Page 44 of Home Run Fiancé
Susan pulls my attention back to her. “Jake said he wasn’t sure you were going to be able to make it, but I knew you’d come. You two are adorable together. I’ve never seen Jake look at a girl like he does you. Even that girl-who-shall-not-be-named from high school.” She smiles at me so sweetly, I can’t help but be heartened that maybe this is actually what I think it is. Would Jake really have invited me all the way out here, only to end our contract? Would he want me hanging out with his mom and brother again, getting their hopes up?
“Peanuts, peanuts!” A vendor walks by our box, holding up a bag of peanuts and shouts at the top of his voice. He comes in our box and hands the bag to me. I shake my head, a little confused why he’s trying to sell me the peanuts when I didn’t raise my hand.
“For you, miss.” He shoves the bag further under my nose and I see a note taped to the bag. I take it from his hands and he moves off, selling peanuts to other fans.
I was NUTS to think you would sell me out to the press.
The hard slashes in the handwriting make it obvious Jake wrote it. I chuckle at his corny note, my heart squeezing back to beat in my chest instead of down in my red Vans. This note is adorable. He wouldn’t have gone to such effort if he wanted to break things off. I’m sure of it.
“My brother is the biggest dork…” Damon leans over and reads the note, sitting back and rolling his eyes.
“I think it’s adorable.” A rush to protect Jake floods my system, even from his own brother’s teasing.
“He told me you two had a bit of a fight,” Susan says quietly from the other side of me. I can barely hear her over the announcers as the teams take the field. “Said it was all his fault and he’d make it up to you. You’re not still mad at him, are you?”
I tear my gaze away from Jake running to take his position at third base to look over at Susan. Her thin face is pinched and I hate to see her worried.
I shake my head. “No. I’m not still mad. We have some things to discuss, but I’m not mad.”
She lets out a breath and smiles. “Oh good. But you let him have it, you hear? That boy needs to learn how to trust a woman. Don’t let him off the hook too easy.”
I chuckle and can’t remember the last time I received good motherly advice. Or felt like I had a mother to support me and watch my back. My chest feels close to bursting sitting with Jake’s family and watching him play out there on the field.
The first batter swings and misses, then hits the ball with a loud crack. Jake dives and catches the line drive before it can go out to the outfield. He stands up and tosses the ball back to the pitcher, dusting himself off. First play of the game and he’s already got his new uniform all dirty.
“Good thing I’m not doing his laundry any longer,” Susan mutters loudly. All of us laugh, even the lady in the box next to us.
“Cotton candy, miss?” Another walking vendor comes into our box and hands me a puffy bag of candy.
“Um….” I crane my neck and see another note on the top of it. “Thank you.” I scramble to get money out of my pocket, realizing with horror, I never paid the first guy for the peanuts.
“Oh, no charge, miss. These were already paid for.” He grins at me and hands off the candy before walking away.
“What’s this one say?” Susan sounds as eager as I am to see the next note from Jake.
I pull the piece of paper off the clear wrapping of the cotton candy and open it, while trying to keep the candy on my lap along with the peanuts.
You’re sweeter than pure sugar…and I’m sorry I have cotton for brains.
I bark out a laugh, looking down at him on the field with watery eyes. I hope he can feel the love I have for him all the way from here in the stands. These notes are pulling down all my defenses and making me so glad I took a chance by coming out here. And doubly glad for the work of art I have on under my jacket.
* * *
Jake
My nerves are shot and I’m doing everything I can to keep them under control. Opening day on a new team is not something I do all the time, so I’m nervous the fans won’t accept me. I’m nervous Rhys won’t show, even though Asher told me she got on the plane. I’m nervous for Mama and Damon to watch me play my first game back home. I’m terrified the rest of my plan to win Rhys back won’t work.
I’m purposely not looking up to the box seat I reserved for my family today. If I look now and she’s not there, I don’t think I’ll be able to play the game at all. Or if I look now and she is there, I’ll want to run over and apologize and grovel at her feet. Which, you know, doesn’t really work in the middle of a baseball game. Thankfully, I have nerves of steel and enough discipline to make a nun applaud.
By the seventh inning, we’re down by three runs and I’m starting to wonder if I made a huge professional mistake by joining the Sliders. Then again, I haven’t done anything remarkable to change the game around either, so maybe they wonder the same about me.
I’m also really tired of not looking at my girl there in the stands. I just want to see her face. To know she’s here for me.
So when it’s my turn at bat, I saunter onto the field and look up into the stands where I know her box seat is before stepping into the batter’s box. My gaze zeroes in on her in a split second. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen, sitting there with a huge grin on her face and a foam finger on her hand, the one I bought ahead of time with a cheesy note on it about her being my number one. I quirk a smile at her, thinking she’s crazy and perfect in every way. I’m so relieved she’s there I kick myself mentally for not looking earlier.
I’m about to step into the box and get to the task of turning this game around when she stands up, knocking a tray of food to the ground in a cascade of popcorn. The foam finger goes flying and hits Damon on the head. She leans over the front wall of the box seats and rips her jacket off, throwing it to the ground. She throws her arms up in the air and yells at the top of her lungs, “Hit a homer, Jake!”
Time slows down, the constant hum of the crowd dims and all I see is this woman, displaying for all the world to see that she’smywoman. Her red shirt, in bright white crystals, spells outJake Kersh’s #1 Fan (and fiancée).
