Page 38 of The Perfect Catch

Chapter 28

Kate

Iwoke up Saturday morning with a glaring headache. The whole evening before had been one long, boring event, and I wished I’d told my mom I wouldn’t go. But I’d survived, and I wasn’t on lockdown Adams style, so I considered that and the fact I would get to see Dax today the only upsides.

Trent tried to be cool, but every time I looked at his face, I saw the guy who’d hit Dax and caused him to get in trouble.

Then again, that had been an advantage for me too, since I wouldn’t have gotten to know him like I did now.

There were so many qualities about Rosemont’s starting catcher that drew me to him, and I was pretty sure I was crushing on him. He wasn’t the bad boy everyone had him pegged for, and he was the sweetest to his younger sister. The way he made me feel when I was around him, like I had all the choices in the world for what to do or who to be, made me like him that much more.

I leaned over and grabbed my phone, seeing a bunch of texts from Dax. My phone had died at dinner the night before, and I’d been too tired to wait long enough for it to turn on once I got home.

I smiled at the short messages he’d sent, even more excited to see him. I tapped the box to reply, hoping he’d be able to see the text before starting the game.

Good luck today! I should be there later!

I knew he was probably at the game already as they had to be there early for warmups.

It took a few minutes for me to find the energy to get out of bed, and then my head pounded, the pain behind my eyes making it difficult to see too far in front of me.

I lay back down, thinking a few more minutes of rest would help me recover.

An hour later, I woke back up, surprised that only some of the pain had ebbed, at least making it so the light from my window didn’t cause a searing pain in my head anymore.

“Kate, what are you doing in bed still?” my mother asked, walking into my room. She had a basket of clothes on her hip and her hair swept up in a bun. That meant today was her deep cleaning day, something I wanted to avoid if possible. The level of clean she went to meant I would never get away for the games later today.

“I had a headache, so I went back to sleep for a bit.”

“Can I get you an ibuprofen? Weren’t you supposed to be somewhere this morning?”

My brain ticked through my mental schedule, and I couldn’t remember having to be anywhere this early in the morning. “No, and even if I did, I need to rest. I’m exhausted.”

My mother sat on the edge of the bed and studied my face, probably trying to see if I was telling the truth.

“Take today to rest. We have a lot going on tomorrow. The family is coming over for dinner, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen them.”

Hence the deep clean.

“Will do. I’m hoping to feel better later so I can go out.”

“Out where?” she asked, her eyebrow raised in question.

“If the baseball team makes it to the championship game of the tournament, I want to be there…in support.”

She scoffed, her nose turned up like she smelled Zane’s shoes after a day outside. “It’s not the season for baseball. What you should be doing is going to the fall lacrosse games, cheering for Trent.”

I sat up, trying to ignore the pounding it caused. “Mom, stop pushing Trent. He’s a jerk, and I don’t want to talk about him or go on a date with him ever again.”

The harsh tone in my voice caused us to both sit back in surprise.

“I thought you had a great time. Didn’t you see the Quickstagram picture of the two of you?” Of course, my mom would search and find anything related to me. I was barely on the picture-sharing app the past week, so the fact that there was a picture posted between last night and today was a surprise.

She pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a couple of times, my insides squeezing as I expected the worst.

“Here,” she said, handing her phone over to me.

I glanced down at the picture. It was posted by Trent only minutes after he dropped me off with the caption of “Best night ever!”

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