Dare You to Fall for the Catcher

by Lacy Andersen

  “How’s the team looking this year, Mandy?” Mason asked, his eyes still glued to the guys catching pop-ups in the outfield. “Any chance we’ll beat Silver Lake tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know, this whole baseball thing kind of confuses me.” I followed his gaze and squinted at the players. “Track is so straight-forward. A gun goes off, you run, and you win or lose. That’s pretty much it. There are no innings, no foul balls, no strikes or walks. Simple. I miss it.”

  Welp, so much for pushing track out of my mind. I sucked on my Icee and scowled down at my big black boot, resenting every inch of it.

  “Don’t look now,” Audrey said, poking my side through the fence, “but your favorite person in the world is headed this way.”

  Of course, I couldn’t help but look. Sure enough, Jayden strolled toward us almost as if in slow motion, a metal bat resting over his shoulder, the muscles along his arms gleaming with a thin layer of sweat, his expression cocky under the bill of his cap. He looked every bit like the daydream of any high school girl ever. The sight of him made my throat spasm a little bit and I had to cover it with a fake cough.

  “Didn’t realize we were expecting an audience,” Jayden said as he got closer. His gaze flicked to mine, and then to Collin and Mason. “What do you guys think of the talent this year?”

  “Looking good,” Mason said, leaning over the fence to give him a fist bump. “You think your pitchers are ready for tomorrow? I’ve heard you’ve got a heck of a closer lined up.”

  “Our guy’s definitely got the heat.” Jayden dropped the tip of his bat to the dirt and then looked at me with a slight quirk of his lips. “What do you think, Amanda? Are we hot this year? Does Silver Lake stand a chance?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s a great question.” Audrey slurped up the last swallow of her Icee. “Mandy, Jayden wants to know if he’s hot. What is your particular opinion on the matter?”

  I choked on my drink, a mouthful of ice traveling down my esophagus in one massive and painful glob. Trina was kind enough to reach over the fence and pat me on the back as my face burned. When I could finally breathe again, I shot a dirty look in Audrey’s direction. The smirk she wore told me she didn’t care if she was in the best-friend doghouse—it had been totally worth it to see me lose my cool.

  She was so going to pay for that.

  No more diner cheesecake for a week! Maybe two!

  “I’ve only been the manager for two days, but I think the team looks pretty good,” I said in a determined voice, glancing over at Jayden. He was watching me with a curious expression, as if he was trying to work through what had just happened between me and Audrey. “But we’ll know more after the first game.”

  I could’ve sworn I heard Audrey say chicken under her breath, but I couldn’t hear it clearly over Trina’s sudden sneezing fit.

  Jayden sucked in his cheeks and then slowly blew out a large puff of air. I hoped against hope that whatever was going on inside his head, it had nothing to do with my traitor of a best friend or my strange reactions to his question. He adjusted the brim of his cap and then turned to watch one of his teammates catch a fly ball. “Yeah, true, it’s too soon to tell how the boys will do. But I’m telling you, I feel it. This is our season. It’s gonna happen.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as the guys entered into a much more detailed conversation about baseball than I cared to entertain. Audrey and Trina came to stand by me, leaving their men to talk.

  “Remind me to never loan you my MAC lipstick again,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Audrey as she stuck out her tongue at me.

  “She’s just trying to help...” Trina’s eyes darted back and forth between us. “...in her misguided way. We just want what’s best for you, M. Whatever makes you happy.”

  I crossed my arms and leaned into the fence. “What’ll make me happy is skipping over the next two and a half weeks, and then we can forget this nightmare ever happened.”

  But as I stood there, my gaze drifted over to Jayden and the guys. It was alarming how well he seemed to fit in with them. They were debating the best method to beat Silver Lake tomorrow and Jayden had them both captivated with the intricacies of calling pitches.

  It was kind of nice to observe him without the cocky, pompous attitude he put on around me. He was still confident, but in a different sort of way. Watching him gesture wildly when Collin mentioned the Astros and their recent sign-stealing drama had me holding back a smile. It was nice he was so passionate about baseball. Kind of like I was about track.

