“He said that you’d throw away all your future plans to chase mine.”
I reared my head back like I’d been slapped. “And how does he know that?” I was getting more and more pissed off by the second.
I really hated it when people made assumptions and decisions for me without asking. If Chance wanted to know what exactly I’d do for him and his dreams, he could have asked me.
“How does he know that, Chance? Did he ever ask me? Have you?”
His green eyes flashed with pain as he winced so slightly that anyone else would have missed it. But I didn’t. “He made some good points. You’re supposed to work for your dad, and I’m hopefully still getting drafted. Our lives are headed in two very different directions. How are we going to make that work?”
The way he’d asked the last question made my anger evaporate as fear and insecurity took its place. I knew exactly what he was doing.
“What are you saying?”
Chance fucking Carter was trying to break up with me.
And I was not having any of it. Not now. Not ever.
Stubborn Little Spitfire
Chance
“Just say it,” Danika pushed from the passenger seat.
She knew. She knew exactly what I was trying to do, but I was too afraid to admit it. Once I said the words out loud, I could never take them back. I’d never been in this position before—having a girlfriend I was in love with and didn’t want to lose but wouldn’t dream of taking anything away from her.
“I don’t want you to throw away your dreams for mine.”
“You already said that,” she snapped.
Oh, she was pissed, and it caught me off guard. I honestly hadn’t expected her to put up a fight.
“I just don’t see any other way. I’m going to keep falling for you, and I’m going to want you with me twenty-four/seven, Danika. I’ll have to move, and I’ll want you to come with me. I can’t ask you to give up your career and follow me around the country. And I also can’t live long distance forever. Take your emotions out of it, and you’ll see that what I’m saying is true.”
“I’m a girl. I can’t do that. I’m built on emotions.” She sounded so defeated, and I hated that I was the reason for it.
“But you know I’m right.”
“No,” she said, still being stubborn as her eyes met mine and held, like she was begging me to challenge her.
I swallowed, carefully measuring my next words. “My career doesn’t really breed partnership. It breeds sacrifice … from you.”
She exhaled long and loud. “Why do we have to figure this all out right now?”
“Because every day that you’re a part of my life, I’m finding it really damn hard to see the rest of it without you in it.”
“That’s usually a good thing.” Her hand reached for mine, and she intertwined our fingers.
I knew that, yes, finding your forever person was typically a positive, but this didn’t feel like that. This felt selfish on my end. And I didn’t want to be that for her.
“Chance,” she said quietly, and I looked at her, my heart aching inside my chest, “I know that having a relationship with someone in your situation is possible. People do it all the time.”
I nodded in agreement. “They do. But the girls don’t usually have their own careers,” I said before thinking about Cole and Christina. Christina seemed like an exception, running her own social media management company that could be done from anywhere. “I mean, mostly, they do charitable work with the team and social media influencing, but you have a family business to think of. A business that’s only in New York. It’s a little different.”
“Well, how did your parents do it? Your mom had a successful career of her own.”
I’d known that was coming. That she would bring up my parents and the fact that they were still together and in love and my mom had done well for herself.
“Yeah, but she freelanced and called her own shots. And when she did work for someone else, she gave it up because being with my dad was more important to her than being away from him all the time.”
She sucked in a breath. “I didn’t know that. I’d just assumed they’d made it work.”
“They did. But it took a lot to get there. My mom fought for her independence. And then she gave it up. But she got it back again after my dad retired. Their relationship was a lot of give and take, but it was scheduled around my dad’s career. You get what I’m saying?” I was trying to let her know that baseball always came first, and there was really no way around that without quitting the game.
Danika closed her eyes and rubbed them. “Look, I know you’re trying to break up with me right now. But I’m not going to let you,” she said with some kind of mustered confidence, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re not going to let me?”
“No. And I’m not getting out of this car until we’ve worked this out.” She folded her arms across her chest to amplify her stubbornness.
“What do you suggest? How the hell do we ‘work this out’?” I asked, using finger quotes around the last part.
She stayed quiet, and I assumed she was thinking. I really didn’t know what to do. I’d thought that letting her go was doing the right thing by her, but now, I wasn’t so sure.
Did I jump to conclusions and decide too fast, all because of what Jared said to me?
No, I knew it wasn’t only because of him and his words. My mom had raised me to respect the fact that the girl in my life would want independence and something to call her own. She’d told me that I couldn’t expect anyone to support my dreams if I wasn’t willing to support theirs in return. And that true partnership was built on mutual respect and communication.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, breaking my inner monologue.
“I was just convincing myself that this was the right thing to do.”
“Which part?”
I gave her a soft smile. “The part where we deal with this now instead of putting it off until later when it would be a million times harder to try and figure out.”
“Yeah. I hate that you’re right, but here’s what I’m thinking.” Her voice settled and grew steady, and I knew she was moving out of an emotional state of mind and into a more logical one. “I can’t make any decisions about this without all the facts. But the one thing I will say is that you don’t get to decide for me. Do you hear me?” She reached across the truck and poked me in the shoulder. “You don’t get to choose what I do with my life. It’s not only up to you, and it’s not fair.”
I pulled my eyes together, noticing the way that she looked at me, so serious and determined. Damn, she was beautiful. And smart. I wanted to take it all back, pull her from the passenger seat and onto my lap, where she belonged, and kiss her until she saw stars.
Nodding, I apologized because she was right. In trying to do the right thing, I had taken her choice from her, figuring that I knew what was best.
“So … first question,” she started. “Do you even want to be with me? I mean, do you want this to work, or are you just looking for a way out?”