SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (64 page)

This place sucked
– only, a little less so if I wasn’t living with my mother.

***

Last night, Mr.
Dean sat me down and said that I needed to find an activity to occupy my time
for the rest of the school year. I used to play baseball before things went to
shit at my house. Since that sport was holding tryouts after school, I went for
it.

That didn’t have
to be my activity, but if I made it, why not. There were other things I could
try, but being physical appealed to me. I had a lot of stress and anger and I
might as well take it out on a ball and bat.

I showed up in
shorts and shirt. Others had uniforms, but I was new to this. Of course,
everyone looked at me and my tattoos. My mother thought tats were cool, so she
let me get them. Guess I should have covered those up, but frankly, I was proud
of them. I’d get more, but I haven’t had the money.

No one talked to
me until one other guy showed up. He was taller than I am, which was hard to
do. He held out his hand.

“I’m Cole Hassett.
I’m the Captain of the team.”

“I’m Dylan Cabot.”

“This your first
year trying out?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, good luck.”

Cole walked away.
Suddenly, I wasn’t invisible. Several other members of the team approached me
and shook my hand. For once, I felt as if I could be part of something.
Usually, I stood on the sidelines, never getting involved because I never knew
if something would come up and I would have to bail.

I still didn’t
know, but Mr. Dean had never talked to me about when I was moving out. He
planned on taking me clothes shopping this weekend. As if I were staying.

The only thing
permanent in my life had been change. My mother and I had moved around a lot
until last year when we settled in the trailer. I think her brother owned it
and didn’t make her pay too much rent.

I’d had a few jobs
since I was sixteen, but nothing stuck because I always seemed to be bailing
out my mother. She was always in a crisis.

A man with a
whistle around his neck who I recognized as a science teacher walked out of the
school. “Gather around. Here’s the drill today. We’ll do some fielding, then
we’ll bat, and then I’ll make my decision.”

That didn’t seem
like a lot.

I had a glove that
Mr. Dean had found. He said if I made the team, he’d buy me a new one. Nothing
came for free, so I was still waiting for what the catch was. Would he get
bored of me as his project and kick me out?

I would have to
prepare for that day. It could easily happen.

The coach, Mr.
Rivera, had a clipboard in his hand. “Okay. I need Hassett at right field.
Alphonse at center and Cabot in left. I’ll be hitting out to you to see what
you can do.”

Cole smacked me on
the back. “Good luck.”

I nodded and ran
out to left field. I caught everything that came my way, amazed that I could
remember how to do it. Then the coach hit to centerfield, and I glanced around.

The cheerleaders
were practicing next to us. I noticed that Taylor was looking at me. Or at
least, looking my way. Maybe she was checking out Cole. I didn’t want to
presume.

Some of the other
girls were also looking my way. No. They couldn’t be looking at me.

Maybe they were
wondering about my tattoos. Everyone asked. It wasn’
t
like most people didn’t have them. I
was old enough to get them on my own, but these I had from when I was younger.

I looked away,
then back at Taylor. She looked away as if I’d discovered a secret of hers.
They began another cheer. Did they cheer for baseball?

“Look alive,
Cabot.”

I looked up in
time to catch a fly ball, then throw it back to the coach. When I looked Taylor
was smiling.

Maybe she was
looking at me, after all.

The coach called
us in for batting practice. It took me a few tries to find the bat I wanted.
When I was up, I put a helmet on and stepped into the batter’s box. The first
pitch whizzed by me. It made a loud smack in the catcher’s mitt.

The catcher
laughed. “You’ll get used to those.”

He threw the ball
back, and I was able to hit the next three pitches over the pitcher’s head and
into center field. Couldn’t complain. I didn’t know if it was good enough, but
I did my best.

Cole patted the
seat next to him when I finished batting practice. “What made you try out for
baseball?”

Was he telling me
I sucked that badly? “I have to find an activity. This was the only sport
trying out today.”

Cole laughed.
“That’s fine. Hey, some of us are going to get burgers afterwards. You want to
join us?”

I had money. Mrs.
Dean had made sure I had some cash before leaving for school this morning. I
could actually do that. “Uh, sure. Will we know if we made the team by then?”

“You’ll get an
email tonight.”

I didn’t have
anything other than the school email and it wasn’t set up on my phone. I could
probably do that while we waited. Several more players batted before the tryout
was over.

Cole didn’t leave
my side. “We’re going to Joe’s Burgers. You need a ride?”

“I do. I don’t
have a car.”

Should I tell
someone that I was going out? My mother often didn’t care, but I had a feeling
that Mrs. Dean would. “Let me talk to someone, and I’ll be right back.”

I walked over to
where Taylor was giving instructions to her squad. I stood off to the side,
waiting for her to finish. She turned to me finally. “What?”

“I’m going out for
burgers with some guys. Should I tell you mother?”

“Send her a text.
She’ll want to know.”

She turned back to
her friends. I’d been dismissed.

Chapter
Four

Taylor

“Did you see that
Dylan kid? Trying out for baseball?”

I ignored what the
other girls said. I couldn’t decide how I felt. It really took guts to try out
for a sport your last year in high school. I’d been cheerleading since I was
seven, so I couldn’t imagine trying something else at this point.

I was Captain –
the height of my career. I might even cheer in college if I could figure out
where I wanted to go.

