Hotbox (19 page)

I was fine with not
responding
,
but Jayden
replied
, “Not yet, we still have some
time
.
” She smiled
with implication, took my hand
,
and we walked away. Stacie
hollered
, “Woohoo! Yeah, baby!” and I heard a guy—I think Shawn—say something about ‘getting some action.’

I didn’t know if I should laugh or not until Jayden wrapped an arm around me
when we were in the parking lot
and asked, “Am I gonna get some action?”

Then I did laugh.
“What kind of action are you looking for?” I asked
as we arrived at my truck. I put
he
r between
the truck and me
,
and
leaned
against it
with both hands. I
kissed her, very slowly at first,
keeping my body distant. I kissed her neck and I thought a shiver went through her. “Hmm, either you’re cold, or I just found a special spot,” I whispered.

With a smile she replied, “I’m not cold.”

“Ahhh,” I said knowingly, looking at her with a smile. “What about the other side? Does that work the same?” I softly kissed the right side of her neck, just behind her ear, and got the same reaction.
“Hmm, interesting.”

“Maybe I
should
say I’m cold, though.”

She gently pulled me closer and wrapped her arms around my waist. There was no reason for my hands to be on the truck anymore, so I put them behind her
head
and kissed her again. She slid her hands in my back pockets and
held
me against her.

I slowly removed my lips
from her
s
an
d looked into her eyes. “Jayden,
” I began, running my fingers through her hair. She was so incredibly beautiful in the moonlight. “I—”

“Hey, you guys are st
ill here?” Cali’s voice pierced through the darkness
.

I closed my eyes
with frustration
and slowly dropped my hands. Jayden kept hers where the
y
were
,
but she moved from against the tr
uck and cuddled aga
inst me, so I wrapped my arms around her.

“Are you leaving?”
she
asked her.

“Yeah,”
Cali
sighed. “I have to
work
tomorrow. A
t
six
in the morning.”

“People actually get up that early to have their hair done?” Jayden chuckled.

“Yeah, believe it or not.
And
I’m booked full until
noon
. When are
you
gonna come in?” she asked Jayden, taking a strand of her hair and peering at it closely. Cali was not
conscious
of boundaries in the least bit as she stood there almost as close to us as we were to each other. “You could use a trim.”

“Okay, leave us alone and I’ll think about it,” Jayden smiled.

Cali laughed. “Okay, lovebirds. Goodnight.”

I kissed Jayden on the forehead and told her it was time to get her home. She paused for a moment as she looked at me
, like she was waiting for me to say something more
. Then she nodded her head.

When I pulled up to her house, the
bad
feelings from earlier returned. Joe Adams wanted me to stay away from his daughter; I was completely unable to do that. I loved her, and I would endure her father for as long as I had to.

I slept until
nine
the next morning. I think I was completely drained fr
om the events of the day before.
Aaron drilled me about my night with Jayden but I wasn’t willing to give up much information. He thought it was funny that Chris hated me. I didn’t offer him a response, but when he mentioned that the guy was probably in love with her, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Jayden had described
Chris
as
a “brother,” but that in no way meant
he
thought the same about
her
. I felt like it was
the biggest
ah-ha moment
ever.

I thought about what I almost told her last night. I was about to tell her that I loved her. Maybe fate stepped in and deferred the moment on purpose. It
still
felt like I was fighting an uphill battle.

I told Jayden that I would be busy for most of the day. It really was true, but it wasn’
t anything she couldn’t come do
as well. My hopes were that she’d use the time to spend with her dad, her friends, or anything else I had unintentionally caused her to neglect.

I
headed over to the ball field around eleven to watch the game that would determine third and fourth place. It so happened that we would be playing Garrett Freeman’s team for the championship game. They had battled themselves back from the loser’s bracket to face us one more time
, beating both the teams that were now playing
. His te
am was actually
at the ballpark
too, and w
e were careful to sit a distance away from them
past third base
,
just so Aaron’s
big
mouth wasn’t accidentally heard by any o
f them. However, Garrett made an effort
to gossip and point at us like a fifth grade schoolgirl.

Jayden’s
call around eleven-thirty
was
to see if I missed her.

“Of course I do.
What are you doing?”

“Well,” she sighed, “Cali was supposed to be done at noon and we were going to go shopping, but now she’s held up and won’t be done until two.”

“Bummer. Sorry about that. What about your dad? May
be you two could go to lunch?”

“He actually got called into work about an hour ago. He never knows how long he’ll be.”

I would have told her to call Chris (just to be fair) but I knew he was out on the boat with friends for the day.

