Page 28

CHAPTER 27

CAMDEN

I t was the sound of the baby crying that woke me up. Harlowe shushing her would’ve been comforting to me except that now that I was awake, I wouldn’t be going back to sleep. Even though I could hear Harlowe’s quick footsteps as she tried to hurry past my door.

Checking my phone, I found that it was nine in the morning. That was fine. I needed to get up, anyway.

I’d spent the night here because why not?

Brooks had come home from the game and found me on the couch talking to Harlowe and he’d known something was up. I’d cried some stupid tears of frustration.

Why couldn’t men just understand like women did?

Harlowe immediately knew where I was coming from and agreed with me that Jenner had dismissed my concerns—my feelings. Yet, he couldn’t see it.

So frustrating.

I wasn’t going to cry today because I wasn’t as frustrated.

After a quick stop in the bathroom to brush my teeth, I headed down to find Harlowe. She was in the kitchen making Kelsie a bottle while Brooks held the baby and did the little popcorn bounce thing.

At least my brother was turning out to be a good dad .

“Morning,” he said when he saw me first.

“Good morning. Thanks for letting me sleep here.”

“Anytime.” His house had always been open to me; actually, all of theirs would be. But his was most important now that it was where my best friend lived.

Brooks had been angry last night, even though he didn’t know what had happened. Not fully. He’d heard pieces of it and knew I was upset, but that was about it. And we hadn’t talked about it at all.

Once he’d left, early, because it was a day game, Harlowe and I were able to talk again because if there was one thing about the two of us, we were going to talk about it all.

“So…” I started.

“‘So’ what?” She glanced up from her seat on the couch where she was giving Kelsie her lunch bottle and then she’d fall asleep.

“You didn’t tell me how it went.” She still didn’t understand what I meant, so I let out a put-upon sigh. “You were cleared by the doctor…”

“Oh.” She snickered. “I wasn’t sure you wanted to hear about that.”

“You would tell me if you weren’t with my brother and I am going to be fine since all of my closest people are sleeping with my brothers. I’m just going to pretend he’s not my brother.”

She furrowed her brows and shook her head. “I don’t know if any of that made sense.”

“Just tell me. Was it all right? The idea of having sex after pushing a baby out of me is terrifying, so I need to know from you in case I ever do it. ”

“It was… a little weird the first time. I was tense. Worried that it was going to hurt. I didn’t even have stitches, but still. She literally came out of my vagina.”

“Exactly. I couldn’t imagine.” I took in a sharp breath. “Can you imagine the poor women who tear all the way back? Yikes.”

“No. No, I can’t.”

“So it was weird?” I prodded. Anything to not talk about Jenner and my hurt feelings because honestly, having let my feelings get hurt like that so easily had me feeling like a kid.

“Yeah. It kind of was at first, but Brooks took it slow. Made sure I was very, very ready before taking the big plunge, so it wasn’t bad. Anything weird was on my part and because I was tense.”

“That’s good. I’m glad he was gentle with you.”

“The second time was much, much better.”

“Good to know.”

We were quiet for a moment before Harlowe put the baby on her chest to burp her. “Are we avoiding the main topic now?”

I groaned. “I was trying to avoid it forever.”

“Hey.” She held up one hand because the other was patting Kelsie’s back. “We don’t have to talk about it at all if you don’t want to.”

“No. I do. It’s the only way to work through my own feelings, right?” I said. Harlowe gave me an encouraging nod. “I just can’t seem to get over this feeling that he just brushed me off. Like before. Like he didn’t even really hear what I was saying.”

“I don’t think that was it,” she said .

“What else could it be?”

Right then, my phone rang and it was Jenner. Tensely, I glanced to my friend, who shook her head.

“I should probably talk to him, right?”

“No,” Harlowe countered. “He can talk to voicemail. You’re going to hash it out tonight. It doesn’t need to be now.”

Agreeing with her, I let the call go to voicemail. “Do you think I’m being too sensitive?”

“No, Camden. Even if you were, your feelings are valid. You feel how you feel and part of being in a relationship is understanding that you sometimes aren’t going to understand where the other person’s feelings are coming from. You have to talk about it to figure out, which you tried to do. He kind of cut you off from the sound of it.”

Well, that took me aback and I raised both my brows. “Wow. Look at you being a relationship expert.”

