Striking Out With The Star Pitcher: How to catch a crush #1

by Maggie Dallen

  I stared at her blankly. Of course I knew. I was the one who said it. “That’s different. That’s art, it’s—”

  “It’s not that different,” Rose finished. “There are some things the intellect can’t really help you with. You know that better than anyone as an artist.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. Sure, I painted a bit and I lived to dissect movies but I wasn’t a true artist. Not really. I’d always been better at analyzing actors’ performances or critiquing famous artists’ works than actually creating art of my own. Lulu? She was an artist. Rose? She was one, too. I was an art critic. The person who stood on the sidelines and analyzed it.

  I was an art lover, not a real artist.

  And right now that seemed to make a world of difference, because while intellectually I knew what Rose meant, I had no idea how to actually do that. I didn’t know how to listen to my gut or follow my heart. They both sounded way too vague. I needed rules, I needed guidelines...I needed a freakin’ magazine article to tell me where to begin.

  Hannah patted my shoulder kindly. “You’re overthinking this.”

  Rose nodded. “You’re definitely overthinking.” She pushed me again in the direction of Tony. “Go over there, say a few words and stop obsessing. Just be you and if it’s meant to be, you’ll know. Okay?”

  She didn’t wait for me to respond before giving me another strong shove.

  “Okay,” I muttered. And this time I stumbled forward and didn’t stop. My feet kept moving until I was on the other side of the garage, two feet away from Tony, who was standing up after shutting one of the drum cases.

  He turned around and faced me. “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” I managed. But for once I wasn’t nervous. More like...annoyed.

  With him? With me? I didn’t know. All I knew was, I wasn’t nervous. So that was good, right?

  He shifted, his eyes moving over me from the top of my semi-wavy hair which was now legitimately waving thanks to Rose’s curling iron, and down to the strappy sandals Rose had leant me since we wore the same size.

  “Sarah, right?” he said.

  I blinked. He...didn’t know my name.

  Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

  I clamped my mouth shut and swallowed back the brilliance that was Princess Bride. “No, actually, it’s Simone.”

  “Simone,” he repeated with a little smirk. “Right, right.”

  Alright, alright, alright. I heard Andrew’s ridiculous Matthew McConahaugh impersonation in my head and my lips twitched up in a little smile.

  Tony continued to smirk.

  I’d watched that smirk make girls swoon. Literally. One time a girl fainted at one of their shows when Tony had given her his broody stare and cocky smirk.

  Now Tony was looking at me. And he was smirking. And he was brooding. And I…

  I felt nothing, except maybe a little annoyance that I’d hung out at almost all of their band practices and he didn’t even know my name.

  “What’s up?” he said, but his smile said he knew. His gaze said he knew I was here to hit on him. He knew I was seeking his attention like a freakin’ puppy dog panting for a bone.

  Ugh. Cocky, much?

  “Um…” I forced myself to think about the questions I’d compiled. When did you start playing bass? What bands do you like? Are you nervous for tonight?

  The problem was...I didn’t really care to hear the answer to any of those questions.

  Jax called out to me and I spun around so quickly I nearly toppled over.

  “We’re heading out,” he said. “You coming with us or…” His gaze flittered over to Tony and I could practically see his unease.

  I started to move toward him but Tony spoke up. “I’ll give her a ride.”

  Jax caught my eye but, when I didn’t protest, he and the others all headed toward the door. “We’ll see you there, then, I guess.”

  Rose shot me a couple questioning looks. Even my biggest flirting cheerleader seemed to think this was a bad idea.

  And me?

  What did I think?

  Frustration shot through me as I found myself standing in awkward silence with the guy I’d been crushing on for weeks. Months.

  And why? Because he looked deep?

  I turned back slowly to face him and caught him eyeing my butt.

  Awesome.

  Nothing said true love like being leered at.

  “So, you going to be my groupie tonight?” he asked, his voice dripping with innuendo and his eyes… His eyes were dark, but they weren’t pretty. They weren’t so pale blue they were almost gray and they weren’t filled with laughter and affection and warmth.

  He was waiting for an answer and my stupid brain latched onto the word ‘groupie’ and instantly pulled up a line from Almost Famous, which was how I ended up blurting out, “Groupies sleep with rockstars because they want to be near someone famous. We're here because of the music. We are band aids.”

  His brows drew together in confusion.

  Understandable, really.

  “What?” He looked around, at the drummer who was still working and the otherwise empty garage... “Who’s we?”

  He sounded annoyed and I didn’t even care to explain. My brain was still stuck in Almost Famous and another one of Kate Hudson’s brilliant lines came back to me with a vengeance.

  If you never take it seriously, you never get hurt. If you never get hurt, you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely you can just go to the record store and visit your friends.

  I stared into space as the breath rushed out of me because I didn’t just want to spew that line from the movie. I wanted to say it to Andrew. I wanted to discuss it with him.

  Because Andrew would get that quote. He’d understand it. Well, maybe not the record store part, but the rest of it. That was how he’d been getting through life at Lakeview...that’s how he’d been coping since his dad died. He acted like nothing mattered, he sat back in his seat in the cafeteria and listened rather than participate in a conversation.

