30. Callie
Chapter 30
Callie
After driving a half hour toward the coast, Will pulls into a parking lot across the street from a pier that has all these cute booths set up. Lending me a hand as we get off, I let him get my helmet as well.
At this point I’m sure he knows I can do it. I like being independent, but sometimes I like letting him just take care of me. And while I don’t know what he has planned exactly, the effort is already romantic as hell.
I’ve felt a little bummed because part of me really wanted to lock ourselves in one of our hotel rooms for our entire day off, but I know that even with a Do Not Disturb sign we’d have zero privacy. If Shannon didn’t come knocking, my nosy brother would.
Adam texted me first thing this morning offering to take me to lunch. I didn’t exactly know what excuse to give so I went tried and true with girly shit. Loaded him up with shopping, me-time, exploring cutesy tea shops—told him anything that screamed girl time. I practically held my breath as those three dots danced and his “Nah, count me out. Enjoy your day” text came through.
“You ready?” he asks.
“For the date I know nothing about? I guess,” I snark.
“Look who’s being the smart ass now.” Will’s hand threads through my hair then down to my neck and pulls me to him.
The kiss doesn’t start small. It’s desperate, claiming—it’s “let me suffocate in your mouth because if this is how I go, then I’ll die happy.”
For a moment it feels as if it’s only Will and I around. This is the kiss I wanted to spend hours on in our hotel room. Keeping this a secret just makes less and less sense with each kiss.
Our moment comes to an abrupt end when a group of what looks like high school kids start hollering and whistling at us.
Will pulls back with a chuckle and I can’t help but send the guys the middle finger.
Will takes my hand and places a light kiss to the back of it. “Come on, Blaze, we’ve got plenty of time for that later.”
I lean back slightly with raised eyebrows. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Oh, believe me, after this date you’ll be putty in my hands.”
I roll my eyes. “Aren’t we confident.”
Will wraps his arm around my shoulder to lead me toward the pier. “I’m a pitcher, of course I’m confident.”
We walk across the crosswalk but instead of walking further down the pier, Will pulls me to the side toward the strip.
“Don’t worry, we’ll come back,” he says when he notices me looking back at it. “I told you we’ve got all day.”
He leans over to kiss my temple while walking me further down. The buildings lining the strip are exactly like the pictures of typical beach-style buildings I’ve seen. “You know, this is the first time I’ve ever been to Florida.”
“Really?” Will glances my way for a moment.
“Yeah, my family wasn’t exactly the beach vacation type. Any vacation type, for that matter. My dad’s a complete workaholic and my mom hated the idea of any travel. They love New Haven so much, so traveling just seemed irrelevant.” I shrug. “You have family here, right?”
“Yeah, some up closer to the Florida-Georgia line. None I’m close with.”
“Oh, yeah? How come?” I ask out loud before even really processing the question. When I really start thinking about what I know about Will, it’s not much.
I know the basics, I guess. But I feel like there are tons of things Will knows about me. Heavy stuff, too. Maybe I’ve just been an oversharer. And if Will’s tense shoulders are any indication, I don’t think I’m about to get much of an answer right now.
“Just not close,” he finally mumbles. We walk a little bit further and I have to bite at my lips the entire time to not ask any more questions.
When we walk up to a small restaurant with these picnic tables out front, I shake off the weirdness with the idea of eating at this cute little spot. But when Will asks for his to-go order, I raise an eyebrow. “Are we not eating here?”
“Hey, there she is. I was half wondering what your next question was going to be and half afraid you were going to bite your lip off.”
I narrow my eyes at him with a scowl, but he just smiles and places a kiss to my brow. “Let’s get to where we’re going, and you can ask me any questions you want, okay?”
“Oh, free reign questioning? Do you even know what you just offered? I get to ask any question? And I have time to think of them?”
“God, you’re going to want me to talk for hours aren’t you?”
I smile eagerly and nod. “I bet a William Anderson ramble is so hot.”
Will rolls his eyes and pulls me closer by my belt loop.
“Here we are!” one of the hostesses says, handing Will a brown bag. “And some of the guys were curious…are you the new pitcher for the Boston Blues?”
I peep around Will and see some of the people at the bar looking at us. Will, however, doesn’t hesitate. “Nope, that’s not me.”
He hooks his arm around my shoulder and leads me away with a kiss to the side of my head.
“Those poor fans must be heartbroken,” I joke, but honestly I’m relieved he shut it down quickly. I do hate that he felt like he had to lie though.
“They’ll get over it. Today I’m not a pitcher anyway.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. “Oh yeah, what are you?”
“Today, I’m a guy taking his girlfriend out for a date.”
Oh. Goodness, am I a puddle? How am I walking? I feel like I just lost every bone in my body.
Blindly following Will further down the street, we come up on a small little tea shop. When Will walks up, I pull back.
“It says they're closed.” I point out the sign hanging in the window. It’s weird, their lights are on, but there’s not a single customer inside.
“Not for us they’re not,” Will says cooly then knocks on the door.
“Will! We are not?—”
“Mr. Anderson, welcome!” An older woman swings the front door open with a huge smile. She ushers us inside and locks the door behind her.
