Unbearable (the TORQUED trilogy Book 2) (10 page)

I’m not sure why, maybe because we dated for so long but Berkley has it in her head she’s still friends with everyone, like Red and my parents. I guarantee even though Red is pissed at me, he still doesn’t like Berkley.

Red steps inside the dugout, his arm draped over Lenny’s shoulder. “Pretty good.”

When Red takes a seat at the end of the bench near the fence, I scoot next to Raven. “Did you miss me?”

She moves away from me and ties her hair up, her mitt on her lap. “Not really.”

I scoot next to her and she slides herself further down until there’s nowhere left to go without falling off the bench.

This time she glares. “Are you five?”

“Stop acting like you don’t enjoy it.” And when she doesn’t reply to that, I ask, “Did you get my text?”

She shrugs and stands up. “Stop talking to me. You’re up to bat soon.”

I’d forgotten the game is starting.

WE GO THROUGH the top five in the batting order and I’m standing outside the dugout waiting for my turn to bat, the sky’s painted with hues of red, orange and pink, which fade to a matte black as the clouds move in. Lenny’s up to bat, with Red coaching first base. He’s got one eye on Lenny and one on Nova, who refuses to sit still tonight and keeps running onto the field.

Wanting Raven’s attention, I tap the bat to the fence. It rattles with the weight of the bat and when her eyes are on mine, I dip my head a little and wink as I stroke the handle of the bat to get a rise out of her.

She scowls, her uneasy stare sweeping over me.

Nova bounces up from her place on the concrete inside the dugout. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re going to puke,” Nova says to Raven as she grabs the sunflower seeds out of her hand.

Raven grumbles something to her I can’t hear but I’m distracted now by Daniel, our lube tech at the shop, making his way toward me.

He’s batting behind Raven and leans into my shoulder and gives a nod to Raven. “I can’t believe you’ve been hitting that.”

Daniel is one of those kids you shouldn’t trust. You know he probably has good intentions inside of him somewhere; I’ve just never seen them. The only reason I tolerate the shit is because of Lyric, Red’s dad who passed away last May. He asked me to help the kid out and I’ve been trying to show him the right way. Only, he’s pretty fucking dumb.

I glare over my shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

He steps beside me. “I’ve been spanking it to images of that ass for years. Please tell me you’re done with it.”

My body rushes with anger and it nearly blinds me for a moment.

I blink, twice.

Did he seriously just say that?

Taking the bat in my hand, I lift it and smack his balls with the end.

“What the fuck!” he curses, dropping to his knees on the ground.

Kneeling, I get down to his level. “If I ever hear you say something like that again, about Raven, you’re going to be pulling this bat out of your ass instead of cupping your fucking dick.” Standing up, I point to the dugout. “Can someone bat for Daniel? He needs a pinch hitter.”

I’m a good softball player. Baseball was my sport growing up so it’s no surprise to anyone I hit a home run.

After I cross home plate, I’m walking back and I stop in front of Raven near the dugout, since she’s up next and hand her my bat she likes to use. “Your turn.”

She takes it but doesn’t meet my eyes. I watch her the entire time as she swings and drives one deep into left field. Their left fielder manages to get to it before she makes it to second.

Daniel’s up after her and I have to run for him, seeing how I smacked his ball sac and that leaves me watching Raven run to third. I want to make a run for second but I don’t have time.

Once I’m on first, I notice Berkley standing next to me.

Raven, Lenny… they can play softball. Berkley can’t. Not even a little. She’s too girly. She’s mainly out here to look pretty.

Flipping her black hair around, she pushes out her chest. “Nice hit.”

I used to think Berkley had good tits. Not anymore. Nothing compares to Raven’s. So I look away and I don’t acknowledge her at first.

She sighs. “Not talking to me now?”

I don’t even look at her and focus on brushing the dirt of my black shorts. “I’m trying to but you’re making it difficult.”

“Well, I’m just trying to be nice.”

“Being nice would have been paying the fucking credit card bill instead of maxing it out,” I snap back. There’s a lot of things I’m bitter about regarding our breakup and her maxing out my credit card is on top of that list. Did she not realize how hard it’d take a guy like me to pay off twelve thousand on a fucking credit card?

She says nothing.

When I’m back in the dugout, I sit right next to Raven, mostly to annoy her and mostly because I fucking want to.

She’s not looking at me still; she’s watching Nova with a bat in her hand, who’s stroking it like I was just minutes earlier.

“Nova, what are you doing with the bat?”

Nova shrugs. “What do you mean?”

“Why are you running your hands over it like that?”

Well fuck. It does look rather inappropriate now that I see a child doing it. I give Raven a smile and she puts her hand on my cheek to turn my head the other way.

“Uncle Ty said he was warming up so I’m warming up.” The innocence on her face makes me feel bad.

Crap
.

Raven shoots me a look of disappointment. “You’re an idiot.”

I laugh and flash her another smile. “Yeah, well I never said I
wasn’t
.”

