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 occasions. She said all the same things that Danika always had, but nothing ever changed my mind. I had less than zero interest in baking for other people, and no amount of conversation about it could make me feel otherwise. It apparently sounded crazy from an outsider’s perspective but not from mine. I knew in my heart that it wasn’t the right move for me.

  “I’m glad you two are here. I need to tell you guys something,” she said, and my stomach dropped.

  I had an inkling what was coming next, but I wasn’t sure that Mac did. His body tensed, his knees pressing into my sides harder than they had been a second ago, and I wiggled for him to loosen his hold.

  “Spit it out,” Mac said when Rocky had stayed quiet for too long.

  “I’m going to move back home when the semester ends.”

  Rocky had talked on more than one occasion about moving back, and even though I wanted to beg her not to go, I knew I had no right to do that. I wanted to support whatever made her feel the most comfortable and safe. Plus, I had zero clue what it felt like to live through what she had and then go on each day, pretending not to be affected by it.

  So, I wasn’t surprised by her news. I stepped out of Mac’s vise grip to check on him. He looked devastated, which was ridiculous, but I honestly thought he was more attached to her than I was. Rocky looked at me and then looked at Mac, and she stuck out her bottom lip to match the pout currently on his face.

  “You’ll be okay, Baseball Boy. I’ll have Little Miss Sunshine here put me on speakerphone during your games, so you can hear me cheer for you, okay?”

  “Promise?” He sounded excited as his pout lessened.

  “Promise,” she said before he hopped off the counter, grabbed her, and hugged her tight against her will.

  “I’m going to miss you,” he said.

  “Ugh,” she groaned. “This is why I don’t tell you things.”

  He stopped hugging her, holding her by her shoulders. “Why? ’Cause I like you and don’t want you to move? I know, I’m such an asshole.”

  Rocky sniffed and wiped at her nose. “No. Because you’ll talk me out of leaving, and I really need to go.”

  Whoa. I didn’t see that coming.

  “We’re not going to talk you out of it. Of course we don’t want you to go, but we want you to be okay more than anything else,” I said, hoping that she knew how much we cared about her.

  “I feel like I failed you,” Mac huffed out, his arms crossing over his chest.

  “This has nothing to do with you, Mac.” Rocky never called Mac by his real name. “There isn’t anything you could have done. I’m just not feeling safe on a general day-to-day basis. That stupid fucking barrier thing falling really messed me up.”

  “You’ll stay through the semester though?” I asked, if only to confirm it so I knew how long we had with her. I was a little bummed she wouldn’t be here to go to Mac’s games with me, but that was just me being selfish.

  She nodded her head. “I’m going to try.”

  “Okay, well”—I reached for Mac’s hand and intertwined my fingers with his—“we’ll let you go. Come over if you want more cookies. No way this guy’s eating them all.”

  He let out a crazed noise. “Sounds like a challenge to me.”

  “Sounds like a stomachache to me,” Rocky bit back, and I shook my head.

  It was always like this with the two of them—constant banter. It was exhausting.

  “Come on. I’ll see you later.” I gave her a sad smile, and she thanked me for the cookies as we walked out.

  “I’m so sad that Rocky’s bailing,” Mac said once we were in the hallway, and I wondered how long he was going to sulk for.

  “Come eat some cookies. Plus, I have something to ask you.” I gave him a smile, hoping to put him in a better mood.

  No More Surprises

  Mac

  I couldn’t deal with any more surprises tonight, so I really hoped that Sunny’s question was something good. The smile on her face gave me more than a little hope even though I had no idea what she was up to.

  Rocky leaving really bummed me out. It was stupid, but I did feel like I’d failed her somehow. I knew it wasn’t logical, and Rocky wasn’t my responsibility, but I hated that she felt like her only option was to go back home.

  Then again, if I’d gone through a shooting where I thought I was going to die, I might not have ever had the guts to leave my own room, let alone move out and live alone. Rocky was the definition of a badass, and maybe that was why it hurt so bad. I felt for her, and naturally, I wanted to fix it.

  Sunny brought me over a giant plate of cookies while I sat on the couch, my mind still in a Rocky-filled fog. Snapping out of it, I forced myself to think about something else. That was easy—baseball.