When I step inside it’s covered in pastel greens and pinks. Gold antiques accent the walls and roses are stenciled throughout. Not to mention there are fresh cut roses everywhere. And in the middle, there’s a table set up with a lace tablecloth and candles.
“This must be Callie.” The woman behind me says, bringing me out of my daze. She holds out her hand for the both of us. “Hi, I’m Rachel, the owner of Rose’s Dream Tea. I’m so happy to have fellow tea lovers here. Is this the food I suggested?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Will hands her the bag and she smiles.
“Perfect, let me get this set up for you guys. Why don’t you have a look around.” Rachel scurries around us, and I spin on my heels to face Will.
“What have you done?” I can’t help but smile already, this seems so elaborate. How did he manage to do all of this?
“I told you, I’m taking my girlfriend out on a date.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal but he’s got that damn smirk on his face. He knows I’m loving this.
“Will, this seems a bit more detailed than a normal date.”
“Does it?” He quirks up an eyebrow. “I mean, buying out a tea shop for the day for my girl seems pretty low bar.”
“You bought out the whole place?!” I don’t mean to say that so loud, but I’m shocked. I’m fucking flattered.
Will places his hands on my shoulders then runs them up and down my arms. “I thought we covered the whole ‘I have money to spend on you’ deal. Callie, I know how stressed you are about us keeping this a secret, but today let’s just be, okay?”
I nod because it’s the only thing I think I can manage. Will cups my face, placing a small kiss to my lips.
“One day at a time.”
After a few minutes Rachel brings out several trays full of fruit, cookies, sandwiches, tarts, and small cakes. “Okay, you two. If you’re ready, go ahead and take a seat.”
Will holds out his hand for me to go first, and when we reach the table he pulls out my chair before sitting across from me. Rachel then places this beautiful drink in front of us.
“Alrighty, this is our mango hibiscus tea. Callie, Will told me that you like to keep your caffeine intake low, so two out of the three teas today will be caffeine free.”
“Thank you,” I say, then flash a smile to Will and he just winks back.
“There’s blended mango at the bottom, and I always recommend mixing up the tea at the beginning, but some of my customers say they simply love the mango first, so as my mom would say, ‘whatever floats your boat.’”
I pick my drink up, stirring around the fruit with the straw and Will follows suit. Rachel then brings one of the trays full of fruit and small baked goodies in between us. “And these are the starters. I’m going to start on the next tea and I’ll be back shortly.”
“Thank you, Rachel,” Will says as she walks to the back, then holds his drink out to me. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” I clink my glass to his then take my first sip. “Oh my gracious. This is delicious.”
“Thank fuck.” Will exhales. “Do you know how stressed I was that this was going to go so poorly?”
I can’t help the laughter that comes. “Why were you so worried?” I pick up a raspberry from the tray and pop it in my mouth.
“Well, I threw this together in less than twenty-four hours. I barely made it before their closing time yesterday to talk to Rachel about me buying out the place for the day.”
“I can’t believe you did all this,” I whisper.
“Day’s not over yet.” Will winks as he eats one of the macarons.
I hum low. “Hmm, that’s true. I also believe I was told I could ask any question that comes to mind when we got where we’re going. Is that still true?”
“Fire away, Blaze. I won’t promise a ramble, but I’ll answer honestly.”
Fidgeting in my chair, I pull it closer to the table. I have one question that I’ve hung on to for a while. “Okay. Why baseball? Why not keep going with motocross?”
Will puts his drink down and leans back in his chair. “I always enjoyed both. Not to come off like an ass, but I was great at both.”
“Humble,” I huff jokingly.
He shoots me a smirk, but it quickly disappears. “My dad loved bikes. Motocross was where we bonded. Spent hours on end at dirt tracks—so bad that Mom would have to drag us off when it was too dark.”
“That’s sweet.” I have to take a sip because I'm dying to ask more follow-up questions already, but I know that he’s working up to more, I just need to be patient. Granted that’s not always been my strong suit—hence drinking my tea to occupy my need to talk.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure you’ve wondered why I haven’t offered to introduce you to him, or mentioned him for that matter. He had always been a drinker. As a kid I didn’t really understand what was going on but after a while he got more brazen with it. We went out to dinner after one of my races and he drank a few too many but drove us home anyway. We barely made it out of the parking lot before he ran off into a ditch and into a street pole.”
“Oh, God, Will. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—”
“Hey, it’s okay. I was fine other than some scratches from the glass. He was the same, but not at all remorseful. He obviously got arrested and Mom picked me up at the hospital. She was furious—rightfully so. She gave him an ultimatum—get sober or leave. He left the next week and never looked back.”
My stomach turns in knots, and I feel like my heart dropped out of my chest. “So that’s why you never drink.”
“Not a drop. I also quit motocross immediately after he left. I wanted to quit baseball too, honestly. I was just angry at everything, but my mom refused to let me stew in it. She forced me to stay in some sort of activity, said she didn’t care if it was chess club, but I had to do something. So I stuck with baseball and here we are.”
