9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Bailey stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at the stadium seats below her. She took a deep breath, then slowly made her way down the steps to her seat. She stopped at the end of the third row. Her eyes landed on a little boy in a Smith jersey. That must be Max. Having a child in the group instantly made her relax. How bad could it be when you had a little kid jumping up every five minutes?
She moved her way down the row, pausing at a man with his legs shoved out in front of him. The guy looked up at her, rolled his eyes, and tried to shift himself to the side slightly. Bailey eyed him and the narrow space he’d created for her to squeeze through. The guy beside him stood up, creating more space. She smiled at the standing man, then stepped forward to squeeze past the one who hadn’t bothered to get out of his seat. He muttered something under his breath and shifted his legs slightly. Bailey smiled apologetically as she pushed past, her thigh pressed against the man’s leg to create space.
Would it have been so hard to just stand up so she could get through? She smiled at the standing man as she slipped past him. “Thanks,” she mumbled.
“No problem.”
She stepped into the space for her empty seat and smiled at the woman beside her. The little boy leaned forward. “Are you Bailey?” he asked.
“I sure am.” She sat down and turned to the boy. “You must be Max.”
“Yep.” Max thrust a package of red licorice at her. “Want a piece?”
Bailey eyed the package of candy. “Absolutely.” She reached over and grabbed a piece of the red rope and took a bite. “Mmm, thank you.”
“Are you Gonzo’s girlfriend?” Max asked.
“No, just his friend.”
Max shoved a piece of licorice in his mouth. “Me too,” he said as he chewed.
“I know. I’ve heard all about you.”
“You have?” Max’s eyes widened. “What’d you hear?”
Bailey grinned at the woman sitting beside her, who she assumed was Max’s mom, Kia. “I heard that you’re a Mario Kart fiend.”
“I am.” Max nodded.
Bailey leaned in a little closer and dropped her voice. “Gonzo told me he gives you the bad controller, so he has a chance of winning and you still beat him every time.”
“He gives me the bad controller?” he squealed.
“Yep, but don’t tell him I told you. So next time, make him switch controllers with you.” She winked at the little boy.
Max shoved another bite of licorice into his mouth. “I will.”
The brunette woman smiled. “Hi Bailey, I’m Kia.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The two women on the other side of Max, who’d been staring at her openly, grinned back at her. The blonde flashed a wave. “Hi, I’m Peyton and this is Kendall.”
The woman at the end of their group waved. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” Kendall said.
“You too.” Good lord, could these women be any more attractive? She’d expected them to be gorgeous. They were dating professional athletes after all, but she’d had a picture in her mind of what they’d look like and these women were not it. They were much more natural than she’d been expecting, which just made how pretty they were all the more startling.
She pulled her Gonzalez jersey away from her body, instantly aware of exactly how much larger she was than these women. It made sense they’d all be tiny. She’d seen the women Gonzo brought home and the women he’d been photographed with. Not a double digit in the mix.
Thank god, she wasn’t trying to date in this world because she sure as hell wouldn’t fit in.
“That’s a great jersey. Is it a special edition one?” Peyton asked.
Bailey eyed her shirt. “No, this is old. It’s from Gonzo’s first season.”
“That’s sweet that you’ve been supporting him throughout his entire career.”
The second the jerseys were on the market, Gonzo had mailed her entire family jerseys. Her family had gone over to the Gonzalez house for the first game with everyone wearing their matching jerseys. Her parents still watched opening day with Gonzo’s parents every season. It was sweet how into Gonzo’s career her dad was. He bought a new jersey every season. Somehow he’d convinced himself that those jersey sales landed directly in Gonzo’s pocket. Like that one jersey was going to make all the difference in the next contract negotiation.
“Gonzo said you two grew up together,” Kia said.
“We did. We’ve been neighbors our entire lives.”
“That’s so cool. So, were you always friends?”
