Dare You to Fall for the Catcher (Rock Valley High 3)

A sudden and unexplainable twinge of heat burst in my belly as I watched him walk away in those low-slung board shorts. Whatever it was, it went away as quickly as it came when I realized what had just happened.

I came this close to blowing my future—all over a stupid dare with a silly boy.

I might have been stubborn, but what Jayden didn’t know was that my stubborn attitude was the only thing I had going for me. That, and my running. And if anyone was going to come back from this, it was me.

There was no other option.

Chapter Two

The urgent care waiting room was cold and smelled a lot like hand sanitizer. A rerun of Frasier played on the TV. Mom plopped into the chair next to my wheelchair, her blonde hair escaping from its bun at the nape of her neck. She held her giant black purse on her lap and dug her arm deep inside it.

“Do you want a piece of Big Red?” she asked, glancing at me, the lines in her forehead deepening. “Or a Werther’s candy? Or how about a tic tac? Those always make you feel better.”

“Yeah, when I was six,” I said with a suppressed smile.

“That’s probably for the best. Turns out that was actually my heart medication.”

Mom managed to get a laugh out of me, despite my foul mood. She always did. Mom seemed to have this idea that the key to happiness was stashed somewhere inside her purse. Whenever she was nervous, she would pull stuff out of it. I swear, she was like the manic version of Mary Poppins, except blonde, curvy, and with a wicked ability to create underrated and totally awesome meals for the diner. Oh, and a heart condition called cardiomyopathy that got worse with stress.

I’m sure this wasn’t helping.

“Okay then,” she said, sticking her nose back into the bag. “What about a crossword puzzle? I’m sure I stashed one of those little game booklets in here for times like this. Just let me find it—”

I put a hand on her arm and she halted her frantic searching to look over at me. “Mom, I’m okay. Let’s just wait and see what the doctor says.”

She nodded gratefully and dropped her giant purse back to the ground, redirecting her attention to the TV.

Audrey had called my parents at the restaurant the moment we got on the road. Despite the fact that I knew they’d be overwhelmed with the lunch hour rush soon, Mom had insisted on meeting us at urgent care. My friends had offered to stay, but I shooed them back to the party at the Cascades. Their boyfriends were still there and somebody had to keep an eye on Charlotte. That girl was getting on my nerves. It was nearly impossible to keep her at home.

The good news was that the pain in my ankle had definitely lowered down to a dull throbbing level. In fact, it seemed silly to be here at all. What I needed was a night to baby it and I’d be back on my feet. This whole fuss was entirely Jayden’s fault. If he hadn’t demanded I go to urgent care, I’d already be at home and Mom never would’ve had to find out.

I’d been taking care of myself since I was practically a tiny kid. There was no need for everyone to make such a fuss.

A nurse in blue scrubs walked through a door and glanced at her clipboard. “Amanda Hale?”

I winced at the sound of my full name, reminded once again of Jayden’s prodding from an hour ago.

“Here!” Mom jumped from her chair and snatched her purse. “We’re here.”

She jerked my wheelchair forward and I hissed as pain shot up my leg. I hadn’t wanted to sit in the wheelchair in the first place, but Trina had given me those big green puppy dog eyes until I relented. Everyone thought she was so innocent, but she knew how to use her superpowers to her advantage. If I didn’t love her so much, I would’ve told her just where she could put that wheelchair.

“Sorry, sweetie.” Mom patted me on the head as she pushed me down the hall after the nurse. “I’ll be more careful.”

We were herded into a small exam room with barely enough room to fit the wheelchair, let alone three people. I ended up having to stare at the white chipped paint on the wall as the nurse asked my mom questions about my medical history. Meanwhile, my phone was buzzing with notification after notification. Finally, with a groan, I pulled it out of the hoodie pocket and unlocked the screen to see what all the fuss was about.

RockValleyBiz tagged you in a photo.

My heart rate jumped just a tiny bit. Nothing good ever came out of being tagged in the Rock Valley Instagram gossip rag that was RockValleyBiz. My thumb hesitated over the icon for a mere second before I opened the app.

What popped up was a photo that made my cheeks burn as if I’d shoved my face into a campfire. It featured Jayden carrying a sopping wet me against his very firm and very sculpted chest. He looked every bit like a superhero in an action movie, the gray sweatshirt tied around his waist acting like a miniature cape. He even had the chiseled jawline. I was the unfortunate damsel looking way too comfortable in his arms. Scrolling a little farther, that embarrassment only grew when I read the posting below it:

Is track goddess Mandy out for the season? Or just craving an intimate moment with our catch(er) of the year, bachelor Jayden Paul?

As I scanned over the numerous comments popping up under the caption, my head swirled with all kinds of regret over this morning’s events. Never in a million years did I think I’d be accused of being one of those girls who would fake an injury to get a guy at her side. It was so not me. They had the wrong idea.

Especially not with Jayden Paul.

Staring at the picture, I realized with a start that the sweatshirt hanging from around his waist was the same sweatshirt I had on now. The one that I’d been gratefully snuggling for warmth since we left the Cascades. The realization made my skin itch. If I hadn’t been wearing a bikini underneath it, I would’ve stripped right then and there. Anything to put some more distance between that picture, me, and superman Jayden.