“I’d love for you to join me if you want,” I said. “I’m just not sure how much baseball you can take.”

She laughed. “I could take as much as you offer. Are you
inviting
me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay. Are you sure I won’t be interrupting ‘team time,
’
”
she teased.

“Nah. Besides, Megan’s here, too. Come join us—at least until Cali is done,” I added.

“Mmm, okay. See you in a bit.”

I was excited she was coming, but I wondered why my attempts to separate us for a day had failed. Maybe we were just meant to spend
the
time together, so
I
decided to be
grateful for all the time
I had with her.

Fifteen minutes later I heard something that made my stomach sink: the sound of
vile
guys trying to get the attention of a really hot girl
, only I knew
which
really
hot girl it involved
.

“Uh, Ty…” I heard Jesse say.

I was already looking toward the sound and then I saw her, stopped by a couple of guys from Garrett’s team. One of them
was blocking her way
,
and I could tell by the look on her face he was saying something pretty offensive.

I hopped
down
the bleachers
without a thought. There was sound behind me but I had no idea which of my teammates decided to back me up. Garrett’s team stood up to face
me
just as Jayden slipped by their barrier.
             
“Ty, don’t worry about it,”
she
said to me, lightly pushing me back. “Come sit down with me, okay?”

“That’s your pretty little girlfriend, Huntington?” Garrett
sneered
.

He knew she was; he saw us together the day before.

“The hot chick tha
t sang the anthem?
” he added.
“
I must admit…
I’m a little jealous.”

“
Ty,
”
Jayden
said firmly. Finally I looked at her. “Don’t bring your team into this, okay? Save it for the game.”

I then realized my entire team was standing behind me. Had the circumstances been different, and getting into a brawl with another team wouldn’t disqualify us, I would have tossed him off the bleachers right then and there. But Jayden was right, and she was pleading with her eyes
for me
to let it
go
.

I turned around and we headed back to our seats. Of course we heard them call us
all kinds of names,
but we sat down and didn’t say anything. Even Aaron didn’t say anything, but the look on his face told me he’d love
to pound on any one of them. As a team we had been lectured so many times about our conduct toward other teams; our coaches took pride in the fact that we had a good reputation throughout the
division
.

“You okay?” I asked Jayden
after
we sat down.

“I’m fine,” she almost growled. “Don’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Start a fight because some guy is a jackass. You could have got
ten
yourself kicked out of here.”

I was surprised by how upset she was.

“
Start
a fight?
I’m sorry,
but I’m not gonna let some
jackass
treat you like that. It’s unacceptable.”

“
Well I’m not going to let you get in trouble for my sake.
Nothing would have happened with all these people around.
Guys just like to say crap and…j
ust…never mind,” she said softly.
“Let’s forget about it, okay?”
S
he sighed and
looped her arm through mine, resting her head against my shoulder.

I wasn’t ready to forget about it.

Cali did call Jayden around two, just after the game was finished up. She kissed me to leave but I said, “Oh, no way. You’re not walking to your car by yourself.”
Garrett and his team
were
still nearby and I was
n’t taking
any chances.

When she drove away to meet up with Cali, I rejoined the guys on the bleachers. They
were talking about
heading
somewhere
to eat
, so we ended up at
Time Out
.

“Hey, there!” Howard greeted us as we took our usual tables. “Big game tonight, huh? I think I’ll be able to get outta here and make it. Where’s that beautiful girl of yours?” he asked me.

“Hopefully
causing trouble somewhere else,
”
I heard Aaron mumble.

“Uh, she’s with
a friend
,” I replied
.

“You still seeing her?”

I smiled and answered, “Yeah.”

“Good for you, kid. She’s the best. Now, I can’t say her pop
is so easy going. I hope you ge
t him on your side,” he chuckled.

Fat chance. Her dad was my biggest nightmare.

             
             
             
             
             
Chapter Twelve

“I don’t know, I have a bad feeling about this,” Jesse said, peering at Garrett and his team warming up on the field. “Something’s gonna happen.”

“Oh, relax,” Jack told him. “Garre
tt’s a pansy; he just has a big mouth.
”

I sighed and shook my head. “Let’s just play baseball, guys.”

Aaron
had to laugh and say,
“Look at him checking out your girlfriend, Ty.” 

I glanced over and
unfortunately
he was right. Garrett had a sick smile on his face at
shortstop
as he watched Jayden arrive with Cali
to
sit above our dugout. He looked over at us a
nd
very subtly
made a rude gesture.