Anything But Mine

\\Chapter Sixteen//

"Rise and shine!" Freddie woke me up as he threw open the blinds.

"Ugh." I groaned, covering my eyes.

"Hurry up, buttercup!" He looked down at me, kissing my nose.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" I stood up.

"Because I finally got to wake up beside my favorite girl." He smiled, causing me to blush.

I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

"Oh, crap." I moved my hair out from in front of my neck.

"Fredrick!" I ran out of the bathroom to find him.

"What?" He asked, his mouth full of a pop-tart and him in just his sweatpants.

"Look!" I pointed to the hickey on my neck.

"Just put your hair over it or something." He shrugged like there was nothing to it.

"Gee, I wish I could. It's a shame I have to wear my hair up." I went back to the bathroom to try and cover it up.

"Ready?" I asked him a few minutes later.

"Sure am. You look adorable, by the way." We joined up in the living room.

"Wait, let's take a picture." I told him as we walked over to the full length mirror in the hallway.

'Back at it😍' was my caption on Instagram.

"Do the guys know I'm coming back today?" I asked him as he put his hand on my kneecap.

"I called Fredi this morning and told him. They're all super excited." He looked over at me as we stopped at a redlight, his hand now on my inner thigh.

"Don't get too carried away, pretty boy." I smirked, causing him to blush.

~~~~~~~

I walked into the dugout after I got my bag. Most of the guys hadn't seen me yet, so they'd be surprised when practice started.

I embraced the smell of dirt and sunflower seeds as I cleaned out the Gatorade buckets. It was such a beautiful thing and I couldn't be happier to be back. As I poured the water in, the guys starting filing out of the club house.

"Ryder!" Chris Johnson and Shelby Miller attacked me, hugging me tightly.

"Hi, guys!" The rest of them came out, hugging me as well. It made me feel a lot better about everything that had happened recently.

"Welcome back, sweetheart." Freddie kissed the corner of my mouth, then followed his team to the field.

"I heard somebody was back in town!" Kellie ran through the dugout towards me.

"You heard right!" We hugged tightly.

"I'm sorry about your dad, though. How is your mom doing?" She asked sincerely.

"She's doing okay. She took it badly. Almost as bad as I did at first. But I'm glad he's out of pain." I wiped a little bit of a tear that came from my eye.

"Okay, enough with that sad stuff!" She smiled.

"How's it going with Freeman?" She pointed to Freddie who was talking to Chris as they stood in line for batting practice.

"It's going so awesome." I blush, thinking back to last night. I need to check my privilege.(a/n: Jacksfilms quote😂❤️)

"Yeah, that's what your hickey says, too." She smirked.

"Can you still see it? I thought I covered it up good enough!" I whined, putting my hand over it.

"Oh, girl. It's fine, don't worry." She told me.

"I'm going to kill that kid." I blushed super bad. I was sure my face was about as pink as cotton candy.

"We'll I've got to go back to work, but let's catch up later, okay?" She hugged me again, then left.

"Ryder! Come out here and hang with us!" Fredi waved me on. I smiled, then jogged up the dugout steps and onto the field.

"We've missed you," he hugged me.

"And so has Freddie. I gave him a day off because of it."

"Yeah, I know. He was so worried." I told him.

"Well, we're glad you're back." Jace hugged me.

"And we all know Freeman is." He smirked.

"Wait, did he say something?" I eyed him.

"No, but you've got a hickey plain as day on your neck. Context clues." He winked.

"She bout to slay number five!" Cameron Maybin announced, causing Jace and I to laugh super loud.

"Who's about to slay me?" Freddie turned to us, raising an eyebrow.

"She's gonna kick your butt in a second for putting that thing on her neck. Nothing good happens when a girl's got a hickey." He told, picking up his bat since he was next in line as Freddie walked towards me.

"Everything good happens." He whispered in my ear, then kissed below it before walking back over to Chris.

"He is being super outgoing lately. Something's gotten into him!" Jace said loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Yep! That's the love bug!" AJ replied to no one in particular.

"You guys! Stop making me blush!" I covered my face, walking around in circles.

"Welcome back, Bailey!" A few of them told me. No matter how much they embarrassed me, I was so glad to be back with this team.

A/n: Freddie was placed on the 15 day DL a few days ago, and now I'm sad because I miss him so much. Anyways, I hope y'all liked this! :-)