  “Hello? Earth to Mandy?” Audrey waved her hand in front of my face, making me blink hard. “Did you hear Trina?”

  “What?” I reached up to tighten my ponytail, realizing I’d just been caught staring. “What’d she say?”

  Trina pointed at the bleachers on the other side of the baseball diamond. “Your sister’s here. She’s sitting over there.”

  My gaze followed her finger and landed on a group of girls cohabiting the bleachers and giggling behind their hands as they observed the boys’ practice. Sure enough, Charlotte sat in the middle of them, her dark head bobbing as she leaned over to talk in Sarah’s ear. Immediately, my big sister alarms started blaring in my head.

  “Do you guys know anything about this girl, Sarah?” I asked, squinting hard at her, as if I could mentally erase her from my sister’s life.

  Audrey grunted her displeasure and leaned her elbow on the fence. “Let me see how I can word this...what I know is that Sarah Grange is a flesh-eating bacteria, out to consume everything in her path. If it weren’t for Savannah’s tight grip on the cheerleading squad, little Miss Kardashian-wannabe would be out of control. The girl is trouble.”

  Lead filled my stomach. This was the kind of person my baby sister was choosing to hang around with? It didn’t make any sense. Charlotte never used to care about which kids were the most popular or things like partying. Obviously, this Sarah girl was a bad influence.

  “That’s it, I’m putting an end to this thing right now,” I said, pushing up the sleeves of my Under Armour top.

  I was going to march over there and send Charlotte straight home. She’d probably whine about it for the next few days, but she knew that Mom and Dad wouldn’t want her hanging out with people like that. They’d see my side of the story. They always did.

  “Wait, don’t do it yet.” Trina’s hand on my arm made me freeze.

  “Why?”

  “Because you need to think about this from Charlotte’s side.” Her eyes slanted down with sympathy as she gazed over at my baby sister sitting on the bleachers. “Didn’t her best friend move away last year?”

  I shot her a look. “Yeah, Hunter had to move to Texas with his mom. But that was months ago. She’s fine now.”

  “Is she?” Trina’s gaze swept back to meet mine. “I think you forget sometimes that your sister is a lot shyer than you. She doesn’t make friends easily. Can you imagine if you didn’t have us around for your sophomore year? Maybe, Charlotte is just desperate for friends right now and Sarah is filling that void. I’m not sure that banning her from being around Sarah is going to help.”

  Trina’s words took the fight right out of me. My shoulders slumped and I leaned back against the fence, studying my sister from afar. I hadn’t considered that Charlotte might be lonely. I guess I’d been so caught up in my own worries about school that it’d escaped my notice. It made sense, now that I thought about it. Charlotte had never had a big group of friends. She hadn’t needed that, when she had Hunter around. But now she was being forced to put herself back out there.

  But it made things all the more complicated. How did I keep my sister’s life from unraveling while helping her to find better friends? The kind that didn’t get drunk during a Monday night study session? At this point in time, I had no answers.

  “Well, guys, I’d better get back to practice.”

  I turned my head to see Jayden putting the bat back over his shoulder. Our gazes met and he winked, causing my cheek
s to blaze red hot. I distracted myself with staring down at my Icee and finishing the last few swallows.

  “You guys are coming to cheer us on tomorrow, right?” Jayden asked, walking backwards toward the field. “We’ll need the support if we’re going to put Silver Lake in their place.”

  “We’ll be here,” Collin answered firmly.

  “And Amanda could use a few cheerleaders, too.” He flashed me an ornery grin when I dared to look up from my Icee. “It takes a lot to keep us boys in line.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” I said, cocking my hip. The feistiness was flaring up inside me again. “I’ve already got that in the bag now that I’ve figured out the announcer’s booth. Cross me, and I’ll start blaring my mom’s old Celine Dion CD over the speakers during practices. One hour of that and you’ll be crawling back to me on your knees with an apology.”

