Igniting the Wild Sparks (4 page)

“I saw you talking to Val. She’s my boss. She’s nice.”

He marginally nods. “I know. You talk about her a lot. I remember her. She is nice.” Well, that’s a revelation since he only went to one of my office parties. He softly asks, “How are you feeling?”
What?

Perplexed by his question, I abruptly stop maiming my shirt. “Why are you asking
me
that?” Taking a step closer to him, I’m now able to see into his sunglasses. His eyes drop to my stomach.

Oh
.

I automatically answer, “I’m fine, but maybe I should be asking
you
that.”

He sharply inhales and looks away from me with a faint nod. “Right. I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t think you were going to call me back.”

Looking over to my coworkers, I notice Shasta watching us. I really want to rip her hair out. Returning to Finn, I calmly reply, “I was waiting for you to call
me
back. So, you’re not apologizing for drinking, just that I caught you drunk?”

He mutters at the ground, “I don’t need permission to drink, do I?”

“No, but I don’t like you drinking alone, particularly when you’re upset.”

He darkly chuckles. “Next time, I’ll make sure to call a drinking buddy. It’s not like
you
can join me.” He tilts his head to me and again looks at my stomach. I cross my wrists in front of me in a lame effort to hide and he again focuses his attention on the field.

I sigh and pivot, moving closer to lean on his arm, and he instantly tenses, forcing my heart to sink further. “Finn, I’m worried about you.”

Observing Brandon at bat, he weakly shrugs and restlessly rubs his jaw. “Why? I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” I stare at his profile and wonder how he’s really feeling about me.

Brusquely, Finn drops his foot down to the ground, turning his back from the field as he crosses his arms. As I look over my shoulder, he takes a deep breath and I watch him mumble to the wooded area now before us, “What do you want me to say? It’s hard being here when you don’t want me to be.”

I twirl around, again pressing my arm against his. “I do want you here.” I look up at his unsmiling face. “I miss you so much, Sparks.”  Suddenly, he profoundly exhales and I feel his shoulders slump.
“What?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing.” Swinging his head to look at my face, his brown eyes plead with me through his sunglasses. We stare at each other, needing to say things, but even if we were alone, we wouldn’t know how. I wish he’d tell me what he really needs from me. I want to be his every desire without all the hassle I’ve been giving him.

His tongue flicks over his lips and his eyes continue to search mine. Is he going to say something? Is he going to tell me he’s had it with me? Is he going to beg me to put on some makeup and try to look less like the trash found in a storm drain? If my possible pregnancy hasn’t already, then my ghastly appearance should scare him away from ever wanting to touch me again.

“Hadrosaur, you’re up!” I jerk my head to see Rod striding over to me with a batting helmet. Finn blinks and stridently inhales before moving away from me to stand at the chain li
nk running the field perimeter.

Rod slaps the helmet on me, making me yelp. I give Finn a fleeting look, but his back is to me, determined to ignore me once more. Sighing, I diffidently approach the batter’s box and Morgan hands me a silver and black bat. Taking a few practice swings, I step up to the plate and crouch into a batting stance, the memories of playing softball years ago with Bethany come back to me in a wave. I was descent, I guess.

Ricky pitches the ball and I violently swing, the metallic sound of the bat striking the ball astonishes me and I jump back as I watch it soar above Cara’s head.
That’s right, bitch! Chase after that instead of my boyfriend!

Having thought I’d be rustier than that, I stand shocked as my teammates whistle and cheer at my endeavor.

“Hell, yeah, Hadders! Already team MVP!”

My attention jumps to our coach, who has an arm draped over the fence and with what seems to be a proud grin on his face. I love that smile.

At least I did
something
right for once.

CHAPTE
R 2

Since I was the last person to bat, Finn announces we’re done for the day, but not before warning us he’ll be bringing his camera crew with him for tomorrow’s practice. Great. How do I get out of
that
colossal mistake? Wear a ski mask? Pretend I’m sick? Leave him a note saying I went to fly a kite with those slow-ass aliens I waited to kidnap me last week? Whatever works.

Taking off my helmet,
I finger-comb my hair, trying to salvage the disastrous wreckage, but there’s no hope. It’s a total loss.

“Quit primping and preening, Hadders. You can’t renovate that fiasco.” He laughs and I grimace crabbily. “Let’s get going. We have a stop to make.”

Narrowing my eyes at him, I shake my head with the sour frown firmly plastered on my face. “I can’t go anywhere looking like this. Seriously, Rod.”

He rolls his eyes and shrugs.
“We’ll stop at your place and you can freshen up. I promise not to see you naked…too much.” His wicked smile that follows breaks through my crankiness and I laugh.

