My guys grabbed their mitts and jogged back onto the field. I clapped the nearest shoulder as they passed, keeping my face steady even though I could feel the weight of the game tightening around us.
And still, my eyes strayed. I scanned the stands for the hundredth damn time that afternoon, restlessly searching for her face in the sea of fans. Nothing. Not a glimpse of her hair, not the curve of her smile. I told myself to focus on the game, but the truth was, I’d been looking for her since the anthem and hadn’t spotted her once.
I missed her.
At some point in the past few months, my house had stopped feeling like mine and instead felt like ours.
She might not have been officially living with me—not yet anyway—but most of her things had migrated into my place. Half her shoes were stacked by the door, her favorite socks took up an entire drawer in my dresser, and her side of the bed always smelled like her shampoo. It was proof she belonged there, even if she hadn’t said the words out loud.
And still, a part of me waited.
For a sign, a moment to show that she wanted this—she wantedme—for good. Because whether she knew it or not, I wasn’t going anywhere. If she tried to run, I’d be right there behind her, steady and relentless. I’d let her go once before, and it had damn near gutted me. I wasn’t willing to make that mistake again.
“Uh, coach?”
I turned at the sound of Pink’s voice. He was slouched on the bench, a bag of ice strapped to his shoulder, chin jerking toward the outfield screen.
The jumbotron lit up, and my chest caved in.
There was Dani, glowing in the June sun, a little more pregnant than the last time I’d seen her, grinning like she’d been planning this all along. And in her hands—pressed lovingly against her bump—was a tiny white onesie with bold red lettering stretched across the center.You call him coach, but I call him daddy.The Roasters’ logo sat neatly under the words like a goddamn exclamation point.
But it wasn’t the onesie that made my blood pound.
It was my name stamped across her back.
My jersey was draped over her shoulders, the hem riding high above her cutoffs. And those socks. White with two red stripes that hugged her thighs.
Fucking perfect. Designed to undo me.
The crowd erupted, my team whooping and laughing from the field, but all I could think about was dragging the woman I loved down into the dugout, bending her over the bench, and fucking her until she couldn’t stand. My cock was already hard, straining against my pants, and I had to force myself to keep my grip on the rail instead of storming up into the stands.
On second thought . . .
I didn’t think. I couldn’t.
Instead, I took off for the short wall separating the fans from the field, vaulting myself over the padded barrier like a man possessed. The crowd screamed louder when they realized what was happening, but I didn’t give a damn.
Dani’s mouth fell open when I reached her, cupping her cheeks in my hands and kissing her like she’d just handed me the world. Because she had.
The stadium melted away. The cameras, the noise, all of it—gone. There were only her soft lips, her trembling fingers clutching at my jersey, the sweet weight of her belly pressed against me.
When I finally pulled back, I leaned my forehead against hers and whispered, rough and certain, “You’re mine, kitten. Always.”
The kiss had barely ended before the announcer’s voice boomed through the stadium speakers, his tone gleeful, milking the moment for every ounce of drama. “Looks like Coach Ward just scored the biggest win of the day.”
The big screen replayed it instantly, our kiss blown up twenty feet tall, my hands cradling Dani’s face like she was the only thing that mattered. Fans erupted into cheers, wolf whistles, and applause. Some even chanted my name. I didn’t care about any of it.
I only cared about her.
About the fact that the entire city now knew what I had known for months—that Dani was mine, and I was hers.
This wasn’t just some social media stadium stunt. It was a line in the sand. There was no going back from this, no hiding us or “keeping things casual.” Not after forty-thousand people had watched me kiss Dani like she was oxygen.
It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. It was everything.
And now, the whole goddamn city knew it, too.
The office door shut with a thud, and before she could take a step, I had her pinned against it, my mouth claiming hers in a kiss that was all teeth and tongue and the pent-up hunger I’d been sitting on since the seventh inning.
