Interference (Bases Series Book 1)

by Hazel Grace

  “He’s such a pig,” Veronica drones, rolling her brown oval eyes. She taps her fake nails on the marble again, striking a nerve in my neck. It reminded me of my mother and her impeccable taste in clothes, shoes, makeup, and nails. She used to do the same thing when she was pissed off over something I said or did.

  “I mean, I dated him for over a year, he left me heartbroken for over a week, and now wants to come back.” She wrinkles her nose in disgust.

  “Then get back at him,” I suggest, placing my phone on the countertop, giving her my full attention.

  She wrinkles her nose with a small little tilt of her lip. “How?”

  I smile. “Fuck me and get over him.”

  Present day

  You know when you have one of those days that starts out like no other? Where you wake up one morning and everything just goes right for once?

  That was me today, powering on my cell phone to find a text message from Myles asking to collect on his raincheck to go out to dinner with me. I didn’t know it was a raincheck, his last words were vague, and I didn’t ask why. I already knew what shook him up that day at the coffee shop. But, today, I feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. That my life might take a slight slant to the right and turn my luck around.

  Maybe Colson lost his touch and didn’t scare Myles off after all.

  I make my coffee, throw on one of my favorite floral dresses that’s white with light pink roses, and scoot out of my apartment door. Making my way into the shared office with my dad, I find more new listings in my inbox. We just closed on two houses last night, and Myles has already sent me another text that he can’t wait to see me.

  I’m on cloud nine.

  Until Veronica ungracefully runs into the office, hopping on one foot to fix her heel while making her way to the receptionist desk.

  “You alright?” I bellow out to her as she disappears around the corner, where my door is blocking my view of her.

  “Yeah...fine,” she replies, trailed by a small grunt. “Sorry I’m late.”

  I glance down at the clock on my laptop, she’s on time. “Rough morning?”

  “Something like that,” she deadpans.

  Okay.

  My phone goes off on my desk, and I pick it up, a smile gracing my face.

  Jake: You didn’t text me back last night.

  Me: OMG, I’m so sorry. Got distracted then fell asleep. I got a text back from Myles.

  Jake: Ugh.

  Me: Stop it.

  Jake: Please don’t tell me he has abs under his doctor’s coat and that he may pose a threat to me. I’m not in the mood to compete.

  Me: You’re ridiculous, and I wouldn’t know.

  Jake: Are you still picking me up today from the airport or are you bringing Doctor Abs with baggage with you.

  Me: Don’t bring a five-year-old into this. And yes, I will be there with a giant poster with your name on it.

  Jake: Will you be naked as well?

  Me: I just told you about Myles and you’re talking about me being naked…

  Jake: Are you dating or seeing him?

  Me: Seeing.

  Jake: Exactly. So clothes on or off?

  Me: *eye roll emoji* Are you buying me dinner?

  Jake: I hate how you love food more than sex with me.

  Me: See you at one, ass clown.

  Jake: See you at one, my beautiful little freshmen.

  I roll my eyes and start saving pictures that our photographer emailed over, placing each home in their own folder so I don’t mix them up.

  “You need some more coffee?” Veronica voices at my doorway.

  “Yeah, please.” I look up at her. “That’d be….didn’t you wear that outfit yesterday?” A blush appears on her cheeks, and she bows her head with a wide grin.

  “Yeah.”

  “Wow…did you and Kyle get together…last night?” I’m praying to God she says no, Kyle is a Jersey boy wannabe with a shitty attitude and small dick.

  Veronica’s words, not mine.

  She shakes her head. “No, but he’s been texting non-stop.” I notice her hair hasn’t been combed, matted from all the hairspray from the day before, and her skirt is wrinkled and in need of ironing. And if she isn’t going to elaborate, I’m not going to push on why she looks like she just walked into the office after a one night stand.

  “Alright, well, if you need to run home real quick to change, that’s fine with—”

  “I slept with our client, Colson Hayes,” she blurts like she just committed one of the seven deadly sins and I was a priest that was going to give her reconciliation.

