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fifty-one

Olive

“Aww, Liv is joining the jersey gang!” Harlow exclaims when I meet the girls by the stadium entrance.

Rory smiles at me. “Liv, you look great! Lane is going to lose his mind.”

Sage pipes in now. “We match, Owive!”

I look down and see her in a jersey that’s identical to mine, just in a much smaller size. “We do match, sweet girl! Daddy is going to love seeing you in his jersey, isn’t he?”

“He’ll love seeing you in it more,” Lucia teases.

“What does that mean?”

Ella tries to bite down a smile. “Guys love seeing their girl in their jersey.”

“They get all possessive,” Harlow adds.

“And feral,” Rory laughs. “Man’s going to have a new image to think of when showering.”

“Wow, okay,” I reply uneasily. “Learned something new today.”

“You’re going to learn a lot more, Liv,” Harlow states, looping her arm through mine as she starts leading us away from the entrance. “Baseball has a ton of stats. You won’t learn them all in one day, but you’ll get there.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound intimidating,” I chuckle.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Lucia assures me. “I didn’t know baseball at all before I started working for the Stars. My life plan was always to work for the MLS, but I dove in when I got hired here. And baseball has overtaken football for me as my favorite sport now.”

“Which is saying something because that girl was all about soccer when I met her,” Ella teases.

“Spain and basically every other country call it football,” she scoffs.

“Babe, you were born and raised in the United States,” Rory laughs.

“My parents weren’t. I learned from them,” Lucia shrugs. “Anyway, I’ve got a job to do, so this is where we part, ladies. I’ll see you after the game.”

We all wave Lucia off and head to our seats. Lane managed to get us five tickets right behind home plate, so we have the perfect view for today’s game.

We grab drinks and snacks before we sit down, and I finally get to take in the view.

You can see glimpses of the skyline over the wall in the outfield.

The sky itself is bright with few clouds, and the breeze coming off the river feels wonderful.

The temperature will fall as the sun sets, but it feels divine right now.

Spring weather is so finicky in New York City.

Harlow points to the dugout. “Ooh, the guys are coming in now!”

I look over to see the team filing into the dugout, so I grab Sage and hold her on my side. “Do you see Daddy over there, Sagie?” I ask.

“Daddy!” she shrieks when she spots Lane.

Her voice is loud enough to catch his attention over all the chatter around us because Lane immediately turns around. Even from here, I can feel the heat from his gaze as it rakes down my body before he spins his finger, gesturing for me to turn around.

I smile and comply, pushing my hair over the front of my shoulder so he can see the name Brooks in large letters across my and his daughter’s backs.

When I peer back over at him, he’s trying to bite down a smile, but he’s not very successful. Knox nudges his shoulder when he notices, laughing while he does.

Seems like the girls were right about the whole jersey thing.

Lane, without care for who’s watching, blows me a kiss as the guys take to the field for warmups.

I set Sage down on her seat before plopping into mine, cheeks still rosy from the exchange.

Rory elbows me. “What did we tell you about the jerseys?”

I can’t help but laugh. “Not that I doubted you before, but I really don’t doubt you now.”

“Do we know if they’re all keeping the same walkup songs this year?” Ella asks.

“There’s no chance Cole changes his,” Rory chuckles.

I look at them curiously. “What’s a walkup song?”

Harlow answers me. “The song that plays when the batters walk up to the plate. Each guy picks the song they want. Usually something personal to them or something they enjoy.”

“What ones do the guys use?”

“Cole uses Starlight because that’s his nickname for Rory, Josh uses California Girls because Ella is from California, and Ari uses a Korean song, but I don’t know its name. Lane usually switches his up a few times a season.”

“What about Knox?”

Harlow laughs. “Knox is a pitcher, and pitchers don’t bat. The designated hitter bats in place of them. He doesn’t have walkup music because of that.”

“Will he pitch today?”

Rory smiles. “Look at Liv trying to absorb everything baseball right now. To answer that, though, no, Knox isn’t pitching today.

He’s our ace pitcher, so he pitched on opening day.

We have five starting pitchers in the rotation.

We have a new guy pitching actually. We sent Evan Fowler back down to Triple-A after Spring Training and brought Lucas Bitford up. Tonight is his MLB debut.”

I spend the rest of warmups listening to the girls tell me everything there is to know about baseball. There’s a lot, and I’m not absorbing all of it, but I have learned some things.

Like ERA means earned run average, and apparently, pitchers want that to be low. On the opposite end, players want their batting average to be high. High is subjective, though. Apparently, getting a hit three times in ten at-bats puts you in contention for the Hall of Fame. That surprised me.

When warmups are over and the first pitch is thrown, the game begins. The guys take their positions on the field—Ari’s on first base, Josh is on third, Cole stands between second and third as the shortstop, and Lane is in center field.

The home team apparently bats in the second half of an inning, so the away team—the Pittsburgh Bridgers—steps up to bat.

To my untrained eye, the new pitcher seems pretty good. He throws pitch after pitch, but none of the batters end up on base. He threw twenty-one pitches, which, based on Harlow’s anxiety, could certainly be better.

But they do end the top of the first inning, at least.

Look at that. I did learn something.

We watch as the teams switch sides, with the Bridgers playing defense and the Stars on offense. Ari picks up the bat first and heads to home plate, but I watch Josh grab a bat, too, and stand in an outlined circle.

“What’s Josh doing?” I ask.

“He’s in the on-deck circle,” Ella answers. “Since Ari is the leadoff batter, he goes straight to the plate, but the next batter gets ready in the on-deck circle. They’ll take practice swings and all to loosen up. Josh is batting second today.”