Bailey nodded her head slowly as memories of growing up next door to the Gonzalez family swarmed her brain. “Yep, you didn’t mess with the Gonzalez-Reynolds kids. We were like a little gang.” She laughed.
“How many of you are there?” Kia asked.
“I’m one of four and Gonzo is one of six, so we were quite the crew on the block.”
“Holy crap, ten kids between two houses. I can barely handle the one I have.” Kia eyed Max. “That’s impressive.”
“Yeah, our moms just tag teamed us. If you mouthed off at either house, you paid for it at that house. My mom washed out Gonzo’s mouth with soap on more than one occasion.”
Kendall laughed. “He still has a mouth like a trucker, so I don’t think he learned his lesson.”
Bailey snorted. “Not the quickest study on that one. By the time he was a teenager, my mom switched it to doing errands for her. I don’t think either mom had to run to the grocery store for forgotten ingredients all through high school because Gonz was always owing someone a payment for his language. It got so bad we had a Gonzo chore list on our fridge.”
“Oh my god, I can totally see that,” Kendall snickered. “Your mom called him Gonzo too?”
“Yeah, everybody did. It started back in t-ball. Our coach called him Gonzo, then everybody started, including his mom. I think she realized pretty quickly that having six kids all with first names that started with R was good in theory, but not quite as convenient as she’d hoped.”
“They all have R names?” Peyton asked.
“Yep, when one of them was in trouble, she’d run through the list. Gonz was the only one spared since he went by something different.” Bailey chuckled at the memory of Gonzo’s mom, Rose, yelling across the fence at her kids.
She glanced over at Kia, who was watching her intently. “Did you and Gonz ever date?” Kia asked.
“God, no.”
“Why do you say it like that?” Kia asked.
“We just didn’t have that kind of relationship.” How could they when Gonzo was the star athlete in the school, captain of every team and she’d been the slightly heavy, artsy sidekick? There was no way women who looked like these three would understand what it was like to be a plus sized woman in a Victoria’s Secret world.
Sure, she’d had a crush on Gonzo in high school, every girl had. But he’d never once looked at her like that. It had broken her teenage heart, but she’d gotten over it and now she was glad they’d never crossed that line because realistically they probably wouldn’t have remained friends. “Nah, when you’ve had food poisoning together at fifteen…” She shuddered. “Some things you can’t unsee.”
“Ew.” Peyton cringed. “I can only imagine.”
Bailey laughed. “Yeah, it wasn’t good. For either of us.”
Max jumped up from his seat. “There’s Dad.” He bounced up and down, waving his arms toward the field.
Bailey looked down to the field where Gonzo stood with Pete Saunders and Jeff Smith as the three men did some kind of elaborate handshake, dance combo that made Max squeal. The little boy took off his cap and smacked it against his palm, then thigh in an elaborate combo before he spun around in a circle and slapped the hat back on his head. The three men on the field threw their hands up in a cheer that made Max giggle.
Kia rubbed the top of Max’s head, then blew a kiss down to the field.
God, that was cute. Bailey’s chest tightened. He hadn’t changed a bit. Gonzo was still the same guy he’d always been. The guy who’d make a fool of himself in public for a loved one.
Living with Gonzo for the past couple of days, she’d seen a different side to him than she’d ever seen before. He was more polished, more bougie, than the boy she’d known. A part of her wondered if that boy was still in there. This proved he was. He might be a big-time athlete with a personal shopper, but he was still Gonzo.
As the guys started warming up on the field, Kendall leaned forward. “So, how are you liking San Diego?”
“It’s good. Definitely different from KC.”
“I’ll bet.” Kendall smiled. “So Gonzo said you’re a university professor.”
“I am. Sociology.”
“I took a couple of sociology classes when I did my degree,” Peyton said. “They were interesting. What’s your area?”
“Gender studies predominantly.” At the open expression on Peyton’s face, she continued. “I teach a misogyny in the media class.”
“So, would you focus on a particular area of the media for the course?” Peyton asked.
