Chapter 16 Daisy - Fixer-Upper
DAISY Fixer-Upper
I’ve never liked baseball. I know. It’s a bad true confession from someone who cannot keep her mind from wandering to the adorable high school baseball coach.
I don’t hate it. I’m just more of a basketball kind of gal.
But, tonight, all that changed. Because at this baseball game, there were cheerleaders.
I had grown up cheering, which was so much fun.
As a teenager whose mom had taken off, raised by a dad who loved her and did everything for her but who wasn’t exactly a professional in the science of pink, cheerleading was my foray into all things girly.
Cute outfits and pretty hair and the company of other girls and women smiling and laughing and planning their outfits for the pep rally and homecoming.
Coach Tracy took me under her wing, teaching me how to do my makeup and curl my hair and all the things that, sure, shouldn’t be that important, but, when you’re a girl with no mom, can make you feel really left out if you don’t know how.
I positively worshipped my dad. But becoming a cheerleader under the tutelage of Coach Tracy gave me the chance to learn how to become a woman.
I was surprised—and pretty thrilled—when Laura, one of the nurses I worked with, slid beside me onto the low bleachers.
She was still in the blue scrubs she’d been wearing at work, but her glasses had been replaced by contact lenses, and she’d definitely swiped some blush on her cheeks.
“Well, hey, honey,” she said, patting my knee, swooping her shoulder-length light brown hair back into a ponytail.
“Hey, yourself,” I said cheerily. “What brings you here?”
She pointed toward the dugout. “Number eleven is mine,” she said, grinning at me. “Meaning I have spent more hours sweating on a baseball field than the mind can even calculate.”
We both laughed. I had heard enough friends complain about it to know that baseball meant long hours on the field, usually all summer once you got competitive enough for travel ball.
“I have enough money in roadside motels and batting equipment to have sent the kid to college.”
I winced, but she winked at me. “Good thing there’s nothing I’d rather do more than watch him play.”
“That is a good thing.”
I looked over at Mason, who, I was delighted to see, was looking at me. I waved, and he sort of nodded and, I think, winked at me. I couldn’t one hundred percent tell. He was kind of far away.
“Oh my word,” Laura trilled. “I’d ask what brings you here, but I think I know. You’ve already caught the eye of Mason Thaysden?”
“Well, who hasn’t, Laura. That’s not a real high bar,” a voice from behind us said. A woman I didn’t know scooted in on Laura’s other side, a box of Reese’s Pieces in her hands. Laura swatted her thigh.
“Carmen, honestly.”
She held her hand out to me, and I noticed her long fake nails before I processed how very done up she was for a baseball game. False eyelashes, hair extensions, the works. She was wearing cowboy boots with her Cape Carolina Marlins–green dress. “Carmen.”
“Daisy.”
“You’ll have to excuse Carmen. She has carried a very long-standing torch for Mason Thaysden, and he has never been exactly interested.”
“Hey!” Carmen protested, sliding one of those long nails under the top of the Reese’s Pieces box to open it.
As a short-nail, no-manicure type of girl, I was fascinated by this move.
She held the box out to me, and I opened my hand.
Generous of her to share with me when we were, as it seemed, fighting for the same man.
“That is untrue,” Carmen said. “We dated for four glorious weeks in high school,” she added wistfully. She looked at me knowingly. “That was in his player phase. That lasted about two and a half decades. But I hear that he’s all grown up and ready to settle down now.”
“Your move to town couldn’t be better timed,” Laura added, smiling.
“For whom?” Carmen asked, emphasis on the whom. “Because I thought I was going to finally get my shot. So it’s not better timing for me.”
I couldn’t one hundred percent decide how I was supposed to take all of this. She seemed like maybe she was kidding.
“Right,” Laura said. “But a divorce would be so messy for you if Mason decided he was interested. And, let’s be honest, no one is going to take your side over the beloved principal’s.”
Carmen waved to a man in a suit who had walked over to the dugout to, it seemed, give Mason a pep talk.
“True,” Carmen said wistfully. “And I do love Tim, damn him.” She looked at me pointedly. “But he is no Mason Thaysden. So I’d lock that down if I were you.”
Now I knew when I laughed heartily, I wasn’t offending her. Probably. I loved a good sarcastic, dry sense of humor, but, when you were new here, it could be hard to read.
“Oh, hey!” Carmen said. “What’s going on with that baby?”
“The one Mason rescued, you mean?” Laura said teasingly.
Carmen put her hand over her heart. “Don’t remind me.”
My thoughts flipped back to our little Maisy.
Her bilirubin numbers were starting to come down, and I knew she had only another week or so in the hospital.
If she was lucky. Which was usually the opposite of what I thought.
Ordinarily, the lucky kids were the ones getting out of the hospital quickly.
“So will you guys do DNA tests or something? Find her parents?”
“This is Cape Carolina, not CSI: Miami,” Laura said, rolling her eyes.
I sighed. “It’s unbelievable, but, really, since she’s safe and well, I don’t even think they’re looking that hard for her parents.”
Carmen’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
Laura and I both nodded. “The parents can even come back and claim their child within sixty days, no harm, no foul,” Laura filled in.
“But if they don’t, the baby can legally be put up for adoption,” I jumped in.
Carmen shook her head. “Wait a minute. So, you’re telling me that you can abandon your baby and then just waltz back into DSS fifty-nine days later and, like, take your kid home?”
