Hard to Handle (Love in the Balance 2)

Sadie was tired of being surprised; tired of being off-kilter. She jerked the wheel, stepped on the gas, and headed home.

Chapter 8

Aiden laid the bat over his right shoulder, muscles coiling as he trained his eyes on the pitcher. The machine released a baseball and he swung, smacking the ball with a satisfied crack! It shot into the back of the net covering the cage.

“Nice,” Shane said from behind him.

“I have mad skills,” Aiden said, prepping for the next pitch.

“So, you’re what, dating Sadie now?” Shane asked as another ball shot out of the automated pitcher.

Crack! Not as fast, but still good.

Aiden hadn’t meant to bring up the kiss after the bonfire, but since it’d been the only thing he could think about, he ended up blurting it out.

“I don’t know,” Aiden said, flexing his hands around the bat as he readied for the pitch. “Would you consider that a date?”

“The making-out part sort of counts.”

Aiden swung, hitting the ball on the bottom of the bat. It hit the dirt with an unimpressive thud. He frowned at the ball, then at his smartass cousin. “Okay. Well, I guess we’re sort of dating.”

Aiden lifted the bat again.

“Do you love her?”

Whiff! Swing and a miss. The automated pitcher whined to a halt, signifying the final ball.

“That was going to be a home run,” Aiden said, casting Shane an agitated glare.

Shane drank the remainder of his orange Gatorade rather than comment.

Aiden stepped out of the cage, tugging the glove off his fingers. “What do you know, anyway?”

Shane waggled the hand his wedding band rested on.

Aiden rolled his eyes.

A kid, probably thirteen or fourteen, stepped up to the cage entrance. “You guys done yet?” he asked, impatience outlining his every word.

“Yeah, kid, have at it,” Aiden answered. He and Shane left the cages and walked across the park to a food stand. They took a seat at an empty picnic table and wolfed down hot dogs, washing them down with semicold beer.

“So, do you?” Shane asked, swallowing his next bite and lifting his eyebrows. “Love her?”

Aiden stopped chewing.

You do. Admit it.

“I don’t think I ever stopped,” Aiden heard himself say. He waited for Shane to lecture him for being stupid, or laugh for the same reason. Instead, he nodded.

“Crickitt was right.” He swiped his napkin over his mouth, balled it up, and dropped it onto his plate. “How is she always right?” he marveled, looking a little peeved.

Aiden would have chuckled at the sight of Shane besotted over a woman, but the fact that Shane and Crickitt obviously discussed his love life when he wasn’t around curbed the urge. “What do you mean? Did Sadie say something?”

Aiden had today off work, which had given him the morning to himself to replay the feel of her warm body against his, to recall the heat from her tongue tangled with his. And that moan. The needy moan coming from the back of her throat that nearly rendered him her indentured servant. It’d taken all he had to keep his cool, to let her walk away. To not follow her home—and follow her in.

Shane lifted his plastic cup and chuffed. “Like Crickitt would tell me what those two talk about? She knows it would get right back to you.”

Aiden’s frown deepened. That wasn’t very comforting.

“But no, I don’t think she and Sadie have spoken or seen each other since last week.”

Aiden lifted his own cup and took a drink, but the alcohol was doing little to help him relax. His cell phone rang, and he pressed a button. “Yeah.”

Axle’s voice boomed from the other end. “I need you to come in today.”

Aiden noted he didn’t ask. Wasn’t like Aiden had plans anyway. And Shane was on borrowed time, heading home within the hour to report for some unnamed husbandly duty. Aiden suppressed a smile when he thought back to Shane telling him he was looking forward to getting home to Crickitt. His loyalty didn’t surprise Aiden, but that his self-proclaimed bachelor cousin was pretty darn good at marriage kind of did.

“I can be there in an hour,” Aiden told Axle.

“Good.” Axle ended the call without a good-bye.

“What’s up?” Shane asked.

“Work.”

“Well, good,” Shane said, polishing off his beer. “You could use the distraction.” Shane gave him a knowing grin.

The smartass.

* * *

Sadie stood in front of her full-length mirror, shoulders slumping as she evaluated her outfit. “How the hell am I supposed to dress for this thing?” She focused on the reflection of Crickitt, who perched on Sadie’s bed in the background.