Pitching to Win (Over the Fence #1) (19 page)

R
ight as I
turn the corner, I feel the air shift.

"Yo Axel! What's up man, what're you doing here?" I hear a hulking football bro from my grade shout from further down the hallway.

I stop in my tracks. Standing twenty feet away is Owen. Tall, lean, outfitted in his baseball uniform. His sexiness makes my knees go weak. Seriously, I have to brace the wall.

Kels stops, noticing I’m not next to her, turning back to see me no longer moving.

"Minka, what are you...." Following my line of sight, she gives a low noise of understanding. "What the hell is dickhead doing here? I'm going to go kick him in the family jewels."

I feel the adrenaline rush through my body the moment he locks his eyes on mine. It hits me like a tidal wave. Two weeks since I’ve seen him and he can still turn my stomach into knots and make me instantly lust for him.

He starts to run from me, all eyes in the hallway moving back and forth between us. Three dings sound over the school speakers, signaling that there is only a minute left before the next period starts.

“We have to go.” I turn on my heel, speed-walking back the way we’d come. My classroom was the other way, but at this point I’d scale Everest to get away from Owen.

Too bad he was an almost-professional athlete.

As soon as Kels and I hit the tile in the lunchroom, he’s grabbing my elbow.

“Minka, wait. Please….please listen to me. Give me a minute.”

Kels looks like she’s about two seconds from punching him in the nose.

“I need to go to class. Please leave me alone.” I pull out of his grasp, going to turn again. He’s on my movements as if he can read my mind. The minute I turn, he throws himself in front of me.

Grabbing my hands, he crunches his body down so he can look me in the face. Since I’m avoiding eye contact at all costs, it’s the best he can do.

“I know that you were telling the truth about Gregory. I’m an unbelievable, unmitigated ass. You must allow me to tell you just how stupid I’ve been. And how much I love you.”

My ears are ringing. My stomach and heart have joined each other in a pile of goop at my feet. Did he just say I was right? The only people who have ever said out loud, in the open that what I’d said about Gregory was true were Chloe and Kelsey. It felt like a dam of relief and pent up frustration was breaking open in my chest.

And was he quoting Mr. Darcy? Only Owen. Only he knew the most simple way to blast straight through my walls.

And had he said he loved me? Two weeks ago I would have been jumping around in giddy middle-school-girl circles hearing him say that. Now it brought confusion, and sadness.

And worst of all, hope.

I broke the hypnotizing stare Owen had me in to search for Kels. Maybe she’d give me one of her men suck speeches and I’d be able to walk away. Because right now, I don’t think I could do it on my own.

Instead, I lifted my head to see almost 200 people at a dead stop, silently watching this go down.

“Alright people, this isn’t soap opera hour. Get your nosey asses to class. You’re all going to be late!” Kels’ demand sent people scuttling away, remembering they had class in less than 30 seconds. “You stay, I’ll tell Petri you’re going to be late. He won’t mind.”

So much for her telling me to be strong.

“I can’t be late for AP bio.” I say to no one in particular, because Kels is already halfway up the stairs to the science wing.

Owen grabs my hands again, leading me over to a lunch table, pulling me down to sit. Our knees brush together and I shudder. I can’t help my body’s physical reaction to being so close to him.

“I’m sorry. I’m so goddamn sorry, Minka. I know there is nothing that I can say or do to make up for what I’ve done. But I can’t be away from you. When Miles told me…told me what
he’d
done to you sophomore year….I swear I almost got in my car to drive to where he was and kill him. I could kill him with my bare hands.” Owen chokes out the words, as if they are physically hurting him.

“You didn’t believe me. You chose him.” My voice sounds extremely small inside my ears.

“And for that I will never forgive myself. And I don’t expect you to either. I chose what was safe. What was familiar. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life, Minka. Choosing the path that people put me on, the one people expect me to follow. I’m an idiot. I don’t care about that shit anymore. The only thing I care about is you. I want to fit into your world, no matter what that means. We can paint ourselves orange and walk around town in overalls for all I care. But I’d be happy, because I was with you. Without you, I have no world.”

I let his words soak into my brain, hearing what he was saying but not really being able to process it. I’d missed him. So much that it hurt. And to have him sitting in front of me, saying these things I’d always wanted him to say, I felt the tiny castle walls around my heart crumbling with each word.

“I love you. I am in love with you. I know I can’t re-do the past, but please. Baby, if you….if you give me one last chance, I promise I will do everything I can to prove that my life means nothing without you in it.”

I feel a tear drip down my cheek, and when Owen reaches out to brush it away, I audibly sigh into his hand. Just his touch makes my whole world better.

“I don’t know. You promised not to hurt me, and now…” I can’t keep up with the mixed emotions flying through my head. I want him back more than anything else in the world, but my self-preservation is waging a mean battle.

“I know…I know. And I’m so sorry. I’ll never be able to say that enough. But just give me a shot. Let me show you what us, together, could be like. Because without you, my life means nothing. I am nothing.”

