Chapter 42 Emmett #2
Reese turns the corner, finding me sitting on the ledge above the bench behind the small partition, the same way I’ve found her here so many times before.
“I stole your spot.”
She tilts her head. “I thought we were sharing it?”
“Yeah. We are. Come here.”
Reaching out, I slip my hand around the side of her neck, pulling her mouth to meet mine. I kiss her. Firmly and with a mixture of desperation and relief to quiet that small part of me that thought I might never get the chance to kiss her again.
She sighs into me, kissing me back with the same eagerness.
“Are you okay?” I whisper against her mouth.
She nods, kissing me one more time before she pulls back so she can look at me, one perfectly shaped brow arched high. “You were going to quit your job?”
“Of course I was. I wasn’t willing to lose you.”
“Lose me?” Her head rears back, hands dropping to my thighs. “You could never lose me.”
“I don’t know. It felt like I was losing you yesterday. Things seemed oddly final when we left here.” I chuckle half-heartedly. “I thought you might break up with me.”
She’s so utterly confused in the way she’s looking at me.
“Why would I break up with you? Emmett, I’m in love with you.”
Oh. Wow. It’s surreal to hear those words come out of her mouth. They hit differently after not hearing them for so long. After believing I might never hear them again.
It also hits differently hearing it from the one woman you’ve been desperate to tell the same to.
“I was going to tell you first.”
A smile curves her lips. “Well, be quicker next time.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Her head falls back in a laugh and it’s such a lovely sound to hear after a stressful day. I think I could live off that sound.
Pulling on her hips, I bring her in. “Come up here with me.”
Holding her steady, she steps onto the rickety wooden bench, before I settle her on one of my thighs while I sit on the ledge.
She wraps her arm around my neck, her other hand stroking gently along my jaw.
“I’m sorry if I made myself seem distant yesterday.
I was overwhelmed with how much I had to do.
I was up all night, finalizing things with legal, making sure everything could be ready to go quicker than I had planned.
I didn’t mean to make you doubt anything.
I was just trying to protect you the way you do so often for me. ”
I shake my head in disbelief. “When did you start all of this?”
“Right after we got back from Colorado.” Her smile is a bit sheepish. “I drove straight to my grandfather’s house from the airport to get his advice. I don’t know, Em. I’ve loved you for longer than that, but something about spending that day together made me realize it was time to stop hiding it.”
Ten days. She’s been working on this for ten days. She told her grandfather ten days ago, after our trip to Colorado. After spending the day with me in a place that holds so many special memories that I wanted to share with her.
It may not seem like a big deal to publicly declare our relationship, but for Reese, she’s risked everything to do just that. And more importantly, she made that decision for herself. Her hand wasn’t forced by some bullshit threat.
So yeah, it’s a big fucking deal to me.
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 last week 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 season reminded 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.
“How lucky am I to have found the person I love most in the place I love most.”
“Reese,” I exhale, clicking the side of her phone to lock the screen. “This is everything. This is perfect. Thank you. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m proud of me too. But there are a few other things that didn’t make the article. Things I need to say that are for only you to hear.”
I give her my full attention.
“Before you, I had never felt seen.”
Oh, my heart.
“I didn’t have someone to witness my every day.
The mundane moments, but also my biggest accomplishments.
No one was there to see them for themselves.
Even if they were technically there, no one ever saw me.
It’s easy to get lost when you’re no one’s number one.
Easy to be forgotten. It was strange and lonely, even if I didn’t admit it, to go through life without being seen. But I think you see me, Emmett.”
I swallow back the emotions sitting in my throat. She has no idea just how blessed I feel to be the one granted the opportunity to see her.
“Yeah, baby. I do see you. And it’s been one of my greatest privileges, to witness you live your life. To see you for who you are.”
Her eyes are a touch glassy as she nods, soaking in my words.
“And I hope you trust me when I tell you that I love you, Emmett. I’m an overthinker. I’ve already thought of every reason why I shouldn’t and yet I still do.”
My chest rumbles with a silent laugh. “I know you do, Reese. I love you too. Any plausible reason not to flew out of the window a while ago. Maybe the day you walked back in here. I didn’t know that love would find me like this, but you’ve had my attention for a long time, and I can’t look away.”
She bites back her smile before pressing her lips to mine once again.
“And lastly,” she says when she pulls back.
“You need to know that I would’ve given my job up for you, the same way you tried to give yours up for me.
There’s not a question in my mind. This career is no longer the thing I want most out of life.
You are. But I’m glad I didn’t have to give this up because when I picture our future together, I see us here. Together.”
Here. On this field. Running this team together for a lot of years to come.
In the place I love most with the person I love most.
“You and me.” I slip my hand into her hair, gliding my thumb over her cheekbone. “And when we’re done here, who will be next? Who’s going to take over for you?”
She shrugs so casually, as if she doesn’t already have a plan. “Who knows, maybe Max will take an interest in baseball. Baseball is family, after all. We should keep it in ours, don’t you think?”