The Changeup (Men of the Show)

by Shaw, Rhonda

  “Look, before you start lecturing me, hear me out. I want this. I want her and I want her daughter. They help me feel grounded and...I don’t know...complete. I don’t feel like everything is such a whirlwind like it was in the beginning of the season. Bree is so awesome. She’s so happy and precocious. I’m teaching her how to throw and catch, and we have a blast together. I want to be there for her, give what her idiot father won’t. And Maddie...she’s just amazing. She’s so warm and real. There are no games with her and she only wants what’s best for Bree.”

  “Son, that’s a huge age difference. Twelve years? I know you’re mature for your age—hell, we say that all the time—but that seems like a big gap. You two want different things in life at this point.”

  “How do you know what I want? How do you know this isn’t what I want?” Chase countered, tired of everyone telling him what he wanted.

  “Chase, you’re twenty-two. You’re too young to know exactly what you want.”

  “Really, Dad? How old were you and mom when you got engaged?”

  His parents glanced at each other, knowing he had a point since they’d both been twenty-one, before his father turned back to him. “That doesn’t matter, Chase, it’s...”

  “I know, I know. It’s different. How exactly is it different, Dad?” His tone said he was quickly losing patience.

  “Honey, what I think your dad is trying to say is that, before now, all your focus has been on baseball. This is a quick change in focus, from everything baseball to trying to incorporate a family on top of that, especially now that you’ve finally made it this far. This has been your dream for such a long time.”

  “Baseball is still my focus, Mom. It’s just now Maddie and Bree are too. Look, I’m not going to claim I was looking for this and that I wanted this to happen like this or right now, but it has and I’m not going to question it and I’m definitely not going to turn my back on it.”

  “Chase, the timing on this is horrible.” Rick leaned forward on his elbows and poked the table with his finger for emphasis. “This is your first year. Many opinions are still forming about you. Throw in your age, everyone’s looking for you to fall flat on your face and say the money spent on your contract wasn’t worth it.”

  “Dad, I know. Believe me, I’m working hard.”

  “I have no doubt about that, but you don’t want to add any fire to the mix. You know that they’re already trying to find out all they can about her especially since you gave them an eyeful after your no-hitter.”

  Chase sunk down a bit lower in the booth. “I know. I’ve had people asking about her in interviews. Maddie freaked out pretty bad when our picture was in the paper, and so I wouldn’t say anything to anyone. I’m trying to keep them away from her as much as possible until she gets used to it.”

  “Even then, I can’t imagine very nice things are going to be said about her.”

  He felt his temper flare at that thought. “It isn’t their business. They should only be concerned about my game, not my love life.”

  “Son, I know that and you know that, but do you think they care?” his father asked. “It isn’t fair, but that’s the way it is. You know this. We talked about this before you decided to go pro.”

  “Dad, I understand what you’re saying and I hear you, but I’m not going to give her up. I want her too much to give up. I’ll deal with whatever consequences come out of this. She’s too important to me. Besides, the media coverage will die out as soon as the next big story hits.”

  “Chase, please, think of yourself for once,” his mother begged. “I respect how much you care about her and her daughter. I could see the happiness on your face through the television and listening to you now, I can tell your feelings are very real, but the timing just isn’t right. You can see that, can’t you? You’ve worked too hard to get to where you are to take any risks.”

  He shook his head. “You guys are just going to have to trust me on this one.”

  “Chase...” his father started.

  Chase sat up straight and continued shaking his head, adamant about his decision. He was an adult and it was about time they started treating him like one. “No, I’m serious, guys. This is my decision to make and I’m doing this. I appreciate your opinions and all, but I’m not ending things with her. If it blows up in my face, then you have my permission to say I told you so.”

  “We wouldn’t do that, honey,” his mother insisted.

  “Please stay open-minded about this,” he pleaded. “Once you meet her, you’ll see what I’m saying. I know you’ll love her like I do.”

  His parents looked at each other, a silent agreement passing between them. It seemed there was nothing more to say. His dad nodded as he took a sip of his beer. “Okay. Let’s do that, let’s meet her.”

  “What do you mean? Are you going to come to Detroit?”

  “Why don’t you have her meet us in Chicago? She can come to your game with us,” Rick said.

  “I guess I could.” He thought it over and weighed the possibilities of convincing Maddie to drive out to Chicago to meet his parents. It seemed like a long shot, but he could try. “I didn’t think of that. I’m not sure how receptive she’ll be to it, though being such short notice and all, but who knows. Maybe she’ll surprise me. I’ll be right back.”

  Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed her number as he walked out of the restaurant. She answered on the second ring

  “I was hoping it would be you, how did I get so lucky?”

  “Because you’ve hit the jackpot with me.”

  She laughed. “It would seem. How are you?”

  “You’ll never guess who surprised me here.”

  Maddie paused as she thought it over. “You’re right, I’ll never guess. Who?”

  “My parents.”

  “Oh, what a nice surprise!”

