But if the Fireballs tie the series, we’re heading to…somewhere?
“If we win tonight and tomorrow and clinch the division, we play whoever wins the series between Seattle and Boston. That would be a seven-game league championship series. And if we win that…” She pauses and fans her shiny eyeballs. “Then we’d go to the World Series for the first time in Fireballs history.”
Now I’m getting wet in the eyeballs too. “That would be so amazing.”
“I wasn’t even alive the last time they made it this far. So I won’t complain about anything this post-season. It’s one day at a time. One moment at a time. Just soaking it all in. And I really, really, really wish I was in Baltimore right now.”
Same.
Same.
It’s a nail-biter, but the Fireballs eke out the win.
Luca gets home in the middle of the night. He has a day off before the final game of the series, and he’s keyed up, so we head out to the mountains and spend the day hiking. I tell him stories about some things I think my characters have probably done after their happily ever afters, and we end up falling into a creek and laughing until we’re both crying.
And then kissing.
And making love on the side of a mountain.
Yes.
Making love.
This crazy, talented, smart, wounded, funny man has completely captured my heart.
And it’s not like the last times I’ve fallen in love, because I didn’t want this.
He wasn’t supposed to be attractive.
I had to dig to find it, because he stood for everything I could’ve never believed in, or so I thought. I had to put the worst parts of me on display and not hide my feelings, not hold back saying what I wanted to say for fear that it would be the thing that would make him leave me.
And yet, he’s still here.
Not talking about how our agreement could formally be over tomorrow night, or, best case, in another three weeks. Not talking about Nonna and her Eye.
But instead, talking about a new restaurant we should try when the season’s over.
I tell myself it’s because we’ve become friends. I can’t go to that place where I start to believe in the dreams of the fluffy white dress and the dashing man in a tux and the mascots dancing at our reception, because that’s not our future.
And for the first time in my life, I’m okay with a future without that milestone.
I was chasing the trappings, when what I need is the bone-deep love.
The next night, we’re all gathered together in the Fireballs’ Family and VIP suite.
The family, I mean.
Clearly, Luca’s on the field with the team.
Max is warming up on the mound. Luca’s playing catch with a kid in the outfield. The mascots are reveling in having another home game to audition for their role as final official mascot for the Fireballs, and they’re in party clothes today, which looks totally weird on the meatball, but Glow—dude.
Luca’s right.
It’s not normal to see a large ball of yellow flame sticking out from behind him in normal times, but today, when he’s dressed like he’s going to an eighties party?
No. Just no.
The only person not with us is Mackenzie, because she insisted on sitting in her normal season ticket seats on the third base line where that bird attacked me and my sequin hat.
Marisol’s pacing the carpet.
Tanesha and the baby are both fretting.
Lila and Tripp, the Fireballs’ owners, who have been incredibly kind every time I’ve met them, pop in a few times before the game to check on us.
Cooper’s whole family is here, and Francisco’s grandmother, and some of the other guys’ parents or siblings.
Nonna’s here. Luca’s mom is here too, and the two of them have been acting like long-lost sisters, which is the weirdest thing ever.
So is Luca’s mom taking the seat next to me in the first inning and asking if we can trade phone numbers so she can do the awkward thing where she texts me to ask questions about Jerry, because he’s been calling her, and she might be considering agreeing to pursue something serious with him, because it’s been a long time since a man’s been this persistent when she’s done nothing but show her ass to him.
It’s literally the only thing all night that makes me laugh, but it feels so damn good to realize I’ve moved on from Jerry.
He was a step in my climb, not the end goal.
The end goal—you know what?
I don’t know what the end goal is.
But I know I’d rather get there with my best friend by my side than bend who I am to try to squeeze into one more wedding gown.
It’s a good thing the suite is big, though most of us are gathered on the porch outside, all of us biting our nails through every single pitch.
“Are you crying?” Marisol asks Tillie Jean.
“No,” Cooper’s sister lies as she swipes at her eyeballs.
“Hell, I’m gonna cry if they win,” Cooper’s brother tells Marisol. “Cooper’s been dreaming of this day since before he was old enough to talk, and none of us ever thought we’d see—”
“Rawk! Shut your pie-hole, motherfucker!” his grandfather’s parrot interrupts. Yes, parrot. Pop Rock—the patriarch of Cooper’s family—is dressed like a pirate and has a parrot. It’s a long story.
“You tell him, Long Beak Silver.” Tillie Jean fist-bumps the parrot, and that simple act relieves the tension that’s been building for three more innings now.
Definitely a good thing I didn’t bring Dogzilla.
Not that my cat would attack the parrot.
Most likely the other way around.
“It’s okay to cry,” Tanesha tells us all. “Being this close to your dreams is emotional. Darren’s played for the Fireballs for four years, and we never thought we’d see the day. Never. Neither one of us can make it two hours without tearing up right now, and that’s not just the sleep deprivation.”
Marisol leans around Tillie Jean to peer at her. “Why’d he stay?”
“Old owner couldn’t get enough for him in a trade.” She rolls her eyes. “Wasn’t our choice, but our hands were tied, and there was nothing his agent could do. So we waited. And hoped. And now…”
She cuts herself off as her voice gets thick, and Tillie Jean bursts into tears again.
“Aww, group hug!” I reach for all of them—all of my new friends—and we squeeze in tight as the Fireballs take the field at the top of the fourth inning.
Luca and Darren are trotting to the outfield together, chatting about who knows what. I asked Luca what they talk about on the field, and he told me sometimes Mario Kart, sometimes what they each thought of last week’s episode of Stacey & Lacey: Twins on a Mission, and sometimes if their pants make their butts look big.
When we have our “The Fireballs are Going to the League Championship Party” after we win this game today, I’m totally asking Darren what they talk about to see if he tells me the same thing.
Considering the outfielders mostly stand around until they have to make a diving catch or leap up to keep a ball from going over the wall to steal a home run from someone, I can believe they’re not talking serious strategy or baseball.
Below us, chants of Bring Back Fiery! roar to life, and we all smile, because there’s no doubt where it started.