Page 145 of Fielder's Choice

“Which is saying something because that girl was all aboutsoccerwhen I met her,” Ella teases.

“Spain and basically every other country call it football,” she scoffs.

“Babe, you were born and raised in the United States,” Rory laughs.

“My parents weren’t. I learned from them,” Lucia shrugs. “Anyway, I’ve got a job to do, so this is where we part, ladies. I’ll see you after the game.”

We all wave Lucia off and head to our seats. Lane managed to get us five tickets right behind home plate, so we have the perfect view for today’s game.

We grab drinks and snacks before we sit down, and I finally get to take in the view. You can see glimpses of the skyline over the wall in the outfield. The sky itself is bright with few clouds, and the breeze coming off the river feels wonderful. The temperature will fall as the sun sets, but it feels divine right now.

Spring weather is so finicky in New York City.

Harlow points to the dugout. “Ooh, the guys are coming in now!”

I look over to see the team filing into the dugout, so I grab Sage and hold her on my side. “Do you see Daddy over there, Sagie?” I ask.

“Daddy!” she shrieks when she spots Lane.

Her voice is loud enough to catch his attention over all the chatter around us because Lane immediately turns around. Even from here, I can feel the heat from his gaze as it rakes down my body before he spins his finger, gesturing for me to turn around.

I smile and comply, pushing my hair over the front of my shoulder so he can see the nameBrooksin large letters across my and his daughter’s backs.

When I peer back over at him, he’s trying to bite down a smile, but he’s not very successful. Knox nudges his shoulder when he notices, laughing while he does.

Seems like the girls were right about the whole jersey thing.

Lane, without care for who’s watching, blows me a kiss as the guys take to the field for warmups.

I set Sage down on her seat before plopping into mine, cheeks still rosy from the exchange.

Rory elbows me. “What did we tell you about the jerseys?”

I can’t help but laugh. “Not that I doubted you before, but Ireallydon’t doubt you now.”

“Do we know if they’re all keeping the same walkup songs this year?” Ella asks.

“There’s no chance Cole changes his,” Rory chuckles.

I look at them curiously. “What’s a walkup song?”

Harlow answers me. “The song that plays when the batters walk up to the plate. Each guy picks the song they want. Usually something personal to them or something they enjoy.”

“What ones do the guys use?”

“Cole usesStarlightbecause that’s his nickname for Rory, Josh usesCalifornia Girlsbecause Ella is from California, and Ari uses a Korean song, but I don’t know its name. Lane usually switches his up a few times a season.”

“What about Knox?”

Harlow laughs. “Knox is a pitcher, and pitchers don’t bat. The designated hitter bats in place of them. He doesn’t have walkup music because of that.”

“Will he pitch today?”

Rory smiles. “Look at Liv trying to absorb everything baseball right now. To answer that, though, no, Knox isn’t pitching today. He’s our ace pitcher, so he pitched on opening day. We have five starting pitchers in the rotation. We have a new guy pitching actually. We sent Evan Fowler back down to Triple-A after Spring Training and brought Lucas Bitford up. Tonight is his MLB debut.”

I spend the rest of warmups listening to the girls tell me everything there is to know about baseball. There’s a lot, and I’m not absorbing all of it, but I have learned some things.

Like ERA means earned run average, and apparently, pitchers want that to be low. On the opposite end, players want their batting average to be high. High is subjective, though. Apparently, getting a hit three times in ten at-bats puts you in contention for the Hall of Fame. That surprised me.

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