Second Chance (40 page)

“
Focus
,
Dylan,” I say
.
I press my fingers against my temples and close my eyes

because
I feel a brain aneurysm coming on.

       
“
S
orry
.
Anyway, he showed up and invited himself to sit down.”

“And then he just happened to rub your leg,” I point out.

“What?”

“Why are you dressed like that?” I
ask
.
Dylan stares down at her jeans, which I’m displeased to see also fit
.
She’s never worn jeans like that around me
.
They actually show off her body
.
She looks up at me like I’m
insane
.

She explains Liz donated a bag of clothes to the dress-Dylan-fund
.
She tells me they’re all really nice and
they actually fit
.
I have to interrupt her again because
she’s
diverting
the conversation
.

“I don’t want you hanging around Travis
,” I say
.
“
He’s an asshole.”

“He’s your teammate
.
You shouldn’t talk about him like that.”

“If I ever see you alone with him again—
”

“Wait just one minute
,
Gray Thomas,”
she
holds her hand up to cut me off
.
“
If I recall correctly, it was you who passed me off as single right in front of Travis
,
so this isn’t exactly my fault
.
Or
his
.
I
t’s non
e
of your business what I do with Travis
Tooltime
Taylor
.”

I glare at her and take a deep breath
.
“
Toolshed
,”
I correct her
.
“Not
Tooltime
.”

“Second of all,
” she continues, “
you’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t
want our relationship
to go anywhere
.
You don’t love me
anymore. You’re over me
.
And that’s fine because I’ll
settle
for being your friend, if that’s what it takes to have
you in my life
.
But if you get to be single, then guess what, so do I.”

I bite my lips at this realization
.
I hate the idea of Dylan with other guys. It’s worse than anything
.
“Then what happened
last week
?”

She points a finger at me
.
“
You
told
me
it didn’t mean anything.
”

My heart’s beating so h
ard
I can feel it
pulse
in my neck
.
It meant everything
.
 

“I guess I was right,” I say
.
I turn and walk away and I hear Dylan call after me
,
but I ignore her
.
I turn down the block and take out my phone
. T
wo can play the jealousy game.

Revenge is on
.
So what if
Dylan
had one lousy date
?
Girls throw their phone numbers
at
me on a daily basis
, like I’m a lottery ticket for someone to win
.
I scroll down
my phone
list u
ntil I
find
Kari’s name
.
I send her a message asking if she wants to hang out tomorrow
.
 
 
 

She
responds in
under
ten seconds.

For sure!!
!

I look down at the message and t
ake
triple
exclamation points as a sign of mild
interest
.

What
are you
thinking?
s
he
asks
.

Erase
Dylan
from my mind
,
I want to type
.
That might sound odd
.
I consider what to do with her
and glance
at
the
tips of the
Sandia
mountains in the distance
.
I type
in the first idea that comes to my head.

Want to go on a hike
?
I text back
.

Can’t wait!!
s
he
replies.

I
slip my phone in my pocket a
nd take a long,
thankful
breath
,
like someone just
rescued me from a
near drowning incident
.

***

Three hours later,
at practice, I watch Travis out of the corner of my eye
.
He’s talking
to one of the assistant coaches,
his h
e
ad
leaned back and laughing.
I imagine he’s talking about Dylan and
he’s describing all
the kinky positions
they’re going
to practice in
bed
.
I stretch
my legs
on the warm grass and try to block him out, but ever
y time I
hear him laugh
I want to hurl
a ball at his gloating head
.
Miles is
sitting
n
ext to me
, watching
my
expression fluctuate between
annoyed
,
irate
and fuming with vengeance
.

“Dude, you alright?
”
Miles asks
.

I don’t answer
him
.
I just shake my head
.
When
Travis
sits down in the grass and starts stretching, I pick myself up and grab my glove and a ball.

“Travis,” I
say
as I walk towards him
.
He
squints up at me
and
throws me a cocky grin
.
“I need to warm my arm up. Y
ou want to throw?” I ask
.

“I should stretch first,” he says and I pick his glove up off the ground and toss it in his hands.

“Thanks,”
I say
.
He
hesitates for
a
second
,
but
then he
stands up
.
We
walk towards the outfield and
toss the ball back and forth
.
W
e start off with small talk and discuss our game this weekend in
San Diego
and some
of
the competition we’re going to
face
.
I pretend I care about
other player’s
RBIs
and
batting averages
.

Time
to digress.

“I w
ant you to stay away from Dylan,
”
I say
.
It’s not a question
.
It’s not a subtle hint
.
It’s a
warning
.
I whip the ball hard and Travis catches it and smiles another cocky grin
.
He knew this was coming and, as always, he’s
more than
happy to
encourage a
fight.