Page 200 of Out of Left Field

SQUEEZE PLAY

OUT OF LEFT FIELD SERIES

PROLOGUE

Seth

My mom always said when you ignore the Universe it will yell back at you until you have no choice but to listen. I thought she was being, well, her. Mom was a free spirit. Carefree and happy, but also certain the Universe was full of signs. She sang, cooked, and consulted her tarot cards.

But she was right.

And I learned that the hard way.

My only hope was that I could convince my friends to learn this lesson faster and easier than I did.

But I wasn’t betting on it.

“What do you mean it’s jammed?” Everett sputtered for the third time. Like the answer was going to change somehow.

Everett Anson, Willa Cooper, and I had been the best of friends since the first week of college. But about a year ago I began to suspect that Everett and Willa’s friendship might be more than friendly.

“I’m so sorry, sir. Ma’am. We’ve never had this happen before,” Kyle, the young and earnest assistant on our shark feeding expedition had turned bright red with a combination of embarrassment and frustration as he tried to free my two best friends from the cage.

What Kyle didn’t understand was that this wasn’t his fault. This was the Universe screaming at two very stubborn people who utterly refused to acknowledge they had caught feelings.

The evidence was pretty clear to me. Exhibit One: they couldn’t stand to be apart. When one was out of town the other turned into a mopey, sad shadow of themselves. Like their entire reason for existing had vanished.

Exhibit Two: they touched. A lot. We all did, but this was different. Sure Willa was as likely to sit on my knee as Everett’s, or accept a hug or cuddle into my side, but with Everett her hands lingered. And his…well, they went places my hands never would.

But Exhibit Three was the kicker for me. They made each other smile bigger and brighter than any other person in their lives.

They were in love.

They just didn’t know it.

And about a month ago the Universe got tired of waiting around for them to figure it out and started trapping them together.

First, the lock on the library study room they were using to finish their senior project broke, and they were stuck in there for two hours while they waited for the janitor to fix it.

Then two weeks ago they got stuck in an elevator after class. Just the two of them. Last week, after our graduation party, Willa’s car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Everett was the only other passenger.

And now they were locked in the shark cage, soaking wet, after being the last two people to go down and feed the sharks.

If that wasn’t the Universe screaming at them to realize they were meant for each other, I didn’t know what was.

And I said that as the person who ignored the very obvious signs that I was in a bad relationship for almost a year. If I’d listened I’d probably be fine. Instead I ignored the screaming from the Universe until Lori—my ex—ripped out my heart, tore it into pieces in front of me, smashed it to smithereens, and then pranced off into the sunset with another man.

I was a fool. I felt like a fool. That was what burned the worst.

And I refused to let my friends fall into this same trap.

“You know, this has been happening a lot,” I pointed out.

“We’re cursed!” Willa ranted as she wrung out her long, light brown hair.

The boat rocked gently with the waves. I had my feet set wide to keep my balance, but Willa toppled over. Everett wrapped her up in a hug. “We’re not cursed. We’re just having a run of bad luck.”

The two of them always looked a little comical together. Everett was a pitcher. He had broad shoulders, long arms, and was on the tall end of the spectrum. But Willa was a tiny thing. She made Ev look like a grouchy, dark-haired ogre.