Champagne & Baseball

Love & Laughs

I slipped out of the locker room after Coach Matthew finished his post-game wrap up. How in only one game had a locker room gone from being completely pleasant to smelling like the inside of a dead horse? I took a deep breath in the hall and looked at my phone. I answered emails quickly while Brady showered and changed.

He was the first of the team to emerge from the smelly room. After watching him from so far away up in the stands, I had forgotten how tall he was. I looked up to meet his eyes and gave him a smile, I stepped to him and stopped. I wanted to hug him in congratulations but now it seemed uncomfortable and awkward. I put my hand up for a high five, "Great Job!" He slapped it giving me a strange look.

He took my briefcase from me without my asking and as we crossed the parking lot. His hand found the small of my back.

"I was talking with some of the guys about game day jitters- " he said slowly, "I told them that you had us watch a movie to relax and it really worked. They want to do it too." I nodded and smiled. I was always happy to help someone out, ease their minds. I wondered why he bothered telling me about the simple advice. How these boys hadn't figured out how to relax after so many seasons together was beyond me.

Jaden, the shortstop, walked past us, slapping Brady on the pack. "See you in a bit." He said giving me a nod. I raised a brow at Brady.

"Is it alright if they come and watch a movie with us?" He asked sheepishly.

"And what if I say no?" I tilted my head to the side. "You already invited them." He looked down at his feet, ashamed. It was to-die-for cute. I caved. "We'll get pizzas for everyone on the way home." I said.

His face lit up "Thanks, Danny." His hand pulled away from my back and went around my shoulder, pulling me in for a half hug. We separated, his arm staying around my shoulders. It was a slick move I had to admit.

I had parked in the back of the lot thinking that the exercise would be good for me but now? Now my feet ached. Heels evidently a poor choice for a long hot baseball game. Brady let out a groan and I looked up from my phone, messages forgotten.

Wyatt sat on the hood of my car his leg up on the bumper, focus on the phone in his hand. He looked good, actually great, a fresh navy suit hugged his body nicely. I was desperate to see what I looked like but there was no time, no chance of a touch up before we ran into each other.

Brady leaned his head down to my ear, his breath tickling my neck, "Who wears a suit to a baseball game?" His tone was judgmental, I hadn't expected it from a country boy like Brady. I shrugged out of his arm, the sudden closeness felt inappropriate under somebody's watch. I shot him a look.

"Men. Men wear suits to baseball games." He averted his eyes, feeling guilty. Served him right.

"Wyatt," I said as I took a step out ahead of Brady, quickening my pace. Wyatt pulled his head up from his phone and gave me a big smile. One more look back at his phone and then he slid it into his pocket. He pushed himself up off the hood.

"Congratulations, I could hear the cheering from blocks away."

"Thanks! What are you doing here?" I gestured to the trash covered parking lot around us.

"You told me to call, but you changed your number." His eyes flickered to Brady and then back to me. "That's a cold move." he said.

I smacked my hand into my forehead. I was so stupid. Of course, he didn't have my number, a lot changed in the last four years. I pulled my phone out handing it to him.

"Give me yours and I'll call you." He took the phone.

"How about" he took a step closer to me, his frame dominating mine. I craned my neck to look up at him "You don't call, and I just take you out tonight" Brady let out a sigh of disbelief. He sulked his way around the car, and hopped in, slamming the door. Wyatt was unperturbed, his eyes locked on mine.

"I want to –" he took my hand in his and drew circles in my palm with his thumb. "I just have plans tonight. People are waiting on me."

A half lie. People were more depending on Brady than me. All I really had to do was drop Brady off and give him 20 bucks for pizza. No one would be the wiser. I felt Brady's eyes on us through the windshield and angled my body out of his view.

"I'll let you get away with it tonight but I'm taking you out dinner and we're going to have fun," Wyatt told me, a twinkle in his eyes. He texted himself off my phone before handing it back to me. "And I'm a gentleman so I'll call you" He leaned down and gave me a kiss on the cheek before he told me to have a nice night and walked off into the parking lot. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I watched him go, his walk strong and purposeful.

Brady honked the horn at me, it was like a bucket of ice water had been poured over me. I jumped and spun around to look at him. I gave them a vulgar gesture and then got into the passenger seat.

"Good thing pretty boy didn't see that." He said as he put the car in gear and steered us out of the lot.

"Just drive" I grumbled. In my hand I saw Wyatt's contact information, it made my stomach spin again. I shut the screen off.

Brady stopped at Leonardo's, arguably the best takeout pizza place in town.

We went in together needing four hands for the amount of food I planned on getting.

"How many are coming?" I asked him as we got into the queue. It was small, its only business pizza takeout. The walls held an assortment of flags, mostly Italian. The whole place was made up of a line for the register and a small wooden bench for waiting customers. It was exciting seeing how many people wore Falcons paraphernalia. I was thankful that Brady changed out of his uniform, I didn't want any attention on us.

