EPILOGUE
ISABELLA
Six Months Later
“Hi Annie!” I greet her with a bright smile. She pulls me into a hug while the crew finishes removing her earpiece. “Who did you guys have to bribe to get the home opener privileges?” I ask with a smirk, knowing full well I was in the meeting to help set up the broadcaster schedule.
“How are you? Ready for the season to start?”
“You’d think I’d be tired of all this by now, considering how against it I was in the beginning,” I say with a laugh. “I’m actually looking forward to it though.”
“That’s because I’ve converted her!” Ryan’s voice comes from over my shoulder as he wraps his arms around my middle, tugging me into his hold. I peek over my shoulder and see a proud smile on his face, blue eyes twinkling.
“You wish,” I say, folding my arms over my chest.
He plants a quick kiss on my cheek before addressing Annie, “Don’t let her fool you. I’ve turned her into a baseball fan. You should’ve seen her at spring training! Screaming like a banshee for the team.” He shoots me a wink, and I roll my eyes.
He’s not wrong.
I’ve gotten weirdly into this sport, and I was one hundred percent screaming and cheering for the guys when I was able to sneak away to see some of their spring training games in Arizona a couple weeks ago.
“Don’t you have a game to be preparing for?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow.
“That I do. I should go before Coach kicks my ass into next week.” Chuckling, he turns me in his arms so we’re face to face, my hands falling to his chest. He dips his head, bringing his lips to mine. “I love you,” he whispers against my lips.
I feel my lips tilt into a smile, the way they do every time he utters those three words. “I love you, too,” I whisper back before shoving him away. “Now go! We both have jobs to do.” I gesture toward the dugout where Cooper, Hunter, and Austin are tapping the invisible watches on their wrists.
Turning back to Annie, I see her eyes twinkling. “You guys are seriously the cutest. I’m glad everything worked out for you two in the end. Even if he didn’t give us the exclusive,” she teases.
After the team won the World Series, Ryan was in offseason with plenty of free time on his schedule. I started my new job with the Suns, but with it being offseason, most of the leadership team were on vacation, meaning I, too, had a great deal of time on my hands.
Ryan and I spent nearly every free moment together.
Being a real couple. Outside and in broad daylight.
It was an adjustment to find myself not needing to look over my shoulder every minute, but it was needed.
We needed the ability to just be a normal couple, without that fear of the other shoe dropping.
We went out on dates, stayed in on the nights we only wanted to be with each other.
I spent the night at his place more often than I did my own.
Honestly, I’m surprised neither of us grew sick of the other with how much we were together.
We may as well have been conjoined twins for how little we ventured from each other.
In fact, it got so bad with us spending time together, I was un-officially living at his place.
A fact he pointed out to me right around Christmas, when he asked if we could make it official.
There was a split-second moment where I thought it’s too soon, but then the voice in my head that sounds like Jordan reminded me, he’s my best friend. How could I not say yes?
I was working full steam ahead with the Suns by the time the guys left for spring training. Ryan and I fell back into the pattern of long-distance—leaning into texting, phone calls, and FaceTime—until they came back to LA. I was only able to sneak away from work for a long weekend to see them play.
They’ve only been back in town less than a week to settle in before the regular season kicks off with tonight’s matchup against the San Diego Bears.
My eyes follow Ryan’s movements as he jogs into the dugout and tidies his cubby, grabbing his glove. “Yeah, me too,” I say, a soft smile touching my lips.
“Come on, the game’s about to start and we need to catch up on what you’ve been up to during the break,” Annie says, looping her arm through mine and tugging me toward the clubhouse doors.
She halts just before going through the doors, making herself comfortable against the wall and blocking my way in.
“Uh, Annie?”
“Hm?”
“Are you going to go inside or are we watching the game from here because I’m not so sure the league will be okay with us still technically on the field. And the game is set to start in”—I check the time on my phone—“two minutes.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll go inside. In two minutes,” she says, waving her hand at me in a dismissal.
“Why—” I cut off when I hear the usual stadium hype music cut out to be replaced by… “Is that Taylor Swift?” I furrow my brows. “Who the hell hijacked the PA and decided to play Taylor Swift?”