“Yes, for this semester we’ll be looking at the way women are portrayed in cartoon and comics.”
“That’s very cool,” Kia said. “I’ve never really given much thought to that kind of thing.”
“And I’ve probably given it way more thought than anyone ever should.” Bailey laughed. “So we probably balance each other out.”
“Ooh, the beer guy.” Kendall threw her arm up in the air to grab the attention of the man in the aisle with the beer strapped to his chest. “First round’s on me. What do you want?”
Bailey eyed the options of cans strapped to the man’s chest. “Blue Moon I guess.”
“Four Blue Moon,” Kendall yelled at the vendor as she handed her money to Peyton to pass down the line.
Once the beer and money were exchanged and passed down the line, Bailey cracked the top and took a sip of the icy cold beverage. It had been a couple years since she’d been to a ball game, and she’d never seen Gonzo play in his home stadium. Seeing all the Gonzalez jerseys in the crowd brought a smile to her face.
How many times had they lain in the tree fort in her yard talking about when they made it big? And Gonzo had done it. Everything on his list could be checked off, while hers was decidedly empty.
The air crackled while the announcer talked about the upcoming game. The crowd roared when they called out the home team players’ names. Max’s little body vibrated as he stood up, cheering for his dad. Lord, he was cute.
Bailey looked down at third base. Gonzo tipped his hat up to them with a huge smile on his face and she couldn’t help but grin back. She rubbed her hands together in excitement.
“Let’s go, Hawks,” she yelled, then turned to Max and held her hand up. He smacked her hand with all the exuberance of a six-year-old.
“Alright, buddy, have a seat,” Kia told her son.
Max plopped into his chair. “Dad’s gonna hit a homer today,” he announced decidedly.
“We’ve talked about this.” Kia turned in her seat to face him. “As much as your dad would like to always hit home runs, he can’t do that every game.”
“Yeah, but he should still try. Isn’t that what you always say to just try your best?”
Kia sighed. “Yes, of course he will try his best, but like we’ve talked about, just because he doesn’t hit one doesn’t mean he didn’t try his hardest.”
“Bunting isn’t trying his hardest,” Max grumbled.
“But sometimes bunting is what’s best for the team,” Kia said.
“A home run is better than a bunt.”
Kia pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fair enough. But a win’s a win and that’s what we’re going for today. Right?”
“Right.” Max jumped out of his seat. “Strike out this bum, Ryan,” Max yelled.
“Max.” Kia’s voice instantly turned into that stern mother tone that every kid knew well, and Bailey bit back a chuckle when Max winced and sat down in his seat.
“Sorry, Mom.”
Kia shook her head. “Language.” She turned to Bailey. “I swear he’s going to be banned from hanging out with Jeff and his friends. Every time they do a boys’ night, I have to spend the next week retraining him on what he’s allowed to say.
“I guess Gonz isn’t allowed to babysit then,” Bailey stated.
“Oh no, he babysits all the time. It’s cute how hard he tries to clean up his language. One-on-one, they’re all good. It’s when they get together and start trash talking each other or watching sports on TV that the potty mouths come out.”
“So Gonzo babysits?”
“Yeah, all the time. He’s Max’s first choice.”
Why did the idea of that make her tummy feel all weird? Of course, he would babysit for his friends. Gonzo loved kids. She was just being sentimental because there was no way Brad would have ever volunteered to look after anyone. How many times had he talked about how he was going to have a nanny when he had kids of his own? It was one of the things they’d argued over when they talked about what their life would be like. Just one more reason she should have seen the writing on the wall that Brad was not the right person for her.
As Carmichael for Seattle walked up to the plate, Bailey shifted in her seat. His 302 batting average flashed on the screen. The Hawks’ pitcher, Ryan, threw the first pitch and Carmichael cracked a foul ball down the first baseline and into the stands.