“True.”

We sit in silence watching the game when I notice Raven’s head down and she’s rubbing at her eye, grimacing.

“What’s wrong?”

Using her index finger, she’s still rubbing at her eyeball, which I find a little gross. I hate it when people touch their eyeballs. But now she’s wincing almost like she’s in pain.

“I’ve got some damn dirt in my eye and I can’t get it out.”

I gently grab her chin to turn her head to face me. “Here let me see.”

She lets me help her without argument, which I’m going to count as a win with how today’s been going so far.

As tenderly as I can, I use two fingers to open her eye and move closer to softly blow to try and remove the dirt. It must work because when I let go Raven just sits there staring at me. The looks she’s giving me is almost curious, like she doesn’t know what to make of my helping her.

Staring back at her all I can think is that she’s so fucking cute and the next thing I know I’m tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear, running my thumb over her jaw and smiling like a fool before I ever realize what I’m doing. Her breath hitches. Wide chocolate eyes melt me. “Stop being nice to me, Tyler.”

I draw in a deep breath of cold fall air. “Sorry. No can do. When it comes to you, I can’t help myself.”

Our knees touch and I bump hers a couple times trying to annoy her.

Raven eyes Daniel, who’s holding an ice pack to his nuts. “What’s wrong with him?”

“How should I know? The guy’s a goddamn idiot.”

She leans in, whispering, “I saw what you did.”

I shrug. “Well then, you know what’s wrong with him.”

She squints at me to try and convince me that she means business, I guess. “I know what’s wrong with him, but what I don’t know is why you did what you did.”

There’s no way I’m going to tell her what Daniel said so I shrug. Again.

Thankfully, she lets it go.

Raven leans over and grabs my bat, gripping the handle as she pushes around the dirt. Looking over, I can’t help but stare at her hands.

Raven has really pretty hands. I know that sounds stupid but she does. Her hands are perfect. Her fingers are slim and her nails are just the right length for scratching my back and when I’m lucky, my chest.

Watching her now, holding that bat, all I can think about is how much I would love to have those nails clawing at me as she moans beneath me.

I lean into her again until our shoulders are touching. “I like the way you
grip
that handle,” I whisper in her ear.

She shivers, then quickly stands up sidestepping and reaching up to rub the ear I just whispered in. I can see it; her entire neck is covered in goose bumps. I’m glad I still have that kind of effect on her.

Rolling her eyes, she drops the bat on the ground in the process and then bends over to pick it up. “While you’re down there.”

Standing suddenly, she slaps at my chest. “Knock it off.”

My hand grips her waist as I lean forward toward her ear from behind. “Want me to adjust your stance?”

“No,” she snaps, trying to push me away. “Don’t touch me.” When I don’t move, and instead push my body into hers, she fights me off but it’s not serious. She’s slapping at my arms playfully. “Stop it, Tyler. You’re making me mad.”

“What’s up your ass tonight?”

“
Not
you.”

I grab her ass with my left hand. “Well, now I’m thinking about that.”

“Don’t.” She slaps my hand away. “You’re not getting any.”

“I bet I could convince you.”

“Nope.” And then she walks away and the reality is, she’s right; she controls whether we’re together or not later. And that fucking sucks for me.

After the game, which we won 13-7, we decide to all go out for pizza, which is both a good thing and bad because one, Berkley follows us there, and two, I sit across from Raven. That part’s okay, but the fact that she’s not giving me any indication of where we stand now, that’s frustrating.

Nothing’s said between us until after orders are made and there’s a few pitchers of beer on the table.

“So, how do you feel?” Lenny asks Red, rubbing his back as he reaches for two pills in his pocket, more than likely pain medication.

With clay covering his chest where he dove for a line drive, he plays it off but I know Red and he’s in pain. “I’m good.”

Lenny shakes her head. “Bullshit.”

He had his chest cracked open in July and I know bones don’t heal that fast that he wouldn’t be in a little bit of pain come September.

He eyes me as if to say, go along with it. I do. The last thing I’d do is call him out on it.

“Where’s the old man with the pizza?” Rawley asks, growing impatient when our waiter hasn’t returned. He probably forgot we were even here.

“Should that guy even still be working?” Lenny watches him as he pours water in glasses, his hands shaking as he does so.

Nova looks up for a split second and then takes her crayons one by one out of the cup. “He’s so old his armpits stink.”

We all look at Nova and she shrugs, like that made perfect sense to her.

As we’re waiting for the old man to get to the table, Berkley walks by. “Good game, guys.”

Rawley talks to her, as does Mia and Eldon. I don’t say a word to her, neither does Raven, but I don’t miss the way she glances over at her.

Berkley leans over and ruffles Nova’s hair. “How you liking kindergarten, kiddo?”

Nova scowls at Berkley and turns away from her to face the back of the booth we’re in. “Don’t talk to me. I hate when you do that. You broke Ty’s heart.”