All In With Him by Lauren Blakely
Another Epilogue
A few years later
Grant
After seventeen seasons, Declan Steele retires from the game he loves. But he doesn’t putter around the house or take up a hobby. He starts a new job as a play-by-play commentator, handling the Thursday to Sunday-night games for the Sports Network.
He’s on the road a lot, but he’s not on the road too, which is all kinds of awesome, because he comes to my games, and that means I get to see him more.
Declan and I go out to dinner when my day games end, and we have lunch before my night games, and we spend time together in hotel rooms and our home too.
“I’m like a groupie now,” he says.
“And you love it.”
With a sly smile, he says, “I absolutely do.”
Declan keeps busy in other ways as well. He volunteers with me at the Alliance, and he devotes time to a local foundation that helps teens avoid drug and alcohol abuse. He helps raise grant money, and when he exceeds his goals, I am so damn proud.
And, he has time to research adoption.
Oh, man, does he ever devote his time to that—so much time that when it’s my turn to hang up my cleats, we’re both ready.
The day the adoption agency calls to say there’s a little girl for Declan and me is the happiest day of my life, and that’s saying something.
When I hang up the phone, a lump takes over my whole throat. “Looks like our someday down the road is finally here,” I whisper to Declan, standing beside me.
“And I’m ready,” he replies.
Turns out, Declan’s a natural with our child. He loves taking care of people, so fatherhood comes easily to him. Sure, we both have our moments where we’re less than perfect dads, where we aren’t certain what to do, but we figure it out together.
Two years later, we adopt a son, and then we are four.
