A Reason to Run (The Camdyn Series Book 1) Page 13

  “Looks like you’re stuck with me,” I teased him, straightening his tie.

  “That’s okay,” he said, a scheming look in his eye. “We’ll have time to take lots of pictures.”

  I laughed at him, and then he helped me find a seat where he remained with me until it was almost time for the wedding to begin. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a coincidence that he sat exactly two rows in front of his friends.

  -§-

  After the wedding, Tyler sat by me at the reception, along with his friends. I must admit, I tried all three varieties of Rosalie’s cake, which were completely delicious, and I did it basically guilt-free since I hadn’t eaten lunch and only had a banana for breakfast. Tyler and his buddies asked me all sorts of hysterical questions about what girls liked, and I tried my best not to laugh when I answered. Around five o’clock, Tyler’s mom and new stepdad left the church. I waited out of the way as she told Tyler goodbye, and then he followed me out to my car with his duffel bag.

  Tyler’s practice wasn’t until six, so we returned to the bed and breakfast, where Rosalie was busy in the kitchen again. She was making dinner for the wedding party out of the goodness of her heart, and she seemed a little frazzled, so Tyler and I offered to help. She put Tyler to work stirring a couple of things on the stove, and once again I was chopping away at the salad. When I finished the salad, I told Tyler to go ahead and change his clothes, and I would take over for him. We continued working side by side in the kitchen until finally Tyler broke in and told me that we were going to be late if we didn’t leave.

  “I can’t believe you are wearing that dress to the ball field,” Tyler told me once we were in the car.

  “Do I have time to change?” I asked him. He responded with an emphatic no, so I told him he would have to deal with the dress. Besides, I was only dropping him off, so that would take, what? Five minutes tops?

  When we got to the ball field, I told Tyler not to run off until he pointed out the people he was going home with so I could make sure he had a ride. I parked the car and then we headed off through the grass, me trying to keep up with him in my strappy heels. As we came near the bleachers, I had him point to the lady who would take him home. I made a mental note: blue shirt, black pants. Some of the boys were throwing the ball back and forth, and Tyler headed toward the dugout.

  “Sorry I’m late, Coach,” I heard Tyler say. “I had to have my date bring me over here.”

  Oh, good grief.

  I kept my eyes on the ground so I wouldn’t break a heel going through the rocks, and when I managed to make it to the dirt, I looked up only to see Cole standing in front of me.

  “No problem, Tyler,” Cole told him, not taking his eyes off me. “Go on out there.”

  Okay, this is awkward.

  “Well,” I said finally, “I guess he’s in good hands. I should go.”

  “No, wait a minute,” he replied, reaching out to grab my wrist so I couldn’t turn away. “I need to talk to you. I owe you an apology. And you look…just…wow.”

  “Coach?” someone called from the field as Cole slowly released my wrist.

  “I need to make sure the plans are set for Tyler,” I said, motioning toward the bleachers.

  “Okay, just give me a minute to get them lined out,” he told me. “Please don’t leave before I get to talk to you.”

  I nodded and made my way over to the bleachers, introducing myself to the woman in the blue shirt and black pants. She assured me that she would be taking Tyler with her, so I felt like my work was done. I dusted off a corner of one of the bleacher benches and sat down gingerly, feeling completely awkward.

  “You’re pretty dressed up for baseball practice,” one of the moms behind me remarked. I turned around and smiled at her.

  “Tyler’s mom got married today,” I explained. “I haven’t had time to change yet.”

  “Are you related to Tyler?” she asked. I thought she might be giving me a dirty look, but I shook that off as my overactive imagination.

  “No, just a friend,” I replied. She nodded warily and twisted her mouth sideways.

  “She’s that proposal girl off TV that’s been hanging around the library,” a woman sitting farther down from us stated.

  “Yeah, I heard about that!” another woman chimed in.

  “I saw it on the news,” yet another commented.

  “Embarrassingly enough, yes, that is me,” I admitted.