Annie merely shrugs but smiles at me in a way that makes me think she knows exactly who.
I narrow my eyes at her. “I swear to god if this is Ryan, he’s sleeping on the couch.” I roll my eyes as I turn to look at the field.
Lo and behold, it is Ryan.
Standing on the pitcher’s mound and holding a single red rose in his hand.
He extends his free hand, beckoning me to him.
I’m frozen in place until Annie gives me a small shove in his direction. My steps stutter as I walk toward him, raising an eyebrow in question as I place my hand into his.
He simply smiles back at me. “Hi,” he whispers.
“Hi…? What are you doing?” I ask, eyes flicking between him and the stadium stands, trying to piece together what exactly it is he’s doing right now.
He hooks a finger under my chin and redirects my eyes to his. “Eyes on me, firecracker.”
All I can do is nod.
“Good girl.” He smirks. “Did you know we never actually finished our game of twenty questions?”
My brows furrow. “What?”
He nods. “It’s true. We only made it through nineteen. I can’t remember whose turn it was, so I hope you don’t mind that I take the last one?”
“Uh, sure?” I’m so lost at this point that he could ask me anything.
“I met you on this same field almost a year ago.” I give him a watery smile as it finally hits me what I think he’s doing right now. “Asking Cooper to throw the ball long during warm-ups is the best call I’ve ever made?—”
“Hey!” I shove at his shoulder with a laugh.
“Baby, you had to know it wasn’t a coincidence.
I wanted to meet you. Get to know you. Even after that day, I needed to know you.
Needed you in my life. I struck out on multiple occasions but still I flirted, begged, probably annoyed the hell out of you, and yet, you finally caved.
Being your friend was the best and hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
But there’s not a single moment of our story that I would change. Our Love Story?—”
I point my finger at the sky. “Is that the song? Love Story?”
He laughs, shaking his head. “How do you not know this song?”
“I don’t listen to her music!”
“That’s not important. What is important, is this,” he says as he digs his hand into the pocket of his pants, fishing out a small black velvet box.
My hands fly to my mouth on a gasp, my heart pounding along with the beat of the song still playing over the loudspeakers.
In a blink, Ryan drops to one knee in front of me and flips open the lid on the box. Nestled in the box is a sparkling diamond ring. Cushion cut with smaller accent stones set into the silver band.
“Ryan…”
“I love you, Isa. I love you so much that I never want to have to spend another day without you. For the rest of our lives. With the last of our twenty questions, I wanted to ask… Isabella Gianna Rossi, will you marry me? Make me the happiest man alive and say you’ll spend your life with me.
” His eyes sparkle with unshed tears and so much love.
My eyes well with tears of my own. I swallow past the thickness in my throat. Somewhere in the distance I swear I hear my brother shout, “Say yes!”
I nod my head emphatically. “Yes, yes, yes. Of course, yes,” I say as I drop to my knees, falling into his arms. He chuckles as he pulls me tighter to him, kissing my hair.
Distantly, I hear the sold-out stadium crowd cheering, but all I’m focused on is Ryan in this moment. No one else exists to me.
I pull back to get a look at his tear-stained face. “I hate that you just did that to a Taylor Swift song in front of the entire stadium.” I hiccup.
“We’re not hiding anymore. I want the whole world to know you’re mine,” he says with a tilt of his chin behind me.
I look over my shoulder and see Annie standing with one of the Sports24 cameramen, filming the entire thing.
I look back at Ryan, jaw dropped. He places a kiss to the corner of my mouth.
“It was quite the thorough plan. If I had it my way it would’ve been during my actual walk-up, but I already had to pull enough strings to get them to let me do this in the first place. ”
“You are unbelievable.” I laugh, shaking my head.
“Unbelievably in love with you,” he says, grabbing my hand from where it was resting on his shoulder. He carefully pulls the ring from the cushion, lining it up with my ring finger. “So, just to be sure. That was a yes to spending the rest of your life with me?”
I smile, moving my hand so it pushes the ring onto my finger. “I couldn’t imagine spending it with anyone else.”
THE END