Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 161

You’re Going to be My Wife

Victoria’s POV

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“Remember that night we were talking, and you asked me why I was studying criminology and criminal justice?” he asked. “You said you could feel a drive in me, like I was searching for something.”

I nodded slowly, remembering the exact conversation.

“That’s the reason,” he confessed, his obsidian eyes darkening.

“The men who attacked my mother walked free. The boys who destroyed Aria got away with it, too. I kept thinking that if there had been just one dedicated agent in the system, one person who actually cared about justice instead of paperwork, my family might have gotten closure. Out of everyone involved in both cases, only one guy was ever identified. And that was only because his own conscience ate him alive until he confessed. But he took his own life before he ever saw a courtroom, so it didn’t even count as justice.”

My fingers tightened around his.

“If you get recruited… if you become an agent… will you reopen those files?”

He chuckled, but it was devoid of any humor.

“It’s not something I’m ever going to let go.”

Involuntarily, my mind drifted back to that afternoon in the cramped equipment closet.

“That day in the locker room…” I began softly, my voice trailing off as the pieces clicked together. “When you pulled me in and asked those questions… was it because of…”

He nodded firmly and guilt settled heavily in my chest.

He’d pulled me inside to get me out of the hallway, wearing that same maddening, unbothered smirk he always seemed to have.

But just before he let me leave, something in him had changed.

His smile disappeared. His jaw tightened.

There’d been something almost frantic in his eyes when he asked if anyone had ever put their hands on me…. if anyone had ever assaulted me.

At the time, I’d thought he was being nosy. Overbearing. Crossing a line he had no business crossing.

But sitting here now, after everything he’d told me about his mother and his sister…

I finally understood.

He hadn’t been trying to invade my privacy.

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He’d been scared.

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Even when we were still… whatever we were–barely tolerating each other, constantly at odds–he’d cared enough to make sure I was okay.

I’d stumbled into one of the deepest wounds he carried without realizing it, and my panicked rambling in that dark room had unknowingly ripped it wide open again.

Instead of trying to explain myself, I closed the small distance between us and wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, holding him as close as I could.

After a few quiet moments, I pulled back just enough to look at him.

“Would it be okay… I mean, could I meet your mom sometime?”

Elijah smiled, the warmth returning to his face.

“Of course. She’d love you. She’s back in therapy right now, and so far, so good. My dad says the new treatment is slowly paying off. Once we finish this cabin trip, we could go see her.”

He paused, his expression turning thoughtful.

“Or we can wait until winter break. You’re starting your graduate program soon, right?”

My breath hitched. My hands instinctively dropped to rest flat over my stomach, right over my barely noticeable bump.

“That… that was the original plan,” I murmured, my voice trailing off. “I think I’ll have to put it off for a year or

two now.”

Elijah’s smile faded slightly, his eyes softening with deep regret as he pulled me closer against his side.

“Victoria… I’m so sorry,” he murmured softly. “This was your dream. Becoming an engineer. And I went and got you pregnant, throwing your whole timeline off. Putting your dreams on hold.”

I couldn’t help the light laugh that came out. Reaching over, I smacked his chest playfully.

“What on earth are you apologizing for?”

“Because I disrupted your life-”

“Elijah, stop,” I said, looking up at him with a small smile.

“Yes, it delayed my timeline a bit, but I’m obviously going to finish my degree. I graduated salutatorian, remember? I know how to bounce back. It’s just a baby, and honestly… I want to build a family with you.” I softened, looking down for a brief second.

“I mean, sure, I would have preferred the ring before the bump. I really didn’t plan it in this order. But life happened, and the sequence changed. We’re still heading toward the exact same destination. I’m going to be an engineer, I’m going to be a mom, and…”

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I looked up into his eyes, letting the sentence hang in the air.

Elijah’s smile returned, full and bright. He wrapped his arms securely around my

“And you’re going to be my wife.”

A flush of heat crept up my neck, making me look down at his chest.

waist.

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“Do you actually mean that? Because I really don’t want it to sound like I’m begging for a proposal.”

“You never have to beg for anything with me, Victoria,” he said earnestly, his thumb tipping my chin up so I had to look at him.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ve told you that before, and I’ll keep saying it until you believe

me.”

I swallowed hard, breaking eye contact for a second as a small tease crossed my mind.

“We’re only twenty–two, Elijah.”

“So what?” he countered smoothly. “That just means we get more time together. We already wasted twenty- two years not knowing each other, so we have some catching up to do.”

I laughed out loud, smacking his chest again.

“You are so cheesy!”

“Hey, you’re the one who turned me into this,” he chuckled, leaning in close until his breath brushed against my lips.

And before I could argue, he leaned down and kissed me.

When he pulled back, he kept his arm wrapped around my waist as we sat side–by–side on the balcony bench, leaning back against the wooden railing.

The forest below us was still. The elevated view gave us a clear line of sight over the dark pine canopy stretching out into the moonlit horizon.

I rested my head against his shoulder blade, my hand sliding up his arm until my fingers rested against the heavy flex of his bicep.

Looking out over the balcony edge at the stars, I couldn’t help but trace the winding, messy path that had brought me to this exact spot.

If I had a time machine, I would go back and find my seven–year–old self sitting by the living room window, starry–eyed and hopeless, watching Caleb play in the driveway.

I’d kiss her cheek and thank her. That innocent, little–girl crush had felt like the center of my universe for fifteen years, but in the end, it was just the catalyst. That fateful day led me here.

Fate sure had a weird sequence at times. It threw you off course, dragged you through heartbreak, and flipped

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your neatly planned life upside down–only to realign your plans with the universe in a way you never could have scripted yourself.

When it came to love, I’d always had a simple dream.

Outside of my ambitions of becoming an engineer, my heart’s other desire was straightforward: to find a man who loved me as fiercely as I loved him, build a warm family, and live happily ever after.

I wasn’t naive enough to believe life was a fairytale without storms–I couldn’t guarantee an effortless “happily ever after“—but sitting here right now, I knew my deepest prayers had been answered.

Caleb had just been the draft. He was the rough blueprint of what I thought love was supposed to feel like.

Elijah was my reality.

It was almost funny looking at him now. The guy I had once written off as a heartless player, an arrogant athlete with an unbearable ego, had turned out to be the most devoted, gentle lover I had ever known.

Hearing the way his father had cherished his mother through her darkest trauma made it painfully obvious where Elijah got it from.

He’d been raised by a man who knew exactly how to cherish a woman, protect her, and stand by her when the world fell apart.

And his circle of friends was just the cherry on top. From the chaos of the boys to Adele and Alison, I had somehow inherited a real family along the way.

My thumb moved absentmindedly, my nails softly tracing tiny circles against his skin.

“I like that,” Elijah said softly, the cool night breeze carrying the low, rich timbre of his voice.

I looked up at him. He was staring down at me with a warm, small smile playing on his lips. His eyes dropped to my hand, watching my nails lightly scratching his bicep through the fabric.

“What?” I giggled, my cheeks warming. “Scratching your arms?”

“It’s distracting,” he murmured, his thumb stroking my hip. “Is this your idea of a flirting strategy, baby? Because if you’re trying to seduce me out here on the balcony, it’s working dangerously well.”

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