I drop a kiss on her shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you.”
“It was the week of Miller’s wedding. I didn’t want you to be distracted by anything else. I didn’t want you worrying about me. I was planning to tell you this week. I was going to set up a meeting with you and HR, then everything happened so quickly. After yesterday, I just needed to handle it. You’ve taken care of a lot of people for a lot of years, Em. For once, I wanted to take care of you.”
It feels vulnerable, in a way, allowing someone else to take care of you. But having someone like Reese, powerful in her actions yet thoughtful in the way she goes about them, to be the one who has my back, how could I not feel secure in that?
She takes care of me in the same way I take care of her. With the other’s best interest in mind.
We’re a team, and I couldn’t have picked a better teammate.
Arm wrapped around her hip to keep her steady on my lap, I stroke my thumb over the softness there. “There’s something we still need to be prepared for. Scott is going to release those pictures. After you bruised his little ego in there, he’s probably already sending them off to someone.”
“Do you think I made him cry? I’ve always wanted to make a grown man cry.”
My chest rumbles in a silent laugh. “I have faith you’ll be able to accomplish whatever you put your mind to. You were terrifying in there and it was so fucking hot.”
Her smile goes wide. “Yeah?”
“Poor Ed had to sit next to me while I was just drooling over you. Don’t know if I’ve ever been so turned on.”
Chuckling, she drops her mouth to mine again. When she pulls back, she reaches into her back pocket and pulls out her phone.
“This is the other thing I’ve been working on.” With her thumb, she scrolls through her email. “I did an interview lastweek with a big-name sports magazine. There’s a woman on staff who had reached out to me a few times wanting to do a piece on me being the first female owner in the league. But the timing never felt right. And I didn’t feel like I had enough to say yet.” She clicks on something, allowing a news article to take over her screen. “But this felt like the right time and for the right reason. I wanted to control the narrative about our relationship as best I could. I wanted a woman journalist to be the one to write the story. I know so many people are going to have so much to say, but maybe it’ll help if we get ahead of it. Get our side out first. That’s the other thing that kept me occupied today. She was finalizing the article so it could go live once I showed you and got your approval.”
Reese hands me her phone. “I’m hoping for it to go live first thing in the morning, if you’re okay with that.”
I don’t even need to read it to know that I’m okay with it. That I’m great with it.
I will never get over how bright this woman is. How strategic she is when she needs to be. How thoughtful she is always. Even now, holding on to an article that will paint her in a better light than anything Scott could come up with, but sitting on it to make sure I’m good with what she had to say. That I’m good with our relationship going public.
“So just to be clear here, you’re not breaking up with me?”
“I think we can confidently agree that option is off the table.” Her laugh is soft. “You’re my person, Em. It took me thirty-five years to find you. I’m not letting you go now.”
Oh, fuck.That confession hit right where it needed to land. Reese has said I’m her safe place, but she might not know she’s mine. Giving me that kind of reassurance, I’m not sure she realizes how safe she makes me feel too.
“Hey, Reese.” I push her hair behind her ear, running my thumb over her gold earrings, the way I so often do. “I’m in love with you too.”
“I know.” There’s a sweet smile on her lips. “Even if you never told me, I already knew. It’s clear in the way you look at me. In the way you speak to me and speak to others about me. My hope is to make you feel as loved as you make me.”
“You do, baby. I...” I shake my head. “I didn’t know if I’d ever feel like this again, and I’m not letting you go.”
She gestures to the phone in my hands.
I begin to read the article. It’s mostly about Reese, as it should be. Her experience, her education, her background and history with this baseball club. She speaks about the pressure she’s under, being a woman in this industry. I’ve witnessed that pressure, and know her feelings surrounding that. But it’s kind of beautiful to see her tell the world how vulnerable she feels.
She’s worn a metaphorical suit of armor since she got here, letting the hits bounce off her, and not allowing anyone to know when one landed. It takes an enormous amount of strength for someone to admit how badly you want something and how scared you are to not do well. And that’s exactly what Reese is doing in this article.
Eventually, I get to the piece about me.
There’s not a lot, and there doesn’t need to be. This is about her. But there are some lines that stick out.
“He’s my most trusted sounding board.”
“I feel fortunate to know that he has the team’s best interest at heart, the same way I do.”
“When I came back to the Warriors, I walked in with the idea that I was going to treat everything as a business. The staff, the players. They were all pieces of the business. Emmett doesn’t do that. This is his family, and being around him this seasonreminded me of that. Of what it was like for me to grow up around the team. Baseball has always been about family.”
But I think the last line is the one that might stay with me forever.
