SWAY (Part 1) (7 page)

12

I was sitting on the porch when Ryan drove up. My bat across my lap, my hair in a ponytail as requested.

He held his arms out, smiling. “No reinforcements today?”

“Guess not, since my reinforcement is still with your broken hearted friend Shawn,” I playfully narrowed my eyes. Lindsay had called me about one o’clock that morning to inform me that she was in love and would be otherwise occupied until further notice.

“That did work out well for me, didn’t it?” Ryan smiled again, standing in front of me now. He pushed his sunglasses up on his head and leaned in very close to me, his eyes catching mine, holding them as I felt my insides begin to slide again, and then he smiled a little seeming amused by something.

“Are you sure you can handle being alone with me?” he asked in a velvety tone, absolutely aware of the power encompassed in his gaze. I quickly yanked my eyes out of his possession and straightened my caving self-control. “Or is there someone else you want to pick up on the way?”

Do not look into his eyes
, I told myself. I took in a quick breath and tilted my head, giving him a crooked smile. “I do have a bat, so I think I’m good.” I pushed myself from the steps and breezed past Ryan toward his car. He followed me, chuckling.

Ryan drove us to the outdoor batting cages at Lehman Park. The weather was perfect. The sun was out, but it wasn’t hot. There was a slight breeze blowing, forcing the new spring life to move around us, disbursing the sweet scent of the cherry blo
ssoms scattered throughout the park.

Ryan set up the pitching machine for me. I set my feet and pulled my bat back, ready for the pitch to come down. It lobbed out of the machine with so little momentum that it fell about six feet short. He laughed hysterically. I didn’t want
that
Ryan around. I frowned at him as he passed me to correct the machine’s speed.

I whacked a few to the back of the cage, into the net.

“You’re good,” Ryan complimented.

“It’s not fast enough,” I informed him without breaking my co
ncentration, or looking at him.

“You’re not at all competitive are you, love?” he asked as he r
eadjusted the machine.

The word threw me, even though it was just a sa
ying. The sound of that word coming from his mouth intended for me caused excitement to scream through me.

“That should do it.” He winked at me and smiled that d
evious little smile of his as he crossed back in front of me, and then it dawned on me. He’d said
that
word on purpose to scramble my concentration. He was intentionally trying to distract me.

“You’re not either
, are you, love?” I said smugly. Ryan stopped in his tracks, laughing gruffly. “You’re a quick study, Reynolds.” He smiled again displaying his perfect teeth. Yeah, but what he didn’t know was that he actually had me for a second.

When it was Ryan’s turn to hit, I watched him in awe. He was physically perfect, and had a charming sense of humor, which I liked, even when it annoyed me. He was fun and had been so easy to talk
to. He was interesting and smart. He wasn’t some dumb jock with a shiny candy wrapper outside and disgusting nougat inside. He was more than that and I enjoyed being with him more than I thought I would. At that moment, as I sat appreciating Ryan, he seemed more like a fantastic dream I was having than my reality.

For lunch, we went to a Mexican place Ryan liked. We sat ou
tside. It was too nice for either of us to want to be indoors. He kept looking at me strangely, like he wanted to say something, but didn’t quite know how. What made it worse for me was the giant smile on his face.

“What? Do I have salsa on my mouth or something?”

“No.”

“Are you going to share what you find so amusing?”

“I was just thinking about something.”

“Okay….”

Still, he said nothing.

“Are you
trying
to torture me?” I finally asked.

“No.”

“Please tell me what it is. I’m becoming unbelievably self conscious.”

Ryan leaned toward me. “Okay,” his green eyes danced with e
nthusiasm. “It was driving me crazy watching you that day in the gym.”

“
I
was driving
you
crazy?” I questioned, doubtful.

“The shorts.”
He raised an eyebrow.

“My shorts?”
I gasped.

“And the socks,” he gestured toward them. “I love the socks.” A guilty smile budded on his face.

“Are you making fun of me?” Embarrassment ignited a rush of blood to paint my cheeks deep red.

“No.” His panicked eyes plead with mine.

I loved to wear colorful cotton shorts, the seventies reproduction with wide, white piping around them. Kristy once commented that they were skimpy and I looked like a hooker, although I’d never heard of a hooker wearing casual athletic shorts before.

They were a little short, I guess, but they weren’t skimpy. They were comfortable to practice
in. I also wore socks pulled almost to my knees with stripes circling the top and low top Chuck Taylor’s when I wasn’t in cleats.

I huffed at Ryan, shaking my head, a hard edge to my voice. “So, is that why I’m here?
Because you like my shorts?”

I suddenly felt stupid, like I’d fallen into his trap. The one Justin warned me about. I had just been thinking all of these wo
nderful things about Ryan and now the jerk was resurfacing.

“No, I—” he began. I cut him off. “I’m not like those girls,” I u
ttered the words, feeling sadness swiping at my joy, attempting to snatch it all away. I had hoped
that
wasn’t all Ryan was after.

“I know you’re not like that and your shorts aren’t the re
ason I asked you out. I didn’t mean for it to sound that way,” he paused. “That was a really stupid thing to say,” he mumbled, scolding himself.

Ryan leaned down, encouraging me to look at him. “I hope that’s not what you really think.” He shook his head, taking a deep breath and releasing it, and then he told me something, as if his co
nscious was nagging him to.

“It’s not why I asked you out. I’ll admit it’s what first grabbed my attention, but it’s not what kept it.”

