Sidelined

“So,” Heather turned to me. “Who’s the guy?”

“There is no guy. I told you and Pres that.”

She scooped some ice cream on her fork with a bite of brownie. “Really? No guy? All the secret texts and phone calls? There’s no one?”

I didn’t want to be interrogated and I didn’t want to miss the scene where the couple went on their first date. He was taking her to the ballpark for a candlelit picnic.

“It’s my mom. That’s all. She’s in Dallas and she worries when I travel. She’s one of those hover mothers, you know? A dance mom.”

Heather laughed. “I think we all have dance moms. I guess that makes sense. Sorry. We thought it was a guy.”

“No, but what about you?” I wasn’t paying attention and dropped a dollop of ice cream on my leg.

She rolled her eyes. “I wish. I tried online dating, but that was full of creepy weirdos who found out I was a Warrior and then lied about what they did for a living. Presley set me up with one of her brother’s friends, but that was a disaster. I’m not going to date a player.” She sighed. “I don’t know. It seems impossible right now to find someone. Do you feel like that?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. What I should tell her was that it was completely possible. When she least expected it, some guy would show up out of nowhere and turn her world upside down and make everything else seem less important. He would be there for her. He would surprise her and romance her. Yes, it was worth waiting for. It was worth all the lonely nights that came before his existence.

“Oh, I know what you mean. Dating is the worst.” I felt my stomach turn. I hated lying to her. She had done so much for me.

“Oh, here’s the best part.” She turned up the movie with the remote.

We both sighed as the pitcher kissed the reporter on third base. It was sweet and sappy. But he was clearly an amazing kisser. The girl was swooning.

“See, that’s what I want.” Heather whispered. “All of that.”

I watched and realized that was exactly what I had.

By the time we flew back to Aust

in, Sam and I figured out there was no way to see each other any time soon. Our schedules were off the rest of the week and we both had away games the next weekend.

I called him as soon as I walked through my apartment door. His voicemail picked up.

“Hey, we made it back. I know you’re at practice, but I wanted to hear your voice, and maybe you want to hear mine. Call me.”

I walked into my room, feeling the drudge of traveling clinging to my skin. I stripped down and stepped into the shower. The last three days were down the drain in seconds.

Heather and I finally had our romcom marathon and I discovered that Presley was a lot more fun than I realized. She was an excellent shoe shopper and there were some great boutiques in DC she scouted for us. I came home with three new pairs of heels.

Other than missing Sam like crazy, I had a great time. But I couldn’t believe that in a few days, I had to do it again. This time we were flying to San Francisco. I couldn’t think about that now. I stepped out of the shower and dried off.

I didn’t have the energy for anything but crawling under my covers and going to sleep. I put the phone next to the bed in case Sam called.

Thirty-One

Sam

“Hold on.” I called to whoever was knocking on the door. It was probably one of the guys from the construction crew. They had been tearing the place down and rebuilding it almost from the studs up. It was going to be incredible.

I whipped open the door to find out what had gone wrong this time, when I stared into a pair of brown eyes I never thought I’d see again.

“Maddie?”

“Hey, Sam.”

I looked behind her. This wasn’t right. “What are you doing here? How’d you find me? Who in the hell let you in here?”

“I’m here to see you. Pretty much everyone in San Antonio knows this is your building, and I walked in with a really lovely older couple and told them I was your girlfriend.”