Winning With Him (Men of Summer #2) - Lauren Blakely Page 0,91

looking at Declan again. He rolls his eyes, but he’s happy. I’ve made him happy by making plans to go to his first game.

“I think that sounds like a perfect night,” his mom says.

“We’d love to go. We never turn down a baseball game,” Tyler adds, then winks at Declan. “Even a Dragons one.”

“Awesome,” I say, then hold up a finger. “I have a gift for you, Cyndi—Wait. Can I call you Cyndi, or do you prefer Mrs. Martin?”

She laughs, shaking her head. “Cyndi is great.”

I unlock the front door, rush inside, grab a little something from the drawer in the entryway table, then return to the porch. Outside, under the San Francisco sky, I show Declan’s mom the baseball.

“Since you’re such a Cougars fan, I thought maybe you’d like a signed one,” I say, squaring my shoulders.

Declan scoffs. “You are really hard to take,” he harrumphs.

“Ignore him,” I tell his mom and Tyler.

“We will,” Tyler says.

I inscribe the baseball just for her, sign it, and hand it to the mom of the guy I love. When she reads it, her breath catches. Holding the ball like it’s a precious jewel, she throws her arms around me, hugging me so tight she nearly knocks me off-balance.

It’s a foreign feeling, this motherly hug. The only woman who hugs me like this is my grandma. She’s awesome, and I love her madly, but I also like this—this maternal thing I’ve never truly had.

When she lets go, she shows the ball to Declan.

He smiles like the inscription lights up his soul.

Well, it should.

It says:

Dear Cyndi, Thank you for helping your son find his way back to me. He’s everything to me. I love him so much.

With her eyes glossy, she wraps her son in one more embrace, and then she tips her forehead to the street. “And now we really are going to leave you alone.”

“Wait. Give me your number so we can make plans for the game tomorrow,” I say.

His mom and I exchange texts, and something about that simple task—such an everyday, ordinary moment between my boyfriend’s mom and me—feels so damn right.

As Tyler and Cyndi head down the steps, Declan grabs his bag and we go inside my house. When the door shuts and it’s only us, he sets down his duffel, shoots me a lopsided grin, and pulls me against him, his arms looping around my waist.

“Is the great hug-fest about to continue?” I ask. “Seemed like we were all trying to set a record out there.”

With a small laugh, Declan shakes his head. His laughter fades. His eyes darken. Passion declares itself in his eyes. “No. I want your kisses. All your kisses. All night long.”

“Take them,” I say, grabbing his hips, yanking him even closer, and bringing my face inches from his.

For a heartbeat, maybe two, we gaze at each other like we still can’t believe our luck.

Is it luck?

Is he here in my house, in my town, in my life because of luck?

Tonight feels like so much luck.

But maybe it was always meant to be this way. Maybe we were always going to find our way back to each other and land in the same place at the same time.

Most of all . . . at the right time.

I tilt my head. He follows. We are caught in the tease of each other, lost in that heady moment before a kiss.

I flash back to our first kiss ever, in a car in Arizona on the side of the road, hot and desperate. I picture our kiss in New York in his apartment when I had to know if I felt the same wild need and found I ached for him even more.

Then, a few months ago we kissed again, right here in my house, and it felt like coming home. It felt like the start of us once more.

This is another moment. How will this kiss be different?

“Kiss me, shortstop,” I whisper, eager to know the answer.

“I will, catcher.”

My once-upon-a-time rookie affair brushes his lips to mine and kisses me like he doesn’t want to ever let me go.

I hum happily. This is how this kiss is different.

This kiss tastes like our future.

It’s like opening the door on a summer morning, the sun shining brightly, warming your skin. Declan Steele is no longer my secret crush. He’s not my nighttime tryst. And he’s not my we’re-not-making-a-plan guy. He is all my plans, all my crushes. He’s the man I’m going to love for the rest of