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—could still make it work?

Eliza Crowley crossed the field and came toward me. My stomach dropped more in that moment than it had in the house of mirrors.

She was here. And she was smiling.

Smiling?

Wait. She couldn’t be. She probably hated me right now.

Breathe, Reed. Chill.

Dad picked up my glove and backed away to leave the two of us alone.

Or as alone as you could be in the middle of a ballpark.

Under blindingly bright lights.

With a few hundred people surrounding you.

She pulled my hat from behind her and handed it to me. “Lost your crown twice and now your hat.” She shook her head. “What are we going to do with you?”

I tugged the hat onto my head and flicked the silver and gold crown on hers. “Maybe I’ll just take yours?”

She laughed, and everything in me ignited. God, I had missed that sound.

But it wouldn’t change what had happened here tonight. What would happen because of tonight. “Eliza, about the game. I’m—I’m so sorry—”

She held up her hand. “You came here to win back that stadium for your family, Reed. You made a promise to your granddad, to your nana, and you kept that promise.”

“But I wouldn’t have made that promise had I known it would make you uproot your whole life.”

“Yes, you would have.” She brushed something off my shoulder. “And so would I, had I been in your shoes. Because family is everything to us.”

I snuck a quick look at mine: My dad, who had his arm around my mom. Proud Granddad and Nana, who looked around the stadium with tears in their eyes.

Family was everything.

But so was she.

I took a step closer to her. “I…I must’ve typed out a dozen texts to you over the last week. I tried to convince myself that the reason I didn’t send any of them was because I wanted you to focus on your Tech Week and kick ass tonight, which I’m sure you did.”

She smiled.

“But that wasn’t why I stayed quiet.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

“So why did you?” She bit her lip as she looked up at me, and my heart squeezed.

“Because I wasn’t ready to admit the truth.” I sighed. “I lied, Eliza. Everything I said at the treehouse was a lie. What I said about the championship, about focusing…I used it all as an excuse.”

“An excuse for what?”

I reached out and took her hand, rubbing my finger over her small wrist tattoo. “For feeling like I wasn’t good enough for you. For thinking you deserved better.”

She took her free hand and cupped the side of my face. Warmth spread over every inch of me at her touch. “I don’t think there’s anyone better than you, Reed.”

I leaned into her hand.

“Then again, you did steal my toys when we were kids.” She raised an eyebrow.