Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 70

3 Likes

Just Friends

Victoria’s POV

Hearing Caleb say those words was completely surreal. For fifteen years, I had spent every waking moment praying for this exact scenario.

I had spent countless nights crying into my pillow, desperately wishing he would finally look at me and realize that the girl who truly loved him had been standing right beside

him the entire time.

I had sat quietly through girlfriend after girlfriend, watching him behave like a stuck–up/ selfish asshole who used people to feed his own ego, always holding onto a stupid, desperate hope that one day he’d finally wake up and choose me.

He was finally apologizing. He was finally validating me, acknowledging my worth, and looking at me with a raw, intense sincerity that I had starved for.

But sitting there on the barstool, looking at his handsome, distressed face, the strange truth was… my heart didn’t take flight. It didn’t do the wild, breathless flip I always thought it would.

Instead, my mind completely, inexplicably drifted back to a dark living room lit only by a television screen. It drifted back to the warmth of a heavy wool blanket, the lazy, deep rumble of a different laugh, and the distinct, pleasant spark of a thumb slowly stroking the knuckles of my hand.

Elijah.

Every time Caleb spoke, my brain was stubbornly, frustratingly trying to compare his words to the way Elijah spoke to me.

“I don’t want us to be distant anymore, Tori,” Caleb said, breaking into my thoughts.

He reached across the counter, his hand resting open on the dark wood, entirely

respectful, leaving the choice to me.

“I miss my best friend. I miss the person who actually knows my goals and my dreams. I don’t want to lose you.”

I looked down at his open palm. It was a safe hand. A familiar hand.

But the thought of taking it felt like stepping backward into an old, suffocating orbit that I had spent the last month finally escaping.

“You haven’t lost me, Cal,” I said softly, offering him a gentle, reassuring smile as I deliberately kept my hands wrapped around my water glass.

“We’ve been in each other’s lives for too long for a few bad months to completely destroy us. We’re always going to be friends.”

1/6

Caleb’s expression softened with relief, but I could see the faint, lingering trace of disappointment in the tight set of his jaw.

“Just friends? Not best friends?” he asked, trying to keep his tone light, a faint, tentative smile touching his lips. “No more running to the baseball field to scream at me when I pitch a bad game?”

I let out a genuine laugh.

“Oh, don’t worry, I will absolutely still scream at you if you play like an amateur. And Caleb, we’ll always remain best friends. My loyalty to your sports career remains intact. Besides, somebody has to keep your massive ego from completely derailing your draft stock.”

“There she is,” Caleb chuckled, shaking his head as he leaned back. “And here I

thought you were about to turn over a new leaf. I guess living under Carter’s roof hash‘ t cured your sarcasm.”

I set my glass down on the counter with a soft thud.

“Not even close. Elijah has to deal with this exact same attitude every single day. He just knows better than to complain about it.”

The second his name left my mouth, Caleb’s smile faltered slightly. The atmosphere shifted again.

“He’s really taking care of you? At his condo?”

Caleb asked, his voice dropping into a quieter, more vulnerable tone.

“I heard about your street collapsing. I wanted to come over, but… I knew I wasn’t exactly welcome on his property.”

“He’s been amazing, Caleb,” I said honestly, not caring to minimize the truth just to spare his feelings like i always do.

“His friends–Adele, Miles, Nate… all of them–they’ve been incredibly supportive. They welcomed me in without asking for anything in return. For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I have a group of people who see me.”

Caleb looked back at me, a deep, heavy sadness clouding his green eyes. He didn’t say it out loud, but I knew what he was thinking.

“Hearing you say you finally feel seen… it makes me sick to my stomach, because I’m the one who should’ve made you feel that way. I had every opportunity to show you off and be there for you, but I was too selfishly wrapped up in my own world. I completely blew it, Tori. I’m sorry.”

I reached across the counter then, gently patting the back of his hand for a brief second before pulling back.

“Don’t do that to yourself, Cal. What’s done is done. We were both young, and we both

26

made mistakes. You were trying to survive your dad’s pressure, and I was trying to find my own footing. Let’s just focus on getting you through the draft, okay?”

Caleb drew in a long, shaky breath, nodding slowly as he forced a smile.

“Yeah. You’re right. One step at a time.”

ΑΛΛΑ

We sat at the counter for another hour, talking about his upcoming games, his brother s latest tech project, and my engineering finals. It was a good conversation: fluid, natural, and comfortable.

It was exactly what a conversation between two lifelong best friends was supposed to feel like.

Right in the middle of our chat, the screen of my phone lit up on the counter.

I glanced down, and my face instantly flushed when I saw who had texted me.

Elijah: Are you still playing therapist to your best friend in distress, or should I start assuming you’ve been held hostage?

A wide smile broke across my face before I could even try to hide it. My thumbs flew across the keyboard.

Victoria: Missing me already, Carter?

He responded almost instantly.

Elijah: Just making sure my roommate hasn’t forgotten where her new bed is. Get back here, Zhen.

I let out a soft laugh, completely locked onto the screen, a genuine flush creeping up my neck.

“I’m right here, Tori.”

Caleb’s voice snapped me right back to reality.

I blinked, looking up to find him staring at me with a completely guarded, knowing expression.

He had seen the smile. He had seen the blush.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered, a sheepish, embarrassed smile breaking through as I hastily slid my phone into my pocket.

I stood up quickly, grabbing my purse and car keys from the counter.

“I got totally distracted. Uh… I actually have to leave now. We’ll talk more later, okay?”

Caleb stood up from his stool, his hands shoved into his pockets as he walked me toward the front door.

The tension in the hallway was thick, but it wasn’t an angry tension–it was just the

316

quiet acknowledgment that things had permanently changed

As I reached the door, I turned around to face him, offering him a soft, earnest look

“I may be cheering for him on the diamond, Cal, but I still care about you, okay? We’re still best friends. I want you to win. I want you to prove your dad completely wrong

Caleb flashed me a warm, genuine smile, his green eyes softening. “Thank you, Ton.”

I gave him a quick wrap–around hug, the kind we’d done a thousand times before, thery immediately turned and headed down the porch steps.

When I reached my car, I turned around one last time. Caleb was standing by the living room window, watching me leave.

I waved at him with a small smile, and he raised his hand, waving back before drawing

the curtain.

Inside the car, I slammed the door shut and let out a massive, loud sigh. My fingers were slightly trembling as I pushed my hair away from my face.

“That was… well, intense,” I mumbled to myself in the quiet cabin.

I let my hands rest on the steering wheel, exhaling slowly as the tension finally left my shoulders, then turned on the ignition.

Driving through the dark streets, a profound sense of clarity settled over me. I realized that the fifteen–year–old curse had finally been broken.

I had lived and breathed by Caleb’s body language, reading a million hopeful meanings into every brief glance or casual text. But tonight, watching him lean across the counter, those same subtle shifts left me completely unmoved.

I didn’t need him to notice me anymore just to feel like I existed. That apology, that sudden appreciation–it was the only thing I had wanted from him for over a decade.

Now, it didn’t even seem to matter.

And it almost bothered me how quiet my heart was.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify