’t frowning anymore. What he didn’t know was that there was no way for me to frown when he had his arms around me. No way to still my heart from beating either.

  “You guys did so great tonight,” I said as I took a step back from him.

  “Yeah, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “I could have done better, but Reed did great,” he grinned, seeing his friend approaching.

  Reed Carmichael was his best friend, and the team’s pitcher. Those two had been playing ball together since they started back in freshmen year. He was the fourth, and final, member of our friend group. Once his name was mentioned, Reed came sauntering up in his usual fashion. He looked at Carson before draping his arm over my shoulders.

  “Hey quit hogging these two beautiful ladies here,” Reed said as he pulled me in closer for a hug.

  I returned his hug. “Hey Reed, you did amazing tonight,” I said as I tried to hold in a laugh.

  Reed somehow knew how I felt about Carson and he seemed to think that Carson returned those feelings. The guy was either crazily intuitive or just really good at reading people. Then there was also the possibility that I was so obvious that everyone except Carson knew how I felt. Anyway, Reed was always trying to see if he could make Carson jealous. He smiled down at me before grinning mischievously. Oh no, he was about to do something stupid. I tried to pull away from him but he was too quick. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

  He turned so I was looking at Carson. Now Carson just looked downright angry. Reed looked over his other shoulder and laughed. I shot Carson a ‘save me’ look and his anger evaporated. He winked and took a step closer to me.

  “I’ll just be taking this,” he said patting my leg. “I think I’m gonna bring you home with me tonight,” Reed said as he started walking away.

  “Oh, no you won’t,” Carson shouted. “If you think I would let you do that then you are crazy. You can take Kami,” he said nodding in her direction. “I’m taking Alara home with me. It is Friday after all.”

  I loved Fridays, because they were our standing movie nights. We ordered pizza and watched a bunch of movies in his theater room before crashing for the night. Usually while leaning against each other. Reed turned around so all I could see was Kami laughing and the guys from the team grinning. Reed and Carson were talking now but all I wanted was to be put down. I beat on Reed’s back until he sighed and put me down.

  “Relax princess,” he chuckled.

  “Finally,” I huffed when my feet hit the ground.

  Reed laughed but Carson just grabbed my hand and pulled me close. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he put one of his arms around my shoulders. Kami started talking about what we were doing this weekend, so I turned us to face her, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed Reed was watching us silently with a huge smile on his face. I wondered why, until I noticed Carson’s hand was stroking my arm softly, almost like it was an unconscious action. Kami noticed at about the same time I did and shot a look at Reed, one that hinted ‘let’s leave them to their fun’. I silently cheered, because she was giving me alone time with Carson.

  Reed moved to Kami and grabbed her hand, waving goodbye as he did. Kami promised to call me tomorrow before turning around and walking off with him. Carson look down at me and smiled.

  “Alone at last,” he said “Let’s get home, we’ve got a bunch of movies to watch.”

  He removed his arm and I let go of his waist choosing instead to take his waiting hand. The other guys were cat calling from behind us, causing me to blush, but Carson pretended not to notice them. He tightened his hold on my hand and led me to his truck. He had worked hard throughout high school to save up the money for this truck and after graduation he finally had enough to purchase it. He helped me up into his truck since I’m so short (5′2″) and then rushed around to get in himself.

  I shivered because it was starting to get colder. As Carson got in he must have noticed because he grabbed a jacket from his back seat. He handed it to me with a huge smile and I blushed again. I slipped into the jacket and it swallowed me but I loved it. When he started the truck to pull out of the parking lot I brought the sleeves to my nose and sniffed greedily.

  He looked over at me as I was still sniffing and smiled before turning the radio up. I Love This Life by LOCASH was playing and of course I couldn’t resist singing along. He turned it up louder, rolled the windows down, and started singing along with me. When the song ended it was like we were in a spell, and we just kept singing along to whatever song came on.

  The spell didn’t last long though, just long enough to get us home. When we got there and he turned the truck off, the magic left the moment and I felt like something had just ended, but then I felt stupid because what was there to end? He got out and instead of helping me down like usual, he lifted me down and threw me over his shoulder. I laughed and he carried me inside the house he shared with his parents. I waved to his parents as we went by and nobody said anything, they just smiled and waved back.

  He carried me down the stairs and then dropped me on the couch. He smiled and grabbed his phone to order pizza. I got up and started picking out movies to watch. I grabbed a few that I didn’t like and that I knew he would argue about, and then a few I knew he would agree to because that way I got what I wanted and so did he. When he hung up and turned around I was sitting on the couch surrounded by movies.

  He chuckled and shook his head as he walked over and vetoed a few movies without hesitation. I proceeded to argue with him in favor of those movies, but in the end I gave in because these were movies I didn’t care for anyway. He eyed me and for a second I thought maybe he had caught on to my plot, but he said nothing. After those movies were put back he tried to argue against my favorite movie by citing that we always watched that one, but I refused to budge. I gave him my puppy dog face and he immediately gave in as usual.

  “It’s no fun if you give in immediately,” I whined.

  “Well too bad. You know I can’t fight your puppy dog face,” he said with a smile.

  I sighed and shook my head, smiling the entire time. He picked the second movie, something scary, which I know he did on purpose because I hate scary movies as much as he hates romantic ones. He looked over at me before grabbing another romantic movie. I was shocked that he picked out a romantic movie that I happen to love. We had our movies, so now it was time to fight about the order as always. Before we could finish arguing the doorbell rang indicating that the pizza had arrived.

  “We’ll watch the scary movie last, that way you can fall asleep part way through it,” he said as he got up to go get the pizza.

  When he walked out of the room I let a tear fall. He was so sweet and he really knew me. It was so unfair that he wasn’t mine. I heard him coming down the stairs and quickly wiped my tear away. I couldn’t let him see me cry because then he would ask what’s wrong, and he wouldn’t drop it until I told him.

  When he walked in he had drinks and the pizza. He crossed to me and dropped a kiss on top of my head. I smiled and went and put in The Notebook, walked back, and plopped on my end of the couch. I toed off my boots and stretched out, my feet resting in Carson’s lap. I watched the movie in rapt attention, mouthing the words to my favorite parts whenever they came on.

  About halfway through the movie I looked over at Carson and he was trying not to laugh. I stuck my tongue out at him and he busted out laughing. He grabbed my fee
t and I thought he was going to tickle me, but instead he started massaging them. I sank back into the couch and sighed happily. I went back to watching the movie and when I started to cry at a sad part he pulled me to him by my feet and held me until I stopped.

  “You are such a girl,” he said before dropping a kiss on my cheek.

  I stuck my tongue out at him again and instead of pushing him away like I usually would, I decided to snuggle into his chest. I pulled my arms into the sleeves of his jacket and felt warm and at peace. He picked me up and moved me into his lap to hold me close. I was so content that I didn’t even think about how nervous and embarrassed I should be.

  After the movie was over he moved me and said he was going to the bathroom. I got up and switched to the second romantic movie; waiting to hit play until he came back. He came back down and I was sitting on my end of the couch. He stared at me for a minute before I wiggled my toes, silently asking for him to come rub my feet. He smiled and took up his post at my feet.

  After the second movie, I went up and used the bathroom, using that time to prepare myself for the scary movie he had picked. When I walked back down he was spread out on the couch, taking up the entire thing. When I walked in he hit play and I shook my head and sat down in front of the couch. He sat up and asked me to get up. When I stood up he reached for me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me forward until I had no choice but to lay on top of him.