"Garrett, Jaden, Adam, and Brett. Four." He said as he held up four fingers.

"You're a regular mathematician." I mocked, he playfully shoved me, I stumbled and fell against the man behind me. I forced out an apology as I shot daggers at Brady. It was his fault. He didn't manage to hide his smile.

Brady ordered four large pizzas, three with extra meat, extra cheese and one thin crusted vegetarian for me. I was impressed, he had pegged my taste well. He took his wallet out ready to pay, I pinched his arm. After waiting in line for 20 minutes, the smell of the garlic had gotten to me and I couldn't go home without breadsticks. I said as much to him and he added it to the order shaking his head. I pulled out my own credit card and tried giving it to the cashier, but he beat me.

"You're always getting me food" he shrugged, signing the receipt. I placed my card back into its slot.

"Yea, that's my job." I informed him. It was the host's responsibility to feed their player.

"No, it's not." he said as we moved to stand in the waiting area. "You love your job, you love taking care of the team, but I know you hate cooking, groaning and tutting around the kitchen every night."

"Tutting?" I laughed. The buzzer in Brady's hand went off. Our pizzas were ready. Brady piled all four into his arms and I took the small box of breadsticks in my own. Swinging by the condiments station on our way out I grabbed napkins and red pepper flakes.

He spent five minutes situating the pizzas in the backseat before he trusted they would not tilt or fall and thus ruin the pizza. He had more patience than me, before he even had the car in gear I had inhaled a whole breadstick.

"Good?" He grinned as he put the keys in the ignition. I moaned back, my mouth full of deliciousness. He barked out a laugh. I grabbed another breadstick and handed it to him.

"Driving," he said, pointing to the road in front of us. I moved forward, loosening my seatbelt, I turned and leaned into him. I pulled a piece off the breadstick and held it out in front of his mouth. He shook his head but opened. I fed him the buttery bread bite by bite as we drove home.

My stomach hurt by the time we parked from a combination of laughing and being stuffed full of food. I grabbed a napkin from the pile and wiped crumbs from Brady's face. Our eyes met as I pulled away and even though it was clean his tongue darted out and ran along his bottom lip. I bit mine and moved a fraction towards him, my stomach falling to the ground.

Hands meeting metal pounded on the car. I jerked my head back snapped out the moment, my head connected with the rearview mirror. My hands immediately reached back to feel the freshly forming bump. I groaned, turning to Brady. He was trying horribly to smother his laughter, his lips sealed up tight.

"Don't you dare - " I started and he laughed wholesome good hearted laughter.

"I'm sorry - " He said, moving his hand to the back of my head.

"Like you care," I said back, pulling away. I heard more laughter and looked outside the car. Garrett was bent over, arms wrapped around his stomach laughing at us. I leaned back in my seat, still holding my head. "I'm going to kill him," I growled to Brady. I opened the door and jumped out. "You're dead!" I said breaking him out of his laugh.

He stood up and wiped tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry, will you ever forgive me?" He walked around the car and pulled my hand back from my head, so he could run his own fingers over the bump. He made a surprised look at how big it was. He bent down next to me, his arm going to my back and under my knees. I let out a light scream as he scooped me up in his arms.

"This woman needs ice stat!" He shouted to absolutely no one as he carried me over to the front entrance. I couldn't help but laugh. Dammit, I already forgave him.

Garret carried me all the way into the apartment not even letting me stand in the elevator which was exceptionally uncomfortable as it was filled with people. He only set me down on the couch after telling me if I got up he would shoot me. An overwhelmed Brady appeared at the door, five boxes piled high in his hands.

"Thanks for the help." He shot at Garrett.

"It was a medical emergency," Garrett responded, tossing a bag of frozen vegetables to me.

The other boys arrived shortly after and we all chowed down on pizza arguing over which movie to watch. Jaden had nixed any and all sports movie citing that they were bad luck to watch during a season. I said I couldn't sit through any plotless shooter action movie. The boys chorused with a no romance rule immediately after and we all agreed that this wasn't a home that watched documentaries or musicals. Despite some light protest we finally landed on a comedy.

Brett spat out his soda so many times watching, that I had to switch him to water. We could barely hear half of the lines we were all laughing so hard, throwing pieces of pepperoni at each other and making fun of Brett for how funny he thought every single joke was.

It was one of the best nights of my life I realized later as I laid in bed. I had been surrounded by good people, good food and good entertainment. They didn't want to me act a certain way, say proper things or judge me in any way. It was just good clean fun.

I made a note to put fewer expectations on myself. Maybe the Danny I created in New York could mingle a little bit with Springfield Danny.