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“He’s not going to let you go without a fight, you know,” Mike says.

“He doesn’t have a choice,” I say thickly. I’m sitting in the chair I was pacing behind after Troy walked out with Gabby, and I’m still not sure why she chose to talk to her father before me, but here we are. “I’ve made up my mind.”

“And what if the best of both worlds was an option?” Mike steeples his fingertips underneath his jaw.

“I’ve been over it a thousand times in my mind.” I shake my head. “Troy will never be okay with the idea of his daughter and me being together, and I can’t play for a manager who treats me the way he did over spring training.”

“I can’t let you go without a fight, either. You signed a contract, Cooper. A hefty one at that. You can’t just walk away.”

The money is guaranteed, and it’s a shitty thing to do to the team. But I don’t want the money. I’ve never cared about the money. I just want Gabby. I just want to be happy. I just want a little sunshine back in my life after far too much darkness.

“Keep the money. I don’t want it at the expense of everything important to me. I’m happy to remain close as a team consultant,” I offer.

“What if it doesn’t work out?” he asks. “What if you give up everything here, your dreams, the team’s dreams, and you don’t end up where you think you’ll be?”

I’m quiet a beat as I consider that. “At least I’ll know I tried.”

Mike shakes his head. “God dammit, Cooper. How am I supposed to fight against that?”

“You can’t. I’ve made up my mind. How do we proceed?” I ask.

“Why don’t we wait for the two of them to return before we plow ahead,” he suggests dryly.

I shrug. “Suit yourself.”

He picks up the paperwork in front of him. “She put in her notice, you know. She was on her way up here for her exit interview.”

My eyes dart to his. “Is that why you brought me up here?”

“In part. I also knew Troy hadn’t seen her since the team left for Vegas. I figured she’d get through to one of the two of you. Fingers crossed it’s both.”

Fingers crossed.

But I’m not sure how much hope I have right now. It feels pretty bleak that she chose to speak to her father first.

Maybe I went too far. Maybe I crossed too many lines, hurt her too much.

Part of me wants to think maybe it’s because she never felt the way I did, but I know that’s not true. I know what we had, and it was explosive. Something that strong couldn’t be anything less than mutual.

It feels like hours pass when Troy finally appears in the doorway, and I immediately stand and turn toward the doorway when I hear his light knock on the doorframe.

He looks…lighter.

Like the vein that has been bulging out of his neck for the last month has simmered down a little.

His face isn’t pinched in anger like it has been, and it isn’t as red, either.

Gabby appears behind him, and while she’s biting her bottom lip and shaking out her hands as if to shake out her nerves, she’s glowing.

Actually glowing.

She’s even more beautiful than my dreams made her out to be, but I know her heart, and that’s what causes the effervescent glow that seems to surround her.

My heart squeezes and my chest tightens. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen her, or spoken to her, or held her, and as I see her walk into the office, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m making the right choice.

Baseball is a game, but Gabby is my life…if she’ll have me.

She clears her throat nervously before her eyes dart to mine. “Can we talk?”

I practically leap across the room to get to her.

“You can use my office,” Troy says to Gabby, and my brows dip as I look over at him. He offers a smile, and while I’m beyond confused given the last month, I take what I can get.

If I could be a fly in the wall in Mike’s office right now…well, I’d still choose to follow Gabby to Troy’s office to beg for a second chance.

She walks in, and I close the door behind me.

I lean against the door, and she wanders into her father’s office. She finally stops and turns to face me.

“Hi,” she says softly.

“Hey.”

She clears her throat. “So you’re um, quitting baseball?”

I lift a shoulder. “I meant what I said, Gabby. I choose you…if you still want this. I made the wrong choice the first time, but I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was acting in everybody’s best interest, but I realized I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do rather than what I actually wanted to do.” I push off the door and take a few steps toward her. “And so I’m here today ready to beg you for the chance to get you back in my life. I’m so, so sorry I didn’t put these pieces together sooner, but I can’t play ball with my heart when it’s broken and in your hands, so I choose not to play at all. I choose you. I choose a life with you if that’s what you want. I choose this incredible thing we’ve built, and I choose love and happiness and maybe most of all, I choose my sunshine.”

She swipes at a tear that spills over onto her cheek. “I want all that too,” she whispers, and I can’t help it when I launch myself toward her and pull her into my arms.

My world has been out of alignment for the last month, but with her in my arms, it shifts back into the right place again. And then it shifts a few degrees brighter when she tilts her head back and my lips fall to hers.

It’s a short kiss—way too short given what my body is telling me to do to her right now—but she pulls back. She isn’t all the way out of my arms, but enough to break the kiss.

“We have a few things we need to work out first, though,” she says softly.

“Anything,” I breathe. “I’ll do anything to get you back.”

A soft smile plays at her lips, and she nips my mouth with hers. “You have me. You’ve always had me, Cooper. Since the very second I sat down at that blackjack table. When we ended things the first time because you found out who my father was, and when we ended things the night of the wedding…I always had hope in my heart we’d find our way back, and I thought maybe it was just my naivete speaking for me, that maybe it wasn’t as special as I thought it was, but when I’m here in your arms, I know I’m home. Whether that’s on the road after a game or at your place or here in my dad’s office. This is home.”

I glance down at her neck and spot the necklace I gave her for Christmas, and my entire chest warms. “You are home for me, too, Gabriella Rose Grant. You’re not na?ve. You’re mature, and you’re smart, and you’re talented and incredible and sexy and kind and patient , which hopefully you won’t have to continue exercising when it comes to me, and you are everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner.” I tighten my arms around her, and she leans into me, resting her head on my chest for a beat.

God, this feels good. This feels right , and I’m not quite sure how we’ve spent the last month without it.

“I love you,” I murmur into the top of her head as I breathe her in, and it’s like the sort of breath of fresh air that clears my lungs and simultaneously clears the darkness.

“I love you, too,” she says, and she tips her chin up for another kiss.

It’s still too short, but she’s right. We have business to take care of.

I have questions, but I need to start at the beginning.

“Can I ask you a question?” I pull back out of her arms for a beat.

She nods.

“What did you say to Troy?”

She raises a brow and lifts a shoulder at the same time. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Uh, yeah, I would. It’s why I asked. He walked in with a smile on his face, and he hasn’t smiled in over a month. One conversation with you and he’s a different person. What gives?”

She chuckles, and I swear I spot a twinkle in her eye as she draws in a deep breath. “Oh, you know…I just told him he’s going to be a grandfather.”

It takes a second for her words to click.

He’s going to be a grandfather?

Who’s having a baby?

He only has one daughter…

Oh.

Oh.

“Oh my God, you’re pregnant?” I murmur as hope lights a brand-new fire within me.

She drags her bottom lip between her teeth as she nods and looks up at me through lowered lashes. “Yes…Daddy.”

Jesus Christ.

What that single word does to me in the seductive tone she uses should be fucking illegal.

I grab her back into my arms and swing her around as the feeling like we’re going to have everything we ever wanted together washes over me. I went from dark bleakness to hopeful sunshine in a matter of the last fifteen minutes, and it’s been a whirlwind of whiplash that appears to be culminating with being given all the things I’ve ever wanted at one time.

“We’re going to have a baby?” Heat presses behind my eyes at my words.

She giggles as she braces herself with her palms on my biceps. She nods as I set her down, but I don’t let her go. Her smile lights up the entire room. “We’re going to have a baby. And, you know, hopefully two or three more after that.”

This time when my mouth slams down to hers, I don’t care about what other business we have to get to. This is a moment for celebration.