Page 8 of Safe at Home

“I’m never letting you go again.” He pulled me as close as he could and held on tightly.

“Ty,” I called out with my face buried against his chest pads. “I can’t breathe.”

He pulled away slightly and leaned his forehead against mine. “How are you here?”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“Surprise me?” He seemed very confused by my answer. “I don’t understand.”

“Something happened at the doc-”

“STONE!” His manager interrupted our conversation. “I’m so happy your girl is okay, but you need to finish this inning. The batter wasn’t finished with his at-bat. Finish this inning, and then I’ll put Reid in so you can talk with your girl.”

Tyler looked at his coach with a nod. “Don’t you dare move,” he said to me.

“Ty, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to sit right here behind your dugout, okay?”

He nodded but seemed very reluctant to let me go. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said. “Go finish the inning and come back to me.”

He leaned down and gave me a deep, passionate kiss. The crowd around us cheered, and he hesitantly pulled away as he walked back towards the away team dugout and jumped over the half wall. I found an open row near the dugout and sat down. My heart was racing like crazy, wondering what would elicit a reaction like that from him.

“I can’t believe they are losing,” Penelope said as she sat down in the seat next to me. She handed me some nachos and a bottle of water.

“Something is going on with him,” I said to Pen. “He’s not himself. He was crying because I was here.”

“Crying?” Pen asked. “Why?”

“I’ve never seen a big baseball player cry,” Camden commented.

“I don’t know why,” I said. “His manager even said as soon as the inning is finished, he could come talk to me. So we’ll find out soon.”

“Maybe we should turn our phones on now,” Pen said with a shrug.

“You think?” I asked. “Shit! Mine is still in the car!”

“Ooohhh, Molly! You owe money in the swear jar,” Peyton said, with a mouthful of red vine candy.

“I will pay when I get some cash,” I said.

“I guess I left my phone in the car, too. I can go and get them,” Pen offered.

“Thanks, because I think he’d kill me if I left these seats.”

“Are you going to eat your nachos?” Camden asked as he eyed my cheese covered chips.

I wasn’t hungry anymore and just handed Cam my snack. Pen said she would be right back and told her kids to behave.

I anxiously watched as Tyler seemed more like himself, catching the pitches a lot better and helping the pitcher decide which pitch would work against the batter. Soon, the home team’s hitter struck out. The next batter hit a grounder right to Montgomery, and he threw it easily to first base, so there were now two outs. I didn’t notice any of the noise or people talking around me. All I could see was Ty, who seemed to be trying to hurry the inning along. He and the pitcher seemed to disagree on the next pitch to throw, but soon the pitcher raised his arms, kicked out his leg, and threw a fastball that flew right by the batter. Next was a beautiful curveball that had the batter groaning out loud. The next pitch easily struck out the third batter. Tyler jumped up and jogged quickly to the dugout. I saw him talking with his manager and removing his catcher gear. Soon, he was coming out of the dugout and popping over the wall and walking towards me.

“Hi, Ty!” Pen said as she was walking down the stairs with both of our phones in her hand.

He looked over at her, then down to her hand, and eyed the phones with a glare.

“Why didn’t you guys answer your phones?” he asked.

“I told Molly to turn our phones off, so she wasn’t tempted to call you. She wanted to tell you her news in person.”

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