The Third Baseman (The New York Lions #1)

by Lulu Moore

But you still looked so beautiful tonight, Marn. So fucking beautiful. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you.” “It was totally worth it.” Her fingers were twisting the ends of my hair, which was almost long enough for her to wrap around her index finger now.

When I think back, I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I didn’t kiss her. Instead, perhaps stupidly, I pulled away. I wanted to hear it. “Marnie, I love you.” “I know,” she smiled, leaning in again.

My world was in danger of shifting.

“You left me on the porch.”

“You loved me, and the next day you were drafted and broke my heart, out of the blue… poof. We were broken. You broke us.”

but she was the one who broke us first.

“I was sixteen! I was completely in love with you, and I wasn’t ready to be three thousand miles apart. Sixteen, Jupiter!”

But you… ours was the relationship I mourned. You are the one I mourned. You died. We died. I can’t survive that again!”

“Fourteen years, three months, and thirteen days, Marnie. That's how many days I've loved you, and you've been my first and last thought for every single fucking one. So I guess the question is whether you’re going to let me.”

I couldn’t stop myself from brushing my knuckles against her cheek. “I’m going home. You need to figure out what you want your future to look like, and I don’t want to be here if you decide it doesn’t include me.” I kissed the top of her head as she broke into heavy, rasping sobs; every single one a bullet to my chest. When I reached the elevator and glanced up, her face had dropped into her hands, her chest heaving like she couldn’t breathe. I watched until the doors closed, and for the second time in my life, I left Marnie Matthews on her doorstep, holding my heart while I walked away.

And I choose Jupiter.

“The weeks after the draft, he was a mess. It’s the first time I remember him really crying… like not from a ball smashing into his face or something, really hard sobbing. I heard him one night and didn’t know what to do. He was my big brother, but for two weeks, he only left his room to eat or train.”

“Jupiter stormed out the other night and told me to figure out what I wanted my future to look like, but I already knew. I wanted my future to be our future; I’ve never not wanted that. I was just scared of it all blowing up; scared of him leaving me on the doorstep again… Except when he did, I expected it to be a thousand times worse than it was.” I took a massive bite of my toast and eggs. Sleeping had almost given me a bigger appetite than sex. “Understanding that I was partly responsible for our breakup lifted a huge weight off my shoulders, and when I finally stopped crying, I slept. And sleeping really helps you think clearly.”

Our lives. Mine and Jupiter’s. Together.

He’d found me. From the way his body turned and his massive biceps crossed over his chest, I knew he’d found me. I couldn’t see his face, but I was willing to bet all the stars in the sky he was glaring at me, eyes narrowed and piercing, his jaw clenched tight. Just like his poster. He didn’t look away, didn’t look over to the Jumbotron, just stayed trained on me, my sign, and the huge black letters which read: JUPITER, I HAVE A QUESTION. I waited, staring straight at him, and not over to the Jumbotron where I could see myself in perfect color; big and bold. “Turn it around,” Lowe hissed. “Oh, right.” WILL YOU BE MY BOYFRIEND?

A grin spread slowly on his face, stretching out his full lips until it was a smile reaching from ear to ear; bigger than I’d ever seen it. The stadium was so silent you could hear the birds singing outside, and the jets flying overhead. You could have heard a pin drop. Then, he nodded. Slowly, teasingly, but he nodded. Nothing could stop the smile taking over my face as I slowly dropped the sign so he could read my shirt. He glanced at the Jumbotron then bent back, throwing a laugh out high enough and loud enough to startle the birds. JUPITER REEVES IS MY BOYFRIEND

“Hello, Marnie Matthews.” I blinked away the emotion in my eyes. “Hey.” He held his hand out. “I caught you a ball.” I took it, soaking in the soft smile as he looked down at me. I wanted to bathe in this feeling forever; warm and glowy, and perfect. “Thank you.” “Nice shirt.” He reached out, his fingers slipping under the neck and pulled me to him. His hand fisted the material, and I didn’t have a second to think before his lips crashed onto mine, not that I would have changed the outcome under any circumstance. I wasn’t sure what was louder; my groan or the cheer from the crowds watching us around the stadium. But I didn’t get a chance to enjoy more than the briefest taste of him, the quickest swipe of his tongue before our perfect moment was ruined.

Then I got to see the wavy line he drew in the dirt, the way he always did. But for the first time, I realized that it was more than a wavy line… much more than a wavy line. I saw it for what it really was. An M – for Marnie. How had I never recognized it? Though I knew a small voice, Jupiter’s inside voice, was telling me it was because I’d never truly acknowledged his truth, that he’d never stopped loving me, and his future was our future.

Jupiter Reeves was my boyfriend.

