Grand Slam

Part 15

Ashlyns POV
When I woke up the next morning, I felt like shit. "Well good morning," Dansby said from beside me as I rubbed my eyes with my hands. "How do you feel?" he asked, raising up and looking at me. "Like I drank all night and have a hangover now," I said, moving my hands and sitting up. I instantly got dizzy and had to lay back down on my pillow. "Don't raise or sit up too fast for a few days. And that's how it feels when you get hit in the head with an upper nineties fastball," he said, reaching over to the nightstand and grabbing a bag of food. "Your dad went and got us all breakfast because your brother complained you didn't have any food," he said looking at me as I rolled my eyes at Shane and his complaining. "He can go grocery shop for me then," I said, slowly sitting up and reaching into the bag for my food as Dansby laughed at me.

Dansby's POV

I hadn't slept all night. My mind couldn't sleep between what Shane said about Ashlyn and her dad being sick. But I mainly thought about how I finally expressed how I feel to Ashlyn, and she felt the same way. When I was finally about to go to sleep, Shane came into Ashlyn's room without knocking. "Is she even awake yet?" he asked, staring right at me. "No," I said, not bothering to open my eyes. "Well she doesn't have any food in her house," I was a little fed up, partly because I was tired, so I said, "Then go get groceries. Or, just don't stay here," Finally opening my eyes, I saw Shane starting to walk over to me with his hand clenched into a fist. "Shane let them sleep!" I heard from the living room as I was about to get up and completely prepared to fight him.

While Ashlyn was eating, I had turned on the tv and put on Impractical Jokers, which she had mentioned she liked. My phone rang while we were watching, and I picked it up to see my mom was calling. When I answered, she said she was wondering if we needed anything and that she felt like she needed to come check on Ashlyn. When I asked if Ashlyn cared, she said no so I told mama to come on over, that we were lying in Ashlyn's bed but I'd come get the door for her.

When I heard mama's car pull in, I got up and went to the door to let her in. Ashlyn's parents and brother weren't in the living room, so I figured they were in their rooms or something. "Hey mama," I said, opening the door and holding it for her. "What's in the bags?" I asked, seeing she was carrying about five bags in with her. "Stuff for Ashlyn. Now, stop being nosy and go put these in the kitchen," she said, holding the bags out for me to grab from her hands. "Yes ma'am," I said, grabbing all the bags and setting them on the kitchen counter.

When I walked back into Ashlyn's room, mama was on her side of the bed, doing what looked like a complete checkup on her. "Now you make sure they really check you before they decide if you can play tonight, you hear me?" mama said to Ashlyn, making me laugh while I watched from the other side of the bed. "Yes ma'am," Ashlyn said as we walked into the kitchen to see what all mama had got from the store.

Ashlyns POV
"Let me pay you back for all this Nancy," I said while I was putting Gatorades in the fridge. "No, I can't let you do that. Call it a birthday present," she said as I saw Dansby looked at me and I felt my cheeks go red.

"It's your birthday?" he asked, looking at me with shock on his face. "Maybe," I said turning back to shut the fridge. "Ha you're going to love it when we get to the field then," Dansby said with a smirk on his face. "Why?" I said, expecting the worst to happen. "You'll just have to see," he said laughing at me.

After Nancy had left, we were getting ready to go to the field since we had an earlier game today. "Since the game shouldn't last as long today, would you want to go out and eat tonight after?" Dansby asked me, putting his arms around my waist from behind. "Are you asking me on a date Swanson?" I said jokingly, looking back at Dansby and seeing his face was serious. "Yea, I am," he said as I turned to face him. "Then yes, I will go out with you tonight," I said smiling as Dansbys face broke out into a grin. I laughed as he picked me up by the waist and spun me around in a circle before setting me down and placing a kiss on my lips.

As we walked into the living room, mama was standing there. "Where are y'all going?" I asked, grabbing one of the Gatorades from the fridge. "We're waiting on Shane and Sharon so we can all go to the field together," she said, not even bothering to look up at me. "Oh okay. I'll see y'all later then," I said, walking towards the door.

"Doesn't she care it's your birthday?" Dansby asked as he pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the field. "If I'm being completely honest, she may not even know it's my birthday," I said as Dansby reached over and grabbed my hand. "Ashlyn, I'm so sorry you grew up like this. It's crazy to me that parents can not care about one of their kids. I wish you could've grown up in a better environment," I looked over and saw the seriousness in his eyes. "I'm going to be completely honest with you. You are probably the most caring person I've ever met," I said, leaning over the console and kissing Dansby's cheek while he smiled like a little kid.

When we pulled into Dansbys parking spot, I remembered what he'd said earlier about coming to the field. "What's going to be in that clubhouse when we walk in?" I asked as we walked towards the door. "I can't tell you and ruin the surprise,"
he said laughing at me. "I hate surprises," I said as we got right to the door. "Well babe you're going to have to go through this one," Dansby said, sliding his fingers into mine and leading me to the door.

We walked in and saw a few of the guys and coaches sitting there. Charlie was sitting closest to the door and said, "So, you need to go through those doors after this is on," I let out a sigh as he held up a headband they were using as a blindfold. "Fine," I said as I turned around so someone could tie the blindfold around the back of my head, blocking out my vision completely. I could hear giggling and people excitedly mumbling under their breath in Spanish as Dansby and someone else steered me through doors. "Okay, you can take her blindfold off now," I heard Ozzie say in front of me as someone pulled the blindfold off me eyes and it took them a second to adjust to the light from the locker room.

"Oh my gosh. It's very festive in here," I said slowly, taking in everything that was in the locker room. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Ozzie and Ronald screamed, running over with confetti poppers and popping them over my head. Before I even had the chance to respond, they led me over to a table set up in the middle of the room. "Now you get to open as many as you can till Snit gets in here. The record is ten, which I hold," Max said, tossing me a present from the table. "Not for long," I said ripping into it.

I got eleven presents in when Snit walked in, looking at the whole team and all the wrapping paper on the floor, half of us not even changed yet. "Clean it up and go warm up," he said, shaking his head at Ozzie making fun of Max for being beaten. "Oh, and happy birthday Ashlyn," he said before walking out. "Thank you, and thank all of y'all for this, you really didn't have to," "Listen, I told you they do this for everyone's birthday," Dansby said as we finished throwing all the trash into a can and got ready to go warm up. "Y'all are crazy," I said hugging him from behind. When I got to my locker, smiling like an idiot, Austin said, "I told him y'all would be good together," "Oh okay Cupid," I said as we laughed and went to go warmup.