Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 162

She’s Back

Caleb’s POV

I caught myself staring again.

Through the cracked window of much bedroom, I had a crooked line of sight to the balcony at the other end.

Victoria rested her head against Elijah’s shoulder, her fingers absentmindedly tracing slow circles over his

arm.

I couldn’t look away.

Watching them felt like standing there while something collapsed in slow motion, knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.

Less than a year ago, I was the center of Victoria’s world.

She used to look at me like I was the answer to every question she’d ever had.

Now…

Most days, she didn’t even look my way.

The moment I saw Victoria’s head start to turn toward my window, I stepped backward into the shadows of my room, out of her line of sight.

I let the sheer white curtain settle back into place, blocking out the moonlight.

I sank onto the edge of the mattress, the springs groaning beneath my weight, and let out an exhale that felt heavy enough to sink a ship.

I rubbed my palms against my face, dragging my hands down to my chin.

My skin felt cold. My head throbbed.

Was this karma? Was the universe finally pulling out a long, overdue receipt for every single time I had taken Victoria for granted?

Every time I left her waiting while I ran off with someone else, assuming she’d always be sitting on the shelf when I decided to come back?

Now she was wrapped around Elijah, completely out of my reach, and it felt like a sick cosmic joke.

And then there was Nova.

My mind dragged me right back to the gravel rest stop from earlier today.

I couldn’t get the image out of my head. Leo standing on that narrow wooden bridge over the stream, his broad frame towering over her, his palm resting flat and comfortable right against the full curve of her hip.

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Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains

The way she had flushed, looking up at him like he was the only guy in the woods.

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It had done something bizarre to my brain chemistry. The moment I saw his hand on her, an ugly, irrational temper had flared up inside my chest.

It made zero sense. I had no right to be pissed off. I was the one pulling away from Nova, giving her short answers and keeping her at arm’s length because I couldn’t stop looking at Victoria.

So why did the idea of Leo talking to her–touching her, making her laugh–make my teeth ache?

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing the heels of my hands against my temples. I was losing my mind.

The harsh vibration of my phone against the nightstand shattered the quiet.

I flinched, pulling my hands away from my face. I reached over and picked up the device.

The screen glowed with a ten–digit number I didn’t recognize. No caller ID. No name. Just a random string of digits from a local area code.

I stared at it for three full seconds, my brow pulling into a tight crease. I almost ignored it, assuming it was a telemarketer or a wrong number, but something made my thumb swipe the green icon anyway.

I pressed the speaker to my ear. “Hello?”

“Caleb?”

The voice hit my eardrum, and my entire body locked up. My muscles went rigid. My breath caught right in the middle of my throat.

Lexi.

“Can we switch to a video call?” she asked immediately, her tone carrying a strange, nervous edge. “Please? I

want to see you.”

“No,” I snapped, my voice coming out harsher than I intended. The nerve of her was staggering. “Audio is fine. What do you want, Lexi?”

I stood up from the bed, my jaw tightening so hard I could hear the joint click. My fingers curled into a tight fist at my side.

Hearing her voice again brought every bitter memory from the past few months rushing straight back to the

surface.

The car crash. The metal crumpled around my legs. The weeks I spent recovering, staring at a blank phone screen, waiting for a single text, a single visit, a single sign that the girl I was seeing actually cared if I lived or died.

Nothing. Absolute radio silence. She had vanished off the face of the earth the second things got ugly, leaving me to rot in my own mess.

“Why are you calling me?” I demanded, my tone flat. “How did you even get this number?”

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14:44 Tue, Aug 18

Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains

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Silence stretched across the line. I could hear the faint sound of her breathing, uneven and shallow.

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