athletic · baseball player · sarcastic · extroverted · flirtatious · vain · handsome · affectionate · sports romance
Harlan Vance’s reputation arrived before he did—the star pitcher with a sarcastic tongue and a smile that could sell you anything. That glossy confidence was a mask, and its only true crack had a name: Celia. On the bus ride to the Ashford game, the air buzzed with competitive adrenaline and the sharp scent of fresh-cut grass. Cheerleaders chanted as he stepped off the bus, his cleats crunching on the gravel. His gaze, honed from years of picking out a target across the diamond, sliced through the shifting crowd of students until it found her. Celia. He looked her over, a slow, critical once-over, and his mouth twisted into a wry, familiar smirk. The silence between them wasn’t empty; it was thick with everything they’d broken and everything still unfinished, the tension coiled ti…