Maid For Beckett Catching The Baseball Legend’s Heart novel Chapter 153

-Beckett-

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I stared down at Andi; her question hanging between us like the last pitch to the ninth inning, where the score was even. Throwing the answer to her question could either make us or break us.

I was in a trance at the way she wouldn’t meet my eyes, the way she pulled the Amber Wolve’s cap she’s wearing, at the way her fingers curled into the hem of her shirt like she was afraid to hear my answer. Andi had always been like that. Brave enough to ask, terrified to hear the answer.

I didn’t give her one right away because the right answer to her question was a ‘no.’ I have many reasons to avoid saying yes to her request. We have a game tomorrow, and Dave would kill me if he found out I wasn’t in my room. And on top of that, I wanted to take things slow with Andi, and sleeping under the same roof with her is the opposite of that.

The elevator closed behind us. It felt like we’d been standing here for an eternity, when it’s only a few seconds.

“Okay,” I said.

Her head snapped up; those blue pools were glowing with all the emotions rushing simultaneously through her veins. “O- okay?” She stuttered, surprise seeping in her eyes. “Yeah?”

I nodded, keeping my calm facade on when all I wanted to do was poke her nose and tease her until her cheeks were beet red. Doesn’t she know what that excitement in her eyes does to me?

“Uh–huh,” I said, raising my eyebrows. Then, I dropped my hand from her shoulder and walked back toward the kitchen, opening the fridge again just to have something to do with my hands, because if not, I might not stop myself from carrying her in my arms and locking her in the room.

“Sleeping in my own room is much more appealing than sleeping in the room with my drunk and loud teammates,” I grumbled without looking back at her, my eyes laser–focused on finding something to eat. I haven’t eaten yet because, in order to talk to Andi, I didn’t join the team’s after–game dinner. “It’s nice that I won’t smell Tim’s smelly feet.” I meant to lighten the mood, but when I lifted my head from the fridge and looked at Andi, she was still gripping that red cap, her gaze focused on the floor.

“You would really do that? Don’t you have an early preparation for the game tomorrow?” She said, her smile cracking.

“I can sneak out in the morning,” I spoke as casually as I could, turning back to the fridge. I don’t wanna impose on Andi to make dinner, but my stomach announced that I was starving. That hungry growl echoed through the penthouse.

Andi pressed her lips together, as if she were fighting a smile. I hadn’t seen that in a long time – that almost–smile she tried so hard to hide. It used to drive me insane in the best possible way.

“I burned hundreds of calories in the game,” I explained, stretching to my full length as I scratched the back of my neck.

Andi went to the kitchen, skirted past me to scavenge the fridge for food. There were the basics there: meat, fish, and a few vegetables.

“I haven’t had dinner yet,” she admitted as she pulled out the salmon and butter,

I can’t hide my smile. It had been a while since I had tasted Andi’s cooking. This reminds me of how she took care of my food back at the estate.

I grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and removed myself from Andi’s space, I sat on the barstool and watched Andi move swiftly in her element.

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10:11 am

Chapter 153

First, she searched for the rice in the cupboard. She found it easily and worked with the rice cooker.

She still knows how to feed my appetite after practice or a game.

I left her to do her thing and went to turn on the TV in the living room. I also turned on the warm lights, reminiscing about our time together on the estate. The city lights sparkled through the floor–to–ceiling glass walls. I put on Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, and I saw Andi glancing at me from the kitchen.

“Is this okay?” I asked her, my voice and Sinatra’s filling the space of the penthouse.

“Mom and I used to dance to his songs when I was little,” she admitted, a faraway look crossing her face. But she blinked it away as fast as it came and focused on the salmon she was frying in the pan.

I went back to the barstool and the bottled water that I had abandoned, and watched Andi do her magic in the kitchen. I can already smell the delicious aroma of salmon and butter. She pressed the garlic on the chopping board with the knife and her palms, then she tossed it into the pan, smoothly bathing the salmon with melted butter.

I watched her in silence. She finished cooking the salmon at the same time the rice finished cooking. Andi plated our dinner on the dining table, my stomach growling again.

She giggled, and it sounded like the most beautiful song in my ears.

“Eat up,” she urged me, and who was I to refuse that kind of offer? We ate in silence, and I swept my food like I hadn’t eaten in days. I never thought this night would end like this, but I’m glad I skipped the team’s dinner. Andi’s home–cooked meal was something I would choose over a hundred–dollar restaurant meal, all the time.

After dinner, Andi opened a bottle of wine. It was the most calming night I had had since her kidnapping, and I had the VIP seat as I watched Andi adore the city lights through the glass wall.

“It’s beautiful,” she said quietly. “But strange.”

“What is?”

“Being here with you….” she trailed off, as though she were writing this down in her diary and she were choosing each word carefully. “I never thought this would be my life.”

I leaned against my chair and watched her. She had no idea how wrong she was. “You belong right where you are, Andi.”

–

She turned from the city lights, and something in her expression shifted the armour she’d been wearing since the warehouse, from the moment she set foot on the estate, loosening just slightly at the edges.

“This isn’t mine, Beckett. Having dinner with a baseball legend, staying at this penthouse, being kidnapped.”

“Andi-”

She looked at me for a long moment, then picked up the glass of wine and stared at the amber liquid. “Drinking nice wine,” she added with a willful smile.

I get where she was coming from, but she needs to understand that this is where she belongs. “This must be far from the life you dreamt of having in the future, but life is like that. It takes us where we are supposed to be, Andi. And your place is

here… with me.”

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