Trevor leaned forward, sorting through the snacks on the tray. “Hungry?”
“Yeah.”
He tossed a bag of pretzels at Lieberman, who caught it down low, about the level of his ankles.
“Nice snag,” Trevor said, then pulled out a book and focused his attention on the page.
Jim felt like dancing up and down the aisles doing fist pumps. Trevor…accepted him? After all his fears and doubts? All hail the gods of baseball!
Now all barriers between him and Nina were gone.
17
Trevor and Jim might have smoothed things out between them, but the weather didn’t get the message. They had to land in El Paso to wait out a thunderstorm, so they didn’t reach Kilby until just before the wedding.
Bullpen Ranch had its own airstrip where Crush kept his two-seater plane. It was just barely big enough for the charter to land. Trevor and Jim hurried to put on their tuxedos in the plane, then drove a golf cart to the grounds surrounding the ranch house, where the wedding was taking place.
Most of the wedding guests were already in their seats—white garden chairs arranged before an enchanting flower-adorned gazebo. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, so many people remained standing, gathered in a festive group behind the seated guests. Overhead, swaths of shade fabric protected them from the glare of the Texas sun. From his spot in the standing-room throng, Jim scanned the crowd, looking for Nina.
He didn’t see any trace of her blond pixie hair or bright, smiling face. His longing to lay eyes on her felt physical in its intensity. He needed to see her. Needed to touch her, to smell her, to hear her cheerful voice. He couldn’t wait to see her expression when she saw him.
The bridesmaids and grooms, including Paige, were already in place inside the gazebo. Trevor made his way toward an empty chair in the front row. As soon as Paige spotted him, she gave what looked like a jump of joy.
That’s what Nina would do, Jim knew it. Then she’d run to him and leap into his arms and he’d kiss her and tell her everything that was in his heart—
“Jim?”
He swung around at the sound of the hushed female voice next to him. It wasn’t Nina, though—Maggie stood next to him, a perplexed frown on her catlike face.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were in San Diego. Don’t you have a game?”
“I had a groin pull in my last game. I’m surprised you didn’t know. Aren’t injuries part of the data stream?”
“Oh—yes. They are. I haven’t watched the last couple of games and I have someone else doing data entry. I’m sorry about your injury.”
“I’m only out one game. It could be worse.” He looked around the crowd again. “Where’s Nina? I haven’t seen her. This is supposed to be a surprise, but I was really hoping to see her first.”
“Oh my gosh…” Dismay came over her face. “She’s…well…maybe you should call her.”
Jim patted his pockets, then realized he’d left his phone on the plane. “I’ll have to get it after the ceremony. It’s on Trevor’s plane.”
“So you flew out here to surprise Nina?” A funny expression came over her face, and then a giggle popped out. Maggie folded her lips together and shushed him before he could answer. “Come sit with me. We’ll talk after the wedding.”
He followed her to a chair near a potted orange tree that gave off a heavenly scent. They slipped into their seats just as Wendy took her first step down the “aisle.” The mayor of Kilby was a beautiful woman—a former beauty queen, in fact--but she looked more stunning than Jim had ever seen her. She wore a strapless ivory bustier dress and a white cowboy hat over her blond hair, which flowed down her back.
Waiting for her in the gazebo, Crush matched her in a dinner jacket with white satin lapels and cowboy boots. They looked like the perfect Texas power couple.
Wendy’s only bridesmaid was Teri Dimitri, her long-lost daughter who had reappeared last season. Teri usually dressed like a tomboy or in baseball uniform, since she played for the Isotopes as the first female pitcher on a Triple A team. But today she wore a pink bridesmaid’s dress and had her long dark hair in a knot.
She saw Jim watching and waved at him, then mouthed “talk later.”
Jim had trouble focusing on the wedding because he couldn’t figure out why Nina was nowhere to be seen. Was she sick? Had something happened? He reassured himself that it couldn’t be too terrible. Maggie didn’t look upset, just surprised to see him.
