Real Fake Love (Copper Valley Fireballs #2)(84)

So is Luca’s mom taking the seat next to me in the first inning and asking if we can trade phone numbers so she can do the awkward thing where she texts me to ask questions about Jerry, because he’s been calling her, and she might be considering agreeing to pursue something serious with him, because it’s been a long time since a man’s been this persistent when she’s done nothing but show her ass to him.

It’s literally the only thing all night that makes me laugh, but it feels so damn good to realize I’ve moved on from Jerry.

He was a step in my climb, not the end goal.

The end goal—you know what?

I don’t know what the end goal is.

But I know I’d rather get there with my best friend by my side than bend who I am to try to squeeze into one more wedding gown.

It’s a good thing the suite is big, though most of us are gathered on the porch outside, all of us biting our nails through every single pitch.

“Are you crying?” Marisol asks Tillie Jean.

“No,” Cooper’s sister lies as she swipes at her eyeballs.

“Hell, I’m gonna cry if they win,” Cooper’s brother tells Marisol. “Cooper’s been dreaming of this day since before he was old enough to talk, and none of us ever thought we’d see—”

“Rawk! Shut your pie-hole, motherfucker!” his grandfather’s parrot interrupts. Yes, parrot. Pop Rock—the patriarch of Cooper’s family—is dressed like a pirate and has a parrot. It’s a long story.

“You tell him, Long Beak Silver.” Tillie Jean fist-bumps the parrot, and that simple act relieves the tension that’s been building for three more innings now.

Definitely a good thing I didn’t bring Dogzilla.

Not that my cat would attack the parrot.

Most likely the other way around.

“It’s okay to cry,” Tanesha tells us all. “Being this close to your dreams is emotional. Darren’s played for the Fireballs for four years, and we never thought we’d see the day. Never. Neither one of us can make it two hours without tearing up right now, and that’s not just the sleep deprivation.”

Marisol leans around Tillie Jean to peer at her. “Why’d he stay?”

“Old owner couldn’t get enough for him in a trade.” She rolls her eyes. “Wasn’t our choice, but our hands were tied, and there was nothing his agent could do. So we waited. And hoped. And now…”

She cuts herself off as her voice gets thick, and Tillie Jean bursts into tears again.

“Aww, group hug!” I reach for all of them—all of my new friends—and we squeeze in tight as the Fireballs take the field at the top of the fourth inning.

Luca and Darren are trotting to the outfield together, chatting about who knows what. I asked Luca what they talk about on the field, and he told me sometimes Mario Kart, sometimes what they each thought of last week’s episode of Stacey & Lacey: Twins on a Mission, and sometimes if their pants make their butts look big.

When we have our “The Fireballs are Going to the League Championship Party” after we win this game today, I’m totally asking Darren what they talk about to see if he tells me the same thing.

Considering the outfielders mostly stand around until they have to make a diving catch or leap up to keep a ball from going over the wall to steal a home run from someone, I can believe they’re not talking serious strategy or baseball.

Below us, chants of Bring Back Fiery! roar to life, and we all smile, because there’s no doubt where it started.

But all smiles cease as the game resumes.

It’s up.

It’s down.

The Fireballs give up a run.

The Fireballs get a run.

It’s down to the ninth inning, with our boys all tied up at three, when Cooper steps up to the plate to start us off.

“Go to the bathroom!” Marisol and I shriek together.

We look at each other, then down to Mackenzie’s seats, which we can’t see completely clearly, but we do see a dark-haired woman bolting up the stairs.

Mackenzie’s best friend.

She’s being sent to the bathroom.

Marisol and I share a look.

“What are you waiting for? Both of you!” Tanesha hands the baby to Darren’s mom and grabs us each by an arm. “We’re all going to the bathroom!”

It’s a thing.

Mackenzie swears Cooper hits better when her best friend is in the bathroom, and when I sat with her, she made me go to the bathroom when Cooper was up to bat too.

It’s one hundred percent a thing, and I swear it works more often than it doesn’t.

I grab Tanesha’s hand in my right and Marisol’s hand in my left, and we make a baseball prayer circle over the toilet, and not three seconds later, the entire family suite erupts in screams of joy.

We trip over each other getting out. “What? What happened? Did he do it?”

The baby’s crying, but everyone else is jumping up and down.

Seriously.

Jumping.

Even Pop Rock and his parrot.

Tillie Jean’s sobbing and hugging her mom. Francisco’s abuela is crying and hugging everyone. Someone I don’t know well grabs me and hugs me. Marisol and Tanesha both shriek at the same time and hug each other, jumping up and down as they do.

The Fireballs did it.