Six months later . . .

Ren

Ding. Ding.

“Baby, can you get the door? I ordered a pizza. There’s some cash in my wallet.”

I was sitting in my recliner with an ice pack on both knees and my balls, watching the highlights of other games played that day. I’d got clipped with way too many flyaway balls.

“It’s really not a good time, baby,” I spoke up from the living room. “My Rocky Mountain oysters are on ice.”

“I just got out of the shower, I’m naked!” she yelped from the bedroom. “Fine. I’ll just throw on one of your dress shirts.”

“No!” I cursed and winced as I scooped the ice packs off my knees and lap and stood to feel the throb of the game I just played. I glared in the direction of our bedroom as I made my way toward the door. “Don’t you dare touch my clothes. You got them all jacked up when we moved in.”

I heard her laugh from behind the door.

“What did I do, baby? Did the dark blues get mixed up with light?” She teased.

“I swear to God, when I don’t feel like I’m at death’s door, I’m going to red your ass.”

“You’ll have to catch me first, Tin Man!”

The doorbell sounded again, and I made a beeline for it realizing I didn’t have my wallet. I opened it as the guy stood there with a huge grin on his face, which I returned.

“Wow, I’m a huge fan, man.”

“Thanks,” I said sincerely. I grabbed a ball off the counter that I’d signed for the camp I was sponsoring and handed it to him as he passed me the pizza. “If you want it,” I added as he stared down at it like it was the golden ticket.

“Holy shit, man. Thank you!”

“Just give me a second,” I said as I spotted Erica’s wallet on the counter and opened it.

There were a hundred compartments and I had searched two before I pulled out the card. My heart thudded wildly in my chest as I stared down at the queen of hearts.

Her card.

The card that kept me from having a full deck for years.

I choked on emotion as I studied it. It was worn to a frazzle and bent at the edges, like she’d pulled it out plenty of times in the years we were apart.

I cleared my throat and unzipped the right part of her wallet, pulling out the cash. I turned and paid the guy, who spoke up as if he were waiting for the chance.

“I was sad I missed the game today, but I have to say this is pretty awesome. I think you guys will take it all again this season. That series was something to watch. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, man,” I said with a grin, my heart still thudding from the sight of that card as I handed him the cash. “Here you go.”

“Thank you, Ren. You made my day.”

A thought occurred to me, and I turned and stopped him. “You want to help make mine?”

“Sure, man, whatever you need.”

“Can you stick around a bit?” I asked with my heart thudding a mile a minute in my chest. “Stay right here, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Sure.”

* * *

Erica

“Ren, did you find the money?” I asked as I walked out of the bedroom and rounded the corner to get to the living room. The house wasn’t massive, but it was perfect for the two of us. I didn’t want to live in the museum Ren bought on his own. If we were starting a life together, it had to be something new. I left New York with a good résumé and was now PR for three Denver players, excluding my boyfriend. He had fired me as soon as he won the World Series. I wasn’t insulted in the least, because in truth, it wasn’t a good idea for us in the long haul. But I had managed to put a small dent in his bad boy reputation. We went public with our relationship a few months after his last game. It had all worked out for the best. I’d spent the last week unpacking our house and making room for Malcolm. He was coming to spend his spring break with us at Ren’s insistence. Ren refused to leave his Little Brother behind in Arizona and made every effort to remain a part of his life, despite his schedule. I was proud of the man he was. Proud to be by his side when he realized his dreams. My heart was full despite the fact that I still refused to have anything to do with my father. I spoke to my mother often, though she chose to stay with him, and on occasion my brothers would visit, and it was enough for me. I had everything I needed, and most of it was held in the love in Ren’s eyes when he looked at me. It was a far cry from my life in New York, a life I couldn’t miss because of the new one I shared with Ren, though I missed Rowe. She had taken my position in the firm and was thriving. Though we weren’t a part of each other’s every day, we were lifer’s, she and I. Alice had made my transition to Denver easy, making me feel right at home. And when April visited from Charleston, we always managed to venture out of the house, pissing our men off and making new memories. It was an adventure with those two to say the least.

I smiled as I passed the wall of pictures I’d just hung in the last year. Ren and I dressed as the Tin Man and Dorothy at a Halloween party. A picture of us in front of our new house with Davis. A picture of Ren and the guys the night they won the series. I straightened one of the frames as I moved toward the kitchen, the smell of pizza making my mouth water, and froze when I saw Ren down on one knee with the delivery driver behind him, a phone in his hand pointed directly at me. I let out a nervous laugh before I spoke. “What are you doing?” I saw the card in one of Ren’s hands and the small black box I’d found all those years ago in the other. My eyes instantly filled with tears.

“Ren?”

“No tricks,” he promised hoarsely. “And I’m showing you the only card that matters.”

I lost it then, my heart in my throat, my tears falling freely with his as he spoke. “You’re a ball of fire and the only woman alive who can make me feel so much without saying a word. I don’t want to go another minute of this life without knowing I’m going to spend the rest of it with you. Be mine, be my wife, stay my everything. Be my family and my best friend. Will you marry me?”

I nodded before I spoke. “Yes.”

Ren opened the box and slid the rock on my finger before he swept me into his arms. He kissed me deep before he swung me around our entryway. It was a spontaneous proposal, and I knew it because it was so very us. We both got swept up in the moment until we heard a throat clear. Ren broke from me reluctantly, and we both turned to the man smiling at our front door.

“Congratulations,” he said sweetly as he held out Ren’s phone. He couldn’t have been more than twenty years old and was the only witness to the happiest moment of our lives. Ren thanked him again before he shut the door and gathered me back in his arms.

“I guess I’ll have to order pizza more often,” I murmured before placing a soft kiss on his lips. “I wonder what I’ll get next.”

“Anything you want,” he murmured back. “Because you just gave me everything.”

“Ren, let’s do it today. Let’s just go and do it right now.”

He raised his brows. “What?”

“You don’t have a game for two days.”

“Here?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a place with a full deck.”

Ren’s slow-building smile told me all I needed to know.

That night, in a little white chapel off the Vegas strip, I married a baseball player.

And the next day we made a little slugger.

If you enjoyed Ren and Erica’s story, get to know the rest of the gang of the Balls in Play Series.