Page 19

CHAPTER 19

CAMDEN

J enner Greene told me that he loved me and it was like all of my teenage dreams come true. When he’d said it, I’d thought my heart might’ve jumped right out of my chest. Those were words that I’d wanted him to say the night that I’d said them to him.

But he hadn’t.

He’d broken my heart because he’d known he couldn’t love anyone yet after having his heart crushed. This probably shouldn’t have hurt to hear him say, but he was a grown man, allowed to have loved someone else. He was also right about the age thing, though I wouldn’t have seen it back then. Now that I was an adult, that part made sense where if hadn’t before.

Yet right now, I hadn’t said I loved him back. Maybe I didn’t need to. Would he be waiting for me to say it again?

In all of my supposed hate for Jenner, maybe deep down, I hadn’t loved him the whole time. Who was I kidding? Of course I had. No matter how much I’d wanted the feeling to pass, all I’d done was stuff it down.

Well, I wasn’t doing that anymore and since I hadn’t said it to him, I was about to show him .

I was still in his lap, so this time… I kissed him . He wrapped his arms around me tightly and soon, the tacos were forgotten.

We were there, in his living room, both naked in record time. Then I sunk down onto him and squeezed my eyes closed at the feeling of him filling me. Jenner wasn’t comically large, but he was the most that I thought I could take and from this new angle? Anymore would’ve been too much.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I told him, slightly out of breath.

He furrowed his brows. “Feels like you do.”

His hands were wrapped around my hips as I burrowed my head against his neck. This was a little embarrassing. “I don’t. Help me.” At least he didn’t protest.

Those large hands guided my movements until I got the hang of what he wanted and the way he had me moving made my orgasm washing over me in minutes. But I couldn’t stop. Not until… he finished.

Then I was there, pressed against him like a boneless cat unable to move. Jenner just held me and didn’t tell me we had to get up. This might been a kind of quick-and-dirty thing between us just now, but there were a lot of different kinds of sex and with him… I wanted to experience them all.

Finally, I lifted my head. “I should go use the bathroom. No UTIs, please.”

He chuckled and leaned to the side. When he righted us, he had his T-shirt in his hand. Clearly, he remembered that I preferred to do the walk clothed. After dropping it over my head, I did just that.

While I was in the bathroom taking care of business, he tapped lightly on the door. “Are you still hungry?”

“No,” I called out and when I was done I came back to the living room to see that he’d cleaned up and was locking the front door. “What’re we doing?”

“Bed.” He pointed toward the stairs.

I guess I was staying the night.

Jenner quickly used the bathroom then came out and put on a pair of boxer briefs before climbing into his bed next to me. I’d been sitting there under the blanket in his T-shirt waiting. But he pulled me down into his chest so that we were very snuggly.

“You left your bra and T-shirt here on Thursday,” he said in the dark. Some moonlight shone through the edges of the window, but otherwise, there wasn’t any light. It wasn’t even particularly late yet, but he’d have to get up early for his day game tomorrow.

“What?” I pushed up and rested my chin on his chest. “I did what now?”

“You left quickly,” he explained. “In my T-shirt.” Right, yes. I’d actually known that because I’d slept in that shirt last night. “But you left your shirt and bra in the living room.”

I slapped a hand over my face to hide the embarrassment. “I can’t believe I did that. What if my brother had come over before you noticed it? He’d ask whose it was, right? You’d lie to him, right? ”

“This right here is exactly why I’m talking to your brother,” he told me as he ran his hand down my arm. “No. I don’t want to lie to him. Yes he would’ve asked.”

I groaned. “Even if he knows we’re…”

“Together.”

“Right. That doesn’t mean either he or I will want him to see my bra lying on your floor.”

His quiet chuckle rumbled in his chest where my cheek was pressed. “Well, keep your clothes off my floor, then.”

We were quiet momentarily, but then I told him, “You’re right.”

