In Her Own League — 42 Emmett

42

EMMETT

Well, I’m going out with a win, so that’s something, I guess.

I wasted as much time as I could. Held off as long as I could as I sat in my office. But now the players are gone, and the advisory board meeting is going to be starting any minute if it hasn’t already.

It’s not that I’m dreading this part. I’m not at all, actually. I know in my bones this is the right thing to do. That my motives are true. But these are my last few moments being the field manager for the Windy City Warriors and I want to soak in every second I can.

So yeah, I’m taking my time.

That time dwindles down as I ride the elevator to the top floor, and I take it all in on the long walk down to the conference room. I give Reese’s office door a long stare as I pass by it.

It’s not as if I’m never going to be back here. Reese will still own this team. Isaiah will still play here. Kai and Kennedy will still be on the staff.

But this is the last time I will be.

As I near the floor-to-ceiling windows that make up the conference room walls, I spot Scott already running his mouth about something.

Pompous in the way he leans back in his chair.

Smug in the way he smiles at Reese.

Reese.

Sitting at the head of the table, she’s dressed to the nines per usual, and not showing any signs of weakness as she listens to him. Blonde hair is styled sharp to hit just below the line of her jaw, and she’s wearing heels that look severe enough that she could puncture Scott’s tiny little dick if she wanted.

Her expression, as she listens to him ramble on, is screaming that she wants to.

It’s the first time I’ve seen her since she showed me the pictures in the dugout yesterday morning. Just seeing her again, even through a glass

partition, reenforces my resolve to do what I need to do.

I push open the door to the conference room, just as Scott says, “We’ll take a vote. All in favor of Reese stepping down as President of Baseball

Operations, raise your hand.”

Scott’s hand flies up immediately.

“There’s no need for a vote,” I cut in, letting the door close behind me. “It won’t matter. I quit.”

Silence stalls the rest of the group from voting before chaos ensues in the

conference room.

“What?”

“No, you’re not!”

“Absolutely not, Monty!” are all blurted out by the advisory board members as they talk over one another.

“You’re not quitting,” Scott states, a bit of panic etched on his face.

“Yes, I am. No way in hell will I work for you.”

“That’s not part of the—”

“Part of the what?” I test. “Were you going to say it’s not part of the deal?

Is that what you’re calling it now?”

“What is he talking about?” Phil asks, eyes shooting to Scott.

The room is uneasy. There’s an obvious confusion happening, from both me storming in here to quit my job as well as Scott randomly coming up with a vote to take Reese’s position out from under her.

“Emmett,” Reese says coolly, standing from her seat at the head of the table. “You’re not quitting your job. Take a seat. I’ve got this.”

“Yep. Great.” I do as she says, taking the chair next to Ed.

Ed smiles at me, as if he were welcoming me to a dinner table and not the battleground I just stepped into.

Reese looks absolutely lethal with the way she stands at the head of the table, hands flat on the top of it, blue eyes scorching Scott in his seat.

So fucking hot, I swear.

“We’re not voting on anything here.”

He lifts a testing eyebrow. “You really want to play this game?”

“We don’t vote. That’s not how it works, and you especially don’t get to vote me out of my job. There’s only one opinion that matters, and it’s mine.

This is my club. This is my team. Whatever I say goes.

“I’ve let the four of you intimidate me for long enough. You seem to have forgotten who signs your paychecks. You work for me, not the other way

around. In this working relationship there’s only one of us that’s irreplaceable. And that’s me. Understand?”

“Reese,” Scott seethes. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Firing you.”

Fuck me, she is so hot.

“I’ll release them.” Scott stands from his seat as well. “Do not test me.”

“Release what?” Phil asks.

“Photos of Emmett and me,” she says simply. “Oh yeah, we’re together.

Surprise! And Scott had us followed and photographed so he could blackmail me into giving him my position.”

Phil and the rest of the board, besides Ed, seem utterly shocked. Maybe over the news about her and me. Maybe over the realization of what Scott

did.

“Go ahead, Scott. Release them.”

His jaw tics. “They’ll eat you alive, Reese.”

She shrugs so casually. “I can handle it.”

Reese has said that phrase to me so many times before. I can handle it, or I’ll take care of it. I’ve always insisted that she shouldn’t have to. And it’s true again this time. She shouldn’t have to deal with the shit the press is going to say about her, but that’s not the point here. The point is, Reese can

handle it.

Of course she can.

Here I was, thinking I was going to come in and save her, but she’s too busy saving herself.