When he did pay attention to the wedding, he noticed the tender way Crush gazed at his bride, and the rapturous expression she wore. Crush had always been the disreputable sort, a hard-partying former baseball legend with three ex-wives and children he rarely saw. Then he’d fallen for the “ice queen” mayor of Kilby, and neither of them had looked back.
If two complicated people like Crush and Wendy could wind up pledging their love before a minister and half of Kilby, the sky was the limit for him and Nina. If he could just find her.
As soon as Crush swept Wendy into a kiss and the guests began to applaud, Jim turned to Maggie. “What’s going on? Why isn’t Nina here?”
“She’s in San Diego! She wanted to surprise you.”
“What?” He laced his hands behind his neck and tilted his head back to look up at the sky. “I thought she wanted me to show up at this wedding to prove my love or my manhood or something.”
“She decided she liked you the way you are. She missed you terribly and just wanted to see you.”
“Oh, hell on a cracker. So she’s all alone in San Diego? Trevor’s here too. Was anyone going to pick her up? Where’s she staying?”
They stared at each other. “I’d better call her,” Maggie said. As Jim waited tensely, she dialed Nina’s number. “Nina? Where are you?”
She glanced at Jim as she listened to whatever Nina was saying, then handed over the phone.
“Sweetheart?”
The sound of Nina’s voice, so far away on the phone line, felt like a punch in the gut. “Jim? I can’t believe this!” It was part wail, part laugh. “You actually made it to the wedding?”
“Yes. I stowed away on Trevor’s charter.”
“Seriously?” She repeated what he’d just told her to someone nearby.
“Who’s there? Where are you?”
“I found Dwight, he’s showing me around. I thought you’d be at the game so I went to the stadium first. Dwight told me you aren’t in the lineup today.”
“No I pulled my,” he shot Maggie a look and lowered his voice, “groin.”
Maggie rolled her eyes and stepped away to give him some space. All of the other wedding guests were already making their way toward the sprawling ranch house, where the reception would be held. That left Jim alone in a sea of white chairs.
“Sweetheart, I just wanted to be with you. I know you wanted me to come to this wedding. But I wasn’t sure I could, so I didn’t want to say anything. Then I just decided, screw it. If it’s important to you, it’s important to me. And now I owe Trevor for half a charter flight.”
Nina was still half-sobbing, half-laughing. “I can’t believe we both wanted to surprise each other. Maggie told me it was a bad idea.”
“No, it was a good idea. It’s so…I’m so…” Moved, amazed, blown away, nothing seemed like quite the right word. “I love you, Nina. I love you so much. You’re the only woman in the world for me. I’ve been thinking about it and if you want me to quit baseball, if that life is too lonely—”
“Quit baseball? What are you talking about?”
“You said you wanted a normal, ordinary life. If I stay in baseball, you won’t get that. We get traded, we travel too much, you’d be alone a lot.”
She drew in a swift breath. “Jim, is this…this sounds like…is this some kind of…”
“It’s not a proposal,” he said quickly. “I screwed this surprise up, but I’m not screwing that up. I’m definitely not doing it on Maggie’s cell phone.”
Nina sq
uealed. “Oh my God. Oh my God! Are you serious?”
He took the phone from his ear before his eardrum got shattered. “About not proposing? Yes.”
“Agggghghhh!!” Her shriek of joy reached Maggie, who was returning with a flute of champagne in each hand. She lifted her eyebrows as she handed him a glass and sat back down beside him.
Jim was grinning so hard, he thought his face might break apart. It sure sounded to him like Nina would accept his proposal when it came. “I can’t wait to hear the sounds you make when I do propose.”
“Aagggghhhhh” she repeated, even more excited.
Maggie’s eyes went wide at his words and she tipped her glass against his in a toast.
“So, what do we do now? Should I come back to Kilby right away or should you come to San Diego?”
