Page 7 of Stalked By the Third Baseman

“Wait, they do? How?”

“They, umm… play baseball together.” I blinked.

“They play together? You said he was some frat guy.”

“Babe, no offense, but if anyone brings up baseball around you, you get squirmier than a rolly polly.”

“That’s not—” I started to shake my head and sighed. “I’m sorry. I know this… fight with Adam hasn’t been easy on you, and I hate that you’re stuck in the middle.”

“Oh, I’m not in the middle of shit.” She laughed, then turned around to get settled back on the couch, putting her bowl of popcorn on her lap. “I talk to him. I live with you. And I tell the two of you I think you’re both being big dummies because this stupid fight isn’t a fight.”

“How do you figure?” I frowned. When she glanced at me, there was something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before. She opened and quickly shut her mouth, shaking her head and turning around.

“Nothing.”

“That wasn’t nothing. Talk to me.” She turned and tilted her head.

“You two belong together. You’re in love with him.” She said the last words with a gentleness I felt in my heart. I was just about to deny it when she shook her head slowly. “Don’t say you don’t love him. You do. And that’s okay. It’s okay that you’re in love with your best friend.”

“No, it’s not,” I whisper-shouted and then pressed my lips together.

“Hey, it wasn’t you admitting I’m right, but not too far off.” She winked. “And he loves you,” she added. This wasn’t the first time she’d said that, not even the hundredth, in the last year.

“Babe, if he felt anything close to that, he would have talked to me.”

“When would that happen?” she asked. “You turn and run away anytime he’s within viewing distance.” I opened my mouth to say that wasn’t true, but I couldn’t lie outright like that. “I think he just wants you to spread your wings, live a little before you two somehow find your way back to each other, so you don’t feel like he’s somehow trapped you.” I blinked.

Like his dad did his mom? I wondered. No. That was crazy! Adam was nothing like that horrible man!

“Roxie, that’s a sweet idea, and in a book, I would buy it time and time again. But let’s be real. Anytime I’ve seen him at the bar in town or parties on campus, he always has two to three girls hanging off him, all of them fighting for his attention.”

“And?”

“And… I can’t compete with that.” I sighed.

“See, that right there”—she pointed at me—“is why you need to go on a date with Trevor.”

“What? Make that make sense.”

“You don’t get that at the end of the day, Callie Villa, you’re the prize. You’re the one he wants, whom he has always wanted. Those girls might be sniffing around, but you know he doesn’t give them the time of day.”

“Maybe that’s because he gives them the time of night?” I said out loud. The image of him with girl after girl tangled up in the sheets of his bed made my stomach roil and stupid unwarranted anger heat in my veins.

“Oh, please!” Rox laughed. “I hate to tell you this, Cal, but Adam is probably as much of a virgin as you are, honey bunny.”

“I doubt that,” I muttered under my breath. “He’s all… blah”. I waved my hands around. “And I’m just… me.”

I’d never really had a problem with the way I looked. I knew I was short and curvy. My curves never went away, no matter how hard I hit the gym or how many calories I counted. I was comfortable in my skin, but compared to my tatted-up ripped best friend? A guy who could literally have anyone he wanted? I’d seen the girls who threw themselves at him. The ones who cornered him outside the locker rooms or in dark corners at the parties we’d gone to together. They wore heels and dresses like they were born in them, whereas I was born to wear flats. I swallowed the bitter taste away.

“You’re gorgeous and, once again, I hate to sound like a parrot and repeat myself, but you should go on a date with Trevor because then maybe you would get it.”

“That I’m this prize?” I asked.

“You’re the shit, Callie Villa. You just have to see that and really believe it.” Again, not the first time Rox had said this, or something like it. Before I could say anything, she kept speaking. “You told him where you work at the gym on campus, right?” she asked, semi-confusing me.

“Who?” My brows bunched.

“Trevor.” I rolled my eyes and shrugged.