Page 116 of Last Night Was Fun

Emmy nodded and felt her eyes gloss with a wash of happy tears. “It’s you,” she said, and handed the mic back to the reporter. The stadium had resumed chanting his name.

“Gabe! Gabe! Gabe!”

Emmy hurried down the rest of the stairs to thunderous cheers. She kept her eyes trained on Gabe jogging into the infield now. He crossed the pitcher’s mound, and she could see the grin on his face.He threw up a hand and waved at the crowd, which only prompted them to further lose their minds.

The field security crew had gathered at the short, padded wall separating the stands from the field. Emmy wasn’t about to leap onto the grass and get tackled despite having fifty thousand people cheering on her side. She found her way through the safety net guarding the seats behind home plate from foul balls and stopped at the wall to wait for Gabe. He jogged the rest of the way, and instead of stopping him, the security team cleared a path for him, probably wanting the show to be over so they could keep the game on schedule. Gabe effortlessly hopped up and climbed over the small wall.

He was suddenly standing in front of Emmy giving her his signature cocky grin she knew was just for show. She knew the man behind it now, better than anyone. Every fiber of her being had missed him, and she knew without a doubt how she felt about him. The rest of the world—all fifty thousand screaming members of it—faded away as she looked for the truth in his eyes. She didn’t have the microphone anymore, but their faces were still on the scoreboard; she could see them out of the corner of her eye.

“Hell of an apology, Jameson,” he said.

“I considered spicy takeout but opted for larger scale.”

“Had to one-up me.”

“I learned from the best.”

He grinned at her.

“I’m really sorry, Gabe. For what I said yesterday. I made an assumption, and with my history in the department and your reputation—”

“I deserved at least some of what you said,” he said with a knowing nod. “I know my behavior hasn’t always been exemplary. But those rumors about getting someone fired, it wasn’t—”

“I know. Alice told me the truth. I’m sorry I assumed the worst.” She shook her head in shame. “Thank you for what you did for me though. That was really selfless of you.”

He gave her a small shrug. “Like I said: you deserve the job. I can’t stand in your way.”

She ached to touch him—and based on the noise roaring outside their bubble, everyone wanted to see it.

But she needed to know something first.

“Can you forgive me?”

He tilted his head like he might have been considering. Her heart tripped over a few beats. But then he smiled again. “Well, I mean, youdidjust make one of my dreams come true.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” he said, and gestured at the field beside them. “Never thought I’d get to hear a whole stadium chanting my name as I took the field.”

Emmy hadn’t even realized her plan had played right into that scenario. What a happy coincidence.

“We aim to please,” she said with a casual shrug. “Any other dreams I can make come true?”

Gabe stepped forward and cupped her cheek with his palm. His eyes melted into warm pools, and he softly smiled. “You already have. My feelings are greater than everything too. I love you, Bird Girl.”

The words landed both featherlight for how easy and comfortable they were to hear, and with a sudden gravity anchoring her to him in a way she’d never experienced before. She didn’t even have to think before she said it back, because the feeling had been ripening inside her for ages. A seed planted years ago that had finally blossomed with the right care. The probability they’d end up together had likely always been high, but it took random chance, a fateful stroke of luck, and a ten-digit string of numbers for them to find their way.

And Emmy never wanted to turn back.

“I love you too, Axe Murderer,” she told him, and then kissed him to her favorite sound on earth. A baseball stadium full of cheering fans.

Epilogue

You know, I should have seen it coming that your endgame would be luring me to a remote location to finish me off. Well played, Axe Murderer.

Not that kind of endgame, Bird Girl. Relax.

I’m perfectly calm. But where am I headed?