  Instead, I just stare and blink a few times.

  I gawk at the beauty standing in my office, with her petite curves and olive skin. I gape at the way she can still pull off a wrinkled outfit and still look like a million bucks. Who wouldn’t want to have sex with her? If I swung to the left, I’d want to screw Veronica too, but it doesn’t change the detail that my poor assistant isn’t aware of.

  She was a pawn piece in the game of Colson Hayes, asshole extraordinaire to get a rise out of me.

  After the stunt I played the other night with Skylar and conning her into texting him, I wasn’t naive enough to think this was just a coincidence. Colson played dirty, and he sent my assistant back looking well satisfied with euphoria in her blue irises.

  I could feel my face heat, my hands clenching over the keys of my laptop and the unblurred knowledge settling in my brain that I was going to have to kill him. I’ve watched enough Forensic Files to think I could pull it off. Slowly poisoning him, maybe hitting him with a bat a few times, and burying him in the middle of the woods at Moonlight Ridge.

  That’d be nostalgic.

  I should’ve known that once his name popped through our database and I had scheduled our photographer to take pictures, she’d be a target. That I literally dropped her into his hands. I purposely didn’t have the “Meet Us” page visible on our website after his email came through. I made it appear as if it was “under construction” so that I could hide any evidence linking me and Dad to the brokerage from his snooping.

  “He was so sweet and attentive,” she quips, swinging her arms at her sides like a small child who was told she could go on another merry-go-round. “I’ve never been with a man like that.”

  I have so many things I want to say right now, but none of them are things I want to tell Veronica in her current state of elation.

  That he is the most self-indulgent, egotistical, piece of shit I’ve ever met in my entire life.

  I want to plead to my assistant, who has stars in her eyes, not to tell me that Colson’s cock was inside her all night. That I wouldn’t be able to handle it without breaking everything in this office. Not that there was much in it. A desk, two chairs in front of it, some pictures, a coat rack, Dad was never into interior decorating.

  Colson Hayes used to be my whole world, and now, I just want to burn every memory of him out of my fucking brain. And that I’m not above drugs at this point to do it.

  “I won’t make it a habit,” my loyal assistant claims, nervously tugging at her pink top. “Running in here after…I mean.”

  She just had to add the last part.

  “You’re fine,” I voice. My tone choked as if I just swallowed the hardest liquor in the world. “Just grab my coffee...please.” She makes her way out of the office, knowing I like my coffee from Joe’s, and gets out of my face.

  I fight back the enmity I’m experiencing toward her right now. She did nothing wrong but get caught up in Colson’s sweet words and beautiful chestnut eyes.

  I did it a million times.

  I pick up my phone, needing a distraction, a feel-good moment, and Myles isn't it for me right now.

  Jake is.

  It’s selfish and stupid, I’m using him to get my mind off of all the violent things I want to do right now, involving a baseball bat and Colson’s truck. I should be focusing on my relationship with Myles, but Jake makes m
e forget. And I’m not officially dating anyone right now, so I have no loyalties to any specific guy. No one has earned them yet. But before I can even pull the thread with our text message up, Myles texts me.

  Myles: How about I take you out to dinner after my first game? You’re still going to come watch me suck, right?

  Me: You’re not going to suck, and I’d love that.

  Myles: Good, I’m excited to see you. Do I get any special lessons?

  I inhale deeply.

  I’m a mess, a disaster, with thoughts of Colson kissing Veronica’s neck and lips brimming over my sanity, and I need to get lost in something else.

  Something familiar and that can’t hurt me.

  Me: How about we hit the batting cages before your game?

  Myles: That sounds good. Can’t wait to see you.

  Me: I’ll be the girl in the baseball hat.

  Myles: See you then.

  I grit my teeth, irritated with myself. This isn’t who I was supposed to be, twenty-seven with a fuck buddy from out of town, still lost and broken. The fury burning in my veins is enough to incinerate Colson on the spot.

