Cricket: Contemporary Romance Novella Read Free

underhanded baseball move but I’ll never forget it.” And with that, the cabin grew quiet again, only the furnace puffing from the vents, the sounds of the slowing fire and the raindrops hitting the roof. “Thank you for always putting up with us, Tate. You were so patient, and we bugged the heck out of you.”
    He nodded. “I didn’t mind. In fact, I liked it. To be honest, I had a bit of a thing for you, but I guess my earlier confession about the run up the rainy mountain probably gave that away.”
    I stared at my feet that were now red from the heat of the fire. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”
    “Really? Then I guess I was pretty good at hiding my crush.”
    I pulled my legs in and faced him. “I used to have to consciously slow down my heart every time I saw you. I used to daydream about you during Mr. Ramsay’s boring social studies lectures. When you left to college, I cried into my pillow every night for a week. And, after all that, you had a thing for me?”
    His long lashes dropped, and he smiled. “Yeah, I sort of knew that you liked me too.”
    “What gave it away? The large I love Tate Harris tattoo across my forehead?”
    He laughed and then stared at the fire. “I guess because you were Hannah’s best friend, it never seemed right. I mean, you used to come over with your pillow and your hot band magazines and have sleepovers. It made things kind of strange. I’d convinced myself that I needed to stay away from you. Because of Hannah— you know?”
    “Yeah, that makes sense.” We sat there in silence for a moment. I’d spent all that time worshipping the guy from a distance, trying to pretend he was just my best friend’s older brother and there he was admiring me too. And for some reason, now that we’d both confessed, things felt sort of awkward again. “I’ll make that cocoa.” I blurted, cutting the steamy tension that seemed to have suddenly surrounded us. I hopped up.
    “How about a game of cards?” he called.
    “Sure.” We were sliding back to the comfortable days of hanging out as kids, playing games in front of the fire. It was an easier, more natural state for both of us. It was for the best, I told myself as I filled a pot with milk.
    As I returned to the fire with cups of cocoa, Tate was leaning into the hearth, placing more logs on the fire. His butt was still as perfect as ever. As godlike as I thought he was in high school, as he straightened, I realized how much more he’d filled out. His shoulders and arms looked as if they could crush someone, and my mind floated back to that rainy day on the mountain. If he’d put his arms around me back then, I would have slumped to the ground in a blissful faint.
    “Remember that time when Greg Tuttle and I snuck up and pounded on the window while you and Hannah were in here playing cards?” he asked.
    “How can I forget? I was so startled, I tossed my cards up in the air and three of them floated into the fire. Hannah screamed so loud I was sure she’d start an avalanche. You guys were rotten on that trip.”
    “Yeah, I felt really awful that we scared you guys so badly.”
    “Really? Did the feeling awful part come before or after you were doubled over with laughter?”
    “You’re right, we were rotten.” He shuffled the cards. “Gin Rummy?”

Chapter 4
    I lay awake, staring at the bottom of the top bunk. My long underwear was hardly enough to warm me. Tate and I had played cards and reminisced for several hours before deciding to part ways and head into our corresponding bedrooms. It occurred to me halfway through the evening, as I tried hard not to notice the way his throat moved as he drank the cocoa, or the way his hands looked as he shuffled the cards or the way his jaw muscle twitched when he laughed, that my crush on Tate was as strong as ever. But it seemed that his teen crush on me had faded. We were sitting alone in front of the fire, but aside from our feet accidentally brushing each other or