Page 81 of Hard and Fast

Good. Let Sophia’s real face get shown to the entire world. In fact, I pitched my voice loud enough to be picked up by every microphone. “Hey, Sophia. You’re fired.”

Then she was dragged away, screeching curses the whole time. The woman would never be quiet until there was no audience, but damn, that felt good. And there was something else I had to say.

I grabbed Cassie and pressed a kiss to her forehead. I searched her face and was relieved to see a fierce pride in her face. For herself. For me.

“I’m fine,” she said as she hugged me.

“I know,” I said as I returned the embrace. Then I caught Gia’s hand and drew her close. I touched her face and rolled my thumb over her full, beautiful mouth.

“I’m the liar, not you. I hated myself for what I had to do to keep Sophia contained. I lied to myself about the cost of that. I lied every time I thought I was helping her. It was all a big lie, and I hated myself for it. So I turned that anger onto you.”

“Connor, you don’t need to say anything right now.”

“But I do. I’m sorry, Gia. I’ve been wrong about so many things.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not. I love you. I’ve been in love with you from the very beginning, but I couldn’t let myself have anything as good as you. Not with Sophia in my life. Not when I was lying about everything she was doing to destroy Cassie and me.”

Gia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her eyes were misting with tears, and I prayed I was seeing love shine through those beautiful brown pools, but I didn’t know. And I wasn’t sure I deserved her.

“Will you forgive me? Please?”

Suddenly, she was kissing me, and I was kissing her. We were wrapped around each other while cheers rang out. And when we finally separated, Gia touched my face and my lips.

“Of course. I love you, too,” she said.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Connor

The video went viral. Not just Sophia and Theo getting caught, but me firing her, and that moment when I finally said, “I love you” to Gia.

I loved it. In fact, I’d saved the whole thing permanently to my phone. But Gia and Joe weren’t as thrilled. Social media was a delicate balancing act, and they were afraid that the whole family squabble would tarnish my image.

Again, I didn’t care, especially when Theo cracked like a broken egg to the cops. He told them everything—that Sophia had ordered him to frighten Cassie, but that he’d taken off when the cops had gotten involved. But after I’d had that showdown with her in Gia’s office, Sophia had found him and paid him to step it back up. To make Cassie break, so that Sophia could come in and rescue everyone.

She was delusional, as I told her when I officially ended my contract with her company. I also told her to take that two million dollars in cash that she owed me and put it toward therapy. Then I washed my hands of her completely.

That did not get reported in the media, thank God. That was because I did absolutely everything Gia told me to do. I made a statement to the press, which Gia wrote. I did the appearances, the articles, and the just-shut-up-and-smile exactly when and how she said to. And I did one more thing.

I played spectacularly. I busted through the .300 batting average goal and landed at .302.

I hadn’t hurt my knee when I chased Theo down, and all the therapy had paid off. Plus, it was amazing how powerful I felt now that I could say the truth. I was in love, Sophia was a liar and completely out of my life, and I could hit the damned baseball, even with crappy knees.

We won the World Series in four games straight. I even had my own grand slam home run.

And now, six months later, we were going to try for it again. It was the beginning of the new season. I wasn’t quite the hitter that Rob was, but I was coming close. And now that I was playing first base, my knees were holding up better than ever.

Things were fantastic, especially right now as we lined up at the opening of the season. We all stood proud and tall as we received our World Series ring. It was sparkly, huge, and ostentatious. And I held it up to the cameras with a huge grin on my face. We all did.

But I’m the only one who walked to the side of the dugout where Gia was standing. I’d worked this out ahead of time with Joe, and he’d ordered her to wait right there, with cameras discretely aimed to catch her face.

“Connor, what are you doing?” she asked when I didn’t follow everyone else inside.

I grinned as I went down on one knee before her. I grabbed her hand, and I held out my World Series ring. “Gia Claire Kubic,” I said. “Please make me the happiest man in the world and marry me.”

Off to the side, I could hear Cassie cry out in joy, but my gaze was locked on Gia’s wide eyes and open mouth. She wasn’t talking, and I had a moment’s panic. She couldn’t… She didn’t…

“Yes!” she finally gasped out. “Yes!”

I slipped the ring on her finger. I’d had it sized just for her. And then suddenly, she was in my arms and we were kissing. And laughing. And touching while the fans were screaming.

Best game ever.

Best girl ever.

Best forever.