Page 1 of Stalked By the Third Baseman

PROLOGUE

ADAM MARQUEZ

Ifollowed slowly in the shadows, making sure to keep my distance as she walked, forcing my long legs to keep a leisurely pace. It was already dark, way too fucking late for her to be out and about alone.

Who knew what kind of freak could be out there lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce on my girl?

My jaw tightly clenched knowing I wouldn’t be able to do this tomorrow or the day after thanks to an away game. When the season started, it always made me antsy, and more so this last year when we had stopped talking and stupid me had given her space.

I wasn’t sure what had possessed Callie to take an evening class, but whatever it was made me want to throttle and kiss her all at once. As much as I hated the thought of my girl walking through our school to the off-campus apartment she’d insisted on renting instead of staying on campus, I had to admit it helped keep me out of sight.

Just as Callie was about to step off campus property and take the fifteen-minute trail walk into the main part of town, a guy stopped her. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t see him clearly from my position. When he tapped her shoulder, I was ready to make a mad dash toward her. The only thing that stopped me was the way she smiled when she turned to look at him.

She smiled at him. But it wasn’t just any smile. It was the kind of smile she used to give me.

A smile I had spent all year missing.

Seeing it directed at some other asshole almost took all six foot four inches of me down to my knees. She said something that made him laugh, and her eyes brightened.

And I fucking hated it.

I was too far away to know what the hell they were talking about, or figure out who the hell he was, but my hands clenched into tightly wound fists at my sides. Anger unfurled inside of me, and I swear I was about to see red.

What the hell was this?

Who was he?

When had this happened?

The questions bombarded me while I tried to figure out who the guy was, but from the distance with only the moonlight and a soft streetlamp and with his back turned to me, it was tough to make him out. Not that I knew every fucking person on campus, but he looked familiar.

My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest all the while my head swam in what felt like quicksand, thick sludge slowly taking me under, muffling every sound around me while all I could see was my ladybug under the moonlight.

Callie smiled again and… fuck me, was she… was she blushing? My girl was sweet and kind and sometimes shy, but she didn’t blush easily. Only with me. Or she used to.

Me and my stupid fucking plan of giving her space!

I swallowed hard, running a shaky hand through my still sweat-dampened hair. Memories bombarded me, one after another. Way too many from a lifetime of friendship. Meeting in high school. Going to pep rallies and dances together. Hanging out in my room, cuddling and watching every Marvel and DC movie only to dissect each one. Seeing her out on the bleachers at every game; she’d never missed one. Going to each of her debates and watching her in her element, pride like I’d never felt filling my soul all the way through to the bones.

Then, a year ago, two thirds into the last baseball season, we’d had a fight.

A huge, stupid one.

I’d never regretted anything in my life. I’d worked hard to make sure I would never end up like that man who had given me life, the one who still remembered what could have been as truths when it came to his dead-end baseball career.

Ironic, really.

How my sperm donor had settled to have a family with his best friend as a broken man with no dreams further than the ones he’d had of a career on the diamond that never came to fruition. He’d never looked past what could have been and appreciated even for a minute what he thought he’d settled for. Yet me, his son, lived a life he could only have wished for. But truth be told, I’d settled to play the game only so I could be closer to my own best friend.

Callie Marquez was my best friend. My girl. My everything.

Even if she didn’t know it.

Yet.

I stepped deeper into the shadows as I watched Callie and the asshole move to sit on a bench to chat a little longer. Just watching them, seeing how comfortable she was around him, how easily she laughed and smiled, made the lining of my gut burn.

I shut my eyes for a moment. In an instant, I was transported back to that moment, the last day, that she knew of at least, that we’d been together. How it had felt like everything was finally falling into place. I had been so ready to tell her how I felt.