I always woke up when she woke up now, because there was no ignoring the feeling or the sounds of her stirring on my chest, her cheek still pressed to my skin as she yawned and stretched.

It always put a smile on my lips before I so much as opened my eyes.

Usually, after that, she’d get up and giggle at how I groaned over the void she left on my chest. I felt it every damned morning and yet I still hated the feeling. Of course, I made up for it by waiting to hear the water run before following her into the bathroom and making her late to work.

Three weeks later and fucking Evie in the shower was still my preferred way to start the day. I was pretty sure I was growing dependent on starting my morning with kissing her as she washed her hair, and as I leisurely soaped up her tits. I was always rock-hard and jacking it by the time she stood with her eyes closed under the water, rinsing away the shampoo and all the suds from her body. 

I could get used to this view, I thought the first morning it happened. And every day since, I’d been doing exactly that.

Though Evie and I changed it up slightly this morning. 

“And here I thought you were trying to get me to work on time for once,” Evie giggled, setting the blow dryer down as I got out of the shower and started kissing the back of her neck.

There had been no sex in the shower – I really was trying to get her to work on time since I had another surprise queued up for the morning – but all it took was one glimpse at her standing in front of the mirror and my self-control was done for.

“Just blame it on me when you get in,” I murmured as I unlatched her towel and let it drop to our feet.

“Trust me – they’re huge Empires fans, so I always do,” she smirked as she pressed two hands flat on the sink and arched her back for me. 

I made sure to watch her in the mirror as I slid my cock into her pussy.

Christ.

The way her lips fell apart got me every single time. 

I fucking loved that look on her face, and that raspy morning moan as I thrust deep inside her. I loved every last goddamned thing about Evie Larsen, and on this particular morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about that day down the line that I could call her Evie Maddox.

It wasn’t going to be quite yet.

But soon.

“So fucking beautiful, baby. Look at you,” I murmured as we locked eyes in the mirror, her lips curving in a grin as I let go of her heavy tits to watch them bounce in the reflection. I kept my stare pinned on her perfection as I rocked my hips into her, soaking in her every breath, her every bounce, her every sexy little sound.

I didn’t even remember carrying her into our bed. All I remembered were her honey waves spilled like silk all over my sheets as she came, taking me right with her.

“God... so late,” Evie giggled, eyeing the clock on my nightstand as we lay together in a hot, breathless fog. “But so... so worth it.”

I grinned at her words because they rang truer to me than she even knew.

Worth it were the unlikely words I’d used to close the chapter on my parents, Tim, Pattie, L.A. Everything. Before Evie, they felt like ugly scars I’d bear for the rest of my life, but now I just saw them as my stepping stones toward everything I needed.

I had lost a lot to my career, but it was nothing compared to what I had gained. Without my love of this game I wouldn’t have found the love of my life. 

Turns out it wasn’t a fucking baseball, and I should have known because even during my happiest moments as a player, I’d still think about what the hell life would look like in fifteen years, when my arm had thrown its last pitch and my body could no longer play the game. 

So I should’ve known the game wasn’t my everything. In reality, it was the woman who was giving me a family, a new lease on life and a reason to live off the field. For all that, I was prepared to give her the world at whatever cost.

But I needed the perfect moment to tell her that, and it wasn’t today.

That said I couldn’t hold in a small part of the surprise any longer.

“Drew, you unlocked the guest room?” Evie called as she made her way down the hall.

I had locked it as a joke the first night she came back, after I’d gotten her from her mom’s house in Belfield and brought her back to New York. She had instinctively gone to set her things down in the guest room, and I reminded her that that wasn’t where she slept anymore.

And since that day, whenever she was home, I kept that door locked.

But since the project had been officially finished late last night, while she’d been fast asleep, I left the door unlocked and open for her to discover on her way down the stairs to breakfast.

Three... two...

“Oh my God – Drew!”

I laughed the second I heard her reaction, and by the time I got down the hall, she was standing in the middle of the room, one hand thrust in her hair and the other covering her mouth. 

“How...” She trailed off, tears replacing her words as she stood in what was formerly the guest room.

Now it was our nursery.

“Drew, when did you do all this?” she whispered as she floated over to the mobile hanging by the crib. The little moon and star shapes were made of her ticket stubs from all my games she’d gone to during that road trip out west. The moment she realized that, she turned around, flew into my arms around me and kissed me so hard I couldn’t answer her question.

But at this point she didn’t care. 

“I love you,” she whispered,

“I love you so fucking much, Evie,” I said, knowing well that I meant those words more than any I’d ever spoken in my life.

The certainty made me almost want to laugh as I stood there with the full knowledge that I was holding the woman I was going to marry, in the room our child would be sleeping in within seven months. All the most important things in my world were right in this room, and life had never felt so good. Or simple.

I had to smirk as I thought about the total lack of content the tabloids were about to deal with. Drew Maddox Rubs Wife’s Feet Before Bed, Wakes Up First to Change Diapers.

“Why are you laughing to yourself right now?” Evie giggled up at me as I kissed her on the forehead.

“No idea. Too many things,” I grinned.

And it was the truth. I still didn’t have all the answers, but in Evie, I had my definition of love and trust. And if there was anything I knew for sure, it was that if I had her at my side, I had everything I needed.

Now, forever and always.