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I shook my head. ‘Not really. I think he liked watching the sport, but wasn’t a big enough fan to follow it religiously. Anyway, what about you? Did you have any family traditions related to baseball, or family traditions in general?’

‘I do actually,’ he started. ‘To be honest, I never really thought of it as a tradition before, just something we did. But when I just started playing baseball, my whole family and I would go celebrate at this ice cream shop we had in my hometown if my team won. My usual order was a chocolate sundae.’

‘And what happens if you lose?’

‘I also get an ice cream sundae.’

‘So, you mean, you’ll get one either way? Whether you win or lose?’ I asked him, my voice teasing.

‘Yeah,’ he broke off, the tips of his ear going slightly red.

‘They just went about it differently. Like if I win, then it’s a celebration and if I lose, then it’s to cheer me up.

I think my family thought it was just a hobby when I was younger, so it didn’t really matter much.

But once I started taking it seriously, we just stopped doing it any more. ’

I took another bite of my pizza, tucking this piece of information about Colton into my mind, and adding it to the list of things I knew about him. But this particular story reminded me of another trait from that list—one of my favourite things about him.

‘Is that how you got your sweet tooth?’ I pointed out.

Colton pondered over my question for a moment. ‘Now that you mentioned it, I think so. But hand to heart, that shop had the best chocolate ice cream sundae I ever had.’

‘When was the last time you had it?’

‘The week before I came back for the new semester,’ he answered, as his hand reached out for another slice of pizza. ‘It’s sort of like a little farewell gift for me before I head off.’

‘It really is that good, huh?’ I teased him.

‘I’ll take you there someday and you can decide for yourself.’

My breath caught up in my throat at his words, anticipating a feeling of fear to creep up on me, but it never came. Instead, I felt excited at the prospect of it, of seeing the town Colton grew up in, and the legendary sundae that created his sweet tooth.

Giving him a smile, I said, ‘I’d like that.’

We continued exchanging stories from our childhood to our life in high school, trying to one-up each other on who had more funny stories, as we rated each one on a scale of one to ten.

The pizza box eventually emptied up. Colton ended up eating five slices, while I ate three—the perfect balance for us.

Once we were done, Colton insisted on helping me throw the pizza box through the garbage chute in the hallway, so I went ahead and wiped the coffee table.

I refilled our glasses of chocolate milk and waited for him in the living room.

The sound of the front door closing signalled his return not moments later.

He went to wash his hands before reclaiming his spot on the living room couch.

‘So …’ Colton trailed off.

‘So …’ I parroted.

‘I hit a home run today.’

‘You did.’

He gave me a small smile. ‘So, what happens now?’

‘I mean, a deal is a deal, right?’ I shrugged.

At that, his smile faded away. ‘Clara, you don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to. If you need more time to decide, I’m willing to wait for you.’

I frowned at his words. It never crossed my mind that Colton would second-guess my decision to let him take me out on a date. But given my track record of pushing him away, it wouldn’t be too far off to assume that I made the condition just to reject him again.

After the reassurance he had given me the day before, I thought it was time to reciprocrate.

I scooted closer to him and grabbed his hand, enveloping it with both of them as I rubbed my thumb on the back of his hand. Seeing what I was doing, Colton turned his body to face me and moved closer.

From two ends of the couch, we met in the middle.

I placed a soft kiss on his knuckles before lifting my gaze to meet his.

‘I like you, Colton. I like you so, so much. And I don’t blame you for thinking I made the home run condition in the hopes that you won’t meet it.

In some ways, it’s my fault for making you feel that way.

I’m sorry for ever making you feel that being a star athlete is a bad thing, because it’s not.

It shows so much character than just being a dumb trait that cliché love interests have.

The deal—or the condition, or whatever it was—didn’t actually matter.

It never did,’ I told him. ‘But for what it’s worth, I was confident you’d actually hit one and I was right. ’

The edge of his lips tilted up slightly.

‘And if you were to ask me again, I’ll give you a straightforward answer this time. No more confusion,’ I added.

‘You promise?’

I nodded. ‘I promise.’

‘Good.’ The palm of his other hand met the back of mine, as he asked, ‘Clara Healy, do you want to go on a date with me?’