“I’m coming to you, sweetheart. I already paid for the ride. Promised to pay, anyway. Can you stay with Dwight until I get there?”
“I’ll be counting down the minutes. I love you.”
He hung up and handed Maggie’s phone back to her.
“To you and Nina,” she said, raising her glass in a toast. “You know, I’ve heard about wedding hookups, but usually both people are at the wedding, right? Or did I get that wrong?”
He laughed as he clicked his glass against hers. “You’re not wrong. Nina never does anything the usual way.”
“And that’s why we love her,” she agreed.
He could definitely drink to that.
He drank another glass of champagne inside the ranch house with Teri. She caught him up on everything happening with her baseball career. Even though the Isotopes liked her, they were still using her mostly for middle relief. But she was sure they were going to start her soon.
“How about the other players? Are they treating you all right?” She’d had some issues when she first came to the league. Change didn’t happen easily in the world of baseball.
“Yeah, mostly. There’s this one…” She trailed off and waved her hand in dismissal. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it. Hey, did you hear I might get traded to the Catfish?”
He wanted to pin her down on that particular “one,” but Dean McFarrin showed up just then with more champagne.
Two glasses of champagne later, Jim switched to shots with various Catfish members. Several shots after that, he switched to a beer with Crush, who rarely drank anymore. After that beer, Maggie found him again. She handed him a big piece of wedding cake and a bowl of mixed nuts. Both looked delicious but blurry.
“You need some food to go with that alcohol,” she told him. “We’re going to have to pour you into that plane at this rate.”
“I jus’ had to celebrate. Haven’t seen these guys, I miss ‘em.”
So,” Maggie asked as she settled herself on the couch next to him. “Speaking of Catfish players, I was wondering how Dwight’s doing.”
“Dwight is doing grrrrreat.” He flourished his cake fork in the air like a conductor. “Hitting those deuces like it’s batting practice.”
“Cool, cool. I was referring more to, well, the non-baseball side of his life. The personal side.”
“Fine so far as I know,” he slurred. “Hasn’t mentioned much to me. Aren’t you guys…didn’t you…I heard you were…”
“Yes, we were.” Mercifully, she didn’t make him finish the sentence, which he was too buzzed to do in a family-friendly manner. “But then he went to San Diego, and…” She shrugged. “Now I don’t know.”
“If you don’t know, I don’t know,” he said wisely, hoping that made sense but pretty sure it didn’t.
“Right. I guess no one knows.”
Her downcast expression made him want to help her out. To give her something, some bit of information. “I know this. I know he’s happy ’bout the call-up. He was losing fate…face…faith. Gettin’ antsy.”
“You mean after the first time?”
“No no no, way before that. When you first came, around then. He thought it might be your doing, with your program. That’s why—” He broke off, vaguely aware that this wasn’t a good topic to pursue.
“Why what?”
“Nothing.” He lifted his cake plate to hide his face, only to find it plucked from his hands.
“Jim Lieberman, you finish that sentence right this minute.”
“Whoa.” He shrank back, shocked by her fierceness. Maggie had always struck him as reserved. Now she was roaring like a tiger. “The wine bar. That’s why we went, why he invited you. He wanted to shee, I mean, see for himself, see if, I don’t know, if you were the one holding him back.”
“If I was holding him back?”
“Well, your computer program.”
“Really. So he wanted to find out about my program?”
“I told him you were a whith kid. Whiz kid.” Oh God, he should probably stop talking now.
Maggie’s eyes were firing daggers at him. “And if I was, he was going to fix it? With that big smile and killer charm of his?”
“Are you mad?” Definitely he should stop talking. “Don’t be mad.”
“Oh, I’m not mad at you, Jim. Not at all. You’re a nice, straightforward, honest person.” She put down her glass with a click.
“Th-thanks?” It sounded like a compliment, but the edge in her voice made more warning bells go off in his fuzzy brain.
