Page 55 of Tame the Player

She shudders a breath. “Okay, we’ll try this out.”

I chuckle. “This is not a trial run, Cat. This is for me to shamelessly convince you to be mine.”

“Okay.”

I grip on to her waist. “Okay?”

She presses her breasts against my chest. “Convince me.”

And I promise myself right now that I’m going to do just that.

EPILOGUE

CAT

Three Months Later

“Any regrets?” I ask Holden as I look around the big space. Only one month ago, this was an empty warehouse. Now it’s full of pitching lanes, hitting lanes, a weight lifting area, and a therapy room.

He wraps his arms around me. “Not one.”

Since the day he retired as a professional baseball player and then turned down the coaching job, I’ve asked him the same question at least once a week. “You don’t miss it at all?”

He kisses the top of my head. “Where is this coming from? I thought you’d be happy about me opening the training center.”

I curl into him, pressing my cheek against his chest. How do I explain to him everything I’m feeling? Of course, I’m happy he put the training center here in Whiskey Run. And he’s already proven that he’s going to be busy. Heck, there are pro athletes that are scheduling time to come here and train with him, and I have no doubt he’s going to make a success of this, but I still can’t help but question him. I don’t want him to ever resent me for this decision. “I am happy… I just want you to be happy.”

He pulls back to look me in the face. “You make me happy.”

I can’t look at him and let him see all my insecurity. I was scared when I moved me and Cole into Holden’s home and I kept thinking it would be temporary. For the first month, I held a part of my heart back, waiting for it all to fall apart, but Holden made it so easy to love him. He made it so easy for me to let my guard down and let him in completely. How could I not? Everything he did, he included me and Cole into the decision. He has shown up for everything. Practices, games, parent teacher conferences, he’s brought me lunch more times than I can count, he asks me about my dayand actually listens, and at night—well, at night, he brings me to his room and shows me how much he loves me in the best way.

“I’m just checking. There have been a lot of changes these last three months, and I wanted to make sure you’re handling it all okay.”

He nods. “Yeah, well, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

I lean back and search his face and stutter, “Okay.”

Is he finally going to ask me to marry him? These last three months have been wonderful, but I know if I could go to sleep next to him each night and then wake up next to him in the morning, it would be perfect. I even told him I should just talk to Cole about it, but Holden said no. He doesn’t want us to share a room until we’re married.

Now if only he’d ask me.

“So I’ve been thinking, and I know how my life could be even better.”

Oh God, this is it. He’s going to ask me. “How?”

He lets go of me and walks across the room, turning on the light to the therapy room. He gestures to the room. “I want you to work here.”

I stumble on my feet even though I haven’t even moved. “You want what?”

He holds his hands up. “I know you like your job, but I thought it would be perfect, if you wanted to, if you worked here as a therapist. We would get to see each other all day… we could build this together.”

I rapidly blink, and I don’t even try to hide my astonishment. “You want me to work here?”

He comes to me. “Are you okay? You’re pale as a ghost. What is it? It was just a thought, forget I even asked.”

He wraps his hands around my forearms. “No, I mean, maybe, we should talk about it. I thought you were asking me something else.” I pull from his hold and walk across the space into the therapy room. I look around the room, at the state of the art equipment. I look everywhere but at him.

“Cat.”

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