by Marie Force
No, he’s some dude I found outside on the sidewalk. “Yes, this is Austin and Everly.”
Ev hides behind her dad until my mom squats to greet her at her level. “Hi, Everly, I’m Elena.”
Mom extends a hand to Ev.
Everly looks up at me.
I squat, too. “This is my mommy. Can you say hi?”
“Hi.” She shakes my mom’s hand.
“Isn’t she just delightful?”
I smile at my mom. “We think so.”
Everly steps into my arms, and I pick her up, wanting her to be comfortable with me and my family.
Dad comes into the room, and I introduce him to Austin and Everly, who is very shy with my dad until he kisses my cheek and plays peek-a-boo with Everly.
He has her giggling in no time, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a doll, and kids always love him.
“Come in,” he says. “What can I get you to drink, Austin? I’ve got beer and wine and soda.”
“A beer sounds good,” Austin says.
“Wine for you, love?” Dad asks.
“That’d be great, Dad. Thanks.”
“Dinner is almost ready,” Mom says. “Go on in before the boys eat all the appetizers.”
I lead Austin into the living room where my brothers are sitting with Nona and Abuela, both of whom jump up to greet us with hugs and kisses, as if we haven’t seen each other in years when we just saw them last Saturday night.
“It’s so good to see you again, Austin,” Nona says, hugging him. “And your darling little girl.”
“Thanks for having us.”
“Austin, Everly, these animals are my brothers, Nico and Milo, who’re only here for the food and to meet the famous pitcher.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Nico says when he stands to shake hands with Austin. “We’ve learned to ignore her.” He’s the epitome of tall, dark and handsome—so handsome that he’s still single at thirty-one and a world-class player, from what I hear. I try not to pay too much attention to his very active social life.
“I could never ignore Maria,” Austin says. “She’s my favorite person to talk to.”
Nico rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say.”
I put my arm around my younger brother. “This is Milo. He’s much nicer than the other one.”
He, too, shakes hands with Austin. “Great to meet you. That perfect game this season was freaking awesome.”
“Thanks. Nice to meet you, too.”
At twenty-five, Milo is every bit as handsome as Nico, but he’s a little heavier and wears black-framed glasses that give him a smart, nerdy look that Nico is forever mocking. Not that Nico is a bad guy. He’s not, but he is a ballbuster.
They make room for us to sit on the sofa. On the coffee table, my mom has put out her famous stuffed mushrooms, some fried mozzarella and olives.
“You have to try the mushrooms,” I tell Austin. “They’re so good.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
I bring Everly onto my lap and tear off a piece of fried motz for her. “Try this. My mom made it. I think you’ll love it.”
She takes a tentative bite and then looks up at me.
“Good?”
She nods enthusiastically and takes another bite.
“What a sweetheart,” Dad says as he hands us our drinks. “What can I get for her?”
“We brought her sippy cup with water,” I tell him as I get it out of her backpack and hand it to her.
I look up to find my dad, brothers and grandmothers watching me as I tend to Ev, and I wonder what conclusions they’re leaping to. Probably the same ones I’ve already made myself.
Chapter 18
MARIA
“So, Austin,” Nico says, “it’s free-agency time, huh?”
“Yep.”
“I read online how you could command up to a hundred million. That’s freaking insane!”
I’m mortified that Nico brought that up and a little freaked out by the number. A hundred million? Seriously?
“I don’t know about that,” Austin says. “We’ll have to see what happens.”
“You must be losing it,” Nico says, undeterred. “I’d be picking out my Lambo if I were you.”
“You can’t put a car seat in a Lambo,” Austin says, making me adore him even more. “I’m more of an SUV kind of guy these days.”
“Where do you think you’ll end up?” Dad asks.
“I honestly don’t know. We’ll be talking to quite a few teams as soon as the World Series is over. By November, we’ll be narrowing it down, and I expect to know more by the winter meetings in December.”
“An exciting time for you,” Dad says.
Austin glances at me and smiles. “It is, but for much bigger reasons than baseball.”
I feel my face get warm as he makes a rather public declaration. There’s nothing he could’ve said that Dad, Nona and Abuela would want to hear more than that. It’ll matter to them that Austin has his priorities straight—and he basically just told them I’m high on his list of priorities.
Mom calls us into the dining room a short time later and feeds us a feast of delicious chicken piccata with lemon sauce, pasta carbonara, risotto balls, a huge antipasto and freshly baked bread.
“You went crazy, Mom,” I say when I see the spread and realize she must’ve taken a rare day off to have done all this.
“It looks and smells delicious, Mrs. Giordino,” Austin says.
“Call me Elena, honey, and dig in. Is there something Everly will eat?”
“She’ll love the chicken and the risotto,” I reply.
My mom raises a brow, which means I’m in for a full grilling on all things Austin and Everly in the near future.
Over dinner, we talk about the wedding, who’s picking Dee up from the airport on Wednesday and Austin’s plans for the off-season.
