Page 27 of The Trouble with Players

“Why are you still here?” I asked.

His head fell to the side, and he looked at me with sleepy eyes. “I’m not used to getting kicked out of someone’s bed.”

“That’s because you’re usually invited.”

“Yet here I am,” he said. “Why do you think that is?”

“You enjoy annoying me?” I said, rolling away from him. I felt the bed shift with his weight, so I glanced over my shoulder.

He sat perched on the edge of the bed. “You hungry?”

“What?” I asked.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Let’s get some breakfast.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

“Why can’t two people who sleep in the same bed share a meal?”

“Why should they?” I countered.

“Because I’m hungry. And, there is nothing wrong with us hanging out.”

At the moment, my stomach rumbled. There was no way that he hadn’t heard it because his lips twitched. “Only because I’m starving am I even considering it.”

“Stop being so tough and have breakfast with me.”

“You’re paying.”

A small smile slipped across his lips. “Of course.”

* * *

“Five-hundred and thirty-six,” I said before taking a bite of my vegetable omelet.

Crew stared down at his phone from the opposite side of the booth. “That’s nuts. Okay. One more. Jeter?”

“Two-hundred and sixty,” I said without even thinking about it.

“Shut up,” Crew said, amazed that I knew the number of lifetime home runs certain baseball players had off the top of my head.

“I told you I knew.”

He shook his head and placed his phone down on the table. “I’ve never met a girl who knew so much about baseball.”

“What do you think dinnertime talks were like when he was home? You’d think he’d need a break from it during the off-season, but nope.”

“What was it like growing up with him?”

“I think you’re forgetting he was only home for a four-month stretch each year. But when he was home, I was his whole world. I’d follow him around everywhere. People called me his shadow. God, I thought he was larger than life. Then I learned he wasn’t.”

“No?”

I shrugged. “Long story.”

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