everything. I even know his coaches email address. I can go to his practice and cheer for him until he has to leave the field and come into the stands just to shut me up.
The lady was incorrigible. And embarrassing.
ME: OMG! Mom! I’ll bring him home soon.
MOM: That’s all I needed to hear. :)
I just needed to run all that by Mac first. Working through his fears to be with me was one thing, but meeting my parents was something else entirely. That felt like a big step. What if he isn’t ready to take it? Or what if he hates the idea because his own parents are so messed up?
I knew just how to get him to at least consider it, so I started pulling out all the ingredients necessary to try a new cookie flavor. I wasn’t above bribing my boyfriend if I needed to. And a lemon and white chocolate concoction was just the way to do it.
After the cookies were done baking, I looked at the clock. Mac’s practice had ended an hour ago, and he’d sent me a text, letting me know he’d come by after he showered and grabbed some stuff from his room. I knew he’d be here any minute now. He usually convinced one of the guys to drop him off, but sometimes, I picked him up instead even though he hated it. He’d said he felt like a loser without his car, having to ask people for rides all the time. I understood what he was saying, but no matter how many times I told him it wasn’t a big deal, he still cringed whenever I offered. Mac said that he should be the one picking me up and not the other way around.
I grabbed a few lemon delights and put them on a paper plate to bring over to Rocky, but when I opened up the front door, I almost ran smack into my sexy-as-hell boyfriend.
“Babe! I almost dropped these!” I said as his arm snaked around me, holding me tight.
He kissed me, and I really almost dropped the plate.
“Hi,” he said with a smile. “Where were you going with my cookies?”
“Who said these were for you?” I teased, and he blocked the doorway, so I couldn’t get out.
“Who are they for then?”
“Fine, they’re for you. And Rocky. I was just bringing some over. Wanna come?” I asked, and I swore he got even more excited than he just had been.
Mac loved Rocky.
I’d grown closer to her in the past month, but I could tell that the situation at school that day had really rattled her. She hadn’t been fine since then even though I knew she wanted to be and tried to act like she was. She stayed inside more, and I heard the sound of her door locking whenever she left. She never used to lock her door.
Mac tossed his bag to the floor, and we headed toward her apartment. I knocked on her door right as Mac took the plate out of my hand.
“You can’t take credit for these,” I whispered.
“Watch me,” he said as the door flew open.
“Baseball Boy. Sunshine. And cookies?” Rocky flipped her hair and opened the door wide enough for us to walk through. “Come in.”
We followed her lead, the three of us heading into the kitchen before Mac hopped up onto the counter and pulled me between his legs.
Rocky peered at the plate, eyeing the cookies before bringing them to her nose and inhaling. “Lemon?” she asked as she lowered the plate.
“With white chocolate chips,” I said, biting my bottom lip, hoping that she liked lemon. I never even asked.
“I’m excited to try these,” she said before breaking a piece off and putting it in her mouth. “Sunny. Damn. These are …” She swallowed without finishing her sentence and promptly shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth. I swore Mac whined audibly. “I’m sure you have your own cookies at home, Baseball Boy. I’m not sharing,” she said around a mouthful of crumbles.
“You like them?” I’d never made them before, so I liked the feedback.
“They’re incredible. Sounded like a weird combination when you first said it, but it totally works. Why does it work? I have no idea. But it does,” she said, breaking off another piece. “I can’t believe you don’t want to start a business, doing this.”
“I know. I know,” I groaned, not wanting to get into this again.
Rocky and I had talked about my baking on numerous