Page 28 of Chasing Headlines

Chapter Eight

Breslin POV

My legs spent, my arms jelly, I all but stumbled into the locker room. I was gonna hurt the next day. I'd thought I was in fairly good condition, but clearly I had under-prepared for collegiate level baseball. Glancing around the room, the looks of exhaustion said in loud voices that I was not the only one who had underestimated their training.

But I was supposed to be number one. And yet clearly, telling myself I was already competing at the next level had not done me any favors.

Shit. I slumped down on the bench next to my locker and tipped my head back.

“I feel that, man.” Jimenez groaned as he sat down a few feet away. “I need a bath in some icyhot. Minus my best bits.”

God what I wouldn't give for a muzzle right then. Wasn't there some way to shut this guy up? I was not gonna make it the full season with this guy running his mouth like an engine without a muffler.

I closed my eyes and prayed to heaven above that he could be smited. Smote? Something. Just someone please shut him up.

“You ever get some of that on your balls, man? Fuckin burns like no one's business. Woo. There's no ice then. Just hot. Ow, mama!”

I couldn’t hurt him. But maybe I could beat my head on the locker and knock myself unconscious. I was tired enough that I probably didn’t have to try that hard . . .

“Ain't the good kinda heat. Not the aching-sweet thing of beauty between a mami chula's?—”

“Shut the ever-lovin fuck up.”

Is what I wanted to say. Instead, I bit my tongue and clenched my eyes shut. I wasn't going to make it. I wasn't going to keep from punching him in the face. I stood, threw my glove in my locker and grabbed my backpack from the hook. Spun the lock. I imagined myself bounding out of the room, but my legs barely managed to do much more than shuffle.

Still, I must have gotten going a bit too fast because the next thing I knew, the reporter “chica” was on the ground, phone skittering across the tile.

And I was the asshole.Shit.

I stared at her. She sat on her rear in the center of the hallway, rubbed her hip and winced.Ah fuck. Is she going to claim I injured her—to get back at me for earlier? Dammit. Fuck. I glanced behind me at the locker room door.She can follow me. I looked up at the door to freedom.I'd have to step over her. That would be ridiculous. Terrible. I had more integrity than that.

Still . . .

She met my gaze and seethed through clenched teeth.

“You . . .” Dammit, what was her name? I had not been paying attention to anything other than, well, my shirt. On her body.Idiot.

“Well, what's left of me. Geez, do you eat bricks for breakfast or what?”

Her legs, long and tanand open—they bent at the knee as she rested her elbows on them. And apparently, my body was not too tired to enjoy the view.

“I'm not hurt and I'm not upset. But I am a little akimbo. Could you help me up?” She spoke in a soft voice. Dark eyelashes framed bright blue-green eyes.

I extended a hand and helped her up. Her fingers in mine, I tugged Rally Girl to her feet. She stood for a breath, two. So close. Connected. Something about the feel of her skin against mine . . . A small, but soothing warmth tingled through the nerves in my hand, sparking a heated rush from my palm to my neck.

A sharp breath, and then her fingers slid from my grasp.

“. . . maybe offer an apology?” She tipped her chin and met my gaze. Moved her hand up and down in a phantom handshake. “Sure, Coop. No hard feelings.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled. Can this be over? I panted for air and shifted back a step. Her being the hot chick in the water fountain had been one thing. I could have tried to find her, always wondered, haunted the student center and bookstore in the hopes I'd run into her again.

Her being a reporter meant all of those things went on the “no fuckin way, ever” list.

“I don't know what you're over there thinking, but. I wouldn’t hurt you. You mean too much to the team.” She frowned. “This was an accident. Not that it didn't jar me to the bone. You missed your calling as a linebacker.”

I blinked. Opened my mouth. Re-ran the words through my brain. She just said a shit ton of stuff, and what the fuck was any of it about?

“I'm fine, really. You need to stop gushing over me. All the upset is really beneath you, Coop.” One eyebrow rose and shecrossed her arms over her chest. How did she breathe while saying all those words?