Laura and I both nodded again.
Carmen was clearly aghast, but we all clapped and cheered as an announcer came over the loudspeaker to introduce our Cape Carolina Marlins.
It was quite exciting. The cheerleaders formed a double line with their pom-poms up in the air for the players—who, quite frankly, looked a little confused—to run through.
“When in the hell did we get cheerleaders for baseball?” Carmen asked.
“Isn’t it just great?” I trilled.
Laura and Carmen laughed, and I looked at them seriously. “I need something to entertain me during all the hitting and running.”
Mason smiled at me again, and my heart raced. “So, uh, ladies. For real. What’s the deal with Mason?”
Carmen leaned over as Drew threw the first pitch. “Well,” she said, conspiratorially. “He was destined for baseball greatness. He was out celebrating a huge win his senior year with his friends when he got into a bar fight, hurt his shoulder, and was never able to pitch again.”
I could feel my eyes widen. A bar fight?
“Carmen,” Laura said, exasperated. “You’re leaving out the most important part.”
I turned all my attention to her.
“Oh, right,” Carmen said. “This wasn’t a random bar fight; it was a fight with his own brother.”
“Mason’s own brother is the one who ruined Mason’s chances at the big leagues,” Laura added.
I winced, thinking of sweet, clean-cut Parker. I couldn’t imagine it. “What was the fight about?”
“That’s the thing,” Carmen said.
“No one really knows,” Laura finished.
“I think Parker was jealous of Mason and wanted to end him,” Carmen said as the other team’s batter made contact with the ball.
It sailed into the outfield, where one of our players caught it, and we were all on our feet, cheering.
The cheerleaders were going crazy. Even I knew that catching a ball in the outfield was a good thing for the team not at bat. Maybe I liked baseball after all.
“That is so untrue,” Laura said, clapping. “Parker was proud of Mason.”
“Well, at any rate,” Carmen said, “Mason went off to college without saying goodbye to anyone, came home, and essentially wasted his life for like years.”
“Until Greer and George were born?” I asked.
“Aw,” Laura said, putting her hand to her heart. “They saved him.”
“He intimated that he’d done some time-wasting,” I said, feeling nervous about all of this.
Although, I reasoned, whatever had happened to Parker and Mason back then, they seemed like they couldn’t be closer now.
Kids were kids. Brothers were brothers. But, when I looked at Mason, my heart ached for him.
“It must be really hard for him to be back out here. Salt in the wound,” I said.
“For sure,” Laura added.
Carmen nodded. “Tim was so excited when he wanted to come back. As a friend, he was glad to see him get back on the horse. And as an educator, he knew Mason could really help these kids, teach them, not just about baseball but to learn from his mistakes.”
I nodded seriously. “Right. But do you think if Tim knew about this intense flame burning between you and Mason, he would still have hired him?”
Carmen swatted me, like we were old friends, and I felt myself exhale. I had taken a risk there. I thought she would think it was funny, but I wasn’t sure.
I guessed something good had happened, because boys started cheering and Mason’s team was running to the dugout. I looked over at him, and he caught my eye. I gave him a thumbs-up like I knew exactly what was going on and was so, so proud.
I had a moment—a brief one—of wondering if I wanted to get involved with him.
I knew that former sports stars had the hardest time moving on with their lives when it all went out in a blaze of glory.
Maybe it was too much. Maybe I needed to move on.
But then I saw him high-five the pitcher and tousle his hair and this surge of something pulsated around my heart.
I loved that he was so invested in these kids; I loved seeing him in his element, even if I didn’t really understand his element.
But how hard could it be to learn the rules of baseball?
I’d been through nursing school, for heaven’s sake.
“Oh my gosh!” Laura shout-whispered to Carmen, gesturing with her head over her shoulder to a man I didn’t recognize. Well, of course I didn’t. I knew like five people here.
“Oh my gosh!” Carmen repeated.
“What are we oh-my-goshing about?” I whispered.
“That’s the head coach for the ECU baseball team!” Laura said.
“How do you guys know this stuff?” I asked, peeking over Laura.
“Well, don’t look at him,” Carmen said.
“I bet he’s here scouting Drew,” Laura said.
“So he’s, like, really good?” I asked.
“The next Mason Thaysden,” Carmen said.
That sentence hit me hard. I wondered how much pride Mason must feel in that.
Or, alternatively, how hard it must be for him.
I felt like I had so much I wanted to talk to him about.
I hoped he wasn’t too much of a fixer-upper, but, well, that had never stopped me before. I was a nurse. I fixed people.
“Hey!” Carmen said. “We should get a glass of wine after this.”
I needed girlfriends here. Well, besides Aunt Tilley, who I was determined to ingratiate myself to. But as I watched Mason lean down, put his hand on a batter’s shoulders, and talk to him seriously, I knew nothing and no one could tear me away from our date tonight.
“Can we please, please have a rain check?” I asked. “I really want to, but…”
Carmen shook her head. “Ten points for not rubbing your date with the love of my life in my face.”
“A true friend would never.”
“Just be careful,” Laura said. “He’s finally growing up, but he’s still Mason Thaysden.”
I wasn’t totally sure what that meant. But I knew, in my heart of hearts, that “careful” had flown out the window the minute I saw that beautiful man holding that baby in the emergency room.