  Practice had been great today. I felt good on the field. Better than I’d felt in a long time. I belonged there, and I knew it. Coach had even mentioned that some scout had asked about me. And even though he wouldn’t tell me who it was, it was still a good sign. Things were looking up.

  Which always made me a little apprehensive. Everything I’d ever wanted in life always felt like a struggle. Mostly because I seemed to be working against Dick Davies. If I wasn’t following his plan for me, then I was letting him down. The guy had tried to talk me out of playing baseball my entire high school career, reminding me that I was just wasting my time and taking small digs at my ability whenever he could.

  “So, I wanted to talk to you,” Sunny started, and I almost choked on the cookie I’d just put in my mouth.

  “Are you breaking up with me?” I asked quickly as nerves filled me. I had no idea why my mind had instantly gone there, but it had.

  There were days I waited for Sunny to tell me I wasn’t worth the hassle. That the other girls and their fucking rude comments were too much for her to take. Not to mention that I really had hooked up with a ridiculous number of girls at this school and Sunny had to face that fact every single time she walked across campus or entered a classroom.

  My past was in her face. I wouldn’t blame her if she was sick of dealing with it.

  “What? No. Never.” She looked at me like I was insane and moved on like I hadn’t just asked that question in the first place. “It’s about Thanksgiving.”

  My stomach instantly settled. “Oh. Yeah? What about it?” I sucked in a few quick breaths and stared at my girl. How did I get so lucky?

  “We haven’t talked about the holidays. Do you go home for them?” she asked tentatively, and I realized that she was tiptoeing around something.

  “I don’t usually go home for Thanksgiving. I just stay here. Go to Chance’s house. But I guess this year ...” I just realized that Chance wasn’t here anymore and he was probably going to be with Danika.

  Maybe Sunny was going to ask me to go to her parents’ house instead. I would agree in a heartbeat. I still hadn’t met them yet, but from all of Sunny’s stories, her mom sounded insane. In a good way.

  “I thought we could go to New York and have Thanksgiving with Chance and Danika if you wanted?” Sunny blurted out, like keeping that idea inside for one second longer might have made her explode if she didn’t say it out loud.

  Her whole face was happy, but I noticed that she was holding her breath, waiting for me to say something in response.

  “Hell yes! When did you plan this? I definitely want to do that. Does Chance know?” I reached for my girl and pulled her onto my lap, her silver hair falling all around us.

  She looked at me and shrugged. “I don’t know if he knows. But I talked to Danika earlier, and she’s so excited. I just didn’t know what your plans were. I figured you went home for Christmas, but I wasn’t sure what you did for Thanksgiving.”

  I swallowed at the mention of my going home to Arizona. I hated it every year but felt obligated, of course, to go back during Christmas. Plus, leaving my mom alone with DD made me sick. I had to give her some reprieve and check in on her. “I do go home for Christmas. But then I come right back ’cause baseball starts.”

  “So, you want to go?” Her tongue stuck out as she grinned at me. “To New York? With me? For Thanksgiving?”

  “Definitely.” I leaned forward and kissed her. “You know,” I said, “I’ve never been there before.”

  “Me neither! I can’t wait!” She leaped off my lap and did a little dance around the living room, shaking her ass and hips as she thrust her arms into the air like a lunatic. “I have to call Danika, okay? Or I can just text her.”

  “I’ll buy our tickets,” I said, pulling out my wallet and credit card from my dad. At least he was good for something.

  “You don’t have to buy our tickets. I mean”—she stopped dancing and cocked her head to the side—“I can pay for my own.”

  “Dickhead Davies said I’m to use this for all things. I’m sure that includes first-class airfare.” I waved the credit card around, and Sunny looked uncomfortable.

  “I don’t know. Are you sure? What if he cancels them?”

  I laughed. “He won’t even notice until we’ve gone and come back, I bet. But he would never cancel the tickets. That would be potentially embarrassing, and DD does not like to be embarrassed.”

  “If you’re sure,” she said between typing on her phone.

  “I’m sure.”

  My girl squealed. “Okay. Danika said we’re all set. Just to let her know what we end up booking and she’ll take care of the rest.”