She shrugged then stood to take the baby to the basinet. “I’ve had to become one. Brooks and I were kind of thrown into this all at once.”

“Neither of you really wanted a relationship before. Not just with each other, but period.”

“People change, right?” I supposed they did. “I’m going to listen to the message he left.”

Harlowe gave me a thumbs-up before she headed toward the kitchen. I had no idea what she was going to do in there, but most likely, she wanted to give me time to listen privately, even though I’d tell her exactly what he said .

“Hey, baby. I know we’re going to talk tonight, but I couldn’t wait until then to tell you how sorry I am that I dismissed your feelings instead of reassuring you. It’s not a mistake I’ll ever make again. I’m not trying to excuse anything, but in my mind, I thought I was being reassuring telling you that you have nothing to worry about. I realize now that I have to show you. You absolutely deserve someone who listens and I’m going to be that person for you. I’ll see you tonight.”

My heart clenched then threatened to set itself on fire. His words were good. Exactly what I’d needed to hear. Now I just had to convince myself because it was clearly an issue I had. All the uncertainty I still had with him was on me. His behavior was on him.

But I had to be on guard because the last time I’d put myself out there and gotten hurt, I’d also gotten stabbed by a tree.

Since then, I’d dated, had sex, had a couple of men I’d seen regularly for a while, but that night with Jenner when I’d been seventeen had scared me away from a relationship. Caring about someone so much put your heart at risk.

But I thought Jenner was worth it.

Since we were talking later, I didn’t respond to him now. Besides, they were likely at batting practice, anyway. Plus, this gave me the day to get my own shit straight.

Harlowe and I watched the game like we did most of the time. Though going forward, I thought it’d be good for both of us to focus a little bit more on having lives of our own and not letting every moment revolve around baseball.

We cheered—quietly—at Brooks’s home run. We even kept our voices down when the ump made a bullshit call making Jenner out at second when he’d clearly been safe—why the manager didn’t ask for a review was a mystery to me—but it was still fun. It wasn’t even hard to watch Jenner doing his job.

Each game, there were some after-interviews on the field. Most of the time, it was whoever had won the game or lost the game. If a player had made a bunch of errors or hit a walk-off home run. I didn’t know why, but today, it was Jenner.

His hair was a mess when he took his cap off to wipe the sweat on his forehead away with his arm as he approached the reporter.

“Jenner Greene today was a tough game all around,” the reporter began. “Do you think there’s more pressure on all of you, given that you’re a young team who will be the defending world champions?”

Jenner gave his great smile. “It was tough. Everyone came to play today and yeah… There’s pressure, but nothing our team can’t handle.”

“Does it help that you grew up playing baseball with the Briggses? Is that part of what makes this team so good right now?”

Now Jenner chuckled. “I think it’s helpful. We’ve played together so long that we know what the others are likely to do.” He shrugged. “Of course that’s helpful, but the entire team is driven and ready to go for another series run. ”

“All right,” the reporter whose name I hadn’t even caught said. “Last question. The baseball season can be a grind, with travel and long hours. What keeps you focused during tough stretches?"

“Yeah, It’s a grind—mentally and physically,” he told the audience. “I’m lucky to have a great support system. My family’s always been there for me, and my girlfriend grew up around the game, so she’s definitely there to share moments with. It’s a tough schedule, but having her support keeps me focused and motivated."

“Well, thanks for your time.” The reporter turned back to the screen and the shot tightened on him, which meant that Jenner was on his way to the clubhouse.

Harlowe was on the couch with me, watching. “Cocky,” she said. “I like it.”

I furrowed my brows. “What?”

“He said his girlfriend keeps him motivated. He’s kind of cocky, given that you’re in a fight right now, but I like it. I like it when a man is sure he can fix a mess he created.”

I scoffed. “Harlowe, we didn’t define our relationship in those terms.”

She rolled her eyes and dropped her head back, like I was exhausting her. “Sure, you didn’t. Like me, you wouldn’t. But he clearly just did.”

“Girlfriend,” I mumbled, like it was a foreign word.

“Stop. It’s just a label. No reason to freak out.”

“I’m not freaking out. You’re freaking out.” She snickered because I was absolutely freaking out on the inside a little. Jenner was the only person I’d ever wanted to call me that. In fact, the idea that he was sort of claiming me on television warmed me. Maybe it shouldn’t have and maybe I was all kinds of wrong for liking it, but here we were.