“
What
?” Finn snaps from behind us. We whirl around to see him lift his sunglasses up, his heated eyes flying over us. Is he jealous of Rod again?
Oh, Finn
.

Resuming the smile on my face,
I hurriedly try to soothe him. “He was joking. I need to go somewhere, but I can’t go looking like I do.” Finn glowers at me and his gaze travels around my face, probably trying to decide which part of my appearance makes him want to laugh the most.

Giving Finn and me some space,
Rod slowly walks over to the bench and sits down, watching me like a cracked-out hawk.

Finn’s
gaze follows Rod, but when he notices me staring, he clears his throat and tentatively looks me in the eye and asks, “Where do you need to go? I’ll take you.”

“No. I just have to run an errand and Rod said he’d go with me.”

His jaw twitches and he transiently looks past me before eyeing me once more. “How long will you be gone?”

“I don’t know. Why?” I’m not staying with
Finn. He’d better not try to talk me into it…because I’ll definitely cave.

His brown eyes are rashly apprehensive. “Do you want to go to 5:30 Mass with me? Have dinner afterward?” He actually wants to sit next to me in a church after my meltdown at Easter and then take me out to dinner in a public place in
Richmond?

“Really?” He slowly nods
at my question; a falteringly confused look skims his face. I want to smile, but I manage not to and innocently ask, “Coach, are you asking me out on a date?”

A small, crooked grin pulls at his lips
and his weary eyes glint. “Yeah. I guess I am.”

I easily smile, but then bite my lip to stop myself. I can’t go out with Finn. Rod is so right. It won’t stop there, not when I can’t get my mind off how his
hard body deliciously twisted swinging that bat, urging me to want to finish what I had a taste of in his childhood bedroom. “Finn, I can’t.”

He quickly amends,
“Just Mass then. I’ll take you right home afterward.” His expression is guardedly anticipative and it’s breaking me.

“Taking me home isn’t a good idea, either.”

His eyes widen and virtually become imploring. “Becks, give me something. I need to spend
some
kind of time with you.” He nods his head back to the field. “This isn’t cutting it.”

“We’re spending time apart
, Finn.”

“That wasn’t my decision
. I want to be with you.”

My resolve crashes and w
anting to placate him, and myself, I concede, “I’ll go to Mass with you. I can meet you there.”

He carefully smiles
, yet his dark eyes brighten. “Okay. Call me so I can give you the address.”

I nod. “Just church. Maybe tomorrow we can have dinner after practice.”

“I work tomorrow night, but we can work something out.” Finn takes a step towards me, but then curtly stops with a sigh, tightly crossing his arms. “I’ll see you later then.” He gives me a lingering look before he slides his sunglasses down and turning to head back to Ricky and Cara, where the slut is eyeing him with unveiled interest. If she thinks she’s getting into his pants, she’d better find a pillow because she’s dreaming. I’d love to put one over her face.

Spinning around, I walk to the bench and notice Rod is
practically glaring at me. He wastes no time in snapping, “What are you doing, Hadley? I thought you just wanted to say
hi
?”

I tighten my ponytail and
nonchalantly shrug. “It’s just an hour in church, Rod. I’m meeting him there anyway.”

He stands, towering over me. Who doesn’t? “No
. I’ll take you and drop you off. That way it’s safer.”

I drop my hands and frown up at him. “He’s not an axe murderer.”

“I don’t care if he’s jolly old Saint Nick holding hands and skipping with Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo, singing a Spice Girls’ song!” I scrunch my face as I try to decipher
that
correlation. He rolls his eyes. “At least in church, you’ll have Jesus as a chaperone.”

“You don’t have to wait around for me. I can handle it.”

He shrugs, but I know he’s being anything but blasé right now. “It’s no big deal. Maybe I’ll check out a synagogue nearby. Pick up some chicks or something.”

Smiling at his concern, a lightly smack his arm.
“You slutty Jewish boys. Just make sure there’s room in your truck for me.”

Shooting an eyebrow up, h
e cheekily leers. “You can always sit on my lap.”

I unwillingly laugh. “Up yours, freak.” He laughs with me and as I look up, I see Shast
a walking over to us.

“Nice job
batting, Hadley. Never expected that from you.”
What a hag!
“I can’t hit worth a damn.”

I
force a smile. “Thanks. I used to play softball as a kid.
I have some surprises up my sleeve.”
A huge one that would surely disappoint you.

Feigning real interest, she asks,
“Oh yeah? Which position?”

“Short
stop.”

She skeptically looks from me to Rod, her reddish brown hair brushing over her shoulder. “Huh. I guess we’ll find out what positions we’ll get tomorrow.” She turns
back to me, her expression still doubtful. “So, I see you’ve become friends with our coach.” Ah. The true reason she’s so engrossed in my softball history.

