Inside Game
Page 28
"Drake…" she protests. "You know that age doesn't matter with us. It never did. You want the one you want, end of story. I don't care how much older you are than I am."
"So you're saying I'm old?" I bust her.
"No, that's not what I meant," she laughs, swatting my arm.
"Well, if I'm on my way out, then there's no time like the present to give you my birthday gift. Since who knows how much longer I have left?"
She smacks me again as the barge draws close enough to turn so she can read the illuminated sign.
I hold my breath and wait.
"Eva…will you…" She stutters, repeating the message aloud. "Marry…me?"
She starts to shake, and I sit up and quickly place her in my lap, stroking her arms, willing her to calm down and think it over.
"I know we've already talked about this." I take a deep breath when she tenses in my arms. "But I don't want you just to be my girlfriend anymore. Hell, I don't want you to be my fiancée even. I want you to be my wife. But whatever you want to call it, I want to make you a permanent part of my life. We don't have to get so caught up on putting a name to everything. You can even take this and wear it as a promise ring if you don't want to look at it as an engagement ring. I don't care. I'll get you an even better one when I reach my two-year sobriety mark."
I yank the velvet box out of my pocket and flip the lid open.
She stares at it as it sparkles in the moonlight. I had a jewelry artist who specializes in nature designs forge the look of twigs and needlelike leaves into the gold band. Because, every time she looks down at her finger, I want her to remember that night we spent together on that bough of pine branches, how much she made me feel loved then, how much I love her even more now, and how my love for her continues to deepen and grow with each passing day. Like the steadiness of those massive pines, evergreen and never ending.
"I don't want another ring," she mutters softly, lifting a hand to her face.
My heart drops. In fact, it drops all the way to my stomach. I was subdued at the party not because we're in the playoffs, but because I was anxious about how this was going to go down. I couldn't stop thinking about what her reaction would be and if she would turn me down.
And now, it appears, she is.
"I know you're worried about me…that you'll always be worried about me. I can see it in your eyes." I reach for her wrist and gently run my thumb across her palm until my fingers are encircling her ring finger. "But you know how you said you couldn't be my sober companion anymore? That you needed to give me something more? Well, that's how I feel about this. It's not too soon. Now, I'm the one who needs to give you something more. I need to give you all of me. My body, my heart—it's all yours…because I won't just be giving you my name. I'll be joining my soul to yours, just like the roots of those magnificent trees we slept under that night…twined and twisted together until you can't tell where one ends and the other begins."
She releases a shuddering sigh and finally turns to me, tears streaming down her face as she raises her hand again to try to wipe them away. But her eyes aren't sad. They're glowing with happiness, and my heart thumps wildly in my chest.
"And you're telling me the country-boy side of you isn't the best part of you?" she says, looking at me in wonderment. "Drake, that was absolutely the most beautiful proposal a girl could ever dream of receiving."
The corner of my mouth turns up, and that full flush of pride I get whenever I'm able to please her overtakes me.
"So…?" I press, emboldened by her show of confidence in me.
"Yes!" she says, throwing her arms around me. "Yes, yes, yes!"
I hug her with all of my might, never wanting to let go.
"But," she whispers close to my ear, "it's going to be a long engagement. A very long engagement."
I gaze deep into her eyes. "You won't budge even a little?"
"No. You're too important to me to be selfish about this." She strokes the line of my jaw. "I'd marry you tomorrow. You know that. But you're still recovering, and your sobriety always comes first with me."
I lower my head and sigh until she tilts my chin up with her fingers.
"We'll get there," she says with a smile. "And it'll be even sweeter when we do."
She meets her lips with mine, and it's a kiss full of the promise and hope of what's yet to come. It's like I can see the rest of my life as it flashes through my mind—finishing out my career with her by my side, placing my head atop her belly and feeling our baby kicking around inside, growing old together and living out our golden years on the island in paradise.
Something I thought I'd have to do strung out and alone, hiding out until I wasted away into nothing.
But I was wrong. She breathed new life into me, bringing me out of my sad, sorry solitude and into the warm glow of her love.