“Hey, Taylor,”
Cole said to me.

I refocused onto
him. He’d been talking to Dylan most of the afternoon. I was probably paying
more attention to the baseball tryouts than Cole was. “Hi, Cole.”

He was a good guy,
but not dateable. He was firmly in my friend zone, and I was a little hurt that
he was okay with it.

“I hear Dylan
lives with you.”

“Yeah. I guess
it’s temporary. How did he do?”

“I think okay, but
my opinion doesn’t matter. Coach has to choose.”

Barbie stalked
over. She had a crush on Cole. She had a crush on most boys. “Hi, Cole.”

At least today she
didn’t hang on him. “Hi, Barbie.” He turned back to me. “I have to go; the guys
are waiting. See you around.”

“Bye, Cole,”
Barbie called.

Even I could hear
the pout in her voice. She was disgusting. She had no taste. “We need to
practice that cheer one more time.”

“Oh, Taylor.
Haven’t we practiced enough?”

That whine cut
through me. Barbie always wanted to stop early. “Well, we could do the cheer or
we could do laps.”

“I hate running,”
she said.

“Then do the cheer
again. I need to see how we look for the competition,” I said.

Barbie stalked
back to the group and told them. They all groaned. I glanced back as Dylan was
walking with Cole toward his car. Guess they were bonding. I wasn’t sure how I
liked that.

Cole was in my
group of friends. This might give Dylan entry into my world. I didn’t know how
I felt about that. He might not be a resident of my house for long. Should I
give him a chance?

He did try out for
baseball. Even if he didn’t make it, I thought he and Cole would be probably
friends.

Cole got along
with everyone. I don’t know how that happened. How did a person not settle on a
group? Everyone had to be part of some group, except for those few kids on the
fringe of everything.

They’d be the ones
I’d read about years from now having shot people in a fast food joint.

I turned back to
my squad. They were looking at me to start them cheering.

“A little
distracted, Taylor?” Bailey said.

“No.”

“I think you’re
hot for Dylan.”

“What?”

I knew that I
wasn’t hot for Dylan. I just was curious about him. I wasn’t going to explain
that to them.

“Dylan and Taylor
sitting in a tree,” Bailey sang.

“What are you?
Four? Let’s go girls. We need to get this cheer down if we expect to win the
competition.”

I watched them go
through it. My part didn’t interact, so I could watch for a few times. “Bailey,
your cartwheel was crooked. Sally, you were one beat behind.”

Was this the first
time these girls were doing this?

“We’re tired,
Taylor,” Bailey said. “Can’t we quit for today.”

I looked around.
“Is that what everyone wants?”

“It’s almost six.
We’ve been doing this since three,” Barbie whined.

They did have a
point. “Okay. We can call it a day, but I expect everyone to work twice as hard
on Saturday.”

“The SATs are on
Saturday.”

“Not all day,” I
said.

These ladies were
not the fierce competitors I wanted them to be. I glanced back at the parking
lot as Cole drove out. Dylan was in the front seat of the car. Guess they were
friends.

“I think you’re
jealous that Dylan has made a friend,” Bailey said in my ear.

I spun around. “I
don’t care what Dylan does.”

“I think you do.
Come clean, Taylor. You like him.”

“I don’t even know
him,” I told her.

I didn’t. We
really hadn’t talked. Bailey left as I cleaned up our pom poms. I called my
dad. He arrived fifteen minutes later to pick me up.

“So, Dylan went
out with friends?” he said when I climbed in the car.

“Cole, a guy on
the baseball team.”

“So, you were
keeping track of him today?”

I rolled my eyes.
“No, Daddy. He just came up to ask me if he should let you guys know.”

“I’m glad he’s
making friends. Didn’t he have friends before?”

“I don’t know. I
never noticed him until you brought him home. Why did you bring him home?”

“Because we have
so much and he has so little.”

“Where did you
find him?”

“That doesn’t
matter, pumpkin. I just wish you would try to be nice to him. He’s had a rough
life.”

“I was impressed
that he tried out for baseball,” I said.

I didn’t want my
father to know that I’d actually ignored the boy all day. I really didn’t know
what to say to Dylan.

“That’s good. I
did ask him to find an activity. I think doing those activities keeps you out
of trouble. You have to budget your time better when you have things going on.”

“Is he taking the
SATs on Saturday?”

“I don’t know,
honey. I’ll have to ask him. He should. That would leave his options open.”

I nodded. He’d
been preaching my whole life about keeping options open. I wanted to believe
that if I chose something other than college, my dad would be okay with it, but
I wasn’t sure. My mother wanted me to go to college to meet a man. How
old-fashioned.

***

My homework
awaited me after dinner. Dylan came home from burgers with his friends and
disappeared into his room. He was at the other end of the second floor. My
parents’ room was on the third floor.

I liked having
that much privacy.

My father poked
his head into my room. “You need anything from me, cupcake? I’m going to bed. I
have to be out even earlier than usual tomorrow.”

“No, Daddy. I’m
fine. I might get some ice cream later.”

“Don’t stay up too
late.”

He kissed my cheek
then left me. As I turned back to my computer, I heard a knocking on my door. I
turned to find Dylan in my doorway.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” I said back.

We were still
strangers, and I have to say it was awkward to have a guy across the hall, even
if that hall was very long.

“I left my math
book at school. Can I borrow yours?”