  He had an easy smile for everyone and was quick to laugh, because he was a laid back guy, but he’d also gone out of his way to not care too much about anything.

  He hadn’t spelled it out for me, but I knew. I got it.

  I got him.

  Because he’d let me in. He’d taken the trouble to get to know me and he’d let me know him. After years of keeping everyone at bay so he wouldn’t care, so he wouldn’t get hurt again...he let me in.

  Oh crap. I was going to cry.

  I gave my head a little shake as I took a step back, away from Tony. What was I doing here? I didn’t know this guy. And from what little I knew of him, I didn’t want to get to know him any more than I already did.

  Rose was right. I didn’t need to make a pros and cons list. I didn’t need to think this through.

  My gut was begging me to get out of here, my feet were just itching to run, and my heart…?

  My heart was desperate to get to Andrew and tell him I’d made a mistake for coming here tonight. I wanted him to know that I didn’t need to flirt with Tony to see what was right in front of my face…

  To see who was right in front of my face.

  “You still want a ride?” Tony asked, already heading to the door and not waiting for me.

  “Yeah,” I said, hurrying to catch up. “But, um….could you drop me off somewhere along the way?”

  13

  Andrew

  * * *

  “Andy, you have a visitor!” My mother’s voice reached me from the bottom of the stairs and I paused in the middle of deadlifts.

  One of the perks of having a bedroom that was twice the size of my room in our old house? I had space for my workout equipment, and a stereo, which was currently on and blaring, and which had to be the reason I’d misheard my mother.

  I set the weights down and sat up, reaching for a towel and my water bottle. “What’s up, Mom?”

  I heard
my bedroom door open but it was not my mother’s voice in the doorway. “Andy, huh? I guess now I know what to call you when you call me Sims.”

  I stood up so quickly the towel fell and the water bottle rolled to the floor. “Simone...what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be heading to the—”

  “The concert?” Simone said. “Yeah.” She fidgeted with the hem of her dress, like she was trying to tug it down.

  Possibly because I was staring. “You look beautiful.”

  It came out on a rush of air, and it was the truth. I reached over and turned down the music.

  Had I ever thought she was plain when she wasn’t smiling? If so, I was a fool. The girl was beautiful in every sense of the word. She was unique, and genuine, and kind, and smart, and…

  She was here.

  “Thanks,” she said, her cheeks turning pink as she looked down at herself. “Rose helped.”

  I had a million questions racing through my skull and even more emotions jockeying for position in my chest. But one question seemed to win out. “What are you doing here?”

  She met my gaze. “I didn’t need to go to the concert to figure out how I feel about Tony.”

  I watched her steadily. “What does that mean?”

  She licked her lips. “I don’t want a guy who doesn’t know who I am. I don’t want a guy I don’t know.” She shrugged helplessly, her eyes tinged with pleading, but I couldn’t make this easier for her, not until I was sure I knew what she meant. “He’s a stranger.”

  “And what am I?” I asked. I took a step toward her, my heart hammering against my ribcage as I fought the urge to reach out for her. “I swear, Simone,if you say ‘just a friend’ right now—”

  “No. You’re not a friend. I mean, you are, but…” She swallowed. “The way I feel about you is nothing like the way I feel for Jax.”

  Relief surged through me. I didn’t realize how tense I’d been until this moment when relief flooded my muscles and made me feel weak. My lips hitched up. “You like me.”

  She nodded. “I like you.”

  A million prayers of thanks rushed through my mind as I crossed the distance and pulled her into my arms.

  She lifted up on tiptoe as I pulled her close and I crushed her mouth with mine, unable to be gentle like before because I was too freakin’ relieved. My lips moved over hers, tasting and exploring and...claiming. She was mine. I knew it. Or at least, I’d hoped. But now she was in my arms where she belonged and I reveled in the feel of her, hoping she could feel how happy she’d made me, hoping she was just as happy, too.

  I held her tight and she kissed me back just as desperately, like she was just as relieved. Just as glad to be in my arms.

  I lifted my head to give us both some air but I didn’t ease my grip on her. She was here, with me, and I wasn’t going to let her go anytime soon. “What changed your mind?”

  “It wasn’t my mind that changed,” she said cryptically.

  I arched my brows. “Is that a movie quote?”

  “No, just me speaking gibberish,” she said with a little laugh that I adored. Not many people got to hear that laugh, and I was one of the lucky few. “What I meant was, I’d gotten it into my head that I liked Tony, but that infatuation was based on nothing. Whatever I thought I felt for him, it was based on fiction. There was nothing real about it.”

  I grinned down at her because I knew exactly what she meant but I needed to hear her say it. Or maybe I just wanted to hear it. “And this?” I said, squeezing her waist with a hug.

  She smiled up at me. “This still makes no sense at all up here.” She tapped a finger to her temple. “But it’s based on what I feel...and I feel like I like you, Andrew.” She bit her lip and then released it. “I think I like you a lot.”

  “I know I like you a lot so I guess I’m winning.”

  She gave a little laugh and then went up on tiptoe again, this time her gaze was nervous, a little hesitant—and then she kissed me.

