Very soon, in fact.
Naked.
Huh. Look at that. I’m all recovered from the snake mishap.
“I wike the ducks,” James says solemnly.
“It’s okay to be wrong about that too,” she replies equally solemnly. “I still love you.”
I bark out a laugh that startles Emma out of her sobs. I never thought sharing ownership of my favorite team would be everything I always wanted, but since I insisted on selling Lila half of the team back—for fifty cents, because she refused a penny more—we’ve fallen into a very comfortable rhythm that we’re optimistic will be excellent for the team.
She makes an executive decision, gives me a heart attack, we argue, I see the logic in her points, she concedes some of my points and tones down her original plans, and then we celebrate another day of making progress by having grown-up naked time after the kids are in bed.
I don’t know how long she’ll stay fully engaged in running the Fireballs—she’s having fun now, but I also know she’s started channeling some of her imagination and the lingering bits of her own paranoia into playing around with writing a novel, and every time I walk into her office and find her giggling, she slams her laptop shut and tells me she’s making serious decisions about the team that should terrify me.
Pretty sure she’s found her calling, but even if she never decides what she wants to do every day for a job—we’ve both acknowledged that running a baseball team might not be the challenge that drives her forever—I know she’s staying here with us.
You’re my purpose, she tells me and my kids almost daily.
I like being where she belongs.
Davis drops into the seat on my other side. He was here all day, though he stayed in the wings. “Heard a rumor you’re in talks with New York to get Brooks Elliott.”
Lila gasps. “No.”
“So it’s not true?” Cooper joins us, squatting on the floor and offering Emma a Fireballs-themed bag of candy, which fully cures her of any lingering sobs.
“Change is inevitable,” I tell Cooper. “And now that we have fans back, and a coaching staff that even Pakorski approves of…we need to work on the team.”
“Work on the team, yes. But Elliott—”
“Being here would mean double the firepower at the plate, and Parker would come visit,” I interrupt.
“Dude, you can’t trade for players just to get your girlfriend an excuse to visit her friends.”
“When it’s Brooks Elliott, he should,” Davis replies.
“I thought you all wanted me to live,” Lila wails.
I bust up laughing.
Emma laughs with me. James joins in. Davis cracks a grin, and eventually, even Lila can’t resist. Mom wanders over with Levi and Cash while a few more of the players who are still milling around chatting aim curious glances at us.
Beck and Sarah have disappeared, along with Mackenzie, which gives me zero hope that he’s going to finally pop the question today, but I’m okay with that.
Sarah’s not going anywhere.
I, however, am.
“I very much want you to live,” I assure Lila. “I want you to live a long, long life, where I get to torment you every day that you torment me while we argue over what’s best for this team, and with whatever comes next.”
Those sparkling green eyes are my very favorite, especially when they come with that bright smile.
I thought her smile was pretty the night we met.
Her smile now? The smile of a woman who’s not hiding anything, who knows who she is, who knows what she wants, who lives in a house decorated with pictures of both of our pasts, who’s falling almost as much in love with baseball as she has with me—that smile is blinding.
“We work well together, don’t we?” she says with so much mischief, it’s no wonder she’s settled in well in my family.
“I need to wait until after the mascot poll closes to know for sure.”
Her head tips back as she laughs again. Emma squeals and claps her hands. James giggles.
And I slide to one knee in front of her. “Want to risk it and promise to marry me today anyway?”
Her hand flies to her mouth as her laughter turns into a squeal, and then she’s flying into my arms and knocking me back onto the ground. “Yes.”
I catch her easily, because we’ve done this a time or three before.
James piles on, and Emma too, and then Levi says, “Aw, hell, why not?” and sits on my leg too, hugging all of us. “We have the best family.”
“I love you, Tripp Wilson,” Lila whispers in my ear. “And I’m so glad that’s your real name.”
I hug them all tight and whisper back, “I’d love you no matter your name.”
Life’s a path.
And I wouldn’t have mine any other way.