CHAPTER 6 DANNY
I think about sliding into her DMs.
It’s been less than two full days since I met Alexis Bodega, and one thing’s for damn sure.
I haven’t stopped thinking about her.
What the fuck is this?
And is she married?
Or is she fair game?
I’ve studied her photos on Instagram—clearly curated by someone else, which is what has stopped me from sliding into her DMs.
Someone runs my social media, too. It comes with the territory.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t post my own shit upon occasion, and it doesn’t mean I don’t spend time scrolling and liking the right things.
It’s as I’m looking at Alexis’s account today that I notice something, though.
I’ve followed her account for years…and now she appears to be following me, too.
When I go to see who else she’s following, it looks like she followed basically everyone on the Heat, so maybe I’m not special. Maybe whatever that was that I felt when we met was a me thing.
Or maybe she felt it too and she decided to follow my teammates so she’s not making it obvious.
I run a quick online search to see if I can prove my hunch correct.
Is Alexis Bodega married?
And the results are…shall we say…comforting.
Alexis Bodega and longtime partner Brooks Donovan are not married.
Are.
Not.
Married.
And it says longtime partner. It doesn’t say boyfriend, though the image results appear to show them together an awful lot. Not hugging. Not kissing. Not being affectionate. But together.
Still, no ring on the finger means fair game. She ain’t married, and that means there’s hope.
But I need to handle this carefully.
I run another search and discover that last night, she was a surprise guest for Vail at the Wynn. Cooper knows some of the Vail guys, so I’ll hit him up and maybe we can catch the show after tonight’s game.
I have to see her again even though I don’t know whether she’ll be there or not.
What if she is?
I don’t know what good it’ll do other than drive me crazy, but I’ve never felt the need to see a woman again. Ever.
I can’t wait until I get to the clubhouse to ask Coop, so I shoot him a text a couple hours before I need to get to the stadium.
Me: You got any connections to get me backstage at tonight’s Vail show at the Wynn?
His reply comes quickly.
Cooper: I can ask James. Why?
Why indeed.
I debate how to handle this one, and before I can come up with a plan, he reads right the fuck through me.
Cooper: You’re trying to run into Bodega, aren’t you?
Shit.
Me: No.
Cooper: Liar.
Me: So what if I am?
Cooper: I’ll see what I can do.
I get another text from him a short while later.
Cooper: Alexis is doing a few songs again tonight. Your name is added to the guest list, and Gabby and I will go with you. I’ll forward you the details from James.
And that is why Cooper Noah is one of my best friends. He gets shit done, he’s friends with Vail’s bassist, and he’s a damn good friend to me.
I shoot him a thank you text, and when I get to the clubhouse, I find him already hanging out by his locker, sitting on his bench as he pulls off his socks.
“Thanks again, man,” I say.
He nods, and he peers at me for a beat.
“What?” I ask.
“What’s going on with you?”
My brows dip. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…what’s going on with you? What’s all this about getting backstage to try to see Alexis?” He says the last part quietly so nobody in here overhears.
I shrug, and I drop to sit on the bench in the locker beside his as I let out a breath. “I don’t know what it is, to be honest. I just have this feeling like I need to see her again.”
“When you two met yesterday, I could tell you were in a world of trouble.” He chuckles a little.
“How?” I ask.
“I’ve never seen you look at a woman like that before. You’re usually after one thing when it comes to the fairer sex, but this…this was different.”
“It is different, but I’m not sure how yet. And for the record, she isn’t married.”
His brows raise. “Is she with that dude?”
“A Google search tells me he’s her longtime partner, but did you see the way she was leaning away from him the whole time?” I lean into the locker back against the wall.
“When did you become a body language expert?”
“When the body I was studying is Alexis Fucking Bodega’s.”
He laughs. “Touche. So what’s your plan?”
I lift a shoulder. “I don’t have one. I’ll go in, assess the situation, try to get her number, and take it from there.”
“Dude, you need a plan. You can’t just go in and assess the situation.”
My brows dip. “Why the fuck not?”
“Because this is Alexis Bodega. This isn’t the leopard who reared back on all fours for round three.”
Yeah, I told him.
It’s locker room talk between guys.
Literally.
“She’s classy for sure, but I could still see her rearing back on all fours,” I say.
“In your dreams, maybe.”
I laugh. He’s definitely right about that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have dreamed about that before.
Rush interrupts our conversation with a deck of cards, so we play for a bit before it’s time to take the field. We roll over the Braves with a four-one victory, and the game is over before five o’clock—plenty of time to run home to shower and change ahead of our night out.
But it won’t be as crazy as my last night out.
For one thing, I’m partying with Cooper and his girlfriend—who, by the way, he’s planning to propose to tomorrow, which is one reason I can’t get drunk tonight as he’d kill me if I spilled the beans.
But for another thing…Cooper is right. Alexis is a classy girl, and if my goal is to impress her, then she probably shouldn’t meet the bad boy of baseball, no matter how proud I am of that moniker.
Well…maybe I can save a little of the bad boy for her.
But first, I have to figure out if there’s even a shot for me.