  “No, please, anything but that.”

  He shuddered in terror, then shot me a quick grin before running off to rejoin practice. I watched him go, feeling a little too proud of putting him in his place. It always felt like a victory when I could dish it back to Jayden.

  “You guys were totally flirting,” Audrey whispered in my ear. “Don’t think we missed that.”

  I shook my head and brushed her off. No matter how much she teased, I was not letting her get to me. For now, my attention was solely going to be focused on my sister still sitting on the benches across the way.

  Trina’s words had opened my eyes to a whole new set of problems I hadn’t even realized I had. Maybe Charlotte’s issues weren’t the normal teenage rebellion kind of stuff. If she really was lonely, I was going to have to put in some extra effort to help her find her place again.

  Either way, I’d figure it out. Mom and Dad counted on me to keep things running smoothly at home when they were extra busy at the restaurant.

  I could handle this.

  And anything else my senior year wanted to throw at me.

  Chapter Nine

  I hadn’t realized how much fun a baseball game could be. From the salty scent of nachos and popcorn in the air, to the tinking sound of the metal bat whenever someone made contact with a pitch, it was kind of addicting. As Coach Morgan stood at first base, waving his hands and making strange signs to his hitters, I remained in the dugout with the rest of the team and recorded every stat on his clipboard.

  It was satisfying, in a way. And a good distraction. Although my heart still ached to be on the track, I wasn’t missing the meet nearly as much as I’d expected.

  It just needed to stay that way.

  That really wasn’t so hard, especially when Jayden was at bat. It didn’t matter that he was the most annoying guy on the planet, even I had to admit that he looked good in a baseball uniform. Like, drool-worthy good.

  The white pants hugged his rear end in a way that made it hard for a girl to look away. The white jersey with the number twelve stitched on the back in black showed off his muscular and toned arms. Top it off with a matching white cap, and I could understand why girls from the school flocked to these games. Baseball uniforms were way more attractive than track suits.

  Especially on Jayden Paul.

  I had to pinch myself hard on the arm to redirect my attention to the game and not just to the player standing next to home plate. Audrey’s teasing must’ve been getting to me. I could practically feel her glancing over at me from the bleachers where my friends sat, wagging her eyebrows.

  There was no way I was attracted to Jayden. Not even a smidge. That ship had set sail years ago and been lost at sea. It wasn’t coming back.

  Silver Lake’s pitcher leaned over the mound, his beady eyes narrowed on the catcher’s mitt. I inhaled slightly and held my breath as he nodded and began to wind up. So far, the score was stuck at zero to zero. It was the bottom of the sixth inning and the sun had begun to set on the horizon, throwing streaks of orange and purple into the sky. The tension between the two teams lay thick in the air, like an early morning fog. At this point, it was anybody’s game. I was crossing my fingers for our boys.

  The pitcher threw a ball that slanted down as it neared home base. Jayden extended his left leg toward the pitcher and turned his entire body, pulling the bat with him to make solid contact with the ball. It stayed close to the ground, shooting past the short stop and into the outfield before he could react.

  Inwardly, I cheered with the rest of the Rock Valley High fans as Jayden made it to first base and the ball returned to the pitcher. He had a beaming smile under the brim of his helmet when Coach Morgan slapped his back, and I got a little twinge of warmth in my gut from watching the two of them interact.

  “All right, boys, one on base and no outs,” Coach yelled, clapping his hands together. “Let’s see this one through.”

  The tension in the dugout shot up as the players jumped from the bench to cheer on their teammates. Our next up at bat hit a line drive straight past third base. I couldn’t help but press my face up against the fence as Jayden sprinted around second. The guy was impressively fast. He could’ve held his own against our boys in the one-hundred-meter sprint. But as he neared third base, the ball was already on its way back and heading straight for him. Jayden, the ball, and Silver Lake’s third basemen seemed to collide at the same time in a cloud of dust, with Jayden sliding on his side into the base.

