Page 21 of Pitcher Perfect
“Oh!” Red-faced, she sprung the trunk open, slapping at the air-conditioning controls to turn up the air. “Sorry,” she muttered a moment later, when he sprawled into the seat beside her, taking up way more space than anyone who’d ever occupied that side of the Honda. Dina could never. And those thighs were even more prolific up close.
Had he smelled like this on Saturday? Like musk and cinnamon?
No, she would have remembered. How long would her car smell like this after their week together ended? For some reason, knowing any part of him might linger was... daunting? Why?
Didn’t matter.
Main takeaway: as far as fake boyfriends went, she could do a lot worse.
“Hey,” he said, grinning at her from beneath the brim of his hat. “Miss me?”
“No, but I’m looking forward to it.”
He let out one of those brief cracks of laughter. “This is so us, right? Starting off this adventure with contempt. Setting the tone.”
Skylar implored the ceiling for patience, then put the Honda into drive. “Are you going to be this annoying the whole hour and a half drive?”
He flashed his teeth. “I’ll put my unique charm on the back burner for now. We’re going to need the full ninety minutes for you to educate me on your town, your family. You.” She felt his attention travel down the side of her profile. “If we’re going to be convincing, I’ll need to know more than just the casual details.”
Skylar had a lot more to discuss with him than backstory on this trip, but she needed to work up the courage first. “You live in a nice building.”
“Yeah, thanks. Mailer and I went in on a condo together.”
“Mailer, as in...”
“My teammate, wingman, buddy. Henry Mailer. We have separate bathrooms—that’s the key to a successful marriage.”
“I’ll try and remember that.” She glanced over at him. “Is it common for a professional athlete to have a roommate?”
“It’s more common than you think. First year in the league, nothing feels stable enough yet to put down roots. Everyone upstairs is watching to see if you live up to expectations.” He made himself more comfortable in the seat. “Mailer and I have a deal that whoever moves out first has to pay the other back for their half of the condo. Just in case one of us gets traded. Or... other horrible things that shan’t be named.”
“Like a career-ending injury?”
He clutched at his chest. “Jesus, woman. You of all people should know you’re not supposed to put that possibility out into the universe.”
“Sorry,” she muttered, genuinely chagrined, because he was right. She did know better. She blamed her lack of tact on the topic weighing heavily on her mind. How she’d bring it up. How he would react. “For what it’s worth, you’ve obviously had numerous blows to the head and you’re still playing.”
“Good point,” he said without missing a beat. “Mailer and I also co-own a truck, but he has custody this week.”
“This sounds like a totally normal friendship with healthy boundaries.”
“Thank you for noticing,” he said, smiling unironically. “What about you? What’s your living situation?”
“I live alone.” She rolled her lips inward to wet them. “I’m kind of meticulous when it comes to my surroundings. I need things to be in their place. For instance, I can’t fall asleep if someone else is watching television in the living room. I just need everything and everyone to be settled and in their place in order to relax. It made the first year of college, when I was living in the dorm, pretty difficult.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” He was watching her thoughtfully, as if running back through that explanation more than once. “A messy outdoor competition must be pretty hard for you, then.”
“No joke.”
“Why do you compete in these games, then?”
“I don’t really have a choice. When you meet my parents, you’ll understand.” Skylar accelerated to join the flow of traffic on I-95. “My stepdad’s name is Doug, by the way. My mother is Vivica. They both grew up in Rhode Island.” A tickle of discomfort made itself known in her throat, spreading as she spoke. “They both attended Brown, though they didn’t meet until much later in life. Everyone in my family, including Elton, has attended Brown. Except me.”
“You wanted to shake things up?”
It took her a breath to respond. “No, I didn’t get accepted.”
“Oh.” Robbie shifted his attention to the windshield, as if he knew she didn’t want to be scrutinized in that moment. “Guess they made a mistake, so.”