“What?” he asked so loudly that I jumped. Asshole.

“I said, you’re right. Calm down. We do have to tell Silas, but it’s the last thing I want to do.”

“I know. I’m going to do it so don’t worry about it.”

We were silent again and soon his breathing evened out so that I could have a tiny, little internal freak-out about the fact that I was lying in Jenner Greene’s bed after having sex with him a second time. What life was this?

Soon enough, that freak-out ended and I fell asleep pressed against his side.

In the morning, before opening my eyes, I stretched my entire body, allowing the minor sore muscles to remind me of what I’d done last night. Actually, it’d been so long since I’d had sex before this week that I could still be sore from two nights ago as well. These weren’t muscles that got used very often .

“Morning,” his deep voice said. Now, it should’ve come from beside me, but it wasn’t that close.

Slowly, I forced my eyes open to find him sitting on the corner of the bed putting his shoes on.

“What?” I propped myself on my elbows. “Did you have an alarm set?”

“Of course I did. It’s a day game.”

Though if he was anything like my brothers, he had one even when it was a night game. Their schedules were packed.

“Right,” I said, squinting against the light. “You should’ve woken me. I don’t want to hold you up.”

He quickly used his body weight to lower me back onto the mattress. “I would’ve woken you before I left.”

“But I need to get dressed and—”

“You can just lock the door when you leave.” He leaned down and kissed me quickly, but I wasn’t going to let it turn into anything. I hadn’t brushed my teeth last night or this morning after tacos? Not a chance his tongue was going in my mouth.

I supposed that was a reminder to put a toothbrush in my purse.

Jenner lifted off me so that I could sit up. “You coming to the game today?”

“I don’t know.” But I couldn’t stop watching him move around the room. Dreamy didn’t begin to describe him. “I usually hang with Harlowe and the baby for the games these days.”

“Right. ”

“But she’s said she wants to try taking Kelsie to a game. See how it works out. Get out more in general, so maybe she’ll want to since I can be there to help.”

“Talk her into it.” He leaned across the bed again, bringing his face close to mine. “I’d like you to be there if you can be.” Nodding slowly, I quickly wet my lips right before he kissed me again. “Just lock the front door when you leave. Do you want the alarm code to set it or do you want to text me when you leave can set it from my phone?”

“Text you,” I told him, but I was a little confused. Why didn’t he want me out of his house before he left? What if I went snooping through all of his things? Not that I was going to, but a lot of women would have.

“I don’t care if you look around my stuff,” he said, as if he could read my mind.

“I’m not going to.”

He shrugged. “I’m just saying. I have nothing to hide.”

“Good to know.” Because he’d grabbed his duffle bag to take to the field, I hopped up out of bed, realizing that I was still wearing his shirt from last night.

Maybe that was what I should wear to the game.

“All right. I have to go,” he finally said. “You coming here after the game?”

My chest heated, but I tried to shrug it off. “If you want me to.”

He snorted. “It’s an eleven-day road trip coming up. Fuck yes, I want you here the night before I leave.”

“Then I’ll be here. ”

After he was gone, I hurriedly got dressed, this time not forgetting anything I was wearing, and headed home. Once I was out in my car, I sent him a text so that he could turn his alarm on. At home, I showered, blow-dried my hair, and put on clean clothes.

The thing about being twenty-two was that my parents didn’t ask where I’d been last night, which was good. Because I wouldn’t tell them. But they were both sitting at the small table in the kitchen when I went down there for some breakfast.

“Hey, honey,” Mom said as soon as she saw me. Mom was taller than me but not tall like the guys and she was thin with a very chic haircut.

“Good morning.”

“You going to the game today?” Dad asked. He’d calmed down a whole lot since his fight with Brooks and if I didn’t know better, I would’ve said he was completely in love with Kelsie. Maybe being a grandpa would take the asshole out of him because he knew with utter certainty that Brooks would cut him from their lives if he didn’t change. Then he’d lose Mom because nothing was going to stand in the way of her relationship with her granddaughter.

