Free Unbearable (the TORQUED trilogy Book 2) by Shey Stahl Page A

hit a home run.
    After I cross home plate, I’m walking back and I stop in front of Raven near the dugout, since she’s up next and hand her my bat she likes to use. “Your turn.”
    She takes it but doesn’t meet my eyes. I watch her the entire time as she swings and drives one deep into left field. Their left fielder manages to get to it before she makes it to second.
    Daniel’s up after her and I have to run for him, seeing how I smacked his ball sac and that leaves me watching Raven run to third. I want to make a run for second but I don’t have time.
    Once I’m on first, I notice Berkley standing next to me.
    Raven, Lenny… they can play softball. Berkley can’t. Not even a little. She’s too girly. She’s mainly out here to look pretty.
    Flipping her black hair around, she pushes out her chest. “Nice hit.”
    I used to think Berkley had good tits. Not anymore. Nothing compares to Raven’s. So I look away and I don’t acknowledge her at first.
    She sighs. “Not talking to me now?”
    I don’t even look at her and focus on brushing the dirt of my black shorts. “I’m trying to but you’re making it difficult.”
    “Well, I’m just trying to be nice.”
    “Being nice would have been paying the fucking credit card bill instead of maxing it out,” I snap back. There’s a lot of things I’m bitter about regarding our breakup and her maxing out my credit card is on top of that list. Did she not realize how hard it’d take a guy like me to pay off twelve thousand on a fucking credit card?
    She says nothing.
    When I’m back in the dugout, I sit right next to Raven, mostly to annoy her and mostly because I fucking want to.
    She’s not looking at me still; she’s watching Nova with a bat in her hand, who’s stroking it like I was just minutes earlier.
    “Nova, what are you doing with the bat?”
    Nova shrugs. “What do you mean?”
    “Why are you running your hands over it like that?”
    Well fuck. It does look rather inappropriate now that I see a child doing it. I give Raven a smile and she puts her hand on my cheek to turn my head the other way.
    “Uncle Ty said he was warming up so I’m warming up.” The innocence on her face makes me feel bad.
    Crap .
    Raven shoots me a look of disappointment. “You’re an idiot.”
    I laugh and flash her another smile. “Yeah, well I never said I wasn’t .”
    “True.”
    We sit in silence watching the game when I notice Raven’s head down and she’s rubbing at her eye, grimacing.
    “What’s wrong?”
    Using her index finger, she’s still rubbing at her eyeball, which I find a little gross. I hate it when people touch their eyeballs. But now she’s wincing almost like she’s in pain.
    “I’ve got some damn dirt in my eye and I can’t get it out.”
    I gently grab her chin to turn her head to face me. “Here let me see.”
    She lets me help her without argument, which I’m going to count as a win with how today’s been going so far.
    As tenderly as I can, I use two fingers to open her eye and move closer to softly blow to try and remove the dirt. It must work because when I let go Raven just sits there staring at me. The looks she’s giving me is almost curious, like she doesn’t know what to make of my helping her.
    Staring back at her all I can think is that she’s so fucking cute and the next thing I know I’m tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear, running my thumb over her jaw and smiling like a fool before I ever realize what I’m doing. Her breath hitches. Wide chocolate eyes melt me. “Stop being nice to me, Tyler.”
    I draw in a deep breath of cold fall air. “Sorry. No can do. When it comes to you, I can’t help myself.”
    Our knees touch and I bump hers a couple times trying to annoy her.
    Raven eyes Daniel, who’s holding an ice pack to his nuts. “What’s wrong with him?”
    “How should I know? The guy’s a goddamn idiot.”
    She leans in, whispering, “I saw what you did.”
    I shrug. “Well then, you