  “You know Coach Parker?” the dirty look woman asked from behind me. I turned around to look at her again as I pondered the question.

  “Coach Par…,” I started, realizing a little late who she was talking about. “Oh, you mean Cole? Yes, I know him, why?”

  “Because he keeps looking over here,” she said critically, making it sound like a put down.

  “You wouldn’t know that if you weren’t staring at him, Sheila,” another woman told her with a giggle.

  “Come on, ladies,” a petite woman on the front row chimed in, turning around to stare at her companions. “We don’t need to pick on each other. I’m pretty sure we’re all staring at Coach Parker.”

  I glanced over at Cole while the women next to me giggled quietly, and when I caught his eye, he motioned for me to come to the dugout. I stood up and brushed off the back of my dress.

  “Excuse me, ladies,” I said. I could feel their eyes on me as I walked back across the grass and through the rocks toward the dugout. When I reached the entrance, I looked back at the bleachers and they all were, in fact, staring that way. I couldn’t help but giggle just a bit.

  “What’s funny?” Cole asked, looking out towards the boys on the field.

  “Your fan club over there giving me death stares,” I said, standing next to him in the dirt.

  “They drive me crazy,” he told me, shaking his head. “They stare at me the entire practice. Kevin, don’t be afraid of the ball!”

  “Maybe I should go. I feel like I’m in your way.”

  “You are definitely not in the way. Kevin, move into the batter’s box! Further! There you go!”

  “I’m sorry, this just feels weird and I’m not dressed to be in here,” I explained. He turned to look at me for a minute, and then his eyes went back to the field.

  “I know,” he said softly. “You are unbelievably beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, feeling my face get warm. I glanced over at the bleachers, where several of the women were still staring at the dugout.

  “Nice grab, Blake!” Cole yelled. “Listen, I am so sorry about this morning. I was such a jerk. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “You’re forgiven,” I told him, watching as he laced his fingers through the chain link and leaned on the fence.

  “Hustle, Tyler!” he yelled, eyes darting back and forth between the boys. “That was too easy. You’re not going to make me grovel or anything?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” I said. “I better go. I still need to eat dinner, and then I have plans at eight.”

  “What sort of plans?” he asked, pulling away from the fence and turning to face me.

  “Do you forget so easily?” I teased him with a laugh. “I have to go to B’s with Jake tonight, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said with a smile. “I forgot about that. Do you want me to call him and get you out of it?”

  “No, it’ll be okay,” I stated. “As long as he doesn’t call me baby, we’ll get along fine.” I moved to the entrance of the dugout, and then turned around to glance at Cole, whose attention was now fully focused on me.

  “Is that bruise from this morning?” he asked, walking up to me and rubbing his thumb lightly across my shoulder.

  “Yeah. I thought the only thing hurt was my ego, but turns out I got a couple of bruises too,” I said jokingly as he let the back of his fingers trail slowly down my arm. “Be careful, that bunch of moms over there is likely to attack you.” He rolled his eyes as he moved a step back.

  “I’m sorry about the bruises,”
he said as he slowly stepped backward farther into the dugout.

  “Don’t be,” I told him with a flirtatious smile. “The bruises were totally worth it.”

  Chapter Ten

  I snuck in the house while Rosalie was entertaining guests in the dining room and helped myself to some of the leftover stuff in the kitchen. Afterwards, I went back to my bedroom to change out of my dress. I wasn’t sure what type of place B’s was, but I was pretty sure I would have been too dressed up. I settled instead for a pair of dark wash jeans and an off the shoulder gray top with pink leopard print. I coupled them with a pair of gray wedges and checked my phone to see that it was seven-thirty. With half an hour left, I decided to go to work typing away at Willa’s story, so I opened my laptop and got started.

  It felt like I had only been at it for a short while when there was a knock at the door, and then Rosalie peeked her head in.

  “Camdyn, Jake’s here,” she stated, eyebrows slanting down as though confused.

  “Okay, thank you,” I said, closing my laptop and rising to my feet. Instead of walking away, she came into the bedroom and shut the door behind her.

  “I know it’s none of my business, but what happened with Cole?” She sat down on the bed and motioned for me to sit beside her, so I followed her example.

  “He apologized, and everything’s fine,” I told her. She shook her head and frowned.

  “So why are you going out with Jake, then?”

  “I’m going with Jake as a friend, that’s all,” I explained with a laugh. “Cole asked him to take me out tonight, probably to exact some type of punishment on me, but I’m taking it in stride, and I’m determined to have a good time.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Rosalie complained, rising and heading toward the door. “I hope Cole knows what he’s doing. It sounds like he’s inviting trouble to me.”

  “Don’t worry so much,” I told her as I reached to open the door. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt it,” she sighed as I walked toward Jake sitting in the living room. He rose when he saw me coming.

  “Wow,” he remarked when I reached him, taking my hand. “You look amazing. Cole really owes me one.”

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “Asking a man to take his buddy’s beautiful girlfriend on a non-date?!” Jake exclaimed. “Come on, that goes above and beyond. It’s like torture.”

  “Well, if you don’t want to go…”

  “No, I didn’t say that,” he protested, putting his hand at the small of my back and leading me to the door. “We can still have fun, just not as much fun.” He winked as he opened the door and we headed out to his truck.

  We started down the highway and soon turned off on a road I hadn’t yet explored. Jake gave me the details on B’s and the band that would be playing that night, and when we had been driving for only a few minutes my phone started buzzing. I looked down and realized that, finally, I had a signal. I asked Jake if he would mind if I checked my messages, and he didn’t, so I scrolled through all my missed calls, finding mostly the usual suspects. There were a couple of numbers I didn’t recognize, but one stood out: Cole Parker. I was glad I had programmed his number into my phone after he had given it to me that first night. Punching in my password, I began listening to my voicemail. The first two were from my editor and publisher, but as soon as the third one started I felt my stomach fill with butterflies.

  “Camdyn, it’s Cole. I… Man, this is harder than I thought it would be. I’m trying to come up with the right words and drawing a blank. I just… I wanted to apologize to you earlier, but after I told Aunt Rosalie what happened, she told me to stop being a jerk and wouldn’t let me in the house. What I said, besides being horrible, I know I can’t expect you… It’s just, I feel this insane connection to you. I know that’s crazy, and I in no way expect you to feel the same, but it’s hard for me to… I’m sorry, I know I’m not making sense. All I really want to say is, I feel awful, and I hope you will forgive me. That’s all. Please forgive me.”

  Wow. Cole must have left that message before I saw him at the ball field.

  I put my phone down and looked over at Jake and smiled, but I kept replaying Cole’s words in my mind. I feel this insane connection to you. What does that mean? And he doesn’t expect me to feel the same? I couldn’t really even quantify how I felt, this whole thing was such a roller coaster ride of emotions.

  You are completely, utterly, and pathetically infatuated with him, Camdyn, that’s how you feel.

  Is it really? Granted, I find it hard to stop thinking about him sometimes, and when he smiles at me I practically forget my own name. That doesn’t necessarily equate to being infatuated, though, and I’m definitely not pathetic. Am I?

  “We’re here!” Jake announced as we pulled up in front of a large tan metal building with several cars out front. I started to open the truck door, but he insisted I sit tight while he came around and opened it for me, explaining that’s what Cole would do, and he promised to take care of me. He added that he couldn’t figure out what was so important that Cole wanted him to take me out, but I quickly told him that he had baseball practice. I almost told him that Cole wasn’t really my boyfriend, just so I wouldn’t have to keep watching what I said, but I decided against it. If I told him that, Jake might be right back to thinking this was a date, and that was even worse.

  As soon as we walked into the building, though, I regretted my inaction.

  “Hey, Jake,” a guy in a baseball cap and cowboy boots called from a nearby pool table. “Who’s the new girl?”

  “This is Cole Parker’s girlfriend,” Jake stated. “He was busy tonight, so he asked me to show her a good time.”

  “Ha!” the guy replied with a loud laugh. “Since when does Parker have a girlfriend? And if he did, he wouldn’t ask you to show her a good time. He’s not that stupid.”

  “Parker has a girlfriend?” another guy turned around, suddenly interested.

  “Yeah, boys, this is Camdyn,” Jake said, putting a protective arm around me, “and you better leave her alone.”

  “I don’t think Parker needs to worry about me when you have your arm around his girl,” the guy in the ball cap told Jake. “Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse.” Jake reached out and pushed the baseball cap down further on the guy’s forehead, but he just pulled it back up with a smile.

  “Shut up,” Jake said with a smirk as he moved on to the next person, again introducing me as Cole’s girlfriend. One new face after another, it continued to snowball until I felt like I was so far under, I would never dig out. Inevitably, his revelation was met with some kind of shock that Parker had a girlfriend, and I was beginning to feel extremely guilty about the amount of work it was going to take Cole to dig out of this mess. Suddenly what he told me a couple days ago came rushing back. I couldn’t just pretend to be his girlfriend, because he had to live in this town. I almost felt sick about the whole thing, but what could I do now? After only about fifteen minutes the entire building was buzzing about Parker’s girlfriend and I felt like a butterfly that was about to be mounted in a glass box.

  Then, suddenly things were infinitely worse. Someone yelled out, “Hey, we have a celebrity in our midst!” I turned and looked toward the bar where someone was replaying that horrible news story about there being a heartbreaker on the loose on the big screen TV.

  This was a huge mistake. I shouldn’t have come here. I should have Jake take me back to Rosalie’s right now.

  “Hey, you guys turn that off!” Jake yelled across the room. “Sorry about that, Camdyn. Small town, people talk. They mean well, though; they’re just having some fun.”

  I watched as the remainder of the news story played out, and then a few people giggled and glanced over at me before the TV went back to a baseball game. Despite Jake’s best intentions, I felt completely uncomfortable, and I was considering escaping outside when I felt someone grab my elbow. I turned arou
nd to see a pretty girl with dark brown hair and light brown eyes, wearing a Poison t-shirt just like Cole’s.

  “Did I hear someone say you were Cole Parker’s girlfriend?” she asked, smiling expectantly.

  Okay, she didn’t ask if you WERE Cole Parker’s girlfriend, she asked if someone said that. Completely different question.

  “Yeah,” I heard myself tell her, attempting to smile. She threw her arms around my neck, and I’m certain my eyes were as big as saucers. When she stepped back, she had a huge smile on her face.

  “Dad said you were pretty, but you really are beautiful,” she told me, and then she squealed, throwing her arms around me again. “I am so excited! You have no idea!”

  She pulled back, standing there staring at me, absolutely giddy, and I couldn’t help but feel a little shell-shocked.

  “I’m sorry, I’m confused,” I said as gently as I could, hoping not to hurt her feelings. “How do I know your dad?”

  “Gosh, I didn’t say, did I?” she laughed. “I’m Rachel, Cole’s sister.”

  “Oh!” I exclaimed, feeling guilty and relieved at the same time. “I’m…”

  “Camdyn, I know,” she completed my sentence. “Come on, I have a table right up front, you can sit with me. My husband, Jeff, is in the band. He plays the bass.” She took my hand and guided me to a table where there were a couple guitar cases and some pieces of paper. Shoving things out of the way, she made room for us to sit.

  “Cole has a shirt just like that,” I said, pointing to the Poison logo.

  “Yeah, we got them at a concert eons ago,” she told me, pulling her chair close. “I just know we’re going to be great friends; I can already tell.”

  You have to tell her the truth. This is his sister!

  “That would be…awesome,” I stated, reciprocating her infectious smile. “I’m sorry - I’m just so awfully embarrassed at the moment that I might not be great company.”

  “Oh, get out, embarrassed about what?” she exclaimed. “Every girl in here wishes they had some guy propose to them - you just happen to be practiced in it. Who cares?”