Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I’m helpless when it comes to my responding smile. He’s so damn sexy I could just rise up onto my toes and kiss him long enough that I’d pass out from lack of oxygen. He’s so cute in his jeans and blue Henley t-shirt. He has the audacity to look reserved, almost bashful, as he approaches me. He rubs the back of his neck and then gives me a shy smile.
“I thought we were planning to meet at my apartment,” I say once he reaches me.
He shrugs. “Yeah, that was the plan, and then I thought, you know what? Why do that when I can stand on the sidewalk in front of your work for thirty minutes and humiliate myself, all for the honor of walking you home.”
My head tips back so I can meet his gaze as we inch closer to each other. People call his name, but now he ignores them. Now, he only has eyes for me.
My gaze falls to his mouth, and he wets his bottom lip. That physical tug is back. That need…
“Can we kiss, or—”
The second half of my question is cut off when his lips meet mine.
Well then…I guess we’re kissing.
I’m faintly aware of the crowd of people going crazy around us. There are one or two camera flashes and plenty of iPhones recording this moment, I have no doubt. In fact, maybe I’ll ask someone to send me the footage so I can watch it on a loop from now until the end of time.
Grant pulls back and takes my hospital bag, then my hand.
“How was work?”
I laugh and shake my head. “We’re just going to pretend this is normal?”
“Unfortunately, it is. Haven’t you been around Luke when he’s been swarmed by people?”
“Yes, but it always felt different somehow.”
I wasn’t in the limelight alongside Luke, not like this. I’ll have to ask Chloe and Sophia how they handle it. Neither one of them complains about living life alongside a professional athlete, and in large part, they go about their days completely unencumbered by their partners’ celebrity status, which is a huge relief.
We turn the corner and already, the crowd is gone. The people gathered there weren’t professional paparazzi or anything, just eager fans.
Now, it’s just Grant and me, hand in hand. I look up to see him staring down at me curiously, likely trying to assess if I’m about to bail on him or not. I squeeze his hand tighter.
“I’m so glad you’re home.”
“Me too,” he says, staring down at my lips then belatedly meeting my eyes with an air of mischief. “Have you had dinner yet?”
“No. I’m starved.”
“Good. Let’s go eat.”
“And after?”
Excitement dances like butterflies in my stomach with his reply. “After…where should we go? Your place or mine?”
TWENTY-THREE
TATE
It’s funny the way life never works out the way you expect it to. I had a rule about dating baseball players that was very cut and dry. There were no special circumstances, no “in case of” scenarios. Simply don’t do it, plain and simple. Now here I am, not just casually dating a baseball player but hopelessly in love with one. I’m the girlfriend in the stands with all the matching gear: hat, jersey, foam finger, koozie—you name it, I’m rocking it. When I’m at the games and Grant walks out to bat, I am so obnoxious, so uncouth I’m surprised I don’t get an official sealed letter from the league asking me to kindly refrain from “all that annoying shit”. It’s better when I can watch the away games at home, frankly, because there at least I don’t have to worry about embarrassing myself and others (sorry to everyone within five rows of me).
Grant and I both agree that while we’re young and kid-less, it’d be fun for me to travel with him as much as possible. I work with the hospital to stack my shifts so I can occasionally work one week on, one week off. I don’t go on the road with him for every series, but I like the flexibility. Sometimes I even load up on shifts during the weeks he’s gone so when he’s back in New York City, I have as much free time as possible to, you know, bang his brains out.
In the first few weeks of our fledgling relationship, I’m embarrassed to admit my moods oscillate wildly to and fro based solely on Grant’s schedule.
Is he about to leave town for a week on the road? Okay, well then everything is bad and we should just keep the lights off in the apartment. Don’t open the drapes.
Is Grant flying home? OPEN THOSE DRAPES. Thaw me out, baby! My boyfriend’s back!
I feel out of whack and so unlike myself that it scares me a little. I’ve never been this beholden to a rollercoaster of emotions in my entire life. I’m self-aware enough to know I’m being a version of myself I never wanted to be. I wouldn’t even put it past Sophia and Daphne to kick me to the curb in those weeks. I’d kick me to the curb. But they stick it out and eventually, by late September, I’ve mostly acclimated to my new normal.