Wild Pitch (Dominating the Diamond Book 1)

CHAPTER 58

I spend the week after our Series win running between sponsorship events, interviews, and prep for my niece’s debut. Trying to keep Sierra off my mind is easier said than done, and I’m grateful for every opportunity to keep busy. In a number of my weaker moments, I almost reach out to her. Late at night, staying in the guest room at Vanessa and Oliver’s place, I almost use her invitation to Leila’s party as an excuse to call her.

I’ve tried so hard to be a good teammate, and one day, I want to be able to be a good friend to her. The way my heart and body still yearn for her, I’m not ready yet.

As I sit in a ballroom decked in emerald and gold, that day still hasn’t come. My family hadn’t been able to afford much of a party on Vanessa’s eighteenth birthday, especially with baby Leila already on the way. Eighteen years later, I made sure that not a penny was to be spared on this day that we’ve made special for them both. Inspired by my niece’s favorite Filipino-authored heist book, the ballroom has been decorated to look like an eighteenth-century French library converted into a ballroom space.

Banquet tables covered in velvet, green tablecloths are nestled against the wall, in what’s been made to look like a lush, darkly glamorous greenhouse. Roses tumble around the cake, the food, and the platters of plain sugar cookies with simple white frosting that Leila insisted were a necessity.

“You’d understand if you would just read the books I gave you, Tito,” she’s reprimanded me more times than I can count.

I’m smiling at my niece while Vanessa and my mother give a small speech welcoming everyone to Leila’s sweet eighteenth birthday party. She grins back from her seat in an emerald wingback chair shrouded in a gauzy peacock swirl of green, blue, and purple curtains. Her red ballgown billows in bold contrast to the rest of the room, tied into the rest of the decor by the gold embroidery on the bodice.

The speech ends, and my mother moves to the piano. As the music starts, Oliver and I join Leila on the floor to gift her the first two of her eighteen roses. In place of a father she’s never known, Oliver and I take our turns dancing with her before returning to our seats. Sixteen of her closest friends come next, mostly teammates that she’s played sports with over the years and all dressed to the nines. Each presents her a rose and accompanies her for a dance. Her partner is the last to dance with her. Dressed in a simpler A-line emerald dress and shiny, leather combat boots, Gray twirls my niece around the dance floor with their eyebrows stitched together in concentration.

As the final dance winds to an end, the doors at the far end of the ballroom open.

I watch Sierra’s lips move in a whispered apology, even though my eyes want to stare at everything else about her. My sister escorts her into the room, and I can’t stop staring.

Dressed in deep purple, Sierra clearly got the memo about gold and velvet. Her off-the-shoulder dress shows off the sculpted muscles of her arms and collar bones I could spend all evening tasting. Thin straps and the crossing bodice lift and draw attention to her small breasts, and the thigh-high slit has my cock stirring at the most inappropriate time and thoughts of dropping to my knees with her leg over my shoulder and a sheath of purple velvet over my head. Her sleek black hair is pulled back to reveal gold hoops, and the single-strand pearl choker bobs when my sister hands her the microphone.

Sierra lights the first of eighteen votive candles in floral gilded holders. She clears her throat and licks lips painted the deepest wine-red. When her wide eyes land on me, I nod like we’re back on the field. Because that’s the only place where I know how to be with her.

“Sorry I’m late.” Sierra clears her throat and turns her smile to my niece. “I haven’t known Leila long, but I can’t express how much your friendship and your family have meant to me in such a short time. I wish you the best of luck in everything, but I know you don’t need luck with a personality so fierce and a family who loves you as much as yours does.”

Sierra hands back the mic and hurries to find a seat, looking beyond relieved when my mother pats the seat beside her. The seat beside me rustles, and I struggle to tear my gaze away from the woman across the room.

“Dude, this is the one.”

I shush Oliver and pretend to focus on one of the aunties currently lighting a candle and speaking. He wraps one arm around me and squeezes my shoulder. It hasn’t been long since I would have pulled away and shouted at him for his familiarity. If nothing else, I will always have Sierra to thank for giving me the ability to appreciate this friendship without grudges or regrets.

“If you don’t leave it all on the field, you’re going to regret it,” he continues. “We can all see the way you look at her. And I can tell you honestly, as much as we once cared for each other, you never looked at me the way you look at her.”

“We’re teammates,” I say. I can’t deny how I feel about her. I don’t want to deny it. But nothing I feel changes what she said she needed, and I won’t punish or plead with her for setting boundaries. “If I can figure out how to be her friend, it’ll be enough.”

“Will it?” Oliver whispers.

“It’ll have to be.”

While the whole room laughs at a joke one of Leila’s current teammates is telling, Oliver turns to face me with his brows raised and his head tilted to the side. With full seriousness, he squeezes my shoulder and says, “It won’t.”

After the slideshow we put together of all of Leila’s milestones and memories, Nessa steps up to the mic with tears still staining her cheeks. She puts her arm around the daughter who looks so much like her and takes a shaky breath that makes them both laugh.

“Thank you all so much for coming. I couldn’t ask for better friends or a more incredible family, and today has been more perfect than I could ever have imagined,” Leila says with a few tears of her own, hastily dabbed away before they can smear her make-up. “Before we start dinner, my mom and I both have a couple of announcements that we can’t wait any longer to share.” She grins at her mom, who starts crying again and waves her hand for Leila to continue speaking. “I am so proud and honored to announce that next fall, I will be following my favorite Tito’s footsteps and starting my first year as a Bruin on the UCLA baseball team.”

I had known for a while that Leila was being recruited, but this is the first time I heard that it’s official. Before I can start to tear up with pride, she hands the mic to my sister, who’s in a rush to say what needs to be said before she starts blubbering.

“Transferring to southern California to be closer to my brother has been a long time coming. With my beautiful daughter moving next fall, and my mother excited to move with us, I am so incredibly grateful to be taking a position with La Familia Health and Community Services in Long Beach.”

Everyone claps for my family’s announcements and claps even harder as they’re set free to fill their plates. I turn to Oliver waiting for a sign that this is all too good to be true.

“I’ve been dying to tell you for weeks,” Vanessa says. I look up to find my entire family gathered around me. My sister stands with one arm around our mom and the other around her daughter. Oliver sits beside me with his arm still slung over the back of my chair. And beside Leila, standing nervously hand-in-hand with my niece, is Sierra.

“This is real?” I ask.

“I can work from anywhere,” Oliver says. “Your sister has been working on this for a while now.”

“Mom?” I am beyond thrilled to have my sister and Leila nearby, but if my mom refuses to leave her house, I’m back to the issue that had me accepting that damned trade meeting in the first place.

“All my babies are grown up. I’m ready to sell the house now. You all are my home. Wherever you are,” my mom says.

I don’t care if Sierra sees or who else might be watching. I throw my arms around my family and finally break down in tears.