I sit up, leaning back against the headboard, watching her spiral.
“So what’s your plan, Amelia?” I ask. “You want to keep our relationship hidden forever? You want to have some secret wedding one day and a baby that surprises everyone when they didn’t even know you were with someone?”
Her head snaps toward me.
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” I shoot back. “Because that’s what this becomes if we never say anything. A secret life.”
I swing my legs over the side of the bed, slide on my boxers, and stand, closing the distance between us.
“I don’t care about the headlines,” I say quietly. “I don’t care about what the league thinks. I care about you feeling like loving me is something shameful.”
Her eyes glisten.
“It’s not shameful,” she whispers.
“Then why are we treating it like it is?”
The room falls silent except for our breathing.
“I’m not afraid of losing baseball,” I add. “I’m afraid of losing you because we were too scared to fight.”
She looks at me like I’ve just handed her something heavy.
And I realize this isn’t about courage.
It’s about timing.
But I’ll be damned if I let her think she’s in this alone.
“We’ll face it together,” I tell her, my voice steady even though my heart is pounding. “There should be no consequences for two people falling in love.”
She looks at me like she wants to believe that.
“I wish that were true,” she whispers.
The fear in her voice doesn’t make me doubt us.
It makes me want to protect her even more.
I guide her gently back to the bed, pulling her down beside me. This time we sit facing each other, knees touching, the tension between us different now. Less heat, more weight.
“Okay,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “Let’s think this through.”
She draws her legs up, wrapping her arms around them, like she’s bracing herself.
“We tell Kamden first,” I continue. “Together. I’ll invite him over for dinner. We sit him down. We tell him we’re together. That we’re serious.”
Her fingers start twisting together in her lap.
“And after that?” she asks.
“After he knows,” I say, “we talk to Coach Carson. And Susan. Together. We tell them we didn’t plan it. That it happened. That we’re in love.”
She swallows hard at that word, but she doesn’t look away.
Her hands are wringing now, over and over, like she’s trying to squeeze the fear out of them.
