Wild(22)

            “Were you ‘not in the mood’ to tell me hello, too?”

            Heat crawled over my face. “Hi,” I said lamely.

            “Why’d you come?” That was direct. Nearly as direct as those piercing blue of his eyes.

            I shifted my feet, opting for distraction. “Gr-great game.”

            “Yeah, thanks.” He shrugged one shoulder, brushing it aside as if it were nothing, but his eyes were no less relentless, dismissing my attempt at distraction and demanding an answer.

            “Really. It was an important game. Congratulations.”

            “I know.” And yet he didn’t seem that eager to discuss it.

            “Congratulations. You were—” Incredible. Amazing. Self-possessed and confident. “You won the game. Are you . . . sad a little? It was your last game.”

            He shook his head once. “There will be other games. In college.”

            “I heard you’re going to Kellison. Congratulations.” God. How many times was I going to say that?

            A mocking smile played about his lips that made my belly flutter. He probably heard compliments all the time from any one of his countless groupies. I stepped back a pace, bumping into the door of the Jeep, suddenly not wanting to be confused with one of them. I glanced away, worried that he would see something in my face that I didn’t want him to see. The thing that Rachel had seen.

            I looked across the parking lot, ready for Pepper and Reece to return. I spotted them. They were almost to the front of the concession line now. A woman stood at the counter, five little kids surrounding her as she placed an order. It was going to be a while yet.

            I could go stand with them. Then I wouldn’t be alone here with Logan.

            “Didn’t expect to see you here, Georgia. You’ve never been to a game with Reece and Pepper before.”

            His voice drew my gaze back to his face. I’d never kissed him before. Never thought about Reece’s little brother in the way I did now.

            And that made me feel pathetic. Just like Rachel said. Harris called me boring. Rachel called me pathetic. I was two for two when it came to things I didn’t want to be.

            “Yeah. Well, I didn’t have anything going on and Pepper invited me . . .” My voice faded and I felt so lame standing there. Acting like I didn’t want to come. That my being here was just a casual thing. After the other night, my being here felt so very obvious and I wanted to punch myself. Hard.

            “Hey, Lo!” Another player walked down the row between cars, his bat bag slung over his shoulder. He came over and clapped Logan on the shoulder. “You headed to the after-party?”

            The skinny kid looked like a teenager. An honest-to-God high school kid with angry-looking acne and a bobbing Adam’s apple. And this was one of Logan’s friends? A fellow peer? Mortification ripped through me. In that moment, I never felt the gulf between us so keenly. And I felt stupid . . . foolish standing there pretending I was here for any other reason than that our kiss had consumed my thoughts for days.

            Logan nodded. “Yeah. See you there.”

            The boy looked at me curiously, the interest keen in his eyes, before he walked away.

            “God,” I muttered softly.

            Logan must have heard me. His head whipped back around and he stared at me, his eyes alert and sharp like he could read my thoughts.

            Thankfully, I spotted Reece and Pepper headed our way. “I gotta go,” I said hurriedly, turning to walk around the Jeep, ready to climb in the backseat, not even caring how obvious I was in trying to put distance between us by unnecessarily circling around the vehicle.