Page 206 of While You Were Trending

“The Thrusters are down four D-men,” Yvette says. “Bringing you out of retirement could solve a major problem for them. Potentially sooner than a few weeks.”

I look at Ginny.

She’s watching me with a half smile, her eyes a mix of sad but hopeful.

I don’t need her to tell me what she thinks I should do.

I know what she’ll say.

It’s Ginny.

She’ll say I need to go for it.

“Let me sleep on it,” I say to Yvette.

“Need an answer tomorrow, Declan. This is relatively unorthodox, and while the Thrusters are the team I trust most in the league when it comes to unorthodox, they might change their minds if we don’t commit quickly.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll send you the details on the offers.Bothoffers. From the Thrusters and from Eddie.”

“I’ll get back to you first thing in the morning.”

I hang up, letting her handle whatever she needs to on her end, and I look at Ginny.

“You have to do it,” she says.

“I don’t.”

“Declan. This isyour dream. You have to do it.”

Copper Valley’s in Virginia.

Clear across the country from Sonoma and Ginny.

And I haven’t talked to Alex yet.

He has a four-day break from games coming up in two weeks. I was going to fly out and talk to him in person about Ginny and me then.

I need to talk to him in person when it won’t affect his game.

“I don’t want to leave you,” I say to Ginny.

That’s the raw truth.

I don’t want to leave her.

Not tomorrow.

Not in two weeks.

Not ever.

Her eyes shimmer like she’s fighting back tears, but she’s still smiling at me. “I’ll come visit.”

“I can’t ask you?—”

“This is what you do for people you love.” She crawls across the bed to climb into my lap again, straddling me and holding my face in her hands. “I love you. And I want—I want you to have all of your dreams come true. You have to do this, Declan. It’s your dream.”