Bailey’s eyes were drawn to Gonzo as he shifted his weight on his feet. The second pitch soared over the plate and Carmichael swung. The ball cracked off the bat and a line drive rifled down the third base line. With lightning-fast movement, Gonzo’s arm snapped out and snagged the ball. Bailey swore she could hear the ball hitting the leather mitt from her seat. What an amazing catch. She leaped from her seat. “Yeah, Gonzo, wooooo,” she screamed.
She grinned over at Max as she dropped back into her seat and held up her hand to high-five. “That’s how it’s done, baby.”
Max slapped her hand. “Yeah, baby,” he yelled back.
Bailey winced and glanced over at Kia. “Sorry,” she mouthed.
Kia laughed. “It’s all good.”
The next two batters didn’t make it on base either. Great start to the game.
Several innings later, the score was still zero-zero. Pete Saunders hit a nice little dinger in the bottom of the fifth and jogged to first base. The game had seen lots of action for the fielders, but so far neither team had scored a run. Gonzo had been stranded on second his last time at bat. As he took to the plate, Bailey leaned forward in her chair. She didn’t know how the players handled the pressure. She was just watching and her entire body coiled tight with anticipation.
Gonzo said something to the catcher and grinned. A friendly joke? Trash talk? With him, it could be either.
He rolled his shoulders and lined up at the plate. As the first pitch soared across the plate, he swung. The bat connected with a crack and the ball soared toward the fence at center field. Bailey held her breath. The center fielder jumped but couldn’t reach the ball as it soared over the fence just out of his reach.
Their entire row leaped to their feet. Fireworks displayed on the jumbotron as Gonzo made his way around the bases. His home run put the Hawks’ up two-nothing.
Bailey’s heart raced from the excitement of watching her friend hit a home run, and the energy of the crowd buzzing around her. Okay, she took it back. She could entirely see why a person would put themselves through the stress of batting if the adrenaline rush they got when they succeeded was anything close to what it felt like as a fan. That feeling would be addictive as hell.
The remainder of the game was very non-eventful and the Hawks pulled out the two-nothing win over Seattle. As the fans started filing out of their seats, Kendall leaned forward. “You’re coming out for a drink with us after the game, right?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Perfect. It’s hard to chat properly here, so it’ll be nice to get a chance to really talk.”
Kia leaned over and in a stage whisper said, “Prepare to be grilled.”
“Shut up, I’m not that bad.” Kendall scrunched up her face as she looked at Kia.
Peyton snorted. “Umm yeah, you are. Be glad you aren’t dating Gonzo, Bailey, otherwise she would be relentless.”
Kendall shouldered Peyton, then looked at Bailey. “I promise I am not that bad. I might go a little overboard when you’re dating one of my people, but that’s only because I care. But you’ve known Gonzo forever, so you’re good.” She waved her hand nonchalantly.
“You’re getting off easy,” Kia mumbled.
“I hope you have other things planned for discussion because I’m honestly not that exciting.”
“Oh, I’m sure Kendall can find something to grill you about,” Peyton teased.
“That’s true.” Kendall nodded in agreement. “I’m crazy nosey, so you’ve been warned.”
“Great.” Bailey smiled tightly. Was it too late to back out of this?
Kia looked around the stadium and glanced at her watch. “Alright, should we head down?”
“Sure.” Bailey gestured for the other women to lead the way.
They took the stairs down and Bailey followed the women down a hallway toward a security guard.
“Hey Carl,” Peyton said. “This is Bailey, she’s with Gonzo.”
“Really?” Carl’s eyes widened as he looked her up and down. Bailey’s jaw clenched. Yes, she didn’t look like these women, but seriously, did he have to look so shocked that she was with Gonzo?
She muttered, “Go figure,” when what she’d wanted to say was asshole.
And with one absent comment from some random guy, all of her excitement about the day instantly vanished. Damn it, she hated that something so simple affected her so strongly. So much for all the therapy she’d done over the years. Brad had broken her worse than she’d thought.
Needing a minute to compose herself, she turned to Peyton. “Is there a bathroom nearby?”