  “Yeah, no, it’s great. I haven’t seen them in a while.” He glanced around the lobby unsure how to broach the subject. “So here’s the thing. They want to meet you and Bree.”

  Dead silence hung over the phone and Chase sighed. He could imagine her look of paralysis. “You talked about me?” she asked in a small voice.

  “Of course we did. Why wouldn’t we? We knew this would happen after they saw us on TV.” He left out that it was the main reason behind his parents’ surprise appearance.

  “What did they say?”

  “They want to meet you and Bree.”

  “What did they say, Chase?” Maddie pressed.

  His shoulders sagged as he took another deep breath. “They voiced the concerns that we knew they were going to. Nothing was a surprise, Maddie. But,” he added, cutting her off, “they want to meet you and that’s a good thing. They’re being open-minded about this, like I asked them to be.”

  “Chase...”

  The fear and uncertainty was clear in her voice and it tore at him. “Come on, Mad. It will be fine.” His voice was tender as he tried to support her and acknowledge her fears. “I’ll be with you as much as I can and it will all work out fine. Trust me, they’re going to love you and they’re going to be over the moon with Bree—especially my mom. She always wanted a daughter and instead was cursed with two boys,” he said trying to lighten the mood.

  “I don’t understand. How would they meet us? Are they coming to Detroit when you come back?”

  “Uh, no. That’s the other part. They want you to meet us in Chicago and go to the game with them.”

  “Chicago? Drive to Chicago? Chase, I wouldn’t know where to go, where to stay...”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got that. I’ll get you a room at our hotel. You’ll be with them during the day and they’ll take care of everything. You just need to get you and Bree there.” Since he could sense the change in her, tell she was seriously considering it, Chase wal
ked back into the restaurant and sat back down at the table. “I think if you get there by Tuesday around noon that will be fine. It will give you some time before the game to check in and relax.”

  “Will we be able to see you when we get there?” Maddie asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. I’m pitching that day so I’ll be at the park already. Game day mode, you know how it is.”

  Maddie sighed. She knew she was going to have to do this eventually, but she’d hoped it would be on her own turf. Perhaps it was better if it was on neutral ground and it would be nice to take a little road trip with Bree. She was going to have to get a grip on herself and get it over with. “Okay. We’ll be there.”

  He gave his fist a little pump at her agreement. “Awesome. I’ll email you the hotel details and directions.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay? I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too.”

  He hung up the phone and took a sip of his water, relieved that it hadn’t been as big of a battle as he was anticipating it to be. “She’ll be there.”

  “This will be good, for us to meet her. Now we can see for ourselves what a wonderful person she is.” Anne said with a motherly squeeze of his hand.

  * * *

  After saying goodbye to him for the night, his parents headed to their room. Anne leaned her head against her husband’s arm and sighed. “Well, it seems our son is in love.”

  Rick shook his head with a small grin. “It looks that way, doesn’t it? I don’t know why we’re surprised that he’s going about it the same way he did with baseball—with a full head of stubbornness.” He snickered. “And how’d you like that speech about what is age anyway, but a life stat? Always trying to philosophize his way through things.”

  She laughed softly. “That’s our son.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Pulling up in front of the hotel, Maddie placed her car in Park and once again asked herself if she knew what she was getting herself into. On the four-hour drive to Chicago, she’d repeatedly fought against the urge to turn the car around and head home, back to safety. But each time, she talked herself out of it and reminded herself that if she wanted to be with Chase, she was going to have to step up and deal with things that may not be pleasant at first. If she ever wanted to get to the point where they could be left alone and enjoy each other, then she was going to have to get through the ugly. She knew not everyone was going to be on board right away, but she’d promised Chase that she was going to stand united with him, and now she had to do that with his parents...alone.

  Even though her anxiety level had reached an all-time high and she could feel herself wanting to hyperventilate, she told herself she was an adult and she could handle this. She couldn’t always depend on him, she was going to have to do some of this on her own and she was going to have to start now whether she liked it or not. If things got too hairy, she could always count on Bree to charm everyone.

  With one more glance out her window, she took a deep breath, steeled herself and muttered, “Here goes nothing.”

  Letting the valet park her car, Maddie took Bree by the hand, hoping it would stop hers from shaking, and led them into the hotel lobby, walking straight up to the front desk. While they stood waiting for the clerk to return with their room keys, a couple tentatively approached them, the woman with a hesitant look.

  “Maddie?”

  Without any introduction, she knew she was looking at Chase’s parents. He had his father’s height with his mother’s features. Even though her throat tightened with nerves, she did a mental fist pump at seeing them both with gray hair. She’d been worried that she would look as if she could be his mother’s not-that-much-younger sister. She was happy that there appeared to be at least two decades between them. Unless, she thought with new worry, his mother was prematurely gray. “Yes, hi. You must be Mr. and Mrs. Patton.”

  “Please, call me Anne, and this is my husband Rick,” she said as she took Maddie’s hand.

