Page 94 of Raine Out (Grand Slam 2)

She sits up again. “Alex, I suck at long-distance communication. Like I really suck at it. Ask Sophie. If someone isn’t right in front of me—”

“What? You forget about them?”

“No,” she says, the little line forming over her eyebrows again. “Of course not. I just maybe don’t prioritize that as much as what’s right in front of me.”

“Okay, well that’s a pattern for you, but you can change it. I think we have a good start here. That’s something to fight for. Will you do that for me? At least agree to try after tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” she says slowly. “I mean I want to say yes, but what’s the best we can hope for long term?”

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “You’re thinking too much about the big picture. Let’s handle it in smaller chunks.”

“Meaning?”

“My mom has always told me when you can’t figure out the big decision, start by making small decisions that will eventually lead you to solve the big question. Like for law school versus baseball, I’m still not a hundred percent, but I’ve decided that if I sign another contract, it will only be for one year. Then I have options, you know?”

“Yeah, that’s smart,” she says, “but what small decisions can we make about us—if any?”

“Well, I know I’m not done with this,” I say, stroking her hair, “so for me, a small decision is that I’m going to call you and text you every day until you tell me to leave you alone.”

“I’m not going to tell you to leave me alone.”

“Good, because I’m not going to,” I say, smiling, “and I’ll see you in San Diego in January if you have the time.”

“I’ll make time, but that’s almost three months from now.”

“Small decisions, Raine. It’s all we can do until we’re both settled. Make a small decision right now.”

She sighs. “I promise I’ll make an effort to be better at communicating, but I’m still not sure what our goal is here.”

“Uh, I think it’s the same goal as any romantic relationship,” I say. “My dating goal is to find someone to marry eventually.”

She pushes me back and stares at me. “Marry? Talk about looking at the big picture. That’s taking like a hundred steps forward. Marriage is not even on my mind. My job makes that kind of difficult.”

“Quit using your job as an excuse to not be happy.”

“What?” she says, frowning again. “Who says I’m not happy?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I say, rubbing my face. “It’s just that’s what would make me happy eventually—marriage, kids, the whole thing. Do you want to get married?”

“Okay. Fine. Yes, I accept your proposal,” she says, taking my hands. “Maybe we can have a double wedding with Sophie and Seb tonight.”

“Stop trying to make a joke. I meant eventually. Is that one of your goals?”

“Stop trying to get out of marrying me. You officially asked and I said yes. We’re getting married tonight. But I didn’t bring a white dress, so we’re going to have to stop and buy one on the way back to the resort.”

“With what we’ve done over the last few days, I’m not sure you should wear white.”

“Wowww. Okay,” she says, rolling out of the hammock and standing up. “I’m calling off our engagement right now.”

I grab at her hand, but she dodges me, throws off her cover-up, and starts running into the ocean. I leap up and catch her just as she reaches the water’s edge.

“No way, woman,” I say, throwing her over my shoulder. “You’ve already said you would marry me. No takebacks.”

“Put me down!” she says, laughing as she pounds on my back. “You can’t force me to marry you.”

“Yes, I can,” I say, running out into the water with her still on my shoulder. “Samuel’s going to marry us right now.”

“Samuel’s a minister, too? Damn, he’s a real renaissance man.”

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