Harlow lightly elbows me. “Your man bats after Josh, though.”

A Korean song plays while Ari gets into position. He swings at the first pitch and misses—evidently, that’s called a whiff. He does hit the ball on the next pitch, though. It lands in the outfield, and he safely gets to first base.

California Girls rings out as Josh prepares for his at-bat, Lane walking into the on-deck circle.

I can’t tell where the pitches are landing, but he has two strikes and three balls after the first five pitches—a full count.

When the next one comes in outside of the strike zone, Josh is walked to first base, and Ari moves to second.

Now, Lane is up. We listen closely to hear his walkup song, and a song I’m not familiar with starts playing.

Even though I don’t know it, it’s easy to see why he picked it. It has a fun beat and pointed lyrics.

Lane sways along to the music as he walks to the batter’s box, but his back is to the field, and his eyes are on me. He mouths the lyrics to the song, directing them at me, and everyone around us can tell.

“My ballerina, sway me side to side. All I need is a little love and care tonight.”

He winks at me before he gets into position, and I have to bite down my smile.

Walkup songs are personal to the player, and Lane chose one about me.

How could I not love that man?

We watch now as Lane rears the baseball bat back, ready for the first pitch. The first one is a strike. The next is a ball. But the third pitch Lane hits, and he smacks the ball over the outfield wall.

Home run.

He hit a home run, just like he told me he would.

So he can keep me coming back.

Lane rounds the bases, and after stepping on home plate, he looks at me again, holding his hands up in the shape of a heart. I do it back, and he smiles so brightly.

I’ve never known him to have shame, but I didn’t expect him to be so open about our relationship already. He’s all in, though. Head over heels in love with me.

And he doesn’t care who knows it.

In fact, I think he wants everyone to know.

“Are you guys sure I can be back here?” I ask as they quickly sneak me through the hallway.

The Stars won tonight against the Bridgers three to two, with Lane providing the only runs. Once the game ended, the girls immediately ushered me out of our seats and took me through the halls until we reached the authorized personnel area.

“It’s fine,” Lo assures me.

“I don’t have a team pass.”

“We’ll make sure you get one,” Ella promises. “All the WAGs get one.”

“And if anyone has a problem with you being back here right now,” Rory adds, “they can talk to me. My dad is the Field Manager, so I’ve got some sway here.”

They lead me down a few more hallways before we come to a stop in front of a door that reads Clubhouse.

“What do we do now?” I ask.

“We wait,” Harlow shrugs. “The guys are all inside showering after the game and getting ready to go home.”

“Not your man, though,” Ella laughs. “He’s the star of the game, so he’s making his media appearance first.”

“Daddy play good!” Sage yells happily.

“He played so good, sweet girl!”

“And he like ballerinas,” she smiles.

Sage has been starting to make actual sentences, and I feel like we’re holding real conversations now. It’s been so fun getting to talk to her.

“Well, Sagie, you are a ballerina!” I chime, taking her hands in mine.

“And you! You a ballerina, Owive!”

One of these days, she’s going to pronounce my name correctly, and I think I’ll cry. Sad tears because the way she says “Owive” is so cute.

“I have two ballerinas,” a voice booms from directly behind me.

I turn around quickly, hand to my chest. “Jesus.”

“Just Lane,” he smirks, and I roll my eyes.

“You played great tonight, Hotshot.”

Lane wraps his arms around my lower back and pulls me in close, brushing his lips over mine. “Had to impress my girl.” He kisses me sweetly as I hear Harlow aww behind us. He leans closer now, ghosting his lips over the shell of my ear. “Fucking love seeing you in my jersey, baby.”

I laugh lightly. “I’ve heard guys have a thing for their girl in their jersey.”

“I can’t speak for other guys, but I sure as hell do. Wouldn’t mind seeing you in that and nothing else.” His voice is low and gruff, and need pulses between my legs.

“You’re so dirty,” I tease.

“You already knew that, Ballerina.”

“Not seeming so PG out here,” Cole laughs, walking out of the clubhouse and joining us in the hallway.

“Shut it, Pierce,” Lane says, pointing at him. “I’ve watched you, Spencer, and Garro for years. My turn now.” He bends down to scoop up his daughter. “Lovebug! Did you have fun watching the game?”

“Yes! I sit with Mommy.”

My heart swells. She’s said it before, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over hearing her call me her mother.

“Holy fudge,” Knox says in surprise. “That’s a big moment.”

Lane just wraps his arm around me and kisses my forehead. “Sage and I both know that Liv is who we’ve been waiting for.”

“God, this is so flipping cute.” We turn now to see Ari walking out of the clubhouse.

“Seriously?” Josh says emphatically. “You find every romantic display cute, but you still don’t want that for yourself?”

Ari groans. “Can we not do this again?”

“Moving on,” Lane bellows, turning to Rory and Cole. “We have an early game on Sunday. Would you two mind watching Sage that night?”

“Sorry, man,” Cole replies. “We’re celebrating our anniversary Sunday night.”

“We can do it,” Knox chimes in. “Harlow and I can take her.”

“Yes!” Harlow shouts. “We’d love to watch her!”

Lane chuckles. “Thanks, guys. Appreciate the enthusiasm.”

“What do you have planned for Sunday?” Ella asks.

He turns to me now. “I want to take Liv out. We haven’t had a proper date since we actually started dating.”

“I’d love that,” I smile.

“Perfect,” he murmurs, gently kissing me.

“Do I get to know what you’re planning?”

Lane looks at me teasingly. “Where’s the fun in that, Ballerina?”

Well, I guess it’s a good thing I like surprises.