Ballgames And Strike Outs
Dahlia
I don’t think I’ve spent this long smiling at my reflection in… ever. It’s more than the fact that I’m going to watch OLIVER SCHOOLERS play baseball in his private box, though that certainly helps. The image in front of me isn’t distorted by my past. There’s a woman with a body just like every other woman in the world.
“Dahl, are you ready? We need to leave for the game soon.” Vex shouts up the stairs.
Time to just go live. Hat and foam finger in hand, I race down the stairs. “Sorry. I’m ready.”
“Everything okay? The car can wait as long as you need.” He takes a step forward.
Is everything okay? “No. Everything isn’t okay. Everything is wonderful. I’m going to watch my favorite team play with the man I love beside me.”
He reaches out and pulls me into his arms.
Those wondrous lips of his head towards mine. “New rule.”
“Oh?” His lips tip up .
“No kisses when we’re late for a Dragon’s Game.” I put my hand on his chest and push him away.
“I don’t like that rule.”
Me either. “There’s no rule about kissing in the car.”
“Do we have time for one of my guys to bring the limo over?” Vex leans down, gives me a peck on the lips, and lets me go.
“Nope, we’re late.” I turn to grab my purse.
“WHAT IS THAT?”
Vex never flips out. “Where? What? Is it a rat?” I spin around ready to jump on the nearest piece of furniture or him if need be.
“What are you wearing?”
Huh? “Is there something wrong with my outfit?” There can’t be I checked a dozen times. “Is it see-through?” The base of the shirt is white, but it seems thick enough not to show anything.
“Take it off.”
Huh? What in the world is he talking about? Spiders? “There’s a bug on me?”
“Dahl, pay attention.”
He didn’t just say that! “I am, but you’re making no sense.”
“There’s a man’s name on your body. And it isn’t mine.”
A man’s name—Oliver. Vex means Oliver. “It’s a jersey.”
“There’s a man’s name that’s not mine on your body.”
A jersey. He can’t be jealous of a jersey. “It’s just a—”
“Another man’s name.”
“But—”
“Take off the shirt.”
“But—”
“Dahl, I can handle a lot of things, but I can’t take seeing another man’s name on you, even if it’s just a jersey and I know you only love me.” His eyes plead with me even as they demand I give in.
“Then no other woman’s name can ever be on your body.” Why did I just say that ?
“Deal. I’ll even put your name on my body forever proclaiming me as yours, if you want.”
A tattoo. Vex would have my name tattooed on his body. “But you don’t like tattoos.”
“I didn’t see a point in tattoos… before now. The idea of having your name on my body forever—” He takes my hand in his, placing it over his heart. “—sounds right.”
Oooh. Can I handle getting a tattoo? “I don’t like needles.”
“Good. Because there’s no way you’re marring your perfect skin with a tattoo. Now go change.”
I start up the stairs
“And throw out that shirt.”
That man. “Fine. But you’re buying me a new one.”
“I’ll buy you the team if it makes you happy.”
Vex was just kidding. He had to be kidding. I don’t want to own a baseball team.
***
“GO! OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Vex leans down and whispers in my ear, “Have I told you just how cute you are when you watch baseball?”
I shrug, but don’t move away from him. With his arms wrapped around me and Oliver lapping the bases after hitting it out of the field, there’s nothing in the world I could ask for to make this moment better.
“You’re not going to be able to talk for days.”
Probably not, but I don’t care. “Worth it.”
He chuckles and pulls me closer to him — “So is this.” — and leans down to kiss me right behind my ear.
A shiver runs through my whole body. “No kissing at games. ”
“The Kiss Cam is on. It’s almost a rule that people kiss when it’s on.”
I lean back into his arms. “Is that so?”
“Absolutely.”
Round and round the stadium, Kiss Cam catches people kissing.
“You know we don’t really need to practice.” Why am I even teasing him?
“Who’s practicing? I’m enjoying the game.” He peppers my jawline with kisses.
Trying to pretend not to be affected by his shenanigans, I watch the screens. The camera swings around our suite, stopping on an older couple that I haven’t gotten to meet yet since we arrived after the game started. To say they’re focused on the game would be an understatement. The man’s eyes haven’t left the field since it began, and the woman toggles between watching him and the game.
There’s so much love and joy between them.
“I hope that’s us when we get to be their age.” Passion, hope, love, and tender affection are all wrapped up in a single kiss.
“It will be.” He places a single kiss on my neck. “I promise you that will be us forever.”
How can we have forever and yet never tell my parents?
“I’m going to go see if they have some tea with honey for your throat. Are you hungry?”
“Not really, but don’t let that stop you if you see something good.”
“Veggies it is.”
“Evil man. Veggies aren’t allowed at baseball games.”
He walks away smirking.
Temperance takes his place by my side. “My husband wasn’t wrong.”
“I told you I was in love.”
Temperance shakes her head. “What I just watched isn’t the trivial love people spout out in television shows. That’s the kind of love that would move heaven and earth for the other… wait sixteen years just to see the other person smile.”
Vex is currently trying to find tea with actual honey at a baseball game that’s got to be pretty close to moving heaven and earth. “It is. ”
“Not many people know anything about Vex’s childhood. And I won’t ask what you know. But my mother-in-law and her friends have known him since he was a teenager. If there’s one man in the world that deserves a happy family for the rest of his life, it’s him.”
Family? “We haven’t talked about kids.”
“Of course you haven’t, because that man doesn’t believe he deserves a family. And it seems like you don’t either.”
What? No. “Vex is one of the best people in the world.”
“But he’s not good enough to meet your family. When your mother and I talked at the party, she said you tend to hide from your problems. Don’t hide from this one until you destroy it. Now I’m going to go get some food.”
How can she drop a bomb like that on me and just walk away? I do hide. I hid from the world until I almost lost myself. Could I be doing it again, even when I thought I was doing the best I ever had?
“That’s a serious face for a baseball game.”
The older gentleman from the kissing couple pulls me out of my thoughts. “Baseball is a serious game.”
“It is.” He gives me a smile. “Especially when my grandson is out there.”
His grandson? This is — “You’re Oliver Schoolers' grandfather.” Oh my! “I read about you. You’re the man Oliver takes after. The player he strives to be.”
“I wouldn’t say that. My grandson is an amazing player. The player I never got to be.” He taps his knee. “The war took that from me. But then my Jojo gave me children. With them, she gave me the dream back. Have you ever lived your dreams outside of your body? Every time I watch my grandson out there on the field, I live the dream that war took from me.”
He wipes a tear away as I brush a few of my own off. Am I taking those dreams away from Vex simply because I’m letting fear win?