I close my eyes, trying to take soothe my shaking hands. “I’ve missed you so much. Sitting here with you, I’ve dreamed about this every night for weeks. Hearing you say you love me, I’ve wanted that for so long. But you lost my trust, Owen…”

“And I want to gain it back. I will try forever. I’ll drive up here every single day. I will bring you cheesesteaks and pickles, with white chocolate and Lost for dessert. I’ll put corny hip-hop covers on YouTube dedicated to you. I’ll do anything.”

I smile tearily, unable to contain it after his silly diatribe. “I’m not sure…”

“You don’t have to be sure now. Go to class. I’ll be waiting in the parking lot after you finish, waiting to begin proving it to you. Just say you’ll meet me.”

I weigh the options in my head. Its safer to put those walls back up, not expose myself to pain, or love, or all of the scary emotions that came with them. But Owen, he had shown me that stepping up to the plate was worth it. And who cared if you struck out a time or two? It only matters if you get back out there and swing at the challenges life throws you.

“Okay. I’ll meet you.”

I
lean
my back against the old brick building, admiring the rays shining through the tall oaks that dot campus.

The weather is perfect, high temps and sunshine with no humidity in the air, which was weird for a September in Virginia. Students begin to trickle into the quad, those whose teachers called class just a minute or two early.

I hear the doors swing open just beside me, and pull my Tigers hat lower down on my head. Sticking my hands in my pockets, I wait.

Guys and girls pour out of the exit, clad in their Grover University gear, flip flops, yoga pants and basketball shorts. This might be a prestigious college, but we all still dressed like bums for class.

I see a long, curly ponytail swoosh a few feet in front of me, the head it belongs to turning to search for someone in the crowd.

“Hey freshman!” I yell.

She turns around, an annoyed smile gracing those perfect lips. I walk straight for her and don’t waste a minute fusing my lips to hers in a kiss that is probably not decent for public consumption.

She tastes like berries and home. Minka. The best taste in the world.

“Ew, junior boys are so creepy.” She teases, but by the breathlessness in her voice I know I’ve affected her.

“Well, this junior boy loves you. I love you so much.”

“And I love you.” Minka smiles up at me, her small body enveloped in my arms.

It still makes my heart do a funny lurch inside my chest when I hear her say that. I hadn’t heard it until about four months after I’d ambushed her in the lunchroom. When she said it to me then I thought I’d damn near have a stroke.

Those four months hadn’t been easy, for either of us. She was snippy and distrustful at first, not unlike our initial meeting when I’d tried to win her over. And I was so hard on myself for how I’d hurt her, I had a dark period there for a minute. But we got through it, me driving to Mitchum any chance I got to see her, and her slowly giving on the reins.

When she’d gotten into Grover, and subsequently accepted, I gave her an extra special accepted students tour. A large portion of the tour featured my bedroom. I’d like to think she was more than satisfied with the benefits package.

“So, I have a little celebration planned to commemorate your first week of classes being over…”

“Owen, have you really been that bored? Lucky you, no classes on Friday.”

“Would it be weird to say I’ve been counting down the minutes until you got out of class?”

“No, its actually very sweet.”

I wrap her locks around my fingers as I direct her towards my truck in the parking lot. “Good. We’re having a small get together, Chloe is invited, of course, as another one-week freshman.”

“Oh, great. Miles is going to kill you ha!”

Miles and Chloe had been beefing ever since the carnival. I didn’t know why. I did know that he was still not acting like himself almost a year later. “Whatever he can suck it up. And another surprise…”

I unlock the doors to my car, and out jumps Kelsey.

“OH MY GOD! Owen…what…Kels!?” Minka looks at me, her eyes wide with glee and shock.

Kelsey is leaving for a year-long trip to Africa in two days. The girls had thought they’d said their goodbyes last week before they’d come to school, but I had other plans.

“What are you doing here!?” Minka was yelling now, the excitement coming through in her voice.

“I had to come to your first weekend of college parties! Come on, who do you think I am. Plus, Clint would have killed me if I didn’t show my face before I left.”

Kelsey and Clint had become close over the last year, with Minka coming up a few times and me taking my buddies home some weekends. The way he looked at her though, I knew he wanted to be way more than friends.

Minka pushes up on her toes and gives me a sloppy, enthusiastic kiss before slinging her arm around Kelsey, talk of what they were going to wear already going on.

I stand back and admire my girl. My beautiful, smart, brave girl. She’s faced so much and come out to beat it into submission. I was in awe of her everyday.

It seemed like my existence up until I met her only depended on the next win. The next time I could mark that W. But I didn’t need that validation anymore. I’d won her heart, and she had mine. Everything after that was just balls and strikes.

C
arrie Aarons lives
with her soon-to-be husband in an apartment they are constantly outgrowing. Nine times out of ten, she can be found with her head in a book. The other one, she’s most likely devouring sushi.

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