She raised her sunglasses slightly and gave me a look that screamedbehave. But it was too late for that.
I turned back to the mic, smirking.
“Well…there’s been a lot happening off court. Some big life stuff.” The crowd murmured. “But it’s the good kind. The kind that gives you perspective.”
There was a moment, and then I dropped it. Completely casual, but entirely on purpose.
“We’ve got a baby on the way.”
The stadium erupted with cheers, gasps and applause.
“And yeah, I have to give a certain someone a lot of credit for getting me back to the place I’m in now.”
More cheers. More camera flashes.
“Wow,” the interviewer laughed, “congratulations! That’s quite the off-season.”
I shrugged, trying to play it cool, but I was grinning like an idiot. “Best few months of my life, honestly.”
“Can we assume she’s here?”
I didn’t even hesitate. “Front row. Blonde. Definitely out of my league.”
The camera cut to Kate. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, one hand over her mouth, laughing. When she caught my eye, she shook her head as if to tell me,you’re in so much trouble. I loved that look.
“She’s also the reason I’m back out here,” I said, turning back. “She believed in me when I didn’t.”
The crowd melted. Literalawws. I couldn’t help myself. I jogged away from the mic toward her, grabbed her by the back of her neck, and pulled her in to kiss her in front of the whole world.
I signed a few balls, waved to the stands, and jogged off court as if it were nothing.
Back in the locker room, Chris threw me a bottle of water.
“You know you’ve just blown up the internet, right?”
“Did I?” I ask, trying to look innocent.
Chris tilted his phone toward me. Kate’s name was already trending. What seemed like a hundred screen grabs of me kissing her in the stands hadalreadymade their way online.
I didn’t care.
We’d kept it quiet long enough. But now?
We were doing this our way.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Kate
I really hadn’t expectedto fall in love with a place like this. But that was the theme of things lately, wasn’t it?Unexpected falling in loves.
And now, I almost ached at the thought of leaving.
I was curled up on the deck of our little rental villa, the one we escaped to after that magic week with his parents, my bump wriggling gently beneath the soft cotton of Jordan’s T-shirt, watching the last of the warm orange sunset melt behind the trees. I’d miss waking up to the smell of eucalyptus and the hum of the cicadas every day.
He’d gone and bloody won it. The Open.
And it wasn’t just a comeback; this felt like a resurrection.
