Dane

Mackenzie's words about calling my father have been rattling around in my head for over a week. We've quickly grown comfortable with the whole dating thing. I walk her to some of her classes, she drives me to and from school, we spend a couple nights a week at her place, and a couple of nights apart. Mackenzie seems to want to avoid being around Grant, and I can't say I blame her.

It's a Sunday evening, and it's been three and a half weeks since Grant's ball hit me when I get to take my sling off. The doctor takes another look at it, declares that it's healing in excellent form, prescribes me some more weeks of PT, and it feels like I'm home free. Noah took me to the hospital, and Mackenzie is picking me up when she's done with newspaper stuff. Looking at my phone, I see I have a good half hour, so I sit in the hospital lobby and stare out the huge windows, thinking about Mackenzie's words.

She hadn't brought it up again, but I know she's right. I should call my father, I should tell him how I'm doing. I don't really want to, but he hasn't called me either. Maybe if I try, he'll try too. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Deciding I'll take the momentum where I can get it, I unlock my phone, and call him before I can second guess it.

He answers on the second ring.

"Dane?" He sounds relieved, and nervous.

"Hey, dad." Saying dad sounds weird, but I just roll with it, determined to get through this call.

"I'm--" He pauses for such a long time, I start to wonder if the call dropped. "I'm glad to hear from you."

"I just wanted to tell you that I got my sling off. The doc says I'm healing really well."

"That's excellent news."

There's another long silence, where I consider just hanging up. Instead, my mouth decides to keep going.

"Talked to coach this week, and he says that if the doctor clears me, I can play this spring."

I expect him to say how great that is, or that of course I'm doing that, or make some remark about how now I'm going to be bad at baseball. What he actually says is, "Is that what you want to do?"

"What?" I feel remarkably stupid, but that's all that manages to come out of my mouth.

"Do you want to play baseball in the spring?" He asks.

"Are you serious?" I feel like I'm gearing up for a fight.

My father lets out a sigh like I'm the dumbest person he's ever met. "Dane-- I'm trying really hard here." I hear him take a breath. "You're my son. I just want you to do what makes you happy."

"Oh."

"That girl of yours really got in my head."

"Clearly." I say. "She's good at that."

"Yeah, she is." He lets out a low chuckle. "Did she get on your case about calling me?"

"Something like that."

"She seemed astute." My father comments. "I liked her."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I appreciate someone who knows what to fight for."

It's the longest silence yet. I don't even know what to say, I'm nearly in tears. This call isn't going at all like I was expecting.

"Are you two dating?" He asks.

"As of two weeks ago." I tell him.

"Well, you should invite her home for Thanksgiving. Henry and Jadyn will be there. Jadyn seemed to really like her. Wouldn't shut up to Mellie about it." Mellie was my step-mom.

"Yeah, I'll ask her." This conversation was taking an unexpected turn.

"I've gotta run, Mellie set something on fire." My step-mom is a notoriously awful cook, and I can hear the fire alarm going off in the background. "Love you, son."

"I love you, dad."

I think he's going to hang up. "Thanks for calling me. Meant a lot." And then he's gone for real. I'm still staring at my phone when Mackenzie comes inside to find me twenty minutes later.

"Are you alright?" Her voice breaks me from my reverie.

"I called my dad." I say.

"My question stands."

So I recount the conversation to her as we drive to my celebratory dinner. The more I say, the faster my heart beats, until I feel like I'm on the verge of hyperventilating. Mackenzie sets her hand on my leg, trying to prevent me from bouncing my leg so much.

"I'm glad it went well." Mackenzie says with a small smile.

"Will you come to Thanksgiving?"

"Sure." Mackenzie glances at me. "My mom called me yesterday to tell me that she's going to be out of state at a conference, and that my dad is doing some thing with work where he has to sleep at the office to keep an eye on stuff." I look at her, wondering how hard she took this news. She seems very calm about it. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm about to be upset."

"I'm just worried about you." I say defensively.

"I was hoping we'd get to do something together." She tells me. My heart suddenly feels really full. I grip her hand and try not to crush her fingers. I wonder if she realizes how much I appreciate every moment with her.

