“Naomi, part of what I love about you is that you liked me without knowing who I was in baseball. I don’t want easy women who care nothing about me. I want you. I missed a game, rushed back and didn’t even stop to change my vomit-covered shirt because you’re more important to me than all of that.”
I take a step toward her and she starts to speak. But I stop her. “And if that’s not enough, all you have to do is tell me what I need to do because I’ve never been more sure in my life about another person than I am about you.”
She takes a step toward me, then stops. “And the other women?”
I cringe, because I know how I would feel if I saw pictures like that of her with other men. “There’s no other women. Those pictures were from before. Way before I met you. There won’t be any other women. You’re all I want. You’re all I need.”
I reach my hand out to her and she looks at it and then back at me. “You promise you won’t lie to me or keep things from me? I can’t do this… I can’t always worry when you go out of town who you’re with or what you’re doing.”
She finally puts her hand into mine and I tug her toward me. She scrunches up her nose at the smell. I quickly pull off my shirt and the women in the room all giggle. “Sorry about that. Baby vomit from the plane. I promise to tell you any and everything as long as you promise not to disappear on me ever again. I know it’s soon, but being away from you has killed me, Naomi. I’ve fallen for you. I’ve fallen hard.”
Her face blooms into a beautiful smile and she reaches on her tiptoes to kiss me. I gather her close, giving her the sexy, hot kiss she deserves. The ladies in the room applaud and start hollering encore as we pull apart.
With swollen lips and a happy smile, Naomi says, “I guess I’d better get used to being in the public eye.”
Epilogue
Neil
A few weeks later
“I don’t see what the big deal is. I gave my neighbor my key. He waters my plants,” Naomi says with her hands on her hips. We’re standing inside her apartment and the more sassy she gets the more I want to quit this conversation and take her back to the bedroom.
I hate to do it, but I’m going there. “Okay, well, I guess you’d be all right with me giving my neighbor my key to the house so she can water my plants?”
Her forehead creases, and then she starts to laugh. “You don’t have plants.”
But the joke’s on her. I’ve got some. “When I saw all the ones you have here, I wanted you to feel at home at my place, so I got some.”
She shakes her head. “I’ll water your plants.”
Shaking my head, I finally walk over to her grab her hand, tugging her down onto my lap as I sit down on the couch. She tries to get up, but I hold on to her. “You can’t water my plants. This summer when school’s out, I’m hoping you’re going to travel to my games. You and Jackie can come together.”
“Well, then, my mom or one of her friends can water your plants,” she says as I kiss her neck.
“How about this? You move into my house and we won’t have to worry about who has the key to your apartment.”
She gasps, opens her mouth and closes it again. When she’s finally able to talk again, she murmurs, “I’ll get the key back from him. That’s not a reason to move in together, just because you don’t want a man in my apartment.”
She rolls her eyes at me and I almost want to swat her ass. But I resist.
I lift my hips a little and reach into my pocket and hold the little blue box open between us. “I’m supposed to be on one knee for this, but I think this is perfect right here. Because this is where you belong… with me. I love you, Naomi. I loved you the minute I laid eyes on you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m not asking you to move in with me because some man has the key to your apartment. I’m asking you to move in because I want you to be my wife. I love you, baby. Will you marry me?”
With tears falling down her cheeks, she nods her head at me. “I love you too, Neil.”
THE END