Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 132

Elijah’s POV

10 voucherg

The cool night air brushed against my bare chest as I leaned my weight onto the iron railing of the balcony. The city below was mostly quiet, a dark expanse dotted with thousands of distant yellow lights.

Behind me, through the open glass doors, Victoria was sound asleep. The white duvet was tangled around her legs, her dark hair splayed across my pillows.

She looked impossibly small in the center of my bed, her breathing deep and even, completely exhausted from the drive and everything that had followed it out in the woods.

“An Aston Martin, Eli? Really?”

My father’s voice came through the speaker, calm despite the late hour.

He wasn’t upset. If anything, he sounded like he was waiting for me to make him understand why I’d just spent a fortune on a car I didn’t need.

To him, expensive purchases were meant to have a reason behind them.

I paused, staring out at the horizon. “How do you even know about that already? The paperwork was filed four hours ago.”

A dry chuckle came from the other end of the line.

“I still receive the black card alerts for the primary accounts, son. You might be signing your own contracts now, but you haven’t completely untangled your finances from the family office. Beside the point, you have an Escalade sitting in the garage here, the Benz at your apartment, and the Jeep for the bad weather. Help me understand what the Aston Martin does that the others don’t.”

I shifted my stance, gripping the cold metal rail a little tighter. “It wasn’t for me, Dad. It’s a gift.”

“A gift,” my father repeated, his voice dropping into a thoughtful cadence. “An eighty-thousand-dollar gift. That’s a very specific kind of generosity. Who is she?”

“A gift,” my father repeated, his voice dropping into a thoughtful cadence. “A ninety-thousand-dollar gift. Who is she?”

I laughed softly, a quiet sound against the empty backdrop of the night. As it died down, a small smile curled on my lips.

“What makes you think it’s for a ‘she,’ Dad?”

“Because Eli, that’s the only explanation that makes any sense,” my father replied, histone carrying the dry, heavy patience of a man who couldn’t be easily fooled.

“You don’t customize an Aston Martin in metallic purple for yourself, and I know you well enough to know

1/5

15:45 Fri, Jul 24

Chapter 132

you didn’t buy it for one of the guys. So, let’s skip the games. Who is she?”

10 vouchers

1 dragged a hand down my face, letting out a heavy breath that misted slightly in the midnight chill. “It’s for my girlfriend.”

Silence stretched over the line. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but it lasted long enough for me to hear the faint ticking of a clock on his end of the phone.

“The Victoria?” he finally asked.

I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew her name. Victoria and I hadn’t exactly stayed out of the spotlight during our last few months on campus.

Our faces kept showing up in blogs, highlight reels, and just about everywhere else.

“Yes.”

“When did you plan on introducing us, Eli?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes against the faint glare of the city lights.

“Soon, Dad. We just graduated. She’s already buried in research for her master’s, and preseason training’s been keeping me busy too.”

“Mm-hmm,” he said. “Fair enough. You’ve both got your hands full.” He chuckled. “Still, I’d like to meet the woman who finally got through to you.”

“You will.”

A comfortable silence settled between us before he broke it with a laugh.

“You know,” he drawled, “I still remember you marching into my office after everything with Trinity, swearing no woman was ever going to get that close to you again.” He paused, amused. “You sounded pretty convinced.”

A dry, self-deprecating groan scraped from my throat.

“Dad. Come on.”

He chuckled, a warm, rumbling sound.

“I’m allowed to tease you, Eli. I am your father, after all. But truly… I am happy to know you have let go of the past. It’s a good look on you.”

I looked back up at the wide, dark sky as my father’s voice drifted into a lighter topics. The mention of Trinity always brought a strange, distant stillness to my chest.

It didn’t hurt anymore, not the way it used to when the betrayal was fresh and my name was being dragged through the dirt during my sophomore year, but it was a marker of how much had changed.

I wondered briefly how she was doing, what her life looked like now on the other side of the country. Our past wasn’t something I liked to dwell on; it had been toxic, full of high-society expectations, calculated moves.

215

15:45 Fri, Jul 24

Chapter 132

and a complete lack of substance.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify