I smiled down at her, watching her eyes fill with tears again. "That sounds like an amazing idea, babe."

When she was done, she stood in the middle of the store and turned a full circle. "I can't believe it," she said. "This is all mine."

Tom rubbed his hand across his beard. "Well, not all of it," he mumbled. "Follow me."

Luce held my hand as we followed him up the creaky stairs in the back office of the store. It led to an empty, open room. In the middle were a table, three chairs, and a lamp.

"Are we being interrogated?" she joked. I'm glad she found it funny, because even though I've known Tom seven years, he still scares the shit out of me.

"What do you think?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"Think of what?" she said.

He nodded his head at the two chairs opposite where he was now seated. "I figure this can be the new office space for Preston and Sons."

"So you'll be working here, too?" she asked.

I pulled out her chair before sitting down next to her.

Tom smiled and waited until I was seated. "I tried to think of some names," he started, ignoring her again. "Preston and Sons and Gordon, or Preston, Gordon and Sons, but that seemed—"

"What?" I finally managed to ask. "Gordon? Me?"

"Us!" Lucy snapped. "I'm a Gordon too!"

"I know, babe." I cleared my thoughts and looked back at Tom. "I don't understand."

He didn't reply. He just pushed over more papers until they were under my nose. It was a partnership agreement to his business. "What?"

"If you want to change the name we can speak—"

I shook my head. "The name's fine, I guess, I'm just confused."

"I'd like to make you partner," he deadpanned. "You take the design part, I'll take the construction. We can work together. Though, this will be your office space, I'll be on site most of the time. Plus, I love you like a son, don't get me wrong, but you and my daughter can't keep your hands off each other; I don't want to be surrounded by that all day."

Lucy laughed.

I couldn't find it in me to do anything but stare at him.

"So?" he asked, waiting for my response.

"No."

"What?" Lucy whined.

I turned to her. "I haven't earned it, Luce."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Tom chuckled. "I'll give you a minute."

Lucy watched him walk down the stairs and when we were alone, she turned to me. "Cameron..." she started. Her shoulders dropped with her sigh. "I hate bringing this up, but this attitude of yours, this pride thing you have going, it almost ruined us once. I know that you feel like you haven't earned it, but you have, and my dad wouldn't be doing this if he didn't trust you. If he didn't believe in you like he has from day one. And this way... it means we get to be together every day, we'll never have to be apart. Isn't that what we've always wanted?"

Tom and I shook hands when I handed him back the signed papers.

The next day, we got to work.

That was a few months ago.

Yesterday, we finally completed it exactly the way she wanted.

*

"Your girlfriend’s here," I tell Logan, who's sitting next to me in the dugout.

He nudges me with his elbow. "Your wife's here."

We watch as they both get out of Lucy's car and sit on the hood, watching our baseball game.

"We suck," I say, picking up my gear bag and walking out. Someone shouts at us about the game not being over, but we don't care.

"We can't all be Jake Andrews," he muses.

"That punk deleted me on Facebook."

"That punk deleted his entire Facebook. He's too famous now. He was getting all these random requests and posts on his wall. Amanda said that Micky made him delete it after the fifth nude selfie he got."

I laugh. "Poor bastard."

Lucy's squeal gets my attention, and then I watch as her head throws back, her laughter loud and carefree. Amanda snorts next to her, making Lucy laugh even harder.

"What the hell are you two up to?" Logan says as we stop in front of them.

I wait until Lucy settles before pulling on her legs so I'm standing between them.

Amanda shoves my shoulder. "Waddup, Deskfucker?"

-LUCY-

Cameron stops in his tracks, shirtless, with the towel half lifted to his hair. He drops his hands and eyes me curiously. "You're cooking?"

I nod, trying to hide my smile. "How was your shower, husband?"

He ignores my question and stands next to me, sniffing the bowl of salad I just made. "Are you okay?"

"Yup! I made a pasta bake, it's all I can really do for now, but I'm learning."

He opens the oven and sniffs again. "I don't expect you to cook, babe."

"I know." I shrug. "But I wanted to."

"Huh." He stands on the opposite side of the counter and leans on his elbows. "Did you cheat on me?"

"WHAT!"

He doesn't flinch. "I don't know, Luce. It just seems weird. You're cooking, and the bathroom's all clean, and you've packed away the pile of books at the foot of the bed. I figure you've done something wrong and you think that cleaning and cooking might make it easier for me to forgive you. That, or your e-reader's broken. You want me to go out and buy you a new one?"