Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I stood frozen as he somehow made the boiling rage within me come down to a simmer. The tempest within me clashed with the raw honesty of his words. My hands unclenched by my sides as a small tremble slipped through my lips. “I’m sorry. It just hurts,” I whispered as the anger residing within me began to ebb and be replaced with nothing more than pain. “It hurts,” I said, revealing a truth I had come to terms with.
“I know,” he agreed. “And that’s fine. It’s okay for it to hurt. But we’re more than their stories. We’ve worked too hard to get to where we are. We’re too strong to let this kind of shit get us down. We are almost to the finish line, Avery. Don’t let this sidetrack you. I know how deep the pit of self-doubt can pull you.”
I could tell that he meant that. Nathan had faced demons in his life that he probably never even spoke of. There were parts of his story that he ripped up the pages to. He’d been through the wringer of public opinion, and somehow, he not only managed to escape it and become stronger—but he still remained humble and kind.
He extended his hand toward me. “Let’s go to the batting cage and get this energy moving out of your system.”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to stay and make sure I’m good.”
He extended his hand once more.
I sighed as I looked at his hand and then at his eyes. I saw it, too. The care that he had the moment he first approached me. At that time, I was too hot-tempered to allow his kindness to take care of me.
I placed my hand into his. The moment I felt his touch, my whole body relaxed.
He walked me over to the batting cages. He grabbed a helmet and placed it over my head. As he put his hands on the side of the helmet, he placed his forehead to mine. “You are more than those articles, Avery Kingsley. And stop trying to push me away, will you? I’m not going anywhere, no matter how much you tell me to piss off.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose before he smacked my behind and said, “Batter up.”
“I love you,” I blurted out, the confession hanging in the air between us. That felt more frightening than any article that could’ve been written about me. He froze in place as my whole body began to tremble from the words that freely fell from my lips. I shook my head in confusion because that was the last thing I expected to say in that batting cage after my outbursts. “I love you so much, and I don’t know when it started. I don’t know when I started to fall for you or when you started to mean so much to me, but I do. And I’m sorry for everything I said and how I reacted, and how I said so many hurtful things. I know I’m hard. I’m a hard person to see and to get, and every time I think you’re going to run away, you end up moving in closer, even when I don’t deserve that, even when I don’t deserve you, and well, it’s silly and stupid and completely unexplainable, but I love you, Nathan Pierce. I love you so much that it scares me, but still, I’ll love you anyway. And well, I just—”
He stepped toward me and wrapped his hand around the bat in my grip. “Wait. Stop.” His gaze intensified as he searched my eyes. He placed a finger beneath my chin and tilted my head up. “Say it again,” he requested, his voice barely above a whisper.
“I love you,” I repeated as warmth wrapped around the fear sitting heavily within my chest.
He placed his forehead to mine once more. “Again,” he murmured.
I closed my eyes. “I love you,” I breathed out.
He took the bat from my hands and dropped it to the ground. His fingers laced with mine, and he pulled my hands to his chest. He shook his head slightly. “Sorry, it’s just…I’ve dreamed of you saying those words to me again,” he confessed as his thumbs gently caressed the palms of my hands. “Because I love you too, Avery. I’ve loved you since I first met you, and I’m certain I never stopped.”
We stood there for a moment in the batting cage, surrounded by the echoes of our past and the promise of our future, holding one another in a moment of complete surrender. I forgot about everything else. I forgot about the articles and the cruelty of the world outside of us and I allowed myself to slip back into our make-believe. Where happily-ever-afters existed and conflict didn’t lead to goodbyes. Where my heart could shatter, and he’d pick up the broken pieces.