Page 117 of Unexpected Forever
I give them my brightest smile and a nod. “Hi, everyone.”
He introduces me to first baseman Ian Sterling, Bull Sharks owner Derek Emerson, his sister Darcy Emerson, and pitcher Lucas Raines.
Darcy gives me a warm smile. “I’m so excited to meet you. Nate wouldn’t tell us anything about you.”
“Yeah, we’re happy to meet the woman who finally took down Nate the Iceman Gentry,” Lucas says with a laugh.
“We’d lost all hope,” Ian chimes in.
Nate rolls his eyes. “Why do I bother with you people?”
They laugh and we’re called to start heading to the field. Other team executives, stadium workers, and security guards escort us.
I try to appear cool, but I’m in awe of the place. It’s huge from where I stand behind home plate.
The turf is impossibly green, the clay redder than it appears on TV, and the white lines so bright it’s like looking straight into the stadium lights blazing above our heads.
“Wow, this is amazing. Almost spiritual.” The energy is almost tangible, and my skin pebbles with goose bumps.
Nate stands next to me with a huge grin on his face, one arm around my shoulders, his gaze on the field out in front of us. “Yeah, there’s nothing like it.”
The woman with the earpiece from the network station gestures to Nate and Derek. “Mr. Emerson, Mr. Gentry, we’re ready for you.”
Nate pulls me closer and lifts my chin with a finger. “I’ll be back. Don’t let these guys run you off.”
Lucas bobs his brows. “Better watch out, Iceman. You’ve got a live one here; someone might snatch her up.”
“Don’t I know it,” Nate says. He drops a kiss on my lips, lingering a bit too long.
“Damn, man, get a room. After the game,” Ian huffs out jokingly.
The beginning notes of his walk-up song play—Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”—and the crowd roars to a deafening sound.
With a smile, Nate walks away. I do my best not to swoon watching his commanding presence cross the field.
“Don’t worry, girl, I got ya covered,” Darcy says, looping her arm through mine. “We girls have to stick together around all this testosterone.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” As much as I want to hate her, I find I can’t.
“Nate’s the best guy I know and you’re his girl. We won’t let anyone near you.”
Lucas leans in close to me. “He’d kill us if we didn’t take care of you when he can’t.”
I look up to see him wink at me. Lucas is a complete hottie as well. Before Nate, this conversation would be going another way. But now? Looking at Lucas is kind of like looking at my too-handsome-for-their-own-good brothers.
“Thanks, guys.”
A warmth spreads in my chest that these people, who are obviously important to Nate, already look at me as one of their own.
The music fades, and when the crowd’s cheering dies down, the announcer starts to talk, reminding me it’s time to call Megan. Pulling out my phone from my back pocket, I bring her up on FaceTime.
Her face fills my screen. “Has it started yet?”
I shake my head and raise my voice, hoping she can hear me over all the noise. “They just started talking. So here we go!”
I stand in front of the Bull Sharks dugout, with his former teammates and coaches, watching along with millions of others in the stadium and on television, as he is honored with his jersey and they reveal its resting place along the top of the stadium with the retired numbers from other Bull Sharks players.
He’s so handsome, standing next to Derek in the middle of the field as he rattles off Nate’s accomplishments while highlight clips of his career play on the big screen above the outfield.