“I’m not sure. I usually watch them at Brooks’s house with Harlowe, but I’m going to see if she wants to go. Take the baby to her first game.”

Mom smiled widely. “Well, you can have your dad’s tickets. We’re not going today. Today is a day without baseball. ”

Mom had the owner’s suite so it never made sense as to why Dad kept his season tickets. Though the guys and I had used those season tickets more than he did. I guess he did sometimes go to the game with friends and they wanted to be closer to the field. I didn’t know but he kept them and said he’d never get rid of them.

My mouth dropped open. “Do those exist?”

She snickered. “They do now.”

It seemed that Brooks’s fight with my dad, which had almost became physical, had inspired changes in a lot of areas.

“Perfect. I hope she wants to. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day.”

“I hope she does too, though I’m sorry I’ll miss the baby’s first game.”

Dad cleared his throat. “Well, if they go, maybe we could go for just a little bit.”

Mom narrowed her eyes on him. “Maybe.” Then she snapped her fingers. “Oh. Kimberly from the Youth Center called. We talked about her fundraising goals and one of the things she wants to do with the money is make sure that any of the kids who go there can attend camp if they want to. Or at least money won’t be the thing stopping them. I told her that we’d cover scholarships for any and all kids at the center.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? I just got the information for two of them.”

She nodded. “Yeah. We can afford it.” Mom and Dad could more than afford it and the camp was a write-off for them, anyway. Don’t get me wrong. Mom cared about the mission, but it was a tax write-off for sure. “I told her you’d come by sometimes soon to get the names of the kids for this year, but we’re going to set up something so she can just submit who wants to come by a certain date going forward.”

“I can do that. They’re working today, but that’s on the fundraiser, so I’ll pop in between exams and studying this week.”

“As long as you’re sure it won’t be too much for you to juggle.”

“I’m sure.” I shook my head. “It’ll be two minutes.”

When I left my house, I was wearing skinny jeans and tennis shoes, along with Jenner’s T-shirt from last night. It had been clean when I’d put it on and still was. Then I grabbed a hoodie in case it got breezy. We were in late April now, so the weather was warming but could still be chilly. Then I headed over to Harlowe’s.

Brooks had already left when I’d gotten there, so I asked, “Do you want to take Kelsie to the game?”

“Yes,” she said right away, her face popping with excitement as if this was the first time she’d ever been asked to a game. I guess staying home with a baby for weeks took a toll. “I was going to ask you but didn’t want to be a pain.”

“Please. You’re going to strap that baby to you and she’s going to sleep the whole time. If you get warm, we’ll strap her to me.”

“I think today would be great. It’s not supposed to get too warm.” But then she eyed me up and down. “Whose shirt are you wearing? ”

“How do you know it’s not mine?” Pointless question, to be honest.

“Uh, I know what you buy. Plus, it’s way too big for you. I can see you have it tied in the back.”

Yeah. She would’ve noticed those details. “It’s Jenner’s. I slept in it last night and thought I’d wear it today.” But my heart raced like I was worried about her reaction.

“‘Slept in it last night’?” she asked with more excitement than she should have.

“Yes. Do you think my brothers will notice? They don’t know yet.”

She snorted. “Your brothers probably wouldn’t notice if you tattooed ‘Property of Jenner Greene’ on your forehead. They’d think you got oil on you or something.”

We both broke out with laughter. She was right. I mean she wasn’t because they’d definitely notice that, but she was right in that they wouldn’t notice much else.

“You have to tell them, though, right? I mean, if it’s more than one night?”

“Let’s get the baby and you ready. We can talk on the way to the game.”

While Harlowe went to get ready, I packed the smaller diaper bag for Kelsie. Then I packed the bigger one. We’d take both but drop the big one off in the family room, where it’d be fine. The small one was for us to have during the game. The big one was too bulky.