Scott retakes his seat, but she stays standing, looming over the table.

There’s an eerie calm about her. She’s got so much fire in her, but it’s controlled and wielded perfectly to get her exactly what she wants.

I fucking love it.

She makes her next words perfectly clear, careful to enunciate each one slowly.

“Do not dare threaten me or what’s mine, ever again.” She points my way without looking in my direction. “And that includes him.”

I smack Ed in the arm before pointing to Reese. “That’s my girl.”

A grin twitches on Reese’s lips, but she doesn’t break her ruinous stare from the other four men.

“Reese . . .” Phil cuts in with a nervous chuckle. “We had no idea that he was—”

“I do not care if you didn’t know about this or if you weren’t involved with what Scott was attempting to do. You four”—she gestures to everyone but Ed—“have disrespected me all season long. You have undermined me, attempted to set me up for failure. But this is my building. This is my team.

I gave you months to remember that, but time is up.” She retakes her seat, leaning back in her chair. “You four are fired effective immediately.”

“You can’t do that!” one of them argues.

“Actually, the crazy thing about me being the sole owner of this club is that I can! And the beautiful piece of all of this—honestly, it worked out so lovely for me—is that your salaries will help relieve some of the pressure on the budget and give room for Emmett’s well-deserved raise next season.

Isn’t that just great? Remember, Scott, when you wanted me to focus on the budget? Look at me. I found a solution!”

Scott stands from his seat, frantically trying to find a shred of hope for his plan. “You cannot be his boss! No one would think that was appropriate.”

I wave him off. “Oh, sit down and shut the fuck up, Scott.”

“It’s okay, Em,” Reese cuts in. “He’s right. I can’t be.”

My attention shoots to her. What the hell does that mean?

“But what you didn’t know, Scott, is that for the past week and a half, I’ve been meeting with our legal team as well as human resources, working on a solution so that I wouldn’t be Emmett’s direct supervisor. So I could still keep him on my staff.”

The last week and a half? We only found out about Scott’s threats yesterday.

“I know you thought I wouldn’t have had time to find a solution, seeing as you only gave me one day’s notice of this meeting, so lucky me, things were already in motion.”

She turns toward Ed. “Ed here will now serve as Vice President of Baseball Ops. He’ll be handling the coaching staff of not only our major league team, but also our minor league system. All coaching hires, promotions, and salary negotiations will go directly through him, while I’ll continue to do the same for the players. The new title comes with a nice raise too. So, congrats, Ed! Good on ya.”

He smiles knowingly at her. “Thank you, Reese. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Well . . .” She exhales a long breath, a self-satisfied smile on her lips as she looks around. Four speechless and stunned men stare back at her. “That

should about do it. Oh, one more thing.” She reaches into her bag, pulling out three packets and sliding them across the table to three of the four freshly fired board members. “Your severance. Not that you deserve it, but I’ve got to keep things above board around here. Clearly, you broke your contract, Scott, with that little threat of yours, so nothing for you.”

She stands, hands on her hips, and nods as she looks around the room, really playing up the whole thing.

“Okay, yeah. That’s all I had. Great meeting. Thanks for calling everyone together, Scott.” She grabs her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. “Security will escort you four to your cars.”

On her way to the exit, she runs her hand over my shoulder, giving me a squeeze before she goes. And as she walks out the door, her head is held high, as it should be.

This woman is truly in her own league in every sense of the phrase.

I’m sat here utterly speechless, and so fucking in love with her.

What the hell just happened?

I spent the past twenty-four hours mentally detaching myself from this job and coming to terms with losing it. But here I am, still employed, sitting in the field manager’s seat in the dugout, and trying to wrap my head around that.

Trying to wrap my head around everything.

It seems too good to be true. I’m still here. Reese is still here. We’re good. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to quite trust it yet. That doesn’t want to get my hopes up that things will be okay.

But it’s hard not to feel hopeful after watching Reese handle business the way she just did. Anyone who ever doubted she has what it takes to run this place should be eating their words right about now.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Reese turns the corner, finding me sitting on the ledge above the bench behind the small partition, the same way I’ve found her here so many times

before.

“I stole your spot.”

She tilts her head. “I thought we were sharing it?”

“Yeah. We are. Come here.”

Reaching out, I slip my hand around the side of her neck, pulling her mouth to meet mine. I kiss her. Firmly and with a mixture of desperation

and relief to quiet that small part of me that thought I might never get the chance to kiss her again.

She sighs into me, kissing me back with the same eagerness.

