Chapter 14

*Jake*

I miss my morning workout again. Kayla spent the entire night crying quietly in my arms. She finally fell asleep around five. I didn’t.

I carefully remove myself from her and get out of bed. She needs to sleep. She has a meeting with their lawyer today, I guess about the will and house, I’m not sure. Dad will be there. I won’t.

I have to be at school, for the morning at least. Some of the trainers and players from UNC are meeting me at the field for ‘pre-orientation’, whatever that means. I’d much rather be here with Kayla.

When I get out of the shower she’s sitting up in bed. Her eyes and nose are all puffy and red from crying all night, her hair is smeared and sticking out one side. She’s looking at me shyly. It’s pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of girls the morning after spending the night with one, but not like this. She’s just, more than anyone else. We haven’t slept together, we haven’t even kissed, and she’s just… more.

Eventually, I’ll want to. Kiss her, I mean. Because hell, who wouldn’t, but not now, not with all this.

“Morning,” I say, sitting next to her on the bed. I give her a quick kiss on the temple.

She kisses me softy on the cheek. It’s the first time she’s kissed me since the limo ride before…

“Good morning,” she tries to smile.

“I really have to be at school this morning, if I could get out of it, I totally would, just so you know.”

“It’s okay, Jake.”

“My dads going to be there with you. If you have any questions or don’t understand something just ask him okay? Seriously, I know he’s intimidating but he’s-"

“Jake, thank you. I’ll be fine. I really appreciate your dad taking time out of his work for me. You guys… all of you… you’re amazing you know that?”

“My family is amazing. Me? I’m kind of a big deal.” I say to her, trying to lighten the mood.

She swats my shoulder playfully then falls back onto the pillows with a huff, one arm covering her eyes.

“Get out of here, Jake. before I make you crawl back under these covers and snuggle with me.” Her free arm points to the door.

A strangled noise comes out of my mouth before I can stop it, because I’m so certain there’s absolutely nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing.

***

By the time I get to school, the hallways are packed. Coach says they’ll just excuse me from class whenever the UNC guys get here. Hopefully they won’t be far off because I need to get back home to Kayla.

“Hey, Asshole!” Logan yells as he walks over to me.

“Mr. Matthews,” some teacher I don’t know reprimands. “This is a place of learning. Not the baseball court.”

Logan rolls his eyes. “About time you showed up.”

I cock my eyebrow at him. His hands go up in surrender. “Sorry, dude. Dick move.”

“So how is she?” He asks as we reach my locker, which happens to be next to Heidi's. Lucy and Cam are there too, and Dylan of course. They stop talking, waiting for my response.

“She’s not doing too well. I mean, what can you expect right? She’s just having a hard time with the funeral and stuff. I took her to the batting cages yesterday. Girl’s got good form.”

Heidi rolls her eyes at my comment.

“She has a meeting with the lawyer today,” I continue. “I’m going to head back as soon as this UNC shit is done.”

Logan raises his eyebrows at my attitude towards the UNC guys, truth is, it just doesn’t seem all that important right now.

“The funeral is tomorrow, at twelve. The gathering is at our house afterwards so I won’t be here.”

“We’ll be there too, Jake,” Lucy says, holding Cam’s hand.

“We’ll all be there,” Dylan assures.

Logan pats my shoulder a couple times before the bell rings and we all separate to go to first period classes.

***

The meeting with the UNC guys is a joke. First they turn up later than they said, and it’s going longer than I anticipated.

The training staff are all good, they seem pretty excited about me being there next season. Some of them haven’t actually seen me pitch in person, so I enjoy their reaction.

The boys on the team are a different story. I get it. I really do. This is the fourth year on the team for some of the guys, and I get that they’re tight with the other players. Now some, cocky freshman is going to join and may even replace the current starter. Plus, the hype that the coaches have built around me, and the special trip to some random high school in the middle of hicksville, just to make me feel ‘more comfortable’. I’d hate me too, I think. They’re not being dicks or anything, but they’re far from comforting.

Finally, I rush home, knowing I’ve definitely missed the meeting. Hopefully it all went well, as well as it can go.

I get home and the house is empty, they must still be there. I go to my room and climb into bed, maybe I can get a nap in. I was going to text her to see if everything was okay, but I realized I don’t even have her number.

Just as I’m about to fall asleep I hear music, ‘Hey Mickey’. It’s her phone on the nightstand, she must have left it home. I ignore it, I don’t feel like invading her privacy. But then it rings again, and again. I finally get up to silence the thing and I see it’s James. 48 missed calls from him, and 13 from Sam, I think that’s his mom.