Page 12 of Eff Marry Kill

"Yeah, you do." I hear the smile in her voice. "You're crazy about him."

"Fine, maybe I am," I mutter, rolling my eyes. "That doesn't change anything."

"Why not? And don't you dare use your brother as an excuse!" she cries into the phone. "We both know Nate doesn't care what you do so long as you're happy."

"That's precisely the problem," I mutter, narrowing my eyes at Chuck when he turns to look at me. He immediately whips back around, but not before whispering something to Talia, who peeks over at me and then quickly averts her gaze. Why is everyone being weird today? "Nathan wouldn't care if we were together, but Hux acts like a totally different person around him."

"That's not true," Emelia protests softly.

"No? He accidentally touched my ass in front of Nathan last week and immediately apologized and then hurried away. Any other day of the week, he would have made some outrageous comment and then tried to do it again."

"Maybe he was trying not to piss off your brother."

I snort loudly.

I'm not sure if my coworkers hear me or if they're just nosy because three of them peek over at me. As soon as they notice me looking, they whip around so fast they look like little kids trying not to get caught trying to sneak a look at their Christmas presents.

"The whole world has lost it today," I mutter to Emelia.

"No, that's just you."

"I'm serious. My coworkers are acting like I have the plague. Maybe I'm missing some juicy gossip about my brother or something." I work for a fashion magazine. Anytime Nathan does anything newsworthy, shit gets weird around here. No one here even keeps up with sports! Their interest in baseball begins and ends with the pants.

"I freaking hope not," Emelia growls. "I have enough stress already." She's his publicist. If anyone would know if he's plastered all over the news again, she would.

I pull up a browser to check, just in case. But when I type in Nathan's name and hit enter, it's not some new gossip about him that rolls across my screen.

It's my name.

"What the fuck?" I sit forward in my seat, my eyes locked on the screen.

"What?" Emelia asks.

I'm too busy staring in shock to answer. That's my name.

Jesus Christ. What did Huxley do?

"He…I…" I blink, but the words on the screen don't change.

PBL Pitcher Huxley Saint Scores Big with Teammate Nathaniel Riley's Sister, Nova!

I click on the first article with shaking hands, and my whole damn world comes unglued.

"Jesus Christ," I whisper, stunned.

"What?" Emelia asks.

"Pirates pitcher, Huxley Saint, took to social media this morning to hard launch his relationship with teammate Nathaniel Riley's sister, Nova Riley," I read, my voice trembling. "'You've been in my heart every moment of the last four hundred and eighty-three days, baby girl. I wouldn't trade them for anything. You are my world. I love you.'"

"Holy…" Emelia breathes. "He posted that?"

"Yes. He tagged me in it," I whisper, staring with wide eyes at the screen capture of his post. It's a photo of me that I didn't even know existed. I'm standing in the dugout beside Hux, laughing at something he said, my hair blowing wildly around my face. I look carefree and happy. And he's looking at me the same way he always does—like he wants to devour me. But there's this softness in his eyes, too, as if he's perfectly content just to stand at my side and laugh with me.

"Well, then," Emelia mutters. "I guess that proves it, doesn't it? He doesn't care what your brother thinks."

"I…um, I need to go," I mumble, my heart in my throat. My head is spinning. I don't even know what to think, say, or do. Nothing makes sense right now.

Did he do this just to prove a point?