“I saw what happened on my Twitter feed. That was really clever.”
He shrugged. “It was the least I could do. Heidi, I’ve screwed up with you from the beginning. I should have moved heaven and earth to find you after spring break. But I’m not making that mistake again.” He grabbed my other hand. “Please say you’ll give us another shot. Please let me—”
“You were right,” I interrupted. “About spring break. It wasn’t the right time. And you have a career. A great career and I can’t expect you to be at my beck and call.”
“Not your beck and call, but I’m not going to lie about it, either. I still want you to move in. I still want—”
“And I had to figure out what I wanted first. I needed to decide about law school and journalism. About who I am and—”
“I don’t care what you do. I just want you with me.”
“—who I want to be with.” I took a breath. “I want to be with you, Rob. I want it more than anything.”
“I love you, Heidi. I have since spring break. I was just too stupid to realize it before.”
I stared at him, his words replaying in my mind. We’d been speaking so fast, talking over each other, but his last words caught up to my brain and I was stunned into silence. Had he really said what I thought he did? Was he really as in love with me as I was with him?
Then before I could ask, he said it again.
“I love you, Heidi. Whatever you do, whatever comes, I want to be with you.”
And then I realized that he really had just chosen me over baseball. He’d come here instead of playing in Indianapolis. And he wanted to be with me even though I was still a journalist. Especially since he didn’t realize I’d figured out a work-around.
“Heidi? Say something.”
I grinned. I flat-out grinned. And then in defiance of every rule my parents had about the house, I whooped in glee. “Yes, yes!” I cried. “I love you, too!”
And then we were kissing. Right there beside the Wall of Accomplishments while his five-o’clock shadow sensitized my lips to a delicious degree. And we would have gone on kissing while my toes curled, and he lifted me up in his arms, except my mother’s voice interrupted us.
“Aiya. So dramatic. That’s not good for a lawyer. But for a journalist? That’s very important. Now stop that and come and drink some tea.”
Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
Heidi
“I don’t know how you did it.” Hank’s voice was admiring, but I wasn’t fooled. “Fifteen years in this business and I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He was angling for the secret to my success as he leaned his forearms on his desk. “The Bobcats don’t allow any of their players to give an interview. Not like this. And certainly not to a no-name journalist.”
I grinned as I saw the mock-up for tomorrow’s paper. Front and center on the sports page was my article on the secrets to home run success. It was all about the mind-set that makes a good hitter, starting with patience. I’d managed interviews with all the big run guys, but the one with the most column inches was our very own Bobcats star Rob Lee. Especially since he was well on his way to breaking the team’s slugging percentage record.
“It was all sleight of hand,” I confessed. “I wrote the article about Rob first, then told everyone if they wanted their guy in it, they had to let me do an interview.”
“But how did you get the Bobcats to agree?”
That was the best part. “I told them I had everyone else. If they wanted Rob in it, then they had to let me do the interview.”
Hank shook his head. “That’s still some major tap-dancing. You sure you don’t want to stay in sports? The city desk is a hard beat.”
Hell, no. That had been part of my deal with the Bobcats. Rob wasn’t violating his “no journalists” rule if this was my one and only sports story. And since I only cared about Rob and not the sport he played, I was thrilled to accept a full-time position at theIndianapolis Suncity beat. I had benefits and everything, not to mention people who would teach me what I needed to learn to go all the way.
But first, I had to accept one other thing. I held out my hand and Hank slapped a check into it. Payment for my article. Proof positive that I was going to make it as a journalist.
“A pleasure doing business with you,” I quipped as I stood up.
“You’ll still come around and help me with the interns, right?” he asked as he pushed to his feet.
“Nope. That’s your job now. I’ve got bigger and better fish to fry.” And with that, I waved goodbye. Five minutes later, I was outside and entwining my fingers with Rob’s.
