“I think I’m the lucky one,” I say.
Penny uses the restroom next, leaving just Ivy and me.
“So you’re the youngest?” I ask.
She nods. “Do you have any siblings?”
I shake my head.
“Sometimes growing up, it felt like I was an only child, too,” she admits. “My oldest brother is fifteen years older than me. I came five years after Liam. It felt like I was the oopsie baby, you know? They were all older and into their own things and just saw me as Mom and Dad’s favorite.”
“You were the baby. Of course you were the favorite,” I say.
She giggles and shrugs as she holds up her nails and inspects them in jest. “That’s probably true.”
I laugh.
“Hey, how long are you two in town? I’d love to hang out with you and get to know you more. Are you around to do brunch tomorrow?” she asks.
I nod. “I’m going to the game tomorrow, so I can meet you before.”
She links her arm through mine. “Oh, good! I’m going, too. We all got a suite, so come with us. We’ll hang out before and basically be besties before we even get there.”
“Perfect,” I say with a wide smile.
When I return to Archer, he’s sitting at our assigned table as we wait for dinner to be served. “You were gone forever,” he says. “I missed you.”
I lean over and press a soft kiss to his lips. “Just getting you back for that time in the Bahamas when you left me for like an hour. And I missed you, too. I was busy becoming besties with your sister.”
He pulls a face of horror, and I laugh.
I bump my shoulder into his. “They’re not so bad, you know.”
“I know. I guess I just got used to being on my own. But this?” He holds up his bottle of beer to indicate the room and all of the people in it. “It’s family.” He leans in a little closer to me. “I can’t help but think how important I want family to be in my own kids’ lives someday downthe road. And I suppose if I do that, I need to live it. I want to make an effort to be closer to my brothers and sisters.”
The words hit me straight out of left field, but then again, that seems to be the case with most things where this man is concerned.
“It’s never too late,” I say softly, repeating the words I said to him when he came to my hotel room to hear me out.
He leans in to kiss me again.
“Get a room!” Dex yells at us from across the table, and we reluctantly pull apart as we both laugh.
This is family. This is teasing and fun, laughter and bonding. It’s everything our future holds for the two of us and for this bigger, extended group, too. It’s baseball games and football games, it’s weddings and celebrations. It’s babies and cousins. It’s love.
And I can’t wait for every second that’s to come.
EPILOGUE: Millie Monroe
Surprise
When the bottom of the ninth begins, a security guard walks into the suite that I've been hanging out in all day. Everybody’s been laughing and drinking and having a great time, and I’m in that perfect zone of being a little tipsy while still fully coherent.
“I'm looking for a Millie Monroe,” the security guard says, his voice booming over the din of the loud and raucous suite.
I raise my hand. “I'm Millie,” I say, and I stand and walk over to him.
“Come with me, please,” he says. I feel nervous that I'm in trouble, and I don't know why that's my first thought. There's nothing I could possibly be in trouble for here since I’m actually dating a player, and I was invited into this suite by his family, who paid for it.