  Rick barely gave her hand a shake before dropping it quickly while the look on his face remained neutral.

  “It’s nice to meet both of you. This is my daughter Bree.” She put her hand on Bree’s shoulder.

  Chase’s mother knelt down to Bree’s level and smiled. “Hi, Bree. It’s so nice to meet you. Chase has told us so much about you.”

  She grinned in reply, but had apparently decided to play coy for the time being.

  “Here are you keys, ma’am.”

  Maddie took the keys from the hotel clerk before turning back to Chase’s parents. She gestured at their bag. “Well, I guess we should unload in our room.”

  “We thought we’d walk around downtown a bit before heading to the park,” Chase’s father said, finally breaking his silence. Rick’s demeanor was still cool and reserved, but he extended the invitation anyway. “Why don’t you meet us back down here in about an hour?”

  “Sure, sounds good. Let’s go, Bree.”

  When the elevator doors closed behind them, she was thankful they were the only ones in there. She closed her eyes as she sunk against the back wall. She’d gotten the reaction she’d been expecting from his father. He wasn’t outright rude, but he wasn’t exactly welcoming either.

  His mother, on the other hand, had been very nice and tried to ease the tension between everyone. It was going to be a long night if Rick continued to observe her from a distance as if he was waiting for her to say or do something wrong. She didn’t know how much her nerves could handle.

  “What’s wrong, Mommy?”

  Maddie turned to see Bree watching her curiously. “I’m just a little nervous, honey. Chase’s dad didn’t seem too happy with me.”

  “Why not?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I guess he isn’t too happy about Chase and me. He probably thinks I’m too old for him.”

  “I think Chase makes you happy.”

  She smiled down at her daughter. “He does, honey. He does make me happy.”

  Maddie unlocked the door to their room and dumped their bag on the bed before collapsing beside it. Her cell phone rang from the depths of her purse and pulling it out she saw it was Chase.

  “We were just talking about you,” she said.

  “Oh yeah? I hope it was something good.”

  “Yes, it was. Bree was telling me that she thinks you make me happy and I agreed with her.”

  Chase chuckled. “That’s good to know and I think you make me happy too.”

  “Well, now that everybody’s happy, what’s up?”

  “I wanted to make sure you guys made it okay. No problems with the room, was there?”

  “No, everything’s fine. We met your parents already and we’re meeting them in the lobby in about an hour.”

  “How’d that go?” Chase asked. She could hear the worry in his voice.

  “You mom was very nice. Your dad...well, let’s just say he didn’t seem too thrilled.”

  “Yeah, I was afraid of that. Give him time. He’ll come around.”

  “I hope so. Either that or he’ll just give in and give me the third degree like it looks like he wants to.”

  “He won’t do that. I promise,” he assured her.

  “If you say so,” she said with a sigh, not fully convinced. “Good luck tonight.”

  “Thanks. I’ll see you after the game, okay? Let me talk to Bree a second.”

  “Okay. See you later.” She handed the phone to her daughter. “He wants to talk to you.”

  Maddie stretched back out on the bed and half listened to their conversation, which consisted mostly of Bree giggling and saying “Okay.” Her thoughts went back to how she was going to manage the rest of the night with his father. She was going to have to find a way to make him understand that she was with Chase because o
f the wonderful, caring man that he was. That he had filled a hole in her and Bree’s lives that nobody had ever filled before. She knew his dad was worried that her reasons for being with Chase were purely selfish and would be wary of anything that could jeopardize his career. His concern was totally as a parent and she understood that. She didn’t know exactly how she would make him comfortable with their situation, especially when there were times when she still had doubts, but she had to believe time was the answer to everything. Given enough of it, everything would fall into place.

  * * *

  She and Bree stepped back into the lobby an hour later and spotted his parents standing by the front door. Following them out onto the sidewalk, they all walked in silence, Bree and Rick walking ahead while Maddie and Anne fell behind. The sun shone down on them, adding heat to the already muggy city air.

  “So Chase tells us you’re a middle school counselor,” Anne said breaking the awkward silence. “That sounds interesting.”

  “Oh, it can definitely have its interesting moments,” she replied with a big grin.

  “I remember my boys at that age,” Anne said, nodding in agreement. “There was never a dull moment.” She looked at her timidly. “I know this is probably inappropriate since we just met and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where’s Bree’s father?”

  “We’re divorced. He decided he didn’t want kids after hearing I was pregnant.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “That didn’t seem to mesh with the idea of me having a family.”

  “Good heavens, I would think not! He doesn’t see Bree then?”

  “Not much. Sometimes he’ll take her for a week or so, but it’s usually to some family function or something. His family wants to see her even if he doesn’t.”

  Anne shook her head with pity. “That’s a shame. I couldn’t imagine if Rick hadn’t been involved in the boys’ lives. He’s the reason they’re both in baseball.”

  “That’s what Chase said.” Maddie’s mouth curved unconsciously. “Chase is unbelievable with Bree.”