“Yeah, there’s one just up on the right.”
“Great, thanks.” Bailey picked up the pace and quickly turned into the washroom. She stood in front of the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Sure, she might not be a size two like Peyton, but she was comfortable with the way she looked. Her face had always been pretty and with her new haircut she was feeling more like her old self. Overall she looked pretty good.
It had taken a lot of work to get to the point where she could say that. And then she’d let Brad take it all away. “Fucking Brad,” she muttered. Before all the shit with him, she was feeling comfortable about her body. She’d done years of therapy. Hell, she’d spent her entire career discussing the perception of women in a patriarchal society. She had a freaking doctorate in the subject, so why the hell was she allowing some man’s perception of her to make her feel small? She gripped the edge of the counter and took a deep breath.
No.
Then another breath.
No.
And another.
No.
Not happening. She exhaled audibly. She was a strong, confident woman. She looked in the mirror and pinned herself with a stare. “I am beautiful exactly as I am,” she whispered to her reflection. “I will not let anyone else’s perception of me change how I feel about myself.”
She took another deep breath. Feeling more calm and centered, she looked at herself one last time.
The therapy had certainly helped, but it hadn’t curbed that instant feeling of self-doubt that jumped to the front of the line the second she felt someone judge her appearance. Guess she needed to find a therapist here in town because clearly she had some shit to work through still. This healing business was hard.
Bailey took one last look at herself in the mirror and squared her shoulders. The words of her therapist bounced in her head. No one could make her feel anything she didn’t allow.
Feeling more in control, she turned on her heel and marched back out into the hallway to join the others.
“You okay?” Peyton asked.
“I’m good.”
“Good.” Peyton smiled. “I love your nails. Where’d you get them done?”
Bailey glanced down at her hand. “No where, I just did them at home.”
“Seriously? You do this yourself?” Peyton snatched up her hand. “Kendall, look at these.” She tilted Bailey’s hand toward the other woman.
Kendall grabbed her hand and ran her finger along Bailey’s index nail. “Wow, where’d you learn to do this?”
“YouTube.”
Kia snorted. “You did not learn to do nails like that from YouTube.”
“Honestly, that’s how I learned.”
“No.” Kia shook her head. “I mean sure you might have learned some ideas from YouTube, but you did not get that kind of skill from watching a couple of videos. You have a freakin’ Hawks jersey on your nails. That’s insane.”
Bailey glanced at her nails. “What can I say? I have time on my hands at the moment.”
“No, girl, that’s wild. From one artist to another. Those are cool.”
“Can you do mine?” Kendall asked.
“Umm, I guess, I mean I’ve never really painted anybody else’s nails besides my family.” Well, besides Gonzo’s, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate her telling them that.
“You seriously learned that from just painting your own nails?”
“Well, with the amount I messed up playing around, I wouldn’t put anyone else through that unless they loved me.” Bailey laughed.
“I am more than happy to be a guinea pig to the cause.” Kendall wiggled her perfectly manicured hands in front of Bailey.
Bailey wrinkled her nose. “You clearly get those done professionally. I don’t know…”
“I do. I want Pete’s jersey on my nails.” A slow smile spread across her face. “Mmm. Yep, I definitely need those.”
“Oh, my god, you just got sex face.” Peyton snickered beside her.
“What is sex face?” Kendall asked.
“That face you make when you’re picturing having some kind of kinky sex with Pete.”
“It’s not always kinky.” Kendall winked. “But yeah, I was totally picturing his reaction to me having his jersey on my nails.”
“I knew it,” Peyton said. “I want you to do Ryan’s jersey on mine.”
“I kind of want to high-five you because I know what you’re talking about, but ew that’s my brother, so I’m not going to.” Kendall wrinkled her nose.
“That’s fair because, yep, I’m totally talking about that,” Peyton agreed.
