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“I’m sure we can figure something out,” I reply, feeling conflicted.

My desire to go to a baseball game falls into negative territory on the number line.

But not only am I dating a baseball player, my new son is clearly obsessed.

Mentally, I groan at the prospect of watching baseball, but outwardly I smile and change the subject.

An hour later, Griffin drives us home. The streets are mostly cleared now, meaning school should be back in session tomorrow.

“So, Fireball, when’s your first baseball practice? Are you playing on a team this spring?” Griffin asks, looking in the rearview mirror at Jason.

He perks up in his seat and leans forward. “Am I gonna be on a real baseball team, Miss Danae?”

My gut clenches, and I can’t stop myself from briefly glaring at Griffin before turning to Jason. “We’ll have to talk more about that, bud. I’m not sure that’s something we can add to the schedule right now.” I give Griffin one more side-eye as Jason’s face falls. He sits back in his seat.

Griffin looks at me quizzically and mouths “sorry” before he changes the subject. “What was your favorite part of playing in the snow?” he asks.

Jason perks back up. “Definitely sledding! Or maybe when you hit Miss Danae with the giant snowball,” he says, giggling.

“Hey! You should be defending me, not encouraging him!” I say with mock outrage. Griffin reaches a hand back for a high five, which Jason heartily supplies .

“I’ll be keeping my eye on you two,” I say, using my fingers to motion from my eyes to the two of them.

“I hope so,” Griffin says under his breath.

I suppose we haven’t reached the “hold hands in front of Jason” stage yet, but Griffin reaches over to run a finger across the back of my hand.

It’s a delicate touch that sends my heart (and hormones) into a frenzy.

A touch I’m becoming addicted to after experiencing it just twice.

A touch that nearly makes me forget that Griffin put me in a tough position with Jason and his baseball dreams.

There’s absolutely no chance I’m signing Jason up for baseball this spring. I can’t handle one more thing right now.

We pull into a parking space in front of our townhouse.

The lot hasn’t been cleared of snow very well yet, which makes the clearance of Griffin’s Jeep an advantage.

He helps Jason out of the car and grabs the booster seat to transfer to mine.

I unlock our front door, but Jason suddenly turns and wraps his little arms around Griffin’s waist in a tight hug.

“Thank you for letting us come play, Mr. Griffin. I had so much fun today,” he says.

Griffin makes brief eye contact with me before leaning down to return Jason’s hug. “Any time, Fireball. You’re gonna need a lot of practice if you’re ever going to beat me at Mario Kart.”

“And you’re gonna need better luck if you’re ever going to beat me at Trash,” Jason says, voice and eyes full of mischief.

Griffin and I burst out laughing, and he ruffles Jason’s hair. “You two better get inside out of the cold,” Griffin says, and Jason scampers off.

In one smooth movement, Griffin takes my hand and pulls me closer as he leans in toward me. He places a soft kiss on the sensitive skin just below my ear, evoking an involuntarily gasp.

“Thanks for coming over today,” he murmurs. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

It’s a question he already knows the answer to. Still, I nod a yes.

Inside, I lean against the door for a moment to let my heart calm down before facing Jason. When I walk to the living room, he’s there playing with his Lego set .

“Did you have fun today?” I ask him. A question I already know the answer to.

“This was the best snow day ever!” he yells, flinging himself at me. I catch him in a hug, rubbing his back.

“Hey, we probably need to talk about how we’re going to handle sharing about our snow day at school tomorrow,” I say.

Jason leans back to meet my eyes. “What do you mean?”

Wow, this is a hard concept to explain to a nine-year-old .

“Well, Mr. Griffin is really famous, right?” I say.

Jason nods. “And sometimes famous people kinda like to keep some privacy so people don’t know everything about their lives.

Since Mr. Griffin and I have only gone on one date, we maybe shouldn’t tell other people yet that we’ve been spending time with him. Does that make sense?”

Jason’s face furrows. “You mean, like a secret?”

“Not exactly like a secret,” I say, contemplating how to explain. “Here’s the thing—you remember the first week back to school when you were telling everyone about how you got to meet Mr. Griffin and the other players at camp, and one of the other kids said some not-nice things to you?”

Now Jason’s face falls. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, that boy might have felt like you were bragging about it, and he was probably a little bit jealous that you got to meet someone famous. So he said some mean things to try to make himself feel better about it. We don’t want to brag about being friends with Mr. Griffin right now.

At least, not until he and I are a little more serious about our relationship,” I say.

Jason cocks his head at me. “You mean, you’re not serious about liking each other?”

I blow out a breath. Wow, I am really screwing this up. “No, it’s not that we aren’t serious. I do really like him.”

“He really likes you too. I can tell,” Jason replies with a grin.

I smile back at him. “Yeah, we do seriously like each other. But I’d still like to keep our relationship private for a little longer. Do you know what I mean?”

Jason nods solemnly. “I do. I won’t say anything at school, I promise. ”

“Thanks, bud,” I say, pulling him to me for one more hug. “I really love you, you know? With you one hundred percent, forever kind of love.”

He squeezes me harder. “I love you too.”

And now I’m crying.