Homerun (Pro-U Book 4) by Ali Parker Page A

of her like crazy.
    "Layla, I'll take you anywhere you want to go without me passing a test."
    "No." She jerked her gaze back up to me. "I want this to be fun. A challenge. I'll work hard to help you pass Chemistry, and you reward me with a fun date when you get a good grade."
    I laughed. "I guess that works. I'm not sure who's going to be working harder on the grades... you or me."
    "Good. Then it's set." She smiled and picked up her fork. "It's been lonely without Seth, but he's just not my type. He's all talk."
    "All talk, hmm?" I wanted to know what the bastard did wrong to make sure I didn't do it too. Not that we were dating-dating, but going on a date was definitely the door opening a little.
    "Yeah. It's probably too personal to talk about over breakfast, and with you." She laughed and shook her head. "Forget I said anything about him."
    "All right, so what's on your schedule for today? Wanna ride up to the bookstore and get our books for this semester?"
    "I already got mine, but we can go get yours. I don't have any place to be today."
    "Awesome. I'm going out to see my folks tomorrow. My mom has this thing with Sunday dinners, like you don't know." I let my eyes move across her beautiful face as her expression softened. "You can come with me if you want."
    "No, I'll stay here and get some sleep. I usually sleep Saturday and Sunday away, but the smell of bacon was something I wasn't willing to pass up this morning."
    "Sorry?" I chuckled and got busy on my breakfast. It was crazy how good it felt to do something as simple as share a meal with her.
    There was a slight awkwardness that sat between us, but it was all me. I was in love with her and pretending that I wasn't. Her setting us up on mini-dates was probably the worst idea ever, but I sure as hell wasn't going to tell her.
     
    *
     
    "I can't believe Aubrey is getting married in March. It's two months away." Layla glanced over at me as we walked out of the campus bookstore.
    "I think she's just in a hurry to get her life started. I wish she would have finished her last semester with us, but when Lucas got hurt last fall, she about lost it. I think she just wants to be beside him in case anything happens."
    "Or to simply enjoy life more." Layla shrugged. "If I was in love with someone, I'd want to be right beside them all the time too, you know?"
    "Yeah. I get it." I glanced over at her and tried to swallow the burning desire to tell her how long I'd loved her. It would sound silly and trite now.
    "You wanna grab a sandwich and go to the park?" She reached out and brushed something out of my hair.
    I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. It's freezing out here, but we can sit in the sun and pack up when it gets to be too much."
    "Tell me how you ended up captain of the baseball team. I thought Lucas was priming you to be hockey captain. Coach Billows didn't plan things to end up this way, right?"
    "Our captain, and several other guys on the baseball team got popped for steroid use." I opened the car door and set my books in the backseat. The sandwich shop was across campus, but it was a beautiful day outside.
    "Damn. That sucks." She moved back and crossed her arms over her chest.
    "Yep, so now I'm in charge of both."
    "Are you going to choose one or the other?"
    "I want to, but it's hard." I walked toward her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders as we moved toward the sandwich shop. Why it was comfortable touching her sometimes and not others was a mystery to me. I'd just live it up in the moments I could force myself out of my shell.
    "What do you like about each of them?" She glanced up at me, and my heart almost stopped. She had to be the most beautiful woman in the universe.
    Tell her. Just tell her.
    "I love the aggression you get to play with in hockey and I enjoy the individual and team efforts in baseball. Hockey is all about team, which is good, but I like being a contributor by myself and with the team." I squeezed her shoulders and released her. "You