  There was a collective intake of breath as the entire audience waited for the umpire to make his call. Biting hard on my bottom lip, I held my pencil poised over the clipboard.

  The umpire crossed his arms in front of his chest and then spread them, his palms facing the ground. “Safe!”

  I shrieked and bounced up and down a few times before I realized what I was doing. With a quick glance to make sure my best friends hadn’t seen me cheering Jayden on, I ducked my chin and recorded the last hit on my notes. It wasn’t until the commotion around me in the dugout increased, did I look up again.

  “What’s going on?” I asked one of the players as he scrambled past me to put on a helmet.

  “Jayden’s hurt,” he said. “They’re putting me in as pinch runner.”

  I whipped my head toward the field and then recoiled in horror when I spotted Jayden trudging toward the dugout with blood running down his right arm. He was covered in dust from the field, all the way up to his shoulders. Coach Morgan led him into the dugout where Jayden tossed his batting helmet on the ground with a huff.

  “I’m fine, Coach, I swear,” he said. “Put me back in.”

  “No, siree.” Coach Morgan’s gaze caught mine and he beckoned me over with the nod of his head. “I need you patched up before the top of the next inning. Lawrence can run the bases for you.”

  I approached cautiously, unsure why he needed me of all people. “Yeah, Coach?”

  He frowned at me. “Miss Hale, do you faint at the sight of blood?”

  I glanced over at the blood slowly dripping from Jayden’s elbow. I’d seen worse in my parents’ diner from accidental knife slips. “No...”

  “Good. First aid kit is under the bench. Use whatever you can find to get him back on the field.”

  There was no time to argue. Coach moved incredibly fast for a man of his girth. He was back to first base before I could open my mouth.

  Guess nurse was now part of my job description.

  My gaze slowly shifted to Jayden. He was watching me with a slight frown, as if unsure I could handle the task set in front of me. That was all it took to get my head on straight. Always up for a challenge, no matter the situation, I set my shoulders and went to grab the first aid kit.

  “Come on, let’s do this over there,” I said, nodding at the far side of the dugout where we would be mostly alone.

  He nodded solemnly and followed me over. It wasn’t until I turned to tell him to grab a seat did I notice how white his face had become.

  “Are you okay?” I clutched his arm to hold him upright. It looked like he might keel over right there.

  With an embarrassed
smile, he nodded and sat carefully on the bench. “It really doesn’t hurt that much, but would it totally revoke my man card if I told you the sight of blood makes me queasy?”

  I chuckled softly and straddled the bench next to him, opening the first aid kit between my knees. It was kind of cute that a tough guy like Jayden was afraid of a little blood. “Nah, I think you still get to keep your man card. But start drinking zero calorie sparkling water and getting weekly manicures, and I think they send out an agent to reassess the situation.”

  That brought a real smile to his face. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Any time.” I pulled on a pair of gloves and grabbed some cotton pads. If I remembered right from my first aid course, the first thing I needed to do was clean up the blood and see what I was dealing with. With a glance up at him, I bit my bottom lip and sighed. “I’m gonna clean this up. I’ll try not to hurt you.”

  “Promise?” he asked gruffly.

  His gaze burned into mine. My heart fluttered a bit, reading more into his expression than it should’ve.

  “Yeah, of course.” I swallowed hard and tore my eyes away to focus on the wound.

  It didn’t take long to clean it up. Jayden was a good patient. He sat as still as a statue, not showing a hint of pain, even when I dabbed his arm gently with an alcohol wipe. The injury wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought. It looked like a minor road rash that traveled the outside of his right forearm up to mid tricep.

  With the bleeding mostly slowed, I worked at placing some pads and wrapping it with gauze. All the while, I tried not to focus on the shapely curve of the muscles along his arms. Or the way his skin twitched each time I gently touched him. Even through my glove, I could feel the heat of his skin. It was making me feel a little off balance, as if I were the one suddenly afraid of blood. But it definitely wasn’t the wound making me feel this way. Tensing my jaw, I kept my head down and worked, not letting myself remember who I was treating.