Page 190 of Just for the Plot

“Is this a real cowboy hat?” OC asks, fingering the edge of it.

“No idea. I took it from one of my teammates. I only wear it away from the stadium. Fool is still looking for it.”

“That’s Adrian’s?” I ask, knowing damn well if Adrian Banks knew that Nolan took his hat, Nolan would find his head five-feet deep in the dirt of the infield. He’s been looking for it for months.

“Yeah. Don’t tell him, you narc.”

“I’m not a narc,” I say, offended.

“You have the face of a narc,” OC says.

“He does, doesn’t he?” Nolan adds.

“The fuck I do.”

“Can we fucking bring it back?” Graydon growls. “Why the fuck is he here?” He gestures toward Nolan.

“I don’t care. I’m just happy about it,” OC says, handing Nolan a napkin, and I can see the urge in him to pat the corner of Nolan’s lips for him.

“I thought it would be good to gather all of you together and tell you that Bower and I are together.”

“Wait, really?” OC asks.

“Shut the fuck up,” Nolan says, pushing at my shoulder so hard that I nearly fall out of my chair. “You bagged her?”

I right myself, caught off guard that I was so easily pushed just now. “Don’t fucking saybagged her.”

“But did you?” he asks, wiggling his brows.

“I’m not going to talk about that shit, but we did spend the night together and I’ll leave it at that.”

“He fucking bagged her.” Nolan slaps me on the back. “Congrats, man. Told you my plan was going to work.”

“Your plan?” Graydon scoffs. “It set him back weeks. If he’d come to us at first, it wouldn’t have turned into the mess it was.”

“Big man is jealous.”

Graydon’s eyes narrow. I want to tell Nolan to back off, but I think he might have to learn the hard way when it comes to Graydon.

“I liked the plot twist of the second guy involved,” OC says, “but it did cause unnecessary drama.”

“Nah, it caused just enough chaos for everyone to figure out what they wanted. In a situation like the one we were presented with, there really was only one option: Get her to notice him, and how do you do that?”

“Make him take his shirt off in front of her,” OC says.

Nolan shakes his head. “No, that’s too easy. Our heroine wouldn’t have fallen for it.”

“Shirt off would have worked,” Graydon says, folding his arms.

“Maybe if the scenario was they were just friends,” Nolan says. “But we had an added twist in the plot here: the sister.”

OC nods. “He’s right. The sister adds an extra element.”

“Shirt still would have worked.”

“You’re sticking to a failed plan. Let me ask you this”—Nolan turns toward me—“before you introduced her to Cougar, did she ever see you with your shirt off?”

“She did.”