“Are you okay?” I whisper against her mouth.

She nods, kissing me one more time before she pulls back so she can look at me, one perfectly shaped brow arched high. “You were going to quit your job?”

“Of course I was. I wasn’t willing to lose you.”

“Lose me?” Her head rears back, hands dropping to my thighs. “You could never lose me.”

“I don’t know. It felt like I was losing you yesterday. Things seemed oddly final when we left here.” I chuckle half-heartedly. “I thought you might break up with me.”

She’s so utterly confused in the way she’s looking at me.

“Why would I break up with you? Emmett, I’m in love with you.”

Oh. Wow. It’s surreal to hear those words come out of her mouth. They hit differently after not hearing them for so long. After believing I might never hear them again.

It also hits differently hearing it from the one woman you’ve been

desperate to tell the same to.

“I was going to tell you first.”

A smile curves her lips. “Well, be quicker next time.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Her head falls back in a laugh and it’s such a lovely sound to hear after a stressful day. I think I could live off that sound.

Pulling on her hips, I bring her in. “Come up here with me.”

Holding her steady, she steps onto the rickety wooden bench, before I settle her on one of my thighs while I sit on the ledge.

She wraps her arm around my neck, her other hand stroking gently along my jaw. “I’m sorry if I made myself seem distant yesterday. I was overwhelmed with how much I had to do. I was up all night, finalizing things with legal, making sure everything could be ready to go quicker than I had planned. I didn’t mean to make you doubt anything. I was just trying to protect you the way you do so often for me.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “When did you start all of this?”

“Right after we got back from Colorado.” Her smile is a bit sheepish. “I drove straight to my grandfather’s house from the airport to get his advice. I

don’t know, Em. I’ve loved you for longer than that, but something about spending that day together made me realize it was time to stop hiding it.”

Ten days. She’s been working on this for ten days. She told her grandfather ten days ago, after our trip to Colorado. After spending the day with me in a place that holds so many special memories that I wanted to share with her.

It may not seem like a big deal to publicly declare our relationship, but for Reese, she’s risked everything to do just that. And more importantly, she made that decision for herself. Her hand wasn’t forced by some bullshit

threat.

So yeah, it’s a big fucking deal to me.

I drop a kiss on her shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you.”

“It was the week of Miller’s wedding. I didn’t want you to be distracted by anything else. I didn’t want you worrying about me. I was planning to tell you this week. I was going to set up a meeting with you and HR, then everything happened so quickly. After yesterday, I just needed to handle it.

You’ve taken care of a lot of people for a lot of years, Em. For once, I wanted to take care of you.”

It feels vulnerable, in a way, allowing someone else to take care of you.

But having someone like Reese, powerful in her actions yet thoughtful in the way she goes about them, to be the one who has my back, how could I not feel secure in that?

She takes care of me in the same way I take care of her. With the other’s best interest in mind.

We’re a team, and I couldn’t have picked a better teammate.

Arm wrapped around her hip to keep her steady on my lap, I stroke my thumb over the softness there. “There’s something we still need to be prepared for. Scott is going to release those pictures. After you bruised his little ego in there, he’s probably already sending them off to someone.”

“Do you think I made him cry? I’ve always wanted to make a grown man cry.”

My chest rumbles in a silent laugh. “I have faith you’ll be able to accomplish whatever you put your mind to. You were terrifying in there and

it was so fucking hot.”

Her smile goes wide. “Yeah?”

“Poor Ed had to sit next to me while I was just drooling over you. Don’t know if I’ve ever been so turned on.”

Chuckling, she drops her mouth to mine again. When she pulls back, she reaches into her back pocket and pulls out her phone.

“This is the other thing I’ve been working on.” With her thumb, she scrolls through her email. “I did an interview last week with a big-name sports magazine. There’s a woman on staff who had reached out to me a few times wanting to do a piece on me being the first female owner in the league. But the timing never felt right. And I didn’t feel like I had enough to say yet.” She clicks on something, allowing a news article to take over her screen. “But this felt like the right time and for the right reason. I wanted to control the narrative about our relationship as best I could. I wanted a woman journalist to be the one to write the story. I know so many people are going to have so much to say, but maybe it’ll help if we get ahead of it.

Get our side out first. That’s the other thing that kept me occupied today.

She was finalizing the article so it could go live once I showed you and got your approval.”

Reese hands me her phone. “I’m hoping for it to go live first thing in the morning, if you’re okay with that.”

I don’t even need to read it to know that I’m okay with it. That I’m great with it.

