passing grade would show up during our tutoring session at some point, and I had hoped to use it to my advantage.
Not that I was trying to do anything. I just … fuck … I missed her and wanted to spend time with her before she left for winter break. Plus, once my season started, I’d be way too busy to find excuses to hang out with her. And now that she had called off the rest of our tutoring sessions for the semester, who knew if I’d ever see her again? The thought crashed into me, and I swore my heart fucking sank lower inside my chest. The idea of never seeing Danika again after tonight sucked. But that was a very real possibility.
I headed toward the most secluded high-top table in the back corner and planted myself there. Danika sat next to me instead of across from me, and the temptation to reach out and touch her was almost too much.
“I was just thinking about break,” I started to say as she leaned closer toward me so that I wouldn’t have to shout above the ruckus.
“What about it?”
“Do you go home the whole time?”
Our winter break was over a month long, and I was curious if she stayed here for any of it or spent the entire thing back in New York.
She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, my dad works most of the time, but if I didn’t go home, he’d be all alone, and I hate thinking about him sitting there during Christmas and New Year’s without me.” A soft, sad smile played at her lips, and I wondered if I had been crazy, bringing her out tonight.
A cocktail waitress appeared out of thin air and asked for our drink orders.
“I’ll take whatever IPA you have on draft.”
“I’ll have a cranberry and Belvedere,” Danika said, and I shot her a surprised look.
“Belvedere, huh?” I teased because that wasn’t some poor college student’s vodka. Everyone usually drank whatever they could afford or whatever they could get the most of for the least amount of money.
“I hate shitty vodka. And I hate shitty vodka headaches even more.” She smirked before lifting a shoulder.
“I can respect that.”
“So, what do you do for break? Do you go home to Newport or stay in the baseball house?” She wrinkled her nose, and I chuckled.
“What’s the face for?”
“I just imagined you staying in that gross house the whole time and”—she visibly shuddered—“just … no.”
I grimaced. “It’s not gross,” I started to defend the house before rolling my eyes and grinning instead. “Okay, it’s a little gross. But we’re guys. What do you expect?”
“Maid service,” she said without skipping a beat.
“Sometimes, if one of the guys has a girlfriend, she’ll clean the house for us. That’s always nice,” I said.
She snarled, “That’s embarrassing.”
“Nah, it’s sweet.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You wouldn’t clean the house if you were my girlfriend?” I asked before realizing what I’d even said. “I mean, hypothetically speaking.”
She put one finger in the air. “Hypothetically speaking, no.” Her hazel eyes leveled me on the spot before she gave me a small smirk. “I might help pick up your room, but nothing outside of it.”
I laughed loudly. “I knew it.”
“I don’t think we can help it,” she started to explain. “We’re nurturers, you know? Girls nurture. But it stops you guys from growing. And then we get mad at you because you rely on us to do things that you should be doing yourselves. But really, we created the mess in the first place. We just don’t see it that way.”
I felt totally lost and was thankful when the waitress appeared with our drinks and placed them down before walking away.
“We’re still talking about cleaning my room?”
“You’re an idiot, Hotshot,” she said as she reached for her glass and held it in the air.
Our glasses clinked together, and we both said, “Cheers,” at the same time before taking a sip.
“You never answered my question, by the way.”
I swallowed. “Which was?”
“Do you go home during break? You must, right? Your mom would kill you if you didn’t,” she said with a smile.
I loved that she had met my family and felt like she knew them enough to make assumptions. Anyone else, it would have pissed me off but not her.
“My sister would kill me more. But, yeah, I go home. It’s just not for long. Usually for a couple weeks. The team has to be back right after New Year’s. We have practice and preseason games before