He stared, really stared, as though seeing me for the first time. It was the way he’d stared at me that first day in Penn Shepherd’s office. The way he stared as he helped me pick up my text books in the hallway after Josh Ridley knocked me over.

I brushed my hand over his soft whiskers and cupped his cheek. “I know, but I’m here now, and I won’t miss another one.” He took my palm, placing it to his lips. His breath was hot against them as he said, “I want to read what’s on your shirt.” I stepped back, so he could. He read it over and over, until his eyes misted. “I fucking love you, Marn.”

“But, Marn… what is it?” My eyes flicked to his, and back to the paper. “It’s our house.” It took a couple of seconds for him to blink. “You drew out our house?” I searched his face like he was searching mine. It had taken half our lifetimes, but we’d finally found each other again. For good. The knowledge of that, the weight of it in my chest was so overwhelming, it caught in my throat and spilled from the corner of my eyes. “I love you, Jupiter. I love you so much. I’ve never stopped loving you, ever. In all these years, you’re the only one who’s ever truly owned my heart. I’m sorry I didn’t say it to you the other day, I was just scared; terrified, really,” I sniffed, “but you asked me what I wanted my future to look like, so I’m showing you. My future is our future. I see you and me, in this house, a home that we build together.” He rolled his lips, chewing lightly on the bottom one. “What else does the house have?”

“Here’s where the playroom would be.” His eyes shot up. “Playroom?” “For our kids. I was thinking three, maybe four.” His arms snuck around my waist, and rested just above my ass. “What about the observatory?” “No changes. It’s perfect exactly how you described it.” I glanced up at him, my heart filled to the brim, which carried on and overflowed. If I looked down I’d be standing in a puddle of it; a puddle of my love, for Jupiter. “For real, Jupe, will you be my boyfriend?”

But I didn’t care because my hand was in my boyfriend’s hand, where it belonged. Jupiter Reeves, my boyfriend. Jupiter Reeves who belonged to me. Again. Finally.

But as long as Marnie was sitting next to me, and the small velvet covered box was burning a hole in my pocket, then I figured everything else could be bought.

Especially as we had The Edge. The Edge, who was now softly snoring away in the passenger seat, catching up on all the sleep she didn’t get last night. The Edge I was totally taking credit for.

She was worth everything.

Twenty. Ten. She let out a loud gasp. Bingo. “Oh… Jupiter,” she breathed out in a way I definitely wanted to hear again later, maybe even as soon as we checked into our hotel. Her eyes widened. “We’re really going here? You’re taking me to Joshua Tree?”

We’d returned at twilight to find the outdoor bathtub steaming full and overflowing with bubbles, all catching the light of a thousand candles, and a trillion emerging stars. We’d now been in the bath close to an hour watching the sky. An empty bottle of champagne was resting in a slowly melting ice bucket off to the side.

“Do you remember the first time you introduced me to the Milky Way? The first time we watched it together and I saw a shooting star?” She tore her eyes away from the sky and met mine, with a nod and a broad smile. “I wished for you.”

“What?” Her head tipped back, and the bubbles rose up as she moved closer. “What d’you mean?” “I’d never been in love before, but that night… laying there, drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn… I never wanted it to end, so I wished for you forever. I knew that night I would fall in love with you, that we’d always be together. Even when we broke up, somehow I always knew I’d find you again, that we’d find each other. It wasn’t easy. I’d wake up some nights and miss you so much I could feel my heart cracking again, but all I had to do was look up to the sky, and I knew you’d be somewhere else doing the same.”

I swallowed down the emotion threatening to break in my voice and reached under the bath for the little box I’d placed there while she’d been setting up her telescope. “I love you so much, Marn. So, so much. I can’t imagine ever being without you, and I don’t have any intention of it happening again.” I swallowed once more, this time to buy me a seco...

want to be your boyfriend.” She didn’t blink as I opened the box, and the only way I knew she was breathing was from the movement of air over the bubbles by her chest. She stared down at the ten-carat blue diamond set in a gold band twisted with diamond dust; a hazy, glowy Milky Way of her very own. The Milky Way was where it all began. “If you’ll have me, I’d like to be your husband.” Her brows creased so much they nearly touched, and her nose crinkled in confusion. “You’re asking me to marry you?” “Yes,” I nodded. She brushed her fingers over the stone, and delicately removed it from the velvet casing holding it in place. Just as delicately, I took it from her. “What do you say, Marn. Will you marry me?” There were ten seconds of shocked silence before she replied, “Yes! Yes, of course I’ll marry you.” I slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand. She was still looking at it, twisting her hand and watching as the diamond caught the light, when I reached down through the water and grabb...