Swing (Landry Family 2)

“I carried you. Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.” Her brows pull together. “What time is it? And when did you get new sheets?”

“I changed them today.”

“I’m impressed.” She yawns again. Her face looks pale, the start to bags evident under her eyes. Her normally smooth features are tight and I wonder what she was dreaming about. “Thank you for letting me come by.”

“Of course.”

She gives me an odd look, tugging the blankets around her. “What time is it?”

“It’s still pretty early. Want me to order some dinner?”

“I better get home. I’ll just grab something on the way.”

“Why?” I ask. “Why don’t you just stay here?”

“I work tomorrow.”

Kicking myself for missing such a huge point, I scramble for a solution. “Want me to stay with you?”

“You don’t have to do that. Thank you for taking care of me today. Thank you for being there for me.”

“Of course. I’m always here if you need me.”

Something I said hits her wrong and her eyes widen. She wiggles beneath the blankets, dragging in a deep breath.

“What?” I ask. “What did I say?”

Her head shakes from side to side. “Nothing.”

“Tell me the truth.”

After what feels like an eternity, she looks at me. “You are amazing. More amazing than I even imagined and that was a lot.”

“Naturally.”

A start of a smile slips on her lips. “I needed you today.”

She says it like those words say it all, like I should understand everything from the simple sentence. Furrowing my brow, I look at her. “I’m glad,” I say cautiously. “You should need me. That’s what I’m here for.”

“It’s not.” She climbs out of my bed, messing with her long, dark locks. “Things between us have been fun. Great, actually. But today when you walked into my office, I can’t even tell you the relief I felt.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, scrubbing my hands down my face. “How is that a bad thing?” I follow her into the living room where she slides on her shoes.

“Me needing you like I did today is another step into something I’m not sure I can handle,” she says, straightening up and facing me. “We are fun, Landry. This thing between us, whatever it is, has made me so happy.”

“Me too,” I say, feeling a little seed of unease settle in my gut.

“But it’s a short-term thing. You are going to head into the preseason soon and then you’ll be off for two hundred games.”

I don’t know what to say to this, so I say nothing and hope she clarifies.

“I told you before I don’t want to be a baseball girlfriend. I won’t, as a matter of fact,” she says, pulling her gaze from me. “I somehow convinced myself I could keep it light between us and enjoy it for what it was and let you go when the time came. But I’m in too far.”

“There’s no measuring stick to what’s too far,” I say, reaching for her. My heart plummets when she starts to retreat. “What are you doing, Dani?”

“I think I need to take a little step back, Lincoln. For my sanity.”