Of course she was able to help the baseball player. She was the best. Watching her from a distance, he admired how she was both authoritative and infinitely kind to the young pitcher. He reminded himself that she had chosen Matt, and that she couldn't be around him, and his resolve returned. He had flirted just the tiniest bit earlier, asking her if she planned to hit him again – now he regretted it. He watched her teeter back to her seat on her ridiculous wedge heels. She certainly hadn't lost any of her allure, that's for sure. He'd be glad when this project was over. She was reminding him how much he missed her.
When the client's case had taken a strange turn, he expected it to be the end of her stay with V3, but she wouldn't give up without a fight. She went full Santino on Troy, telling him she needed all the information on Hutch, or to let her go home and make a lasagna, where no one would be second guessing her. He had to stop himself from smiling at that, and Connor seemed pretty charmed by her, too. Fortunately, Dr. Dani was about a decade older and about a foot shorter than the type of woman Connor dated. He wondered why that was fortunate, exactly. Well, he still cared for Dani, and didn't want to see her getting involved with another immature guy.
They were thrown together on this project, like the old days, except that he really didn't want to help her. She got through to him, though, by reminding him she really cared about this kid, and she was as ferocious on his behalf as she ever had been about any of her other clients. She had no problem calling him out on his lack of professionalism. Point, Dr. Santino. He reluctantly agreed to help, and she walked away. Then, before he could stop himself, he was apologizing. She processed it, then responded, "Ditto." How she could make a "ditto" carry so much significance, he couldn't figure out. Or maybe he was just reading into it. Either way, he hoped Dr. Dani's adorable, heart-on-her-sleeve face would be out of his soon. He needed to reign in his ego, too - no more apologies because he couldn't stand her looking at him with so much disappointment and scorn. She was going to think a lot less of him, and he just had to get used to that.
He couldn't resist stopping by her house that evening to deliver the news about Hutch, and he was disappointed that he did, because who should he find there but Matt. He read the dynamic between the former lovers, and was fairly satisfied that Dr. Dani, although uncomfortable with her two former suitors in the same room, was not lovesick over Matt anymore. She seemed annoyed at Matt, and that was it. In Matt's case, though, he was a little suspicious. Hadn't he ever heard of a phone? There was no reason for him to be stopping by Dani's house. No GOOD reason, let's just say. Nico pointedly mentioned Matt's impending fatherhood, not-so-subtly reminding him that he had no reason to be sniffing around Dani. When he did, he also saw just the faintest hint of a wince on Dani's face. So that had been why they broke up. He got angry at himself for causing her pain – why couldn't he just stay out of it? She wasn't his property.
He locked eyes with Donnally for a minute and didn't look away. You lost your chance with her. I didn't. He could have done something to disabuse Donnally of the notion that he had any romantic interest in Dani, but he didn't. Quite the opposite, in fact. He didn't owe Donnally any favors. If he had been a bigger man, maybe he could have had some compassion for Matt - after all, Dani would never be a part of Matt's life now. Matt would never kiss her, he would never be special to her, they would never have that same intimate connection they used to. But Donnally had gotten to hear Dani say she loved him, had woken up next to her, had hugged her whenever he felt like, and he threw that away, so it was hard to feel much sympathy for him.
But he saw something that made him feel hopeful, despite himself. When the two men were in the room, it was clear that her focus was on him.