The crowd begins to silent behind me, drawing my attention to Marcus. I give him the sign we talked about, knowing who this batter is and also knowing that with one more strike from this guy then we'll win the game. Our last game, and then off to championships.

Marcus looks at me for the longest time and at first, I think maybe he's just checking to make sure I'm still here inside my own mind. Yes, Marcus, I'm still here.

In a split second, he draws back, and the ball is racing towards me. As if in slow motion, I watch it hurdle towards, cutting through the hot air like a knife. I don't have a second to pay attention to anything but the ball, and then it's done.

I feel the ball hit my glove with force. I listen for the call, but it doesn't come. I look out towards Marcus.

Behind him I see the rest of the team. Man, this game is going to be so hard to leave behind. The military is the place I need to be, I know that. I can feel it. But I'll miss this and these people. I'm shocked because I never expected myself to feel that way after being forced to move here. I never thought I'd have a reason to stay.

Suddenly there are people surrounding me, lifting me to my feet and patting my back roughly. I realize quickly that it's my teammates; we won.

We won!

I quickly pull off my mask and my glove and toss them both to the ground, not concerned with finding them later. They'll be stomped by all of our feet.

I find myself smiling as I'm enclosed in the group of sweaty dudes jumping up and down with joy. Slowly, we break apart as a stream of people from the bleachers join us on the field. I search for a familiar face, but instead, I'm met with arms around my torso.

"You won!" Jordan shouts above the noise around us. I hug her back and hold on for probably a little too long. Once she steps back, she looks up at me with a smile that's almost sympathetic.

"What?" I ask, suspicious of the look on her face. Dad walks over then and pats me on the back followed by a hug from Laura. They are busy congratulating me when I spot a pair of familiar pair of green eyes behind those same glasses. Her hair is hanging down around her shoulders and she looks better than she has in weeks. Her camera hangs around her neck, her hand gently resting on top of it.

She looks at me, and all I can do is gravitate towards her. I pull off the rest of my gear as I make my way over to her, stepping in and out of all the people in between us. Once I get to her, I toss my gear onto the ground and wrap my arms around her.

Despite our last conversation, she hugs me tightly. My face is buried in her hair, but I don't care.

"I didn't expect you to be here," I raise my voice over the noise of the crowd.

She holds onto my arms as she looks between me and the rest of the people surrounding us. A smile appears on her face. "I couldn't miss this game. I wouldn't."

Slowly, she raises herself up so that she can press her lips to mine. I pull her against my sweaty body and swing her in a circle, reminding myself to apologize for the way I probably smell. Once I release her, I grin down at her. "Sorry for the stench. I've sweat enough today to fill a few milk jugs."

She laughs at me as she pushes back a few pieces of hair stuck to my forehead.

"Come to dinner with us. I promise they're more fun than me." I look behind me to find Jordan and Dad talking up a storm, using hand movements and everything. Laura is talking to a woman who looks her age. Maybe another mom of one of my teammates.

In front of me stands the girl that could easily be labeled the love of my life.

Everything is, well, perfect.

"I need to tell you something," Layla says, but the crowd begins to grow louder as the team gets rowdier. "But it can wait. Go and be with your team!" Her face lights up as she ushers me towards all the ruckus.

I want to hear what she has to say, but the moment one of the guys sees me, they pull me into the crowd, and I'm absorbed into the chaos.

*

Jordan finds a nice Italian restaurant that will fit all of us into it. It turns out Layla wasn't the only one that showed up to watch me play; her parents came, too. Abe claps me on the back and Holly hugs me, congratulating me.

We all fit into this small restaurant, squeezing into a large corner booth. I sit between Layla and Jordan and thank God that I took a quick shower in the locker room before we left. Dad and Laura sit across from us with Holly and Abe next to them.

They seem to be hitting it off, and that brings a smile to my face. Never in my life have I had a relationship where both our families meshed or even tried to, honestly. This feels... right. And I never want it to end.

Throughout the night, I catch Abe and Holly sneaking glances at Layla, as if at any moment she may shatter. There's a moment when everyone is talking, leaving Layla and me in our own little world.

I scoot closer to her so I don't have to speak as loudly. "What did you wanna tell me earlier?"

She shifts her beautiful eyes to me, and I see just how tired she looks. Is it because of me? Am I making her feel bad because I don't want to leave her? I wish she would just write down every answer to all my questions.

"I..." She trails off, and then she smiles one of those grins that takes my breath away. "I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how sorry I am for what I said the other night. Sometimes I just have those moments where I forget that I'm not in control. God is, and I trust whatever He has planned. I really do."

"You had me thinking it was something bad," I tell her as I squeeze her hand. "I love you too."

"Jonah," Abe announces. "Are you going to come see me at my office soon?"

I look between him and my dad. Dad takes a sip of his drink, not thinking much about the question. But Laura's eyebrows raise.

"Where do you work again?" She asks him casually, but I can see the protective look on her face.

Abe hesitates, but not for long. There is no point in waiting to tell them now. "The Wounded Warriors office outside of the city. We do recruitment and lots of other things for our servicemen and women."

Laura nods her head and shoots me a quick glance. "Were you in the military?"

"Yes ma'am, I was. I was in the Army for about four years."

Dad isn't looking at him. He's put his drink down and directed his gaze towards the table, his arms crossed in front of him. The waiter brings our food and we start digging in, especially me. I'm starving.

For a little bit, I think that I've gotten out of announcing my plans at the table, but Laura begins to ask questions.

"So what do you two have planned for after graduation?"

I cut into my steak and quickly shove a bite in my mouth, giving Layla a pointed look.

She clears her throat. "Well, I would really like to be a nurse, actually."

I look at her, aware that she's never told me this.

"That would be an excellent career choice!" Laura grins. "My mother was one. She said it was so rewarding being able to make someone's day a little brighter."

Layla gives her a smile. How long had she wanted to do that?

"Jonah has always wanted to be a college baseball star. He could make it to the MLB if he wanted to," Jordan says from beside me. I lower my head but don't look at her grinning face. She might hate what I'm about to say.

"Actually..." I trail off. Everyone looks at me. Dad and Laura look concerned and Holly and Abe know exactly what I'm about to say. "I was thinking about joining the military."

Everyone is silent for the longest time. Under the table, Layla reaches for my hand and squeezes it. I don't expect Dad to say anything now. I expect to get a good talking-to later, but he would never make a scene in front of other people.

Someone clears their throat. "What about college?"

I look down at Jordan. She isn't looking up at me, only playing with the food on her plate.

I turn to look at Layla. She takes a sip of her water and then shares a look with me. I told her I was going to stay here with her. But she doesn't want me to. She wants me to do what I think I need to do while she does what she needs. How am I supposed to make that decision?

"I haven't decided yet what exactly I'm doing. I might wait a year to do anything. Just take a gap year. I don't know."

Dad nods from across the table. I can't tell if he's disappointed, but at this point, I can't be phased. We've been getting along and of course, I don't want to risk it. But this is my future we're talking about here, not his. I know that either way, I'll make him proud.

I've gone back and forth with this for months. Which means more to me? Meeting Layla changed my life and finding out that she was severely sick changed it even more. Love is a strong bond, and I've never felt this way about anyone.

My decisions are unclear, but one this is for certain: this girl means the world to me. The things she's taught me in the short amount of time I've known her, the way she accepts people for who they are and is irrevocably herself all the time...

I'm in love with every little thing about her. From her glasses to her scars, to her bony knees, to her stubby toes.

And then I realize...

She is my decision.

*

"I don't know why... but there is something about-"

"-me that you just can't resist?"

Layla takes a short break to stop licking her ice cream to give me a look, her tongue still touching the ice cream. I lean across the table and take a lick of the other side, getting a tongue full of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

"You are brave, you know that?" She tells me with raised eyebrows.

"For assuming that you can't resist me?" I ask, taking a bite of my own ice cream.

Layla spits out a laugh. "No, for taking a lick of my ice cream without asking."

I shake my head, letting the moment slip by me as a smile creeps onto my face. Layla sneaks glances at me as we both eat our ice cream in silence for a few minutes. It doesn't last long.

"You are irresistible. You are everything that I never knew that I needed. I want you to know that."

I stare across the tiny table at Layla. Her eyes are wide with seriousness, no hesitation to be found in even a spec. The same look she gets when she's telling me about her faith.

"I could say the same for you. I never imagined myself with such a... good girl." Layla giggles and rolls her eyes. "No, I'm serious. I've never had such a genuinely good person in my life. Well, not one that I loved as much as I love you."

She reaches across the table and intertwines our fingers. "I love you too."

"What made you change your mind?" My question catches her in the middle of a bite of ice cream. She pulls her hand back and grabs a napkin to wipe her mouth.

"I thought about what you said." She looks down and takes a deep breath. "I'm not perfect. I still worry and stress and overthink things even though I have faith in God. It's normal to not be okay. Sometimes that gets a hold on me and doesn't let go. Just have to... shake it off sometimes."

I'm silent as she continues, laying the napkin on the table and grabbing my hand again. "God gave me you for a reason. I think it was to remind me that I don't have to be strong all the time. Or maybe it was to show me something completely different. Either way, I want to find out."

I smile at her. "Me too."

She nods her head. "Hey, what's that thing over there?" Her eyes dart to the right and I follow them with my own. There's nothing unusual but a couple walking their dog under the dim streetlamps. When I turn to look back at her, I get a cheek full of ice cream.

The culprit sits across from me, yanking her hand back to her and licking her finger shamelessly.

"Wow, you really went there, didn't you?"

"I did –" but she doesn't get a chance to say anything else before I'm racing around the table to grab her around the waist. Even with the few pairs of eyes on us who are also getting ice cream at eight o'clock at night, I hold her like no one is watching.

What's left of her ice cream cone goes flying to the ground as I pick her up and carry her out of the small patio area. I finally put her on her own two feet as guffaws escape her lips. I press my lips to hers and they taste like mint and chocolate and that special taste that could only belong to her.

Why do I deserve something as sweet as this moment out of thousands of others?

Layla wraps her arms around my neck and lets me swing her around. I've never felt so happy in my life, so content with where I am right now.

"You make me so happy, you know that?" I say into her hair. I have to rest her back against one of the brick buildings lining the sidewalk.

Her grin is so big that it makes her eyes crinkle at the sides, her glasses rising with her rosy cheeks. A raindrop falls onto her lens then and another laugh bubbles to the surface as she tilts her back to look up at the sky.

This image of her right in front of me is the one I wish could be captured and framed. She's the masterpiece that was behind the camera this whole time. I decide in this moment that this is how I'm going to remember her every second of the day.

She's the sunshine among the rain clouds.

__________

The song is Infinity by One Direction!

The last chapter!! What did you think?

The epilogue is next... you DO NOT want to miss that one. It was definitely an interesting part to write. I truly hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Thank you so much!