Harlowe and I were on the floor in the living room playing with Kelsie when Brooks came through the door.

“Good game,” I told him without a greeting.

“Thanks.” He snickered before leaning down to kiss Harlowe then dropped to the floor so he could see his baby girl. “Hey, pretty girl,” he said in his girl dad voice. But then he sat up and folded his legs the way Harlowe and I were sitting. “You should know there was a little dustup in the clubhouse today.”

My eyebrows shot up, but my gaze locked with Harlowe’s. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “I was a little pissy, which turned into Silas going after Jenner. Props to him, though, because Jenner didn’t move, but Silas also didn’t get to him. Urban and Cobb got between them.”

“What? Why?”

Brooks’s lips pressed into a line as he looked at me as if I were silly. “Why? Because I told them you were crying on my couch last night.”

“Ugh,” I groaned.

“ Brooks ,” Harlowe admonished him.

“I was frustrated. That’s it,” I told him. “If you remember, Harlowe hid for, like, three days from you because she was all up in her feelings.”

“Uh, we don’t need to talk about that,” Harlowe countered, but there was humor in her voice .

“I’m just saying. Men frustrate us sometimes and sometimes we show it. You shouldn’t have said anything.”

Unbothered, Brooks shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you. I see my baby sister crying over some guy, I’m going to say something.”

I rolled my eyes. “You just made things worse. It’s an argument. There’re a few things we need to figure out, but it’s not like he dumped me. We didn’t break up. All you did was make things worse between Silas and Jenner and me and Jenner.”

“That wasn’t my intention, but I don’t care, Camden. He had to be reminded what’s going to happen if he hurts you.”

I pushed up to my feet, anger burning a hot path through me. “No.” Those two stood as well. Brooks grabbed Kelsie and was holding her to him. “No. That’s not how this works. In the same way that I stay out of your relationship with Harlowe, you stay out of mine.”

Brooks gave a humorless chuckle. “You don’t stay out of my relationship with Harlowe. Not even a little bit. My guess is you’ve already talked about us having sex after the baby.”

Harlowe winced. “Well, he’s got us there.”

He kind of did. Though I hadn’t gotten into the middle of their arguments as of yet, but I supposed if I thought Brooks was doing Harlowe dirty, I would. “Fine. You’re right. We’re all up in each other’s business way too much, but in the future, could you at least wait until Jenner deserves a reminder before doing it? This is as much my fault as it is his.”

“Why is that?”

“I—” But my phone rang and Jenner’s face popped up. It was the picture I’d set to come up whenever he called.

“Take the call,” Harlowe ordered.

I scowled. “Not with him in here.”

She snickered but used her much-smaller-than-him body to push him toward the kitchen so that I could be alone to answer the call. As they were leaving, I said, “You can explain why it’s half my fault.” Then I answered the phone.

“Hey. Good game today,” I told him, sounding happier than I had yesterday, even to my own ear.

“Yeah, thanks. So, we can talk? Can we do this in person?”

After quickly wetting my lips, I said, “Maybe we should forget about it.”

“Forget about what?” His voice was full of panic. “Us?”

“No. Not us. That this whole thing happened. I’m starting to think I overreacted and—”

“No, Camden. You didn’t overreact and I think we should work through it so it doesn’t pop up later.”

I groaned quietly. “See the problem with doing it in person is that I’m going to get sucked in just looking at you.”

He chuckled. “I know that feeling, but we should still talk. I have to grab some food. Do you want to meet me? ”

“How about after?” That’d give me plenty of time to work out my thoughts. Though I’d been doing that for almost two days.

He sighed, sounding both relieved that I’d agreed to it and annoyed that he had to wait. “Yeah. OK. After, but I’m going to be quick.”

“Just what every woman wants to hear.”

At least we both laughed. We could’ve gone to his house, but I suggested the park near there. It was a nice evening and I thought being somewhere kind of public would mean we’d actually talk. Not that we were uncontrollable horn dogs. I just thought it was an easier way to focus given that I didn’t think we’d been at his house without having sex since the first time.

We could work this out. My insecurities and his dismissiveness didn’t have to be a relationship-ender.