  First, my sister.

  Now, my assistant.

  Batter up, asshole.

  Ten years ago

  “Did you hear that Sawyer Boyd is dating Gavin Lucas?” whispers a girl behind me in Calculus. “How the heck did she nab that fine piece of ass?” I ground my jaw at the current gossip in school.

  It’s been two weeks, and I swear to everything holy it’s like the Virgin Mary just graced us with her presence at Freemont High.

  You’d think it would be for two days, maybe three if people were generous—but weeks?

  We need more excitement in this school.

  And if it wasn’t bad enough to hear it at least a dozen times a day, I actually had to see it. Before school, during school, after school, at practice when I was trying to fucking keep my shit in line for the scout that was supposed to show up at the Churchill game next week.

  I lost count of how many times Coach has barked at Gavin to stop screwing around with Bases and pay the hell attention to our practice. He flirts with her, yells things over the field, steals kisses when they think no one is looking.

  But I’m looking.

  It’s like watching a slow-motion car crash, you can’t look away. And even when Coach has Gavin running laps around the field to teach him a lesson for fucking around, he runs right back to the one who seems to have not only Gavin under a spell but my whole damn team. The very one who doesn’t listen to warnings from the guy that can ruin her before I can blink.

  And if she thinks I’m playing about Principle McMahon, I’m not.

  Emma McMahon and I have fucked, are fucking, will continue to fuck until I’m ready to be done. But I wasn’t aware that she was on her way to becoming the new principal this year when we screwed the first time. We met at a town picnic, I got drunk, she was wine tipsy, she asked for my ID, the rest is history.

  And no, it wasn’t a fake ID, I’m eighteen.

  However, the look on her face the first time I was sent to her office for telling Mr. Thompson to go fuck himself because my English paper was at least a B, she almost shit herself. But it didn’t stop her from calling me into her office for a quickie every now and again.

  Que in Sawyer and her naive little knack for calling my bluff.

  I knew she’d go on that date with Gavin to piss me off. She had a defiant look in her eyes, and I realized I’d have to teach her the hard way. And the only way to get her interest and scare her off a little bit was to fuck with her at softball.

  Was it mean?—yes.

  Was it unnecessary?—eh, maybe.

  Did I care?—no.

  But I thought she’d stop after my sabotage. Not go on another date with him and start holding hands with him in the hallways that following Monday. And on Wednesday, Ben told me they were dating. I punched a hole in my bedroom wall. This was the worst possible time for Gavin to lose focus when we had scouts scheduled to come out to our games.

  All over a fucking girl.

  A girl who must be a witch because the consumed curiosity of Gavin and my entire team with her was fucking ridiculous. Everyone loved her. I’m beginning to think I might’ve been too hard on her, but when she flashes her sweet little smile at everyone else and smacks me with a fucking attitude, I retract it.

  “Maybe she gives good blowjobs,” another female’s voice whispers back at the first. I snap my pencil in half, picturing exactly that.

  Her pink lips wrapped around Gavin’s dick, looking innocently up at him with her green eyes while she’s on her knees. His grubby ass hands threaded through her thick red hair.

  Geezus Christ.

  “Doubt it,” the first chick snaps.

  The second girl chuckles. “Don’t get jealous because John said you could use some practice.”

  “Shut up, Amy. John can go to hell.”

  “I think she’s pretty,” Amy compliments.

  “I think she’s a snob.”

  “Why?”

  “She doesn’t talk to anyone in class, she just hangs out with her stupid softball team.”

  Amy scoffs. “She’s new. You were new last year, Mindy.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Mindy retorts. “A girl like that must be a slut or something. Gavin is hot, like Nick Carter hot. She’s, what, part of the dork outreach program?”

  “You’re just jealous.”

  Her and everyone else in this dumb ass school.