I will never get over how bright this woman is. How strategic she is when she needs to be. How thoughtful she is always. Even now, holding on to an article that will paint her in a better light than anything Scott could come up with, but sitting on it to make sure I’m good with what she had to say. That I’m good with our relationship going public.

“So just to be clear here, you’re not breaking up with me?”

“I think we can confidently agree that option is off the table.” Her laugh is soft. “You’re my person, Em. It took me thirty-five years to find you. I’m not letting you go now.”

Oh, fuck. That confession hit right where it needed to land. Reese has said I’m her safe place, but she might not know she’s mine. Giving me that kind of reassurance, I’m not sure she realizes how safe she makes me feel too.

“Hey, Reese.” I push her hair behind her ear, running my thumb over her gold earrings, the way I so often do. “I’m in love with you too.”

“I know.” There’s a sweet smile on her lips. “Even if you never told me, I already knew. It’s clear in the way you look at me. In the way you speak to

me and speak to others about me. My hope is to make you feel as loved as you make me.”

“You do, baby. I . . .” I shake my head. “I didn’t know if I’d ever feel like this again, and I’m not letting you go.”

She gestures to the phone in my hands.

I begin to read the article. It’s mostly about Reese, as it should be. Her experience, her education, her background and history with this baseball club. She speaks about the pressure she’s under, being a woman in this industry. I’ve witnessed that pressure, and know her feelings surrounding that. But it’s kind of beautiful to see her tell the world how vulnerable she feels.

She’s worn a metaphorical suit of armor since she got here, letting the hits bounce off her, and not allowing anyone to know when one landed. It takes an enormous amount of strength for someone to admit how badly you want something and how scared you are to not do well. And that’s exactly what Reese is doing in this article.

Eventually, I get to the piece about me.

There’s not a lot, and there doesn’t need to be. This is about her. But there

are some lines that stick out.

“He’s my most trusted sounding board.”

“I feel fortunate to know that he has the team’s best interest at heart, the same way I do.”

“When I came back to the Warriors, I walked in with the idea that I was going to treat everything as a business. The staff, the players. They were all pieces of the business. Emmett doesn’t do that. This is his family, and being around him this season reminded me of that. Of what it was like for me to grow up around the team. Baseball has always been about family.”

But I think the last line is the one that might stay with me forever.

“How lucky am I to have found the person I love most in the place I love most.”

“Reese,” I exhale, clicking the side of her phone to lock the screen. “This is everything. This is perfect. Thank you. I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m proud of me too. But there are a few other things that didn’t make the article. Things I need to say that are for only you to hear.”

I give her my full attention.

“Before you, I had never felt seen.”

Oh, my heart.

“I didn’t have someone to witness my every day. The mundane moments, but also my biggest accomplishments. No one was there to see them for themselves. Even if they were technically there, no one ever saw me. It’s easy to get lost when you’re no one’s number one. Easy to be forgotten. It was strange and lonely, even if I didn’t admit it, to go through life without being seen. But I think you see me, Emmett.”

I swallow back the emotions sitting in my throat. She has no idea just how blessed I feel to be the one granted the opportunity to see her.

“Yeah, baby. I do see you. And it’s been one of my greatest privileges, to witness you live your life. To see you for who you are.”

Her eyes are a touch glassy as she nods, soaking in my words.

“And I hope you trust me when I tell you that I love you, Emmett. I’m an overthinker. I’ve already thought of every reason why I shouldn’t and yet I still do.”

My chest rumbles with a silent laugh. “I know you do, Reese. I love you too. Any plausible reason not to flew out of the window a while ago. Maybe the day you walked back in here. I didn’t know that love would find me like this, but you’ve had my attention for a long time, and I can’t look away.”

She bites back her smile before pressing her lips to mine once again.

“And lastly,” she says when she pulls back. “You need to know that I would’ve given my job up for you, the same way you tried to give yours up for me. There’s not a question in my mind. This career is no longer the thing I want most out of life. You are. But I’m glad I didn’t have to give this up because when I picture our future together, I see us here. Together.”

Here. On this field. Running this team together for a lot of years to come.

In the place I love most with the person I love most.

“You and me.” I slip my hand into her hair, gliding my thumb over her cheekbone. “And when we’re done here, who will be next? Who’s going to take over for you?”

She shrugs so casually, as if she doesn’t already have a plan. “Who knows, maybe Max will take an interest in baseball. Baseball is family, after all. We should keep it in ours, don’t you think?”