I smile softly. “Can I selfishly say I’m happy your mom did that?”
Will humphs a small laugh. “Yeah, it turned out okay.”
“I’m choosing to ignore the small insult for the sake of me still getting to ask questions.”
Will takes my hand from across the table. “Keep ’em coming.”
“And your family here, is that your dad’s family?”
“Yeah, Mom tried to keep them involved in our lives but everything shifted for my mom after that. She loved my dad, probably still does on some level, but there was no coming back from that for her and they couldn’t really understand that. The holidays were always her favorite in Rowley anyway, so that’s where we stayed.
“Reagan and Lucie had a hard time understanding everything at first. Mom and I really tried to shield them from the whole drama, but eventually it got easier and it’s been the four of us ever since. When I went to Seattle, I was far away from them and really they needed me less and less. Now, granted, because of that I did get back into riding. Kind of felt like I was giving my dad too much power in taking away something I enjoyed for so long, so I bought my first bike with my first payout from my contract.”
I scrunch my nose thinking of him on his bike. After today’s ride, it's growing on me.
“I really must have distanced myself because I never knew about the bike until the night at the bar. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely noticed you?—”
“Did you have a crush on me, Blaze?” Will interrupts me with a shit-eating grin.
I roll my eyes. “Finding someone attractive and having a full-on crush are two different things. I’d like to think I had the same effect on you.”
“Alright, I’ll agree to that. Your presence was always noticed, but I never acted on it. So I get what you mean.”
A blush comes to my face as I sip my tea. “Back to my original point. I never really paid full attention in Seattle. All I allowed myself to think about was you being a baseball player then shut it down from there. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Honestly, that was really all I was. After a while I think I was just going through the motions of what was required of me as a player. I didn’t have anyone there who I really cared for, and I got lost in that. But then you sat next to me on the plane, and I don’t know, you opened your mouth and it felt a little bit like home to me.”
Biting at my lip, I don’t know if I have any more questions after this. Really I just want to give Will a hug.
Will leans back in his chair and waves for me to continue. “Come on, Callie. Give me another question.”
Pushing back my chair, I round the table and lean over to give him a tight hug.
Will chuckles lightly and pulls me into his lap. “Now you’ve done it. If you think I’m letting you go back over to your own seat, you’re fucking wrong.”
Sitting up I readjust in his lap to face the table and reach for my drink to bring it over to this side. “One day at a time, right?”
“Right.” Will brushes some of my hair behind my ear. “Oh shit, I almost forgot.” Will wraps one arm around my waist to hold me to him while he leans over to get his backpack and pulls out a blue Polaroid camera. “I’m going to need my photographer girlfriend to document this killer date.”
“Shut up!” I snatch the camera from him, then kiss him on the cheek. “This is perfect.”
“That was the goal.” He places another kiss on my temple while I fidget with the camera.
Double checking there’s film in it, I turn it around. “Smile,” I say, then click our picture. Screw being scared of someone finding these, this date deserves to be documented.
Rachel comes back out a few minutes later with an Earl Grey raspberry tea and the sandwiches Will picked up from the restaurant down the strip. Will stays true to his word and keeps me in his lap the whole time.
I don’t think I would have ever made it through any dinner sitting in my boyfriend's lap without feeling uncomfortable, but with Will it was fun. It felt flirty and connecting. We laughed a lot and I took so many damn pictures we go through two packs of film before we’ve even left the tea shop.
Finally back at the hotel, I think Will might have put me in a “best date ever” trance because I don't even care as we walk toward the hotel together. Screw someone seeing, this man rented out a tea shop for me today. Then practically let me make him my model for the day. I went through almost every pack of film he bought. The amount of Polaroids I tried to carefully place in his backpack was insane.
Will stops at the corner and turns to me. “What’s your room number, Callie? I’ll do this in whatever way you’re most comfortable with, but I’m not quite ready to give up our day off yet.”
Me freaking either .
“I mean, there’s no harm in walking me to my hotel room. You could just be super protective over your team’s photographer. That’s very professional.”
Will pulls me in closer to him. “But I plan on doing so many unprofessional things to you.”
I inhale his scent and sigh drunkenly with a small smile. “Have I ever told you I love the way you smell?”
Yup, I’m pretty sure I’m high off all the freaking romance of today.
“Nope.” He laughs. “This would be the first.”
“Well, I do. You smell manly but also like coconuts. Just know, whatever soap, deodorant, cologne—I don’t care what it is—don’t stop using it.”
Will smiles that damn smile. “Okay, I promise,” he whispers, but then takes a step back. “Now, Callie, can I please escort you to your room safely? The gentleman in me insists.”
I can’t help my laugh. “Thank you, I would love that.”
I follow him through the lobby, shoving my hands in my pockets to resist my need for physical affection. I let out a small sigh when we get in the elevator alone and it makes it all the way up to my floor without any stops.
I swipe my keycard at my door. “It seems I’ve made it safely.”
“Then is my job done?” Will smirks.
“For the gentleman in you, it is.” I pull Will in my room by his coat and with the click of my door, it’s on.