Bailey looked down at her hands with Gonzo’s jersey all over them. He’d certainly never reacted to having his jersey on her nails. What would it feel like to have it affect him the same way the other women thought it would affect their men? And why did she care? They were friends. Friends weren’t supposed to want their friends to get all primal about them. A little zip raced through her belly. So why did she kind of hope he would?
The locker room door pushed open and players began wandering into the hallway. Bailey instantly scanned for Gonzo. He wasn’t in the first group of players to exit. Max spotted his dad and raced toward him. Jeff scooped him up and hitched him on his hip. He stopped at Kia, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. He kissed her, and Max groaned. “Gross.”
“Well buddy, you wanted to be up here and you know I always want to kiss your mom, so you’ve got no one but yourself to blame.”
Bailey giggled as Max rolled his eyes.
“Hey, you must be Bailey,” Jeff said as he untangled himself from Kia and stuck out his hand to shake.
“I am. It’s nice to meet you. You’ve got the best baseball fan ever right there.” She nodded toward Max. The little boy beamed back at her.
“I know it.” Jeff ruffled the top of Max’s head, then turned to Peyton. “Ryan is getting iced, so he’ll be a couple of minutes.”
“Getting iced?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah, his wing is a little tender, so they have him icing it down.”
“Oh, gotcha.”
“You ready?” he said to Kia.
“Yep.” Kia turned to Bailey. “It was really nice meeting you.”
“You aren’t coming for a drink?”
“No, we gotta get this one home to bed.” She pointed at Max. “You want to grab coffee one day this week?”
“I would love that.”
“Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in.” Kia held out her hand and Bailey dropped her phone into it. Kia quickly typed in her number, then handed it back to Bailey. “I texted myself too, so I’ve got yours. Let me look at my schedule and I’ll text you later.”
“Sounds good.” Bailey turned to Max, sitting on his dad’s hip. “Thanks for watching the game with me, Max. I had fun.”
“Yeah, good thing they won,” the little boy replied.
“Good thing,” Bailey agreed.
“Alright, let’s get out of here,” Jeff said. “You all have a good night.”
“Bye girls,” Kia said. “Bailey, I’ll text you.”
“Great.”
The locker room door pushed open and another wave of players exited. When Bailey saw Gonzo, she sucked in a breath. Damn, he looked good. She had to admit there was something about a man fresh from a win that just really worked. She scanned the men on either side of him. They all looked good. Confidently strutting toward their adoring fans to celebrate their victory.
Gonzo walked up and wrapped his arms around her. Bailey let out a little squeal as her feet left the ground.
“So what’d you think?” Gonzo asked as he set her back down on the ground.
“Eh, you played alright. I’ve seen better.”
“Better? I hit a home run and nearly pulled my groin, making that snag to take out Carmichael. That’s some fucking ESPN shit and you say alright,” he grumbled.
“ESPN shit,” she mumbled. “I’m pretty sure your ego doesn’t need me to boost it any further.”
“That hurts, Bay.” He slapped his hand on his chest. “The first time you’ve seen me play live in a couple years and I go all out to impress you, and this is what I get.”
“Yeah, it was all about impressing me.” Bailey snorted.
“Of course it was. Well, you and ESPN.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Catch of the day, baby.”
Bailey pushed him in the chest. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against his side. “Why would I?”
“No idea.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and tilted her head against his chest. She hadn’t realized until this moment just how much she’d missed him. Missed watching him play ball, missed his exuberance after the game, missed the way he hugged her when he was riding the high of winning. “I’ve missed watching you play,” she admitted.
“I’ve missed having you watch.” He kissed the top of her head. “It’s nice having you here.”
At the feel of his arms tightening around her, Bailey’s stomach flipped. God, what was wrong with her? This was Gonzo. It was just nostalgia, not desire. But when he squeezed her hip and his hand lingered in a way that made her breath hitch, it sure felt like desire.
“Alright, you guys ready to get out of here?” Gonzo asked.
“Absolutely,” Pete replied. “Let’s do it.”