Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 5

A Game of Two Minds

Elijah’s POV

Sofia was still talking, her voice bouncing off the high ceilings of my condo.

She’s been a high-priced corporate lawyer for three years, which means she’s forgotten how to have a conversation like a normal person.

“A contract, Elijah? Really?” She flailed her arms, nearly knocking over the espresso I’d just made her.

“People do this for mergers, or maybe for a marriage they’re already planning to fail. Not for some flimsy college… whatever this is. Besides, this kind of thing was popular in the eighties and nineties. Who even does relationship contracts anymore?”

I didn’t look up from my phone. I just leaned back against the kitchen island, letting the silence stretch until she stopped talking..

“Are you going to draft it for me, Sof, or do I have to hire someone who actually likes their brother?”

She glared at me.

“You don’t get to be demanding. I’m doing this for free, and I’m doing it against my better judgment.”

I finally met her eyes and gave her a small, tight smile.

“Then stop judging and start typing. You are acting like I had just asked you to dispose of a body.”

She huffed, opening her laptop grudgingly. Sofia might complain, but I knew she would help. She always did.

The truth was, the agreement didn’t need to be legally binding. It was just a prop.

Victoria was smart. If she ever stopped letting her feelings for Ashfield cloud her judgment and actually acted on that engineering-major brain of hers, she’d figure out my real game.

And if she did, the whole thing would blow up in my face.

That was exactly why I needed the contract.

It gave her the illusion of control; a clean, professional transaction instead of what it really was: me wanting her around for my own selfish reasons.

And as long as she bought into the story I was selling, I had a free pass to stay as close to her as I wanted.

Using Lexi as the excuse was perfect. The reality was that Lexi and I were basically siblings. Our families had been sharing beach houses since we were in diapers.

The mere idea of actually being with her made my skin crawl. She wasn’t my type.

Sofia tapped her pen against the table, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“So what exactly do you want this thing to say? Because if it’s just a fake dating agreement, we can keep it simple. No one’s actually going to enforce it.”

“Just make it look real enough,” I told her. “Six months. That’s the timeframe. During that time, she agrees to be seen with me in public, attend a few sports events, and we both keep up the story. At the end of it, we go our separate ways unless…” I trailed off.

“Unless what?” Sofia asked, raising an eyebrow.

I leaned back in my chair and smiled. “Unless she doesn’t want to walk away.”

Sofia shook her head, but there was a hint of amusement in her expression.

“You’ve always been insufferably sure of yourself. This girl must be something special if you’re going through this much trouble.”

“Perhaps she is,” I said simply.

Six months. That was all I needed.

Even though Victoria hadn’t given me an answer yet, I already knew how this would end. She would say yes.

Sofia sighed and started typing on her laptop.

“Fine. I’ll draft something basic. But if this blows up in your face, I’m telling Mom it was your idea.”

I chuckled. “Fair enough.”

Caleb’s POV

I couldn’t put the phone down. My thumb kept hovering over the image, zooming in until the pixels broke apart. Victoria’s hand was tangled in Elijah ’s hair. Her eyes were closed. She looked… gone.

My chest felt tight. This wasn’t the plan.

For fifteen years, Victoria Rhodes was the one constant in my life. It didn’t matter if I blew a save in the ninth or if a girl I actually liked dumped me over a text, I always had Tori.

It wasn’t exactly a mystery that she liked me. Victoria thought she was being subtle, treating her feelings like some buried treasure she’d hidden under the floorboards, but it was pathetic how easy she was to read.

Whenever I walked into a room, her entire posture changed. She’d go still, her eyes tracking me like I was the only thing with color in a black-and-white world. I’d grown used to it. Hell, I’d lived for it.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify