Page 70 of Stepping Up to the Plate

Grabbing Lola’s hand to keep her from being left behind, I follow Tim from the workshop into what appears to be a classroom.

“Pheebs, These are the Millers. They’re here for their metal working class,” he tells his wife.

“Metal working?” Lola questions.

“Yes, my dear! Your beau said you wanted to create your own jewelry and we are here to make that wish come true,” Phoebe states.

“Seriously?!” she exclaims, excitedly. “How many bucket list items are you planning to check off today?”

“As many as possible, baby,” I smirk. “Let’s get to it.”

We spend the next couple hours learning how to solder and work with metal from Phoebe and Tim. They have everything we need to make a variety of items. We both choose to make a stamped item. Lola pouted when I wouldn’t show her what I made and declared that I had to wait until she was ready to show me hers, too.

After we mastered that, we moved on to jewelry. Lola and Phoebe created delicate gold chain bracelets with tiny stones in them. When I asked why she made three, Lola informed me that she made one for Tiffany and Carina as well. The bracelets all match and are permanent when put on. She called them “grown up friendship bracelets.”

While they did that, Tim helped me create a bracelet for my mom. We created a design that featured two stones on each of the silver that can be adjusted to be closer or further apart based on wrist size or placement. I pat myself on the back for coming up with such a good birthday gift for her. She hates when I spend money on her, but I know she’ll appreciate this, since I made it by hand.

As we’re leaving, Lola asks to see my stamped creation again.

“Not yet, sweet girl. You’ll see it one day, but today isn’t that day.”

“Ugh,” she whines. “Now I don’t even want to give you yours.”

“Mine? You made something for me?” I question.

“Maybe,” she responds shyly. “You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to. I noticed several players wearing chains. I thought you might like one, but now that I think about it, if you wanted to wear something like that, you already would.”

I lean in and kiss her to stop her rambling. “I absolutely want to wear whatever it is you made for me. Let me see.”

She pulls a chain with a nickel-sized pendant attached. Stamped into the silver is my jersey number inside a wavy rectangle.

“Is that a Pop-Tart?” I ask. She rolls her lips to keep from giggling and nods. Shaking my head, I examine the other side. I let out a laugh when I see it says, ‘Lola thinks you’re hot.’

“Romantic,” I tease.

“Do you like it?”

“I love it. It has all of my favorite things: baseball, Pop-Tarts, and you.” I slip the chain over my head and tuck the pendant into my shirt. “I’ll wear it every day,” I promise.

She gives me a wide smile and moves in to kiss my lips. My hand finds the back of her neck and I pull her even closer, devouring her mouth, to let her know exactly how much I love her gift.

Driving away, she shows the pictures she’s taken of today’s adventures thus far, including the ones of us with the goats.

“That’s a good one,” I comment. “You should feature it when you write about goat yoga. My triceps look great. The trainers will be thrilled.”

“Really?” she asks with a confused expression on her face.

“You don’t think they look good?.”

“Your arms are great, babe. That isn’t what I meant. You’re okay with me posting you on my account?”

“Of course,” I respond. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. I guess I thought you wouldn’t want to be put out there with our relationship this new. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to keep us on the DL and I didn’t want you to think I was using your image to gain traction.”

“Baby, if I could personally tell every person on this planet that you were mine, I would. I want everyone to know you are off the market. I’m not a man to keep things on the ‘DL,’ especially something as amazing as you.”

“Do you want people to know you’re off the market?”

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