Page 138 of The Score We Never Settled

“And you agreed?”

“Hence, having everything down up until our firstborn son.”

Okay…

I mean, it’s not a bad name. I just always thought we’d decide together if we ever had children.

Not that I’m thinking of children rightnow, but Briggs has more times than me, I’m sure, with his psychopathic energy sometimes.

However, I like that he’s connected with guys since he’s left Magnolia Ridge, and I don’t mind the bet. It’s kind of funny.

“Haze, it is,” I mutter.

Briggs’s smirks. “Are you sayin’ we’re getting pregnant, Layla Jean?”

“Eventually—” I’m swept up in his arms in the next second, spine pressed up against the glass while I’m forced to straddle his waist.

“I’m ready to start whenever you are,” he utters, leaning closer and coaxing me to lose control with him—again. “Just say the word.”

I study him, finding excitement and hope first, but I’m suspicious of what he may do if we do get pregnant.

“Briggs…”

“Mhm?” His lips are only a short distance away, and I feel my resolve of a normal conversation slipping away by the second when his gaze falls to my lips.

“Do you love baseball?”

He doesn’t answer right away, taking more time than I would like, but he finally says, “I do.”

“So…all the times you said you’d give it up, it was because you thought it’d be the only way we’d work?”

His pine greens ascend up to mine. “Maybe.”

“Yes or no, Briggs Kerrigan,” I lightly persuade. “I need to know you love this. That I’m not tellin’ you to stay in something you don’t want to do.”

“I like playin’,” he replies confidently. “But I love you?—”

“I love you, too, but—” His lips crash into mine, hard and wild, and I melt right against him and the glass behind me.

His kiss is soul-snatching. Something I wasn’t expecting but divulge and meet back with.

Everything about him is just intoxicating. It’s this thrilling and emotionally driven high that I’ve tried to suppress and convince myself that I didn’t need.

However, he’s everything I’ve ever wanted.

And so much more.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard you’ve loved me in a long time, Short Stop,” Briggs says against my lips. “I’m gonna want that.”

I bob my head because I get it. “I understand.”

“What are you so worried about?” He squeezes my hips gently and breathes me like I’m on his oxygen supply. “What are you holding back on?”

“Not us,” I reassure him. “But…if we have a family, you’ll drop it because you’ll think I need help.”

“You will need help.”

“I can travel with you. I want you to have and get everything you can with the MLB. You loved the game when we were kids. I don’t want you to think you have to choose. I’m afraid…I’m scared you’ll overthink it. I’m in this with you.”