Maggie stood up and smoothed the skirt of her flowered dress. “You just did me a huge favor, Jim. I sincerely do thank you. And in return, I’m going to do you one.”
“Okay.” If she only stopped looking at him with those fierce eyes, he’d consider that a favor.
“If you love Nina the way I think you do, show it. She’s convinced herself that she doesn’t need the romance hero thing, but I know her. She loves you anyway, no matter what. But if you could show a little take-charge action sometimes, it would mean a lot to her.”
He wanted to explain that he’d come to Kilby with exactly that purpose, that he’d stood up to Trevor on the plane, and that he’d pre-proposed to Nina already, but all that was much too complicated to express at this point. “Okay,” he said instead.
“Goodbye, Jim Lieberman.” With a faint smile, Maggie touched him on the shoulder and disappeared into the crowd of wedding guests thronging Crush’s house.
He dropped his head into his hands, feeling queasy and sick. He’d done something wrong, screwed things up, and his head was spinning too much to sort it out. But the way Maggie had said goodbye—“Goodbye, Jim Lieberman”—it sounded like trouble.
But his phone was still in the jet, and he had so many friends at the wedding that he didn’t get a chance to slip away. By the time the reception ended, he and Trevor had to leave anyway. They stumbled into the Learjet and slept the entire way back to San Diego.
As soon as they arrived in San Diego, two important things had to happen. He had to talk to Dwight. And he had to propose to Nina. In a take-charge, action-hero kind of way.
Huh.
18
Nina had lived in three places in her life, Detroit, Tucson, and Kilby. They each had their advantages, but none of them had an ocean. Which meant that San Diego was now her favorite place in the world—of the places she’d seen. Dwight took her to La Jolla to see the sea lions, they watched the surfers in Ocean Beach, rode an old wooden rollercoaster. It was a perfect day, lacking only one thing—Jim.
But the fact that he intended to propose to her cast a golden sheen over everything. The world seemed to celebrate with her—the ocean sparkled, the pelicans croaked, the sea lions rolled in the waves, everything filled with joy, just like her heart.
At the appointed time, they drove to the airport to pick up Trevor and Jim, even though Trevor had left his car there.
“This will be perfect,” Nina told him. “You can drive with Trevor and I’ll drive with Jim in your car so we can have some time alone.”
“You got it all planned out, don’t you?” Dwight gave her a halfhearted smile.
&nbs
p; She cocked her head at him, suddenly realizing something. In her state of bliss, she hadn’t noticed until just now that he’d barely smiled at all.
She’d totally forgotten her other mission in San Diego!
“You don’t seem yourself, Dwight. What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing. I’m good.” He steered the car onto the freeway, which held a flowing, crisscrossing river of vehicles. For Nina, the sight was daunting. Maybe she should take more driving lessons if she was going to live here.
She gave a little wiggle of happiness at that thought. Live here with Jim? It was like a dream.
Back to Dwight. “You’re not, I can tell. And I know it has something to do with Maggie. She’s really upset, you know. She doesn’t like to show it, but it’s true.”
Dwight grunted and stared ahead at the traffic. His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel, dark skin going white.
“I thought you really liked her. I know she likes you.”
That didn’t even earn a grunt, just silence.
Clearly, the situation called for the big guns. “If she hurt you, the least you could do is tell her how you feel. You’re acting like a big baby.”
It worked. “How old are you, twenty-two? How’s an infant going to tell me I’m a baby?”
“She just did.” Nina pushed at his rock-solid arm. “And you deserve it. Maggie’s a sweetheart. She’s brilliant about everything except men, or should I say big old babies like you.”
He gritted his teeth. “You can stop insulting me now. I get it.”
“Then tell me what’s going on? Cuz she’s eating her heart out back in Kilby.”
After a lengthy silence, during which Nina could have painted all her nails, both hands and feet, he muttered, “She crossed a line.”
“What line? She said things were going great until that call with her parents. Was it something her parents said? You can’t blame her for that.”
Double Play Page 13