“Everly and I are planning to spend the winter here,” he says as he accepts a third helping of chicken from my mom, who loves nothing more than feeding people to the point of explosion.
My family goes silent, which doesn’t happen very often.
“You’re spending the winter in Miami,” Mom says, her brow lifted. “Well, that’s an interesting development.”
“We love it here,” Austin says with a meaningful look my way.
He may as well have said, I’m in love with Maria and planning to marry her, because that’s the leap my parents and grandmothers will take from that perfectly innocuous statement. I’ll have to do some damage control after this, but that’s okay. There’s simply no way to prepare a newcomer for my family, as Carmen discovered when she first brought Jason home and they swarmed the pediatric neurosurgeon like buzzards on fresh roadkill.
They mean well, and they’re the best people I know. They do so much for so many. Nona and Abuela are always organizing fundraisers at the restaurant for someone in need, to the point that Uncle Vincent jokes that he’s going to be the one in need by the time they’re finished. But he doesn’t really mind, because he, too, has the biggest heart.
Take Sofia at the restaurant. When Jason diagnosed her son Mateo with a malignant brain tumor that he then removed, Nona and Abuela made Sofia their personal project, holding fundraisers, giving her a job and doing anything they could to help her through the most difficult time in her life. They made her part of our family and continue to support her and Mateo more than a year after the surgery that saved his life. That’s how they are, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“Did I blow it by saying I like it here?” Austin asks when we’re on the way back to his hotel two hours later.
“You picked up on that, huh?”
“I thought it was a safe way to say that I like you, but when they all went silent…”
I laugh at the grimace he directs my way. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. They’re jumping to all the big conclusions, but they were going to do that anyway.”
“It’s okay with me if they jump to all t
he big conclusions. I’m jumping to them myself.”
I look over at him. “Are you?”
“Hell yes. I’m spending the winter in Miami so I can see you every day, not because I care about fun in the sun. Although, that is a nice side benefit. Winter in Baltimore is cold.”
“And here I thought it was all about the sun.”
“You know better.” At a stoplight, he looks over at me. “I couldn’t help but notice you seemed a little shocked when your brother started talking money.”
“I was a little shocked. A hundred million? That’s like Lebron- or Jordan-level money.”
He laughs. “They might make that in a year, but for me that would be the value of a multiyear contract, not my annual take. And it could end up being a lot less than that.”
“But it’s going to be in that ballpark, no pun intended.”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know.”
He seems exquisitely uncomfortable, so I drop it, even if the thought of him making that kind of money makes me a bit queasy. Although, he’s not exactly a pauper now…
We return to the hotel, drop the car with the valet and spend the next thirty minutes getting Everly ready for bed and reading her two stories—one by Dada and one by Rie! And yes, I love how she can’t say my name without the exclamation mark. It’s quite possibly the cutest thing ever.
She’s tired from swimming and being in the sun and falls asleep before I finish my story.
“Psst,” Austin whispers. “She’s out.”
“I want to know how it ends.”
“The lion mommy ends up being friends with the zebra mommy and the tiger mommy, and all the little babies are happy.”
“Okay, then. Now I’ll be able to sleep.”
We sneak out of Everly’s room, and Austin leaves the door cracked so he can hear her if she wakes up.
“Can I interest you in one more glass of wine?”
“I could be talked into that.”
He pours wine for me, grabs a beer for himself and suggests we take them outside to the patio, where the night is warm but not humid.
“This is my favorite time of year here,” I tell him when we’re snuggled up to each other on one of the lounge chairs. “It’s warm and sunny during the day, warm at night, but hardly ever crazy humid.”
“What’s the winter like?”
“A little chillier, but you never really need more than a light jacket. Every once in a while, we’ll have a real cold snap, but that doesn’t usually last longer than a few days.”
His cell phone rings ,and he manages to pull it out of his pocket without disturbing me or spilling his beer. “Fuck, it’s Kasey again. Do you mind if I take it?”
“Of course not. Go ahead.”
He gets up and takes the call. “What’s up?” There’s not an ounce of warmth or anything other than pure annoyance in his tone.
I wish I could hear what she’s saying.
His shoulders are tense, his posture rigid. “Get to the point, Kasey. What do you want? Because you always want something.” After another long pause, he says, “Nope. Not happening. And don’t give me that bullshit about how you gave me Ev. The court gave me Ev because you were negligent. I don’t owe you shit. Don’t call me again.” He ends the call, jams his phone into his pocket and continues to stare off into the darkness.
I put down my glass, get up and go to him, sliding an arm around his waist and resting my head on his shoulder.
“Sorry,” he says. “I should’ve ignored it.”
“It’s okay. Better to take care of it.”
“She’s never going to go away.”
“What did she want?”
“What she always wants—money. She thinks I owe her a steady stream of it because she gave birth to my daughter and then ‘gave’ me full custody.”
“Austin…”
“It’s fine. It is what it is. I’m used to it by now. I made the mistake of giving her money when I first got full custody, and she keeps coming back for more. And she never asks about Everly, not even when she was sick.”
“God. That’s unbelievable. I’m sorry you have to deal with that.”
“It’s my own fault. I knew she was shallow when we were dating. I was actually about to end it with her when she was suddenly pregnant. I think she knew I was checking out, and that’s why I think she messed with the condoms. She wanted a gravy train, not a family.”
“I hate that she hurt you that way, that she continues to hurt you.”
“It only hurts me in relation to Everly. How do you call your child’s father for the first time in months and not ask how your daughter, who was battling leukemia this time last year, is doing?”
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine that.”
“No, you can’t, and that’s why I’m spending the winter in Miami and trying to figure out a way to keep you in our lives forever.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do?”
He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I asked Aaron to put the Marlins in the mix.”
I’m stunned by this news. “You did? Really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to say anything because it’s a bit of a long shot, but I want you to know I made the request and we’re talking to them.”
“Because of me?” I cannot believe he’s making career decisions based on me.
He kisses my nose and then my lips. “It was definitely more about the sun and the fun than you.” Then he laughs and kisses me again. “I’m joking. Of course it’s all about you. Everything is about you and Everly and us and having more of this.” He draws me into his embrace. “I loved you before I ever met you, and not because you saved my daughter’s life, although that’s definitely part of it. I loved you for you, for who you are and your big heart and the way you care so much about everyone in your life. You made me want to be one of the people you care about. And I wanted that for Ev, too. I wanted you for both of us.”
“I… Wow, you’ve rendered me speechless.”
“You can’t be surprised to hear me say I love you.”
“I’m not, and of course I love you and Everly. I love you both so much. The two of you have become the center of my world from the time we first talked. It was so weird to feel such a connection to someone when I didn’t even know your name yet.”
“I felt the same thing. I couldn’t wait to be able to actually talk to you.”
“Want to hear something I’ve never told you?” I ask him.
“Always.”
“In the six months from the time I first heard from you until the one-year mark when we were allowed to talk freely, three different guys asked me out.”
“Who are they, and how can I have them killed?”
“Easy, tiger,” I say, laughing at his vehemence. “I said no to all three of them. After the first time I talked to you, I didn’t want to go out with anyone else. I didn’t want to talk to anyone else. I just wanted to talk to you.”
“What does it say about me that I’m jealous of three dudes I’ve never met?”
“You have no reason to be jealous of anyone.”
For the longest time, we stand there wrapped up in each other’s arms as the warm South Florida breeze washes over us.
“Things are going to get crazy for me in the next couple of months.”
“I know.”
“No matter what happens, you and I are going to talk about it, and we’re going to decide what’s best for all of us. I don’t want you hearing things and wondering what’s going on or obsessing about big numbers or thinking about anything other than this, right here. This is what matters, and this is where my focus is.”
“You need to give your career some of your attention while you figure out this next move.”
“And I will, but I don’t want you to worry about it. Whatever I do, whatever happens, you’ll be part of the conversation.”
“Is it surreal to you?”
“What?”
“All of this with us and
how it happened.”
“It’s the best kind of surreal. Just when I’d given up on ever finding you, there you were, saving my daughter’s life, and mine by extension, because without her… I don’t know if I would’ve survived losing her.”
“You would have, but you’d never be the same.”
“No, I wouldn’t, so you saved both of us.” He nuzzles my neck, giving me goose bumps that make me shiver. “You didn’t drink your wine.”
“I don’t care about the wine.”
“No? What do you care about?”
I reach for him and draw him into a hot, sexy, tongue-twisting kiss that quickly has us clinging and straining for more, like always.
“Let’s go to bed,” he whispers against my lips.
He takes my hand and leads me inside, where we laugh and moan as we undress each other and come down on the bed in a rush of need and desire so sharp, it blots out anything that isn’t him and me and this. I want him to know how much I love him, how much I want him, how much… well, everything. It’s all for him and his beautiful daughter.
With my hand on his shoulder, I direct him to lie on his back, and when he’s where I want him, I start with kisses to his lips, his chest and rippled abdomen. I’ve never been up close and personal with an actual six-pack until his, and I’m fascinated by the way the muscles come together, the way they ripple under my tongue and how his hard cock gets even harder with every passing second.
Mimicking Everly’s emphatic tone, he says, “Rie! Now!”
Laughing, I kiss the tip, the shaft and add dabs of tongue until he’s making inarticulate sounds that thrill me. I love knowing I’ve got him basically babbling as I pleasure him. Moving so I’m between his legs, I bend over him and take him into my mouth.
His hips come up off the bed, and his hands end up tangled in my hair as I set out to give him a ride he’ll never forget.
“Maria…”
I hear the warning in the tense way he says my name, but I ignore it and continue to lick and suck until he’s shouting as he comes. I stay with him through the storm and ease him down gently, kissing my way up his body until I’m stretched out on top of him, his arms around me, his eyes closed and his chest heaving from deep breaths.
