Seconds later, he glanced over at Louie and his throat bobbed. Seconds after that, he turned to me with those hazel eyes wide, and his throat bobbed again. Then he turned his attention back to the papers and mouthed the words he was reading before he brought his hands down to his hips, papers clutched in one hand, and let out a deep, deep breath.
His eyes were watery. He blinked a whole bunch of times. The tip of his tongue went to his upper lip and he let out another deep breath.
Dallas glanced at me and raised his eyebrows again before facing Louie once more and stated in a broken voice, “Lou, I would adopt you a thousand times over, bud. Nothing would make me happier.”
I’d blame the hormones for how I burst into tears the second Louie rushed into Dallas’s arms, but honestly, it wasn’t the hormones at all.
All I could think about as I stood there was that sometimes life gave you a tragedy that burned everything you knew to the ground and changed you completely. But somehow, if you really wanted to, you could learn how to hold your breath as you made your way through the smoke left in its wake, and you could keep going. And sometimes, sometimes, you could grow something beautiful from the ashes that were left behind. If you were lucky.
And I was a really, really lucky bitch.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I took some liberties with adoption laws. In my fantasy world, Dallas adopting Louie could happen.
Acknowledgments
To the greatest readers in this universe and the next (and my Slow Burners!)—every time I release a new book, I think that you all can’t get more amazing, but you do. Thank you for all your support and love, whether you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found my work, I am so grateful. I couldn’t be here writing this for my sixth book if it wasn’t for you.
A massive thank you to my friend Eva. Eva, oh Eva, where would this story be without you? You put up with me whining, freaking out, and stressing. You read my drafts when they’re awful and advise me so well. You’re a wonderful friend, and I’m so thankful that you put up with me.
Thank you to Letitia Hasser at RBA Design for the amazing cover. Jeff at Indie Formatting Services, thank you for your excellent formatting. Virginia and Becky at Hot Tree Editing for never breaking my heart when I go through edits. Lauren Abramo at Dystel & Goderich for getting my books into a format I never envisioned.
To my friends and pre-readers, thank you for your help!
A giant thank you to Kaitlyn AKA Pickles for answering my thousand and one questions about all things baseball related.
A great big thank you the people who mean the world to me: Mom and Dad, Ale, Eddie, Raul, Isaac, my Letchford family, and the rest of my Zapata/Navarro family. And last but never least, my three loves: Chris, Dor and Kai who remind me of what’s important at the end of the day.