  I let her take the lead and it nearly killed me to keep from deepening the kiss. But all this was new to her and I wanted her to be comfortable.

  When she pulled back she gave me a dazzling smile. “I like kissing you.”

  “Well, that’s a relief.” I said it mildly even though my heart was swelling up to twice its normal size with something so much bigger than a crush. This was more than ‘like.’ My heart felt like it might burst if this kept up any longer.

  Falling in love with Simone…?

  This might just be the death of me.

  “This relationship would be off to a rocky start if you didn’t like kissing me,” I said.

  She laughed as I’d hoped and I felt something shift inside me. Not so much an emotion as a certainty that something had changed. Not just between us, but with me. Maybe I’d just needed time, or maybe it was meeting Simone, but I was ready to get close to someone, even if it meant getting hurt, even if it meant one more person in my life that I could lose…

  But for right now, she was here. She was in my life. And taking risks...that was living.

  “So you left poor Tony high and dry, huh?” I gave her a lopsided grin as I tilted my head down to nuzzle her ear with my nose. “Poor guy.”

  She laughed. “He didn’t even know my name.”

  I pulled my head back in anger on her behalf. “No.” I shook my head. “I always suspected he was an idiot, but that’s bad.”

  “Right?” She shook her head with a rueful sigh, but her lips were twitching with rueful amusement. “I had to introduce myself to my crush.”

  I had an image of how that would go and it made me grin. “I hope you said Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya—”

  Her gasp cut me off and her eyes widened with excitement before she leapt up to kiss me. Hard. “You know me so well.”

  “Not as well as I’d like.” I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to know what made her tick, and what made her laugh, and what made her sigh… “I hope I get to know you even better,” I said.

  “I think that can be arranged.” She tilted her head to the side as she sank back onto her flat feet. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I fell for Tony. He’s self-absorbed and cocky and…” Her eyes glittered with mischief. “He’s not even a star pitcher, can you imagine?”

  “Ahh, so you have a thing for baseball players now, huh?” I teased as I dropped a kiss on her nose. “I thought you didn’t even like baseball.”

  “I don’t,” she said. “But I like baseball movies, so that’s a start, right?”

  I pretended to think it over. “Sure sounds like common ground to me.”

  She groaned but she wore a smile as she closed her eyes tightly in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I ever looked to those silly magazines for advice.”

  “I don’t know…” I said slowly.

  Her eyes popped open. “You can’t be serious. They’re ridiculous and you know it.”

  One side of my mouth hitched up in what was undoubtedly a smug smile. “I don’t know,” I said again. “I took some of its advice—I found a reason for us to spend time together. I found reasons to touch you and keep you close…” I pulled her even closer and held her tight. “I kissed you.”

  Her brows shot up. “You got the idea to kiss me from a magazine?”

  I laughed. “Well, to be fair, I’m certain I would have figured it out on my own eventually. But it worked, didn’t it?”

  “It totally worked. But that’s not fair.” She was grinning from ear to ear as she shook her head. “You stole my playbook.”

  “It’s true. Thanks to you I learned how to catch my crush,” I teased, making the words sound just as idiotic as they were. “What are you going to do about it?”

  She laughed as she wrapped her arms around my neck to pull herself up for another kiss. “I guess I’ll just have to get to work studying so I can beat you at your own game... You up for some more practice sessions?”

  I was still laughing as I kissed her back. “With
you? Always.”

  Epilogue

  Avery

  * * *

  “See?” I dug my elbow into Max beside me as I stared across the cafeteria at the cutest sight I’d ever seen. “I told you this stuff works.”

  Max’s sigh was filled with exasperation. That was fine. I was used to her exasperation. That was pretty much how we rolled as besties. She was practical, I was a dreamer. She was a realist, I was an optimist. I was a full-blown romantic, and she was...not.

  Which was why I was sighing over the sight of Simone and Andrew laughing and whispering at their lunch table while Max was eyeing them warily.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Max said. “I’m happy for Simone. She deserves a great guy like Andrew, but…” She shot me a sidelong look. “I don’t believe for one second that their newfound happiness has anything to do with those stupid magazine articles.”

  I shrugged. We’d agree to disagree.

  As usual.

  Charlotte was sitting on my other side and even though her sigh was quiet, I heard it. “That’s so sweet.”

  I grinned as I watched Andrew tug Simone’s chair closer so he could whisper something in her ear. Whatever he’d said, it had Simone ducking her head but nothing could hide her bright red cheeks.

  “She gives me hope,” Charlotte said, her tone so wistful I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Like me and Max, Charlotte and I didn’t have a ton in common. She was super smart, I was average. She was shy, I was outgoing. The list went one and on, but there was one thing we had in common. One very important thing...

  Unrequited love.

  But not for much longer, because watching Simone find the love of her life was exactly the inspiration I needed to finally make my move. Sure, I’d tried getting Alex Luven’s attention before. Many times. I’d actually lost track of how often I’d struck up conversations and tried my best to flirt, and all to have him look at me like I was some friendly puppy that he could pat on the head and then forget about.