  Every girl who’s ever looked, gawked, or dreamed of Gavin hates Sawyer right now. I’m hoping eventually she’ll get tired of the glares and whispers that surround her everywhere she goes, but so far, she looks unaffected. She has a happy glow that illuminates around her all the damn time over an asshole who’s fucked more pussy than Leonardo DiCaprio after he got famous. Plus, this is the first time he’s ever publicly dated a girl, and it’s shifted the whole female population in this school.

  The unreachable has been claimed.

  And the pestering idea to fuck Sawyer over with my McMahon card burns the back of my pocket.

  This isn’t a game. This is our future, and I’ll gladly fuck anyone over for that. Because while everyone’s parents were happily married with money and could pay for whatever college their kids wanted, Gavin and I busted our asses to get where we are.

  And a cute little redhead with a sweet little mouth wasn’t going to rip it away thread by thread.

  “She probably put out on the first date and has a magical pussy or something.”

  Amy cackles softly. “There’s no such thing as a magical—” I whip around in my seat, fixing my glare on both of them.

  “Will you shut the fuck up?” The girl on my left, Mindy, shifts uncomfortably in her seat while Amy bows her head.

  “Sorry,” Mindy alludes. I turn back around, trying to focus on the teacher writing on the chalkboard.

  Magical pussy, my fucking ass.

  Present day

  During lunch, I venture out to Mancino's subs to pick me up a Philly cheesesteak. It was my go-to when I was a kid, still is. Nothing beat old Jamison Samuel’s subs even when I was in California. Every inch of this town was sentimental for me, both good and bad. Dad and I ate here all the time after games, I made out with Tara Robins in the girl’s bathroom when I was fourteen, and, well, the food was good.

  I was originally only supposed to be back in Freemont for three weeks, so people have been surprised and pleased that I’m staying. Especially since I left after my senior year without so much as a “fuck you” or “see you later.”

  It wasn’t like I had anything left here anymore when I graduated high school. My mom couldn’t stand me, too busy spending Dad’s inheritance and bringing random guys home. She felt no remorse for what she did, driving my father into such a dark place that he took his own life by hanging himself in his office due to her constant cheating. The police didn’t even have the decency to close the door. I
came home from practice my junior year to see the blue tint on my father’s face and my mom’s fake sobs in the kitchen.

  My life was never the same after that.

  And it only got worse from there.

  Before I can get deep into an episode of inner turmoil, I order my sub to go and leave the shop. The sun is bright today, casting down rays of heat, which makes the day mildly warmer. I open the door to my truck, then freeze at a familiar giggle. And not just any giggle, ladies and gentleman.

  That giggle.

  The one that happens when you kiss the side of her neck too softly or graze your hands up her ribs. The singular sound that still replays in my head at night when I can’t sleep because my body misses something it left behind long ago.

  But my mind, it rips her apart.

  I glance over my shoulder to see her red hair glinting in the sunlight, swatting a guy’s chest with her hand. His arms wrap around her waist, pulling her into his chest and smiling down at her.

  It snaps a cord in my rationality.

  I chuck my sub into the truck, not giving a shit where it lands, and stride across the street like a fucking idiot. So, the doctor wasn’t so smart as to heed my warning, huh?

  That’s alright because I’m going to make it perfectly known that she’s going to be running into me—a lot.

  Stepping onto the sidewalk, my eyes fall onto Dr. Stupidass except it’s not him.

  He didn’t have curly brown hair that fell into his eyes or piercing iceberg eyes that surely would cut into any girl’s panties.

  No, this was someone new.

  Someone else who had his hands all over the girl I claimed as mine over a decade ago.

  The one who ripped my heart out with her ulterior motives.

  “You alright, dude?” I glance back up, seeing that Mr. Abercrombie is looking at me with a raised brow. Sawyer turns around, just to freeze.

  Still in his arms.

  Her eyes widen, flashing hints of fear and shock in her irises. It does nothing but fuel my inner asshole.

  “What are you doing, Colson?” she mutters with a hint of displeasure. Like this wasn’t my town first and that I stepped back into her territory when she clearly walked into mine only to fuck it up.