Page 109 of First Love, Second Draft

“I’m here.”

The moment the words left his mouth she started running. Or trying to. Her gait still carried a hitch from her injury. “You’re here.”

He didn’t make it more than half a dozen steps before she was slamming against his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck. When he lifted her off the ground, it was his turn to say, “You’re here.”

“I’m here,” she said with choppy breaths. “I’m sorry I pushed you away for so long.”

“I’m sorry I stayed away for so long.”

They clung to each other, not saying anything, just holding onto each other, as the rain slowed to a drizzle.

“Why’d you come back?” she finally asked.

“To see Buck.” He pressed a kiss to her ear, not ready to let any space in between them just yet. “And be with you.”

“But the game isn’t over.”

“It is for me.” He finally leaned back far enough to meet her hazel eyes beneath the shadow of his old baseball hat. “Am I too late?”

She slid down from his grasp and reached for his hands. “You’re just in time. Dad’s still holding on.”

“What about us?”

She looked at their clasped hands, then tipped her chin to meet his gaze. “I’d say we’re still holding on too, wouldn’t you?”

He would. He would definitely say that.

He turned his hat backwards, then did the same to hers. Buck could surely hang on long enough for Noah to kiss Gracie the way a husband really ought to kiss his wife. Which reminded him...

“Marry me again?” he murmured against her lips.

“Thought you’d never ask,” she murmured back between more kisses. Then her lips froze and she pushed back. “I might still want to be a mom.”

“Okay.”

“That’s it? Okay? You still want to marry me again?”

“I’ve always wanted a child, too, but Gracie...” He turned both of their hats forward to help block the dwindling sprinkle from running down their faces. “I can’t promise it’ll go any better this time than it did before. I can’t promise we’ll even be able to adopt. We may never have a child. If that’s the case, all I can promise is to be okay with whatever happens, even if it’s just you and me at the end of the day. Can you promise the same thing?”

She took a deep breath and blew it out. “I can’t promise that I won’t be disappointed if we never get the chance to be parents. But I can promise that no matter what happens, I’ll do my best to let go of the disappointments and cling tight with everything I’ve got to the good in my life, which I know now is you. Our marriage. Matt. Mona. The boys at the firehouse,” she said with a smile. “But most of all—”

“The FedEx lady, I know.”

Her smile turned into a laugh. “I was going to say God, but yes, I suppose I better cling on to the FedEx lady too.” She wiped a mixture of tears and raindrops from her cheeks. “And Dad. Speaking of which, we should get back inside.”

When they reached Buck’s hospital room, everyone did a double take. Everyone except Buck. His eyes remained closed, his breaths slow and shallow.

“What are you doing here?” Matt asked, looking back and forth between Noah and the TV on the wall. “Thought the game was still in a rain delay.”

“Rain delay’s over,” Buck whispered.

He cracked his eyes open long enough to see Noah and Gracie clinging to each other, their hands clasped together, with no intentions of ever letting go.

Then he closed his eyes and sighed with a tiny, whispered “And not a moment too soon.”

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