I continue to kiss her as I subtly reach my hand onto to the nearby table and cover the top of the flickering candle with the lid. As soon as it goes out, a blazing shriek pierces the silence of the night before bursting into a multitude of colors.
Eva gasps, her eyes going skyward as the firework display I had planned explodes over the water. The captain of the barge was to start the show the minute he saw the candle go out, the signal we came up with if Eva agreed to be my wife.
"And this is the other night I wanted us to remember," I say, watching the different shades of color light up her face.
"The Fourth of July…" she whispers, her voice catching. "But that was such a painful night for you. Why would you…?"
I take her hand and slide the ring onto her finger. "Because you showed me then that you would never leave me, and you made me see that I could never live without you. I was on the brink, and you brought me back. No one has ever loved me like that, and no one ever will. Just you…only you."
I kiss her softly again, unable to stop. But this time, I wrap her up in my arms, lifting her and carrying her toward the house. Because I intend to show her just how much I love her all night long.
"Happy birthday," she says, tenderly brushing her nose against mine.
"But it's your birthday now," I tease.
"Not anymore," she sighs, her warm breath skimming across my face. "From now on, I want us to share everything. When midnight strikes and those precious few seconds pass between our two birthdays, that's what I'm going to be celebrating—a new year of happiness and trials and laughter and tears that starts at that moment for both of us. Because now, I know that, no matter what, somehow, everything will be okay, that no matter what comes, we'll face it together. I used to hate my birthday because it reminded me of how I entered the world abandoned and alone, but not anymore. Now, I have you and this beautiful moment to remember it by. And I look forward to what the future holds because I know it's going to be filled with your love."
My heart throbs with so much emotion that, for a second, I don't think I'll be able to handle it. In the past, I would have been terrified by the powerful feelings I'm experiencing, how overwhelming they are. I would have collapsed under the sheer weight of it all, looking for an escape.
But not anymore. Now, I let myself feel every single moment of just how much this woman in my arms has come to mean to me.
And how I intend to hit three home runs for her in my next game, just like I did all those years ago.
Because, when she's watching me, I know I can do anything.
About the Author
Collette West grew up as somewhat of a jock-nerd hybrid. Entering the world three weeks premature, her dad nearly missed her birth because he had seats behind the dugout for a sold-out, highly-anticipated match-up between two of baseball's biggest rivals. Not to be outdone, her book-loving mom taught her how to read by the time she was three. A love of the game coupled with an appreciation for the written word were instilled in Collette's impressionable brain from a young age. No wonder her characters believe in the philosophy: sports + romance = a little slice of heaven.
Splitting her ti
me between the Pocono Mountains and Manhattan, Collette indulges her inner fangirl by going to as many games as she can from hockey to baseball and downloading every sports romance novel in existence onto her iPad. When she's not clicking away on her laptop, she enjoys walking her dog in Central Park, satisfying her caffeine craving at the Starbucks on Broadway and keeping an eye out for Mr. Right. But above all, she loves dishing with her readers.
She is the author of NIGHT GAMES, GAME CHANGER, GAME ON, PERFECT GAME and INSIDE GAME.
Email her at collette_west@yahoo.com.
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Acknowledgements
A big thank you to my New York Kings girls who are always the first to read my work: Ashley Bodette, Carol Clarke, Cha Delfin, Liza Dequilla, Jody Faltys, Charity Foster, Chris Gross, Ambur Hostyn, Nicole McCurdy, Crystal Napper and Kawehi W.
My sincere gratitude to the talented professionals who help bring this series to life: Nicole Blanchard, Damaris Cardinali, Lisa Filipe, Sarah Hansen, Amanda Harris, Cate Hogan, Lisa Hollett, Amy Logg, Todd Mansfield, Mickey Reed and Allison Williams.
And to my readers, thanks for loving the hot, vulnerable guys on this team just as much as I do.
Copyright © 2015 Collette West
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States of America.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. They are not to be misconstrued as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Cover designer: Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations
Editor: Cate Hogan
Proofreader: Mickey Reed
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Epilogue (Eva)
Epilogue (Drake)
About the Author