  I waved Sunny over, and she sashayed her way back to the couch and sat down next to me. We both had the calendars up on our phones as we looked at the dates and decided when to leave and come back.

  “Are we staying with them?”

  “Yeah. They’re at Chance’s parents’. I guess they own a flat there or something. I don’t know what they’re called.”

  “Ah.” I nodded because that rang a bell. “I think Chance told me that once. They have a condo.”

  After we agreed on the dates, I booked us two roundtrip tickets. I knew that I could have gotten us coach seats, but I decided that I didn’t care enough what my old man thought and ordered us first class instead. Plus, I wanted to fly my girl in style even if I wasn’t paying for it.

  “We’re confirmed.” I forwarded the confirmation to Sunny’s email address and watched as she opened it, noticing the seat class.

  “This is going to be the best vacation ever.” She launched herself into my arms, and I caught her easily.

  “Are you happy?” I placed a small kiss on the tip of her nose.

  “Very.” She licked her lips as she stared at my mouth.

  “Show me how much,” I said as I stood up from the couch with her still in my arms and headed toward the bedroom.

  First Class to New York

  Sunny

  I drove us to LAX for our nonstop flight to NEW YORK CITY! To say I was enthusiastic would be the freaking understatement of the century. I couldn’t stop bouncing in my seat, even with Mac’s hand on my thigh. He kept laughing at me and shaking his head, but he couldn’t blame me. Not only was I getting to see my best friend, who I missed terribly, but I was also going to New York with my boyfriend.

  I’d never done anything like this in my life. The most vacationing my family had ever done was camping at the local beaches on the weekends. They were always fun, and I enjoyed them, but they weren’t New York. And I’d definitely never gone anywhere with a boyfriend before.

  We parked the car, grabbed our luggage, and headed into the busy airport. It was an absolute madhouse inside, kids running amok, their parents looking way more stressed than happy. I glanced at Mac while we waited in line to check our luggage, and he seemed to have the same expression on his face that I assumed I had on mine.

  “Are you as excited as I am?”

  He leaned toward me. “Maybe even more.”

  He winked, and my stomach flip-flopped. His shirt was pulled taut against his shoulders, his arms looking like they ached to be set free, and I swore I could spend hours simply admiring his body.

  “Are you checking me out?” he asked, and I felt myself blush.

  “I can’t help it. Look at you.”

  He grabbed me hard and started kissing me for everyone at LAX to see. The old man behind us cleared his throat, making Mac stop.

  “Have you seen yourself lately?” Mac whispered in my ear, and I used his arms to steady myself.

  Kissing Mac always made me weak in the knees. One of these times, I was going to fall to the floor in a puddle, and he’d have no one to blame but himself.

  After checking in and making our way through security, which took two hundred years, we sat in the fancy airport lounge, eating mini sandwiches and drinking at the bar. First-class perks were insane and unnecessary, but I was enjoying myself anyway.

  “We should head out soon,” Mac said as he finished off his sandwich and reached for a cookie I hadn’t seen him grab earlier.

  I eyed the delectable-looking treat and watched as Mac took a giant bite before covering his mouth with a napkin and wiping his face.

  “Did you just spit it out?”

  “It’s hard. And dry. And”—his face twisted with his disgust—“it’s gross.”

  I smiled smugly, feeling proud of myself for no reason whatsoever, except the fact that my boyfriend thought my cookies were better than the super-fancy ones at the airport lounge.

  He slid the remainder of the cookie toward me. “Try it.”

  “Why? You just said it’s gross.”

  “Just do it,” he insisted.

  I broke off a small piece, which crumbled against my fingers, and tossed it in my mouth.

  “It’s either a day old or they baked it too long,” I said with a shrug.

  “But it’s not good.”

  “It’s not good,” I agreed.

  “Yours are so much better. These people don’t even know what they’re missing out on,” he said as he hopped out of the chair and extended his hand to help me out of mine.

  Mac must have kept us in that private lounge until the last minute because the instant we walked up to our gate, they started boarding first-class passengers. Nerves and excitement raced through me as I texted Danika one last time, letting her know we were getting on the plane. The flight attendant greeted us with a smile as she welcomed us aboard. I must have looked like such a newbie, my eyes wide and my mouth dropping open when I saw the size of the seats.