“So, what kept it, then?”

“You’re really good. Once I got past the shorts and how you look in them I started to watch
you—
the rest of you. You were so focused, like no one else was around.”

That’s what he thought
. I had been fully aware he was watching.

“I can relate to having to be focused, which made me curious, so I began finding out more about you, mostly by o
bserving.” He grinned at me. I wanted to laugh. Stalking would have better described his
observing
me.

Ryan silently gazed at me. I finally allowed myself to push aside my aggravation and look back at him. I could have drowned in his green eyes peeking at me from beneath his dark lashes. Once he had me, his lips curved into a sweet smile.

“You’re not upset with me, are you?” he whispered.

“That’s not fair,” I mumbled.

“What?” he asked, leaning toward me, eyes smoldering.

“That—the way you’re looking at me. It’s not fair.”

Ryan’s smile widened, turning into laughter. “Is it working?” It was working and he knew it. I rolled my eyes. He laughed again. “You believe me, don’t you?” he asked seriously.

“It’s sort of hard when you’re cracking yourself up over there.”

“Okay then, let me ask you a question. What was the first thing you thought when you saw me that day?”

My mind flashed back to when I’d bumped into Ryan, and my first impression of him. I remembered thinking I’d never seen anyone so attractive. Then I realized he had me, because I had also thought about how good he looked in his uniform. I smashed my lips together, but couldn’t keep it in. I had to laugh. “I’m not
telling you that.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because you thought I was hot. I thought the same thing about you. And you know why?” He didn’t let me answer. “Because physical appearance was all we had to go on. Our first i
mpression of each other was based on looks because it had to be.”

“Okay, yeah I thought you were hot, but then you opened your mouth,” I sang, cutting my eyes away.

“Fair enough. But what do you think now?”

“You’re different than I thought you would be.”

“I told you,” he shined proudly. I smirked, trying to disguise a smile. “What was with the act then?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ryan grinned mi
schievously.

“The theatrics.”
I waved jazz hands in the air.

“Believe it or not, most girls go crazy for that kind of thing.” 

“No they don’t.” My comment sounded more like a question. I think it may have been a question.

“Yeah they do, too. They expect it from a guy like me b
ecause of the baseball fame and the money thing. I’d have a better chance of getting a girl by being an egotistical ass than by being like this. For some reason they eat that stuff up.”

“No way,” I protested, shaking my head.

“Most girls don’t want a nice guy, Annie. If they did, there wouldn’t be one
single
guy in the math club right now.” He paused, giving me time to process. I didn’t know what to say. Judging his track record in comparison with the math clubs’, he was right. I shrugged.

Ryan leaned toward me again, staring for a second before he continued. “I don’t know if you’ll believe this or not, but I knew you weren’t like other girls from the beginning.” He smiled quickly. “Anot
her reason I couldn’t stay away from you.” Blood hastily dispersed across my cheeks again.

“You didn’t go for any of my tricks. You wouldn’t chase me, which was hard for me. It was frustrating that I couldn’t sway you. I’ve never had to work so hard to get a date.” He looked amused, as if remembering the challenge. “I’ve never had to co
rner a girl and feel her up to get her attention before.” My face reddened further, recalling how being that close to Ryan had made me feel.

“And you still didn’t call me,” he complained.

“I told you, I have a rule about that.”

“You’re the first thing I’ve ever wanted that I had to work for,” he admitted softly. My eyes instinctively flickered up to meet his. “Ge
tting to be here with you right now was absolutely worth all the extra effort.” My heart pounded, he was seriously wreaking havoc on my insides. “I figured out after that day in the gym that you would never be interested in an arrogant ass, although I’ll admit it was hard to turn off sometimes. I was so used to being like that with other girls that it had become second nature to me and it’s still a little difficult sometimes, because you draw out the competitor in me. I just don’t want you to attribute that to arrogance.”

“I understand being competitive and it’s one of the things I like about you—” “
One
of the things,” Ryan interrupted, smiling. “What else do you like about me?” he asked with childlike anticipation.

“I can’t tell you that.” I shook my head. “But I can say that I would rather be out with this Ryan than the ass one.” I had e
njoyed our spirited exchanges though, looking back. The playful banter seemed to further fuel my attraction to him. “I still can’t believe you dumped my boyfriend, though.” It sounded so ridiculous when I said it out loud that I laughed a little. “And right in front of me.”

“It was necessary. You never would have done it on your own.” Ryan could have been right. I’d been completely terrified of him and needed a nudge. He gave me a push instead.

“David and I weren’t going to make it much longer anyway. We didn’t exactly have a conventional boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.”

“What does that mean?”

Our food arrived, and thankfully gave me an out. I didn’t want to answer that question.

Ryan watched as I tried to cut my taco into smaller bites. I didn’t want to shove it into my mouth and have it drip all over me in front of him. I should have ordered something else, something
that was meant to be eaten with a fork.

We glanced at one another, smiling. As I looked at him, I didn’t think it would be possible for me to be any more attracted to him. My drifting thoughts suddenly made me feel awkward and I put my full a
ttention back into torturing my taco.

“Did you love him,” Ryan asked gently. I couldn’t look at him. I stared at my taco and answered. “I cared for him, but I didn’t love him—I don’t think. Well, I wasn’t in love with him, I suppose,” I stammered. “I’m sorry. I’m not making sense.”