Rounding the Bases by Jaqueline Snowe
Epilogue
Five months later
Sarah
There was dog shit everywhere. “Bea! Damn it!” I yelled, grabbing the shovel and pail to scoop up the piles. One downside to having twenty dogs staying at the house at one time was the poop. Really didn’t think that part through. Bea was a black Lab that had three legs and a personality as subtle as a Real Housewife. She thought it was hilarious to poop on the mat right outside the door. The dog hung her head as I picked up her latest gift. After taking care of it, I reached over to pet her. “You’re okay. I still love you.”
“Talking to the dogs again?” Ethan said, leaning on the doorframe. “You’re going to lose it one day.”
“Already have. My sanity is gone.” I pushed up from my squatting position and held my hand over my eyes to block the sun. “What are you doing here? I thought we cut back your time here.”
“I want to work here full-time.”
“Um, no. You’re still going to school.” I shook my head. “You need a fancy degree and all that.”
“I can still go to school, but I want to work here until we find someone I trust enough to take over the books.” His expression was firm while I studied him, but he could never stay serious for too long. “As a founding member of Triple B, we can vote on it.”
“Your sister is the third option! Not fair!”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s still following protocol.”
“I can vote, if that helps,” Brigham said, walking into the backyard wearing my favorite outfit of his—torn jeans and a vintage sports shirt. I made wide eyes at him. “I’ll just side with Easy E, though.”
“What the hell? Are you all conspiring against me?” I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Fine. You want to work here full-time? Do it. But if your grades drop, I’ll fire you.”
“You won’t.” Ethan grinned and fist-bumped Brigham before walking back inside. “Megan wants to work full-time too. Just giving you a heads-up.”
“Ugh.”
Brigham pushed off the door frame and cupped my face, pressing his lips against mine to the point I got heated. “Mm. I like your lips.”
“You really liked them last night, huh?” I teased, earning a barking laugh from my boyfriend. My first boyfriend. A real one. It still felt weird to say. He was just Brigham to me. “I thought you had some meetings at the stadium. Everything okay?”
After his team had had a good run in the playoffs, they’d offered him a three-year extension to his contract. That meant at least three years of us being in the same city.
“It was great. Just going over stuff before spring training starts in a week.” He kissed me again, lingering a bit, before tilting his head back. “You should let your friends work here more. Your business is soaring right now.”
“But they have school.”
“But you have an incredible opportunity for them to learn real shit, while working with their best friend. Could you use their help?”
“Yes,” I said, hating to admit it. We were at maximum capacity, between the rescues and boarded dogs, and there was a waiting list. It was insane. A crazy, wonderful, almost unbelievable type of insane that I never took for granted. “It would be great to have them be full-time.”
“Good.” He got a sneaky look in his eye again, one that either left me naked or suspicious. Sometimes both. “I bought you a gift.”
“Why in the world would you do that?” I hit his shoulder. “There is no occasion.”
“There is. This feels like one.” He held up a keychain with a huge bright blue fake crystal dangling next to a key. “It’s yours.”
“Wow.” I eyed it, trying not to laugh. “It’s, uh, beautiful.”
“It’s a key to my place,” he said, the sneaky look replaced with a more serious one. “You spend a lot of your time here, I get that. I would never expect you to not live here. But I want you to be able to come and go as you please at my place, if you want.”
“Like, move in together?”
“Yeah. Sorta. I mean, you’ll be here a lot and I’ll travel.”
“Wait!” I jumped out of his embrace and ran inside, opening a drawer and rifling through the junk—dog bags, lip balm, meds—until I found what I wanted. Ah! “Here.” I went back outside and handed the silver key to him.
“Blue Bell, I wasn’t expecting you to return the favor. It wasn’t like that.”
“I understand.” I smiled and held the obnoxious blue keychain to my chest. “However, if we are going to live together, we should do it at both places. I’ll always have a room here, but where we make a life together, it can be at two places.”
“But this is the key to your business. That’s huge,” he said, shaking his head with wide eyes. “This is different from giving you an apartment key.”
“Brigham, I know.” I cupped his face this time. “I trust you. You were joking about being a silent partner, but your voice matters here. You’re a part of me now, so why wouldn’t you want to be a part of Blue Bells Boarding?”
“Ah, fuck.” He blinked quickly before pulling me into a hug. “I wasn’t supposed to get all feely and emotional. Shit.”
I giggled into his chest and sighed, so damn happy it made my head spin. “I’m gonna find you the biggest, weirdest keychain though.”
“I expect no less.” He kissed the top of my head. “I love you, you beautiful blue-haired woman.”
“I love you too.” And I did. So much it hurt to breathe. “You sports ball sex-tutor of a man.”
He pulled back, amusement swirling in his eyes, before he let out a deep sigh. “Work on your compliments. That one sucked.”
“Whatever,” I teased. “Wait, we have to tell Fernie. He’ll shit a brick.”
Brigham laughed, bent down to pet Bea and looked up at me with all the warmth and care in the world. “Can’t wait to see how you do it.”
I couldn’t either.