Then I got Kelsie dressed in an outfit that I’d bought her. It was too cute for words with the faux denim jeans. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so I put the jacket in the small bag. Since she’d be pressed against Harlowe the whole time, I doubted she’d need it.

Then we were on our way.

It was amazing how good Harlowe had gotten at using that long fabric to wrap her baby around her. She did this in the family room, so her hands were free otherwise. I took the small diaper bag, which also had Harlowe’s wallet and everything else she’d need in it, and flung it over me like I did my crossbody.

The guys were doing their stretches when we got to our seats. Did I watch Jenner extra-long? Yeah. I did, but no longer than I had before because even when I’d hated him, I’d still appreciated the view. It wasn’t until they were jogging to the dugout that my brothers noticed we were here and waved, which caught Jenner’s attention.

He didn’t wave. He just smiled and wet his bottom lip, which alone flooded heat through my body. Then he pinched his jersey between his thumb and finger, pulling it away from his body twice, maybe to show he recognized the shirt I was wearing. I fought a grin and shook my head.

“So you spend last night with him…” Harlowe said, being careful not to say his name, which I appreciated.

“He wants to be with me,” I told her while glancing around to make sure no one was paying any attention to me .

“Clearly. He was telling you he knows you’re wearing his shirt, wasn’t he?”

I nodded. “I think so. But I worry my brothers will be dicks about this.”

She snorted and stretched her legs out in front of her. “Well, they absolutely will be. But Brooks has no room to talk. Sister’s best friend here.”

“Do you think Silas will see this as some kind of betrayal?”

“Who cares?” she said too loudly. “Fuck ’em.” I gave a quick look around to see if there were any kids whose parents were going to admonish her. There weren’t. “You have to do what makes you happy. I worried I’d lose you as a friend, too. But I had to have faith that we cared more about each other than you’d care that I was with your brother. Not to mention, Silas is with his other best friend’s sister right now. He doesn’t have any room to talk, either.”

“That’s true.”

“Besides… you and Jenner have something. I can feel it. After the way he’s watched you for years—”

“What?” Now I was the one talking too loudly. Luckily, the park was moderately noisy, even though the game hadn’t started.

She shrugged. “I saw it, but you always insisted you hated ballplayers, so there was no reason to mention it.”

Well, hell, I wish she had. Maybe this could’ve all been hashed out a long time ago, though I didn’t think I would’ve been ready, anyway .

And Harlowe was right. Why would my brothers want to stop me from doing what made me happy? And I thought Jenner could make me really happy.

Maybe we just wouldn’t go public right away. Maybe I could convince him not to tell Silas unless—oh, god—maybe he already had.

No. They were acting normal, so he couldn’t have yet.

But Jenner also didn’t want to hide. So maybe I could just convince him to let me talk to my brothers first.

Yeah. That was a sound plan.

The Knights won the game that afternoon, though I’d been so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t remember much of it. Once we got back to Harlowe’s house, I got a text from Jenner asking if I was coming over.

“Jenner wants me to come to his house,” I told her right after she’d put Kelsie in her basinet. The baby had been so good throughout the game.

“Booty call?”

I snickered. “Do people still call it that?”

She shrugged. “How would I know? I’m basically an old, married lady at this point.” Though she wasn’t married yet.

“I don’t think so. He said earlier that he wants to see me before they leave in the morning.”

“Right.” She sighed. “Eleven-day road trip.”

The worry in her voice was clear. This would be the longest that Brooks would be gone since they’d had the baby .

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’ve got you. I have two exams this week and then I’m done with school completely. I’ll even move in here temporarily.”

She gave me a tight hug. “Thank you.”

“Just not tonight,” I told her when she’d released me. “I have plans.”

“Yeah, you do.” Her laughter followed me out of the house.

It was weird to go to Jenner’s again. How different my life had become in the past few days.

While it still didn’t make total sense to me, I was going to embrace it while I had it.