Winning With Him (Men of Summer #2) by Lauren Blakely

“You’re my person too, Grant.”

I keep going. “When we have a morning off, like today, I want us to throw on some clothes and walk down the street to get a cup of coffee. Or go for a run. Or walk across the bridge. Or go to Crosby’s mom’s café. Or to Sierra’s bar. To get a not-drink.”

Declan laughs. He threads his fingers tightly through mine, squeezing harder. “We are good with the not-drinks.” The smile never leaves his face. “We’re really good at a lot of things, Grant.”

“We are,” I say, my heart thumping as we inch closer to this next step. “We figured out how to do the long-distance thing. You’ve been my boyfriend since February. Hell, we were together for all intents and purposes that day you called me after the World Series. That was us starting again. And here we are. I don’t want to be half together. I want to be all together.”

He gives a firm, but tender tug on my hands. “Are you worried I’m going to say no, babe?”

“Yes, I’m terrified.”

Declan lets go of my hand to graze his thumb across my lower lip then presses a kiss there. “Don’t be scared of a thing with me. My answer is yes,” he says, intense and passionate. I breathe a huge sigh of relief as he keeps going. “I would love to live with you. I want to come home to you. I want to have a life with you. So much.”

Then he stops, drawing a deep, soldiering breath, and I tense.

“What is it? I know there’s a but coming. Just tell me,” I say, frazzled and out of sorts.

He lets go of my face, sets his hands on my hips, shakes his head. “If you’re picking up any worry or fear, it’s only because of what I have to tell you.”

My stomach craters. “Just say it. You drive me crazy sometimes.”

“I don’t want to scare you away,” he says, his voice thin with worry.

“You won’t,” I say, desperate to know what’s going on.

“I asked for the trade,” he blurts, serving up the admission in a messy heap, like a scoop of melted ice cream, spilling all over the bowl.

I tilt my head and rub my knuckle against my ear in disbelief. “What did you just say?”

“When I saw Carla a couple weeks ago, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt how I felt. I knew we were happening, that we were never going to unhappen, and I had to find a way to be with you. I even talked to Holden when he was in New York,” Declan confesses.

“You told Holden about us?”

“No,” he says emphatically.

I laugh. “I actually don’t care if you did. I want everyone to know I’m in love with you. But keep going, now that you’re not freaking me out anymore.”

He squeezes my hip. “Holden and I went for a run. We were talking about second chances, and there was some woman he wanted to have a second chance with,” he tells me.

I crack up. “Reese?”

“Holden is involved with your Reese?”

I nod, big and long. “Dude, I showed you my note last night. I said both of our boyfriends were on the Dragons.”

“Ah,” he says with a nod of understanding. “That actually makes a lot of sense now. But I didn’t know it when he was telling me about a woman he was longing for. And I said if you have a second chance, you have to do everything to make it happen.” Declan gives a sweet shrug. His voice goes low, tender. “This is my everything. I have nearly ten years of service in the majors. My contract was coming up at the end of the season. Before I could become a free agent, I made a pitch for the Dragons to pick me up instead. I knew that would make me more attractive in a trade.”

“You could go anywhere. Any team would have you,” I say, bursting with excitement. He chose to come here. To a team that’s struggling. To a team that’s reshaping itself after a speckled history and a cheating scandal. When Declan could have the pick of the litter, he chose . . . me.

Just me.

That’s the choice he made.

I’ve never felt so wanted.

I loop my hands around his neck, scooting closer, basking in the best story ever.

“And I didn’t want to go just anywhere,” he continues. “I only wanted to be here. The Comets wanted prospects, so Vaughn worked his magic to see if the Dragons would pick up my contract. And we made a deal that they could extend my contract for the same price.”

My eyes pop. “But you could get a massive raise at the end of the season as a free agent.”

“I make enough money. I make more than enough money for many lives. I don’t need more. I need you,” he says, letting go of my hip to roam a hand up my torso, spreading his palm over my heart and melting me completely. “I wanted to be with you, Grant. And you mentioned once you have a no-trade clause, which is unusual at your age, and also awesome, so I figured if I could get out here, maybe you really would be stuck with me.”

I beam. “I had a feeling your trade wasn’t just a lucky break. I swear, it felt almost too good to be true. But you made it happen.” I lift my face to the ceiling, feeling like all the sunshine in the world is shining golden rays down on me. I clasp his cheeks, hold his face. “You’re never getting rid of me. You are so stuck with me. If you thought I was in love with you before, now I’m, like, twelve million times more.”