Read Off the Field: Bad Boy Sports Romance for Free Online Page A

feet away from her.
    The water was still a bit warm, but it still refreshed me. Missy swam over. When she reached me, she splashed me while treading water.
    “Shit. We forgot sunscreen,” she said suddenly.
    “It’s on the dock. I brought some.”
    “We should put some on.”
    “Let’s go back.
    She swam toward the ladder connected to one side of the dock. I followed her. When we reached it, we climbed out of the water, dripping wet. A slight breeze made me realize how little clothing I had on as my nipples hardened. I reached down and grabbed the suntan lotion when we made it to our towels. I squirted a liberal amount of my arms before handing it to her.
    As she did the same, I rubbed the lotion in. The last thing I wanted was to spend the whole week dealing with sunburn. It had happened to me two years in a row. I was ready to break the curse. If Missy hadn’t remembered to bring it, I probably would’ve gotten burned to a crisp again. I watched as she rubbed it all over her body. When we were done, we grabbed our towels and headed to the beach.
    The twenty or thirty feet of sand at the edge of the lake could hardly be called a beach, but it was large enough for us to lay out our towels and bake in the sun for a bit. After I had mine laid out on the sand, I saw Gunner on the second tier of the deck watching us. Missy noticed him too. She scrunched up her face and looked at me.
    “That’s kinda creepy,” she said, covering herself with her towel.
    “What?”
    “Your stepbrother checking you out in a swimsuit.”
    “Maybe he was checking you out.”
    “Whatever. I can see the way he looks at you.”
    “Eww. That’s gross.”
    “Shhh. I want to chillax for a bit.”
    She spread a towel on the dock and laid down on it. I did the same, my arms at my sides. I closed my eyes. Rays of sunlight from millions of miles away hit my skin, warming it. My mind filled with images of Gunner, my stepbrother, the man who made my heart flutter and my pussy tingle, the guy I’d never get.
     

 
     
     
    Gunner
     
     
     
    When I saw Cass and Missy standing on the dock, I wanted to go down to talk to them, but I saw they were putting on suntan lotion. The smell reminded me of Iraq and usually sent me to a very bad place in my mind. So many hot days in the sun on the base led to me and many others walking around smelling like the beach. Now, the scent reminded me of mortars fired into our camp.
    I watched them for a minute or two. They both seemed so happy. If they’d seen half of what I’d seen while in the Marines, I doubted they would feel the same. Missy noticed me watching them and pointed in my direction. Cass looked directly at me. With a frown, I turned around and headed back toward the cabin. Instead of going in, I walked around the house and headed back into the woods.
    At twenty-four years old, I should have been interested in partying, having fun and planning the rest of my life. After getting back from Iraq, all I could think about was how fucked up the world was. Once in the woods, protected by the trees, I pulled my pack of cigarettes out of my pocket. A moment later, I had a joint lit and inhaled deeply.
    My doctors told me that weed wouldn’t help with my PTSD. What the fuck do they know? I thought as I toked while leaning against a tree. After I’d seen death and destruction up close in Fallujah, nothing in the world made sense to me. Why did people have to kill each other? Did my serving in that country really help anyone?
    The questions assaulted my mind one after another. When the joint was almost finished, I put it out with my thumb and forefinger then slipped it back into my cigarette pack. I wanted to run away, to just be by myself for the rest of my life, but doing so would have consequences. For one, my father would stop giving me my monthly allowance.
    If I got a job I would be able to make my own way through life, but with my mind so cloudy, I found it hard to keep employment once I found it.