There was only one answer. ‘Yes, Colton Reed. I would love to go on a date with you.’

The look on Colton’s face was one I knew I wanted to store in my mind forever.

His massive grin reached all the way to his eyes, and before I knew it, Colton had his arms wrapped around me and picked me up.

He settled me into his lap as he rested his head between my neck and shoulders, my legs straddling him.

I pulled away just enough so I could see his face. ‘I am still scared, though—of whatever this is. So, we might have to take this slow, and you’re going to have to be real patient with me.’

‘Don’t worry about having to take it slow. We can go at whichever pace you want,’ he reassured me. ‘And I’ll be there with you every step of the way. You just make sure you’ll let me be there with you, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I whispered. I rested my head sideways on his right shoulder as he gave me gentle rubs on my back.

We settled into a comfortable silence, both of us just breathing in the other person’s presence as we were entangled with one another.

The quietness didn’t last too long when Colton decided to speak. ‘You know. You haven’t apologized to me for one other thing.’

I raised my head, facing him. ‘What other thing?’ I arched a brow.

‘For shamelessly gawking at me shirtless.’

‘Shamelessly gawking?’ I trailed off, recalling all the times we had spent together as I tried to remember if I ever saw him shirtless.

And then, it hit me.

No way.

There was just no way.

The incident, I thought to myself.

There was no way he was referring to the incident , right?

‘So, you do know what I’m talking about,’ Colton said in a proud mocking tone.

This is a joke, right?

‘You’re not talking about—’

He cut me off, or to put it more accurately, he finished it off for me. ‘The bathroom at the track field.’

He was referring to the incident .

I was mortified.

I don’t think I had ever been more mortified than I was at that moment.

I immediately brought my hands up to my face, placing my covered face back on his shoulder, shielding myself from him.

I could hear and feel Colton’s amused laughter rumbling through his body in this position. While I was mostly hiding from my own embarrassment, a part of me was using it as an excuse to stay this close to Colton for a little bit longer.

When I finally gathered enough courage to look at him again, I immediately laid playful slaps on his very hard chest.

‘How long have you known it was me?’ I exclaimed in between slaps.

‘The first day of ASL class.’ He shrugged.

My eyes widened in horrific embarrassment. He’s known it was me for that long? ‘Why are you only telling me this now?’

‘You remember the day you asked me if I believed in fate?’ he asked instead.

I furrowed my eyebrows at him, slightly confused at his question but still giving him a nod. ‘Yeah. You said you didn’t believe in it but you were starting to think you were wrong.’

A small smile appeared on his lips, as if he was remembering the memory of that night as well. ‘After our encounter in the bathroom, I actually went back to the track field for the next few days, hoping I might bump into you again.’

‘You did not.’

‘Oh yes, I did,’ he countered back. ‘But I wasn’t so lucky. Then I tried going on Wednesdays instead. But again, my efforts were in vain. So, eventually, I gave up. I thought that was it for me, and for the pretty girl who seemed to like watching me put my shirt on.’

A blush rose to my cheeks.

‘Fast forward to a month later, the baseball team decided to throw a party at the team house,’ he continued. ‘I wasn’t actually planning on going since I’m not the biggest fan of parties, but my teammates were blowing up my phone, asking me to come. And someone had to drive them home.’

‘Always the responsible one,’ I pointed out.

He gave me a sheepish smile. ‘Well, someone had to take care of them. But anyway, I did end up going, and at one point in the night, I was talking to Miles in the kitchen, when I saw someone very familiar standing in the corner. Can you guess who it was?’

‘You’re joking.’

He shook his head. ‘It was you. And just as I wanted to approach you, another one of my teammates—one of the seniors we had last year—started talking to me, so I couldn’t really say no.

But once we were done talking, I tried to see if you were still there, but you were gone.

I thought you might have gone elsewhere around the house, but I couldn’t find you, so I’m guessing you went home. ’

I knew exactly the moment he was talking about. It was just minutes before the girls and I had headed home, and Lily and Claudia were in the bathroom, while Nina went to say goodbye to her friends. My social energy had drained for the night, so I just waited for them in an empty corner.