His hand moves over to the one I have resting on my thigh, sliding his fingers into the spaces between mine. I glance over and he’s pretending to watch the road. Biting my lip to not laugh, I squeeze his hand letting him know I’m not opposed.
He keeps going the direction I was headed, taking a left and heading out of town. Right before the highway is a huge warehouse that apparently is a sports complex. The lot is fairly empty for a Saturday, but then again it’s nice so most practices are likely outside.
Adam guides me inside, only taking his hand from mine long enough to get out of the car and come back to my side. He flashes some sort of pass at the counter and they wave him in.
The back room he leads me to has a row of helmets, bats, and gloves. He lets go of my hand and studies me for a moment then glances at the helmets, sizing me up before picking one and putting it on my head, laughing as it slips over my eyes.
“Okay, not that one.” He snickers, grabbing another and trying again, this one fitting perfectly. The gloves he gets on the first try before fitting his own. “Pick a bat.”
I follow him over to the wall where they’ve got bats hung in a row. Spotting a bright aqua blue one, I choose it and test out the weight in my hand for a second before nodding, telling him I’m good with it. I don’t mention I played softball for years.
Once he’s set, I follow him out another door, this one the actual cages. The next room is a huge gym full of chain link cages and black netting over the top to keep the balls contained. He seems so confident and at ease in here, I can’t help but study him.
“Okay, do you want to take turns, or side by side? Competition or no?” There’s an excited glint in his eyes that has me wanting to lean forward and kiss him, but I hold myself back and think a second before pulling out my phone.
‘Take turns so I can stare at your ass? But I’ll beat you regardless.’ The blush on his cheeks is exactly what I was going for, a distraction. Because now that’s what he’ll be thinking about, not beating me. His eyes narrow at my triumphant grin.
“Good, then I can stare at yours during your turn, and think about all the things I could do to you if you gave me the chance,” he says casually as my insides literally catch on fire.
With that, he waves me on, giving an explanation on how to use the pitching machine and set a timer for five minutes. It seems so short, but as soon as I’m in there, getting my stance ready and hitting ball after ball, it feels like forever.
As the timer goes to zero, I drop the bat and shake out my arms, feeling triumphant. Out of the forty pitches, I managed to hit thirty-five of them.
“Okay, how are you this good?!” he asks, incredulous. I shrug and walk out, his warm hands going to my arms and rubbing them, the friction feeling amazing after all that. “I guess we know you have a competitive side, huh?” he teases, and I let out a small laugh. That’s an understatement.
The noise catches in my throat as our eyes meet. He appears uncertain for a moment, but when I don’t move, he leans down and presses his lips to mine. Butterflies swarm in my stomach as I drop the bat and wrap my hands around his neck, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. He groans and moves us up until my back hits the fence. Heat floods between my thighs and I press them together, wanting friction if he’s going to keep kissing me like this.
When he breaks the kiss, we rest our foreheads together and a chuckle escapes him.
“That’s the best batting cage session I’ve ever been to,” he jokes, and I grin up at him before pushing him back and pointing at my score that’s still flashing. “Oh don’t worry, I’m going to obliterate that score.” He turns in his jeans that hug his ass perfectly and I stare as he walks away, not even embarrassed. Adam is a fine specimen of a man.
As soon as the pitching machine starts, I’m entranced. He executes each swing with practiced precision, his muscles flexing and tensing with each swing. At one point I swipe my hand over my mouth to make sure I’m not drooling like a dork.
When he gets a perfect score, he has enough grace to do a simple victory dance. I shake my head but bow down to him.
“Come on, we better hurry if we want to shower before tonight. Some of us need a cold one after that kiss,” he teases, putting his arm around my shoulder and kissing my temple before leading me out.
“Okay, movie, last vote.” Alice raises two DVDs up. “We’ve got it narrowed down to superheroes or a scary movie.” Cole, Adam, and I point to the superhero movie. Abby points to the scary one, and Trent shrugs.
“Superhero it is,” Alice announces and hands it over. I put it in the DVD player and turn on the surround sound. I’m just about to press play when Sophia walks in.
She’s been practically dancing around since I got back from the batting cages. I think she’s just excited I’m having friends over and have finally come out of my shell a bit. I think she hated living alone in this big house before and loves anytime it’s noisy. My friends definitely qualify as noisy, even if I don’t.
“Pizza orders. What does everyone like?” My friends aren’t shy; they all call out what they like and she writes it all down. “Charlie, cheese like usual?” I nod, and she turns and walks away to go order.
The rest of our movie night is a whirl of movies, pizza, wings, and laughing. It’s the perfect distraction from the investigation that has been hanging over my head like a raincloud that won't leave. By the end of the night, I’m tired and happy.
“Okay, time to get home,” Alice groans, dragging herself off the floor and stretching. They all start grabbing their stuff and I have to hold back a pout. Is it so wrong that I want to be surrounded by them at all times?!
“See you Monday, Charlie!” Trent waves and walks out without a backward glance. It stings a bit and I have to remind myself that not everyone would be okay with all the flirting we’ve had going on, and he might just have misread everything. Though I need to tell them all how I feel about them. Plus, Trent is flirty in general, so he’s hard to read.
He’s followed by Adam and Alice, Adam stopping to give me a bear hug and kiss on the cheek before turning to take Alice home. Cole gives Abby a serious look before pulling me into a hug.
“I better go read to the twin tornadoes, they’re probably refusing to go to bed until I come home,” he jokes and gives me a half grin. I return his smile, remembering the story time I’d crashed.
My heart stops as he grabs my hand and gently tugs me toward him, leaning forward and meeting my lips with his. He nibbles at my bottom lip and I fight back a whimper before he pulls away, my cheeks warming as I get lost in his eyes.
“Have a good night, beautiful,” he whispers. When he turns and walks away, I can’t move for a moment. Then, in true, awkward Charlie fashion, I realize Abby is still here. When I spin