Rod interjects, “He’s a friend of mine. I introduced them. They’re both mind-numbingly boring, so I thought they’d have something in common.
Their conversation about the traffic lights on East Broad nearly had me begging for painful euthanasia.”

I elbow Rod as Shasta
swings her head in Finn’s direction on the other side of the field where he’s talking to Brandon, making us follow suit. She then shifts her attention back to Rod and me. “I
doubt
he’s boring. Do you know if he’s single?”

I instantly answer, “No, he has a girlfriend.”

Her heavily made-up face contorts in consideration. She wears more makeup than I own. “That’s not a huge roadblock. Are they serious?”

“Very.”
So, don’t even think about it, you man-eating clown.

“Well, shit. He’s red hot. That ass of his…” She once again turns to ogle my boyfriend. That is
my
ass to check out and I’ve seen it naked!

Nodding, Rod confirms, “Yep. He
is
a sexy bastard,” causing Shasta, and me to regard him suspiciously— mostly Shasta. I’m quite accustomed to Rod’s idiosyncrasies and uncensored mouth. But I do have to agree on one thing: Finn Wilder
is
one sexy bastard, but he’s
mine
.

Rod’s gaze moves from Finn
-gawking back to us. “What?”

I walk with Rod and Morgan back to Rod’s truck until he’s stopped by Amos
. Morgan pulls me forward to the truck. From a short distance away, I watch Finn leaning against Ricky’s truck, talking to Cara, noticing her touching his arm as she talks. She does not touch Ricky like that.

Before I can march over and shove her off him, Morgan puts her arm around my shoulders. “That bitch is going to get her ass kicked if she keeps groping him like that.”

I look at Morgan and scoff. “Like
I
could take her on.”

She rolls her eyes and hugs me to her. “I meant that
I’d
do it.”

I laugh. “You’d do that for me?”

“Without a second thought. I’d enjoy it, too. Nobody messes with my best friend or her man.”

Looking back to Finn, I mutter, “I want to go over there.”

“I don’t think she’s ready to be reeled in yet.”

Whisking my head to face her again, I probe, “What?”

She bends her head closer to me, as if she’s communicating a clandestine mission. “Let her think that she’s going to snag him. Then, when she makes a move, go in for the kill. You kiss him right in front of her and make a big scene out of doing it.”

I pull away
from her as my mouth falls hard to the ground. “In front of
everyone
?”

She fervently nods. “Whatever you have to do to hold onto your man, Hadley.” I look
at Finn once more and see Ricky standing next to both of them with his arms crossed, courteously smiling; however, the smile seems compulsory. Does Ricky suspect Cara is moving in on my boyfriend, too? Would he encourage Finn to have a fling with Cara, or turn his head if he did cheat on me?

Rod comes up behind
Morgan and me. “Why does Hadders have to worry about holding onto Wilder? He’s not going anywhere.”

Glaring at the three of them, Morgan growls,
“That bitch could get her hooks into him and take him away from Hadley.” I want to tell Morgan about the depth of Finn’s and my problems, yet I don’t want to tell her I lied about taking the Pill and that I might be pregnant. It’ll raise too many questions for her and she’ll be hurt I didn’t tell her the truth in the first place.

“Mortuary, he would never leave Hadders. Fuck, he got inked for her. I think he’s in way too deep
with her to do something stupid like leave her for that Cara hoochie.”

Morgan looks from Rod to Ricky’s truck. “Maybe, but there’s something about her I don’t like. I think she’s after him, regardless if he has a tattoo of his woman’s name or not.”

I smack both of their arms. “I’m right here, you two. I hope she’s not after him and I pray that he’ll never leave me.” I sigh and twist my pitiful ponytail. “Rod, we have to get going so I can get a shower, pick up the ring and then meet Finn.”

Morgan pulls on my arm. “Meet Finn? I thought you weren’t seeing him for a while.”

“I’m going to Mass with him. Nothing more. Rod’s even going to drop me off and pick me up so I’m not ‘tempted’ to go home with Finn.”

Still watching behind me, she asks,
“You said you’re going to pick up his ring? How’s that work into all of this spending time away from him? You’re trying to accept his refusal to get married, but you bought him a ring. What are you going to do now?”

I roll my eyes and then briefly close them in exasperation before asking,
“I am contradicting myself, aren’t I? I really don’t know. I feel like I’m taking a step back to become even more confused. What should I do?”

“Still do like I suggested. Take this time, though. You still need to decide if you can finally accept that he
might not ever marry you. If you can’t, then after my wedding reception, take him somewhere. Plan a moonlight walk on the beach or even propose to him in bed. I endorse that one, especially if you do it right before having sex, since he’s most likely to say yes then. If he turns you down, you’ll already have thought about it and know what to do from there.”