"You're the best." Is all I manage.

When we pull into the Italian restaurant I realize that I'm starving. Mackenzie loops her arm through mine as we walk inside. She had the good sense to make a reservation, so we get seated immediately despite it being busy.

I realize after we order that I haven't said a word to Mackenzie since we've sat down. All I can think about is my conversation with my dad. "Mack?"

Her gaze, which had been focused behind me, lands on me. "Yeah?"

"Sorry. I've been thinking about my dad."

"That's okay. I figured." She gives me a reassuring smile. Her hair is down tonight and falls around her face in shiny waves. She looks beautiful even in the dim lights inside the restaurant.

The fact that we haven't had sex yet looms in my mind. I know she's not a virgin, but it's important to me that she enjoys her first time with me. But, instead of talking about that, I switch the subject completely.

"How was your day?"

"Camilla and I spent a lot of time editing. And Jacob actually came in to help today. So that was nice." Mackenzie tilts her head. "Also, I finished grading that massive stack of papers for calculus." Mackenzie has taken over grading for one of the other TAs because he has mono and is apparently bedridden.

"Did you get the paper submitted?"

"Yeah. Barely." She smiles, but it looks pained. "The articles are getting to be lower quality as we get into the final push of the semester."

"What was your letter from the editor about?" I run the top of my foot up and down her calf.

"How to combat stress as we go into the end of the semester."

"Did you tell everyone to have lots of sex?" I tease. Mackenzie rolls her eyes and traps my leg between her calves.

"No. I told them all that they should get a boyfriend who only has use of one of his arms, that way having sex is nearly impossible." She says sarcastically.

"I have use of both of my arms now." I tell her, raising them both so that she can see.

"Mmm." Her eyes drop down to my lips. Mackenzie and I have been doing a lot of making out. A lot more making out than I'm used to, to be honest, but I can't say that I don't like it. The one thing I don't like is that she wouldn't take it any further for fear of hurting me. "And did the doctor clear you for physical activity?"

"I asked him if I could have sex." I tell her.

She snorts. "You did not."

"I did." I insist. "He said as long as I'm careful." She narrows her eyes at me, but there's a sly smile on her lips. Very kissable lips. Lips I plan on kissing repeatedly tonight.

Mackenzie, clearly realizing that we can't have sex while we're still waiting for our food to arrive, tactfully switches subjects to Thanksgiving, wherein she grills me in a truly journalistic way about my family's traditions.

I have to explain that Mellie is an awful cook, my dad insists on deep frying the turkey every year, and that Jadyn is now in charge of all sides because two years ago Mellie dropped three different dishes on the floor. This seems to amuse Mackenzie, and I can tell she's getting excited to come see the dysfunction that is my family Thanksgiving. It's my father's favorite holiday, so he's always been the most tolerable on Thanksgiving.

After dinner, Mackenzie drives us back to her very dark house. Kate is at Lea's and Hannah and Noah are off meeting his parents, so it's just the two of us. She flips on the lights, and locks the door behind us.

"Very quiet tonight." She says.

"It won't be soon." I promise.

"You're very flirty, you know that?" She smiles at me over her shoulder as she walks into her bedroom. The flowers I got her last weekend are still on her desk, starting to wilt ever so slightly.

"Well, I haven't gotten the chance to have sex with my girlfriend, so there's a lot of stored energy there." The word girlfriend slides off my tongue so easily that I don't even notice it. I'm sure that Mackenzie would say yes if I asked her to officially date me, but we haven't actually talked about it. I suppose inviting her home for Thanksgiving is about as official as a couple can get.

Mackenzie, being Mackenzie, doesn't miss a beat. "Girlfriend, huh?"

"I mean--" I begin. I don't get to finish my sentence, she pulls me to her and kisses me hard, her lips covering mine, her whole body flush against me. It's hard to ignore how her curves press into me, and how my body responds to hers.

"I'm giving you a hard time." Her breath is hot on my face. "I like the sound of it."

~~~

a/n

Fair warning.

p.s. You will not miss any plot development of any kind by just skipping to the chapter after. I will do the next two as a double update.