Chapter 46
“Who’s excited?” I sing as I take my seat with Ivory and Gabby. We’re all anxious for the game to start and hopeful that it’ll be a deep postseason run after all the work the guys have put in this year, but baseball is unpredictable.
Luckily, the first two games of this best-of-five series are in Nashville and the Troubadours have proven they are unstoppable at home. Some fans arrived early to watch warm-ups, but otherwise the stands are still fairly empty.
“Is Grant sitting with us today?” Gabby asks, holding out a drink for me.
“He’s actually gone down to the locker room and will stay in the dugout.”
“Are we bad WAGs because we don’t have matching outfits with our guys' names on them for the game?” Ivory asks, watching Preston stretch.
Gabby turns to her. What do you mean? We’re wearing their jerseys.”
“But what wives and girlfriends actually wear their man’s jerseys to the game? You see the other sports WAGs on social media and they’re always coordinating outfits and saying that they’d never wear their man’s jersey to a game,” Ivory counters.
I smile when Grant steps onto the field and starts talking to Mike by the dugout. “I don’t know, I know people talk trash about it, but I loved wearing Grant’s jersey to the game when he was pitching. It was almost like a brand, like he was claiming me the same way that I was claiming him.”
“I get that, but I guess I also get the counter argument too because so many other people are wearing their jersey,” Ivory says nervously.
“Yeah, but you’re the only one going home with them.” I wink at her.
Gabby chimes in too. “If it will make you feel better, we’ll plan something for the next series. Plus, we already got something to show our support, right? Matching lingerie sets in the team colors.”
“I did get mine.” Ivory smirks. “We may have used it as a pregame celebration today.”
“Get it girl.” I playfully shove her.
Gabby’s jaw drops and she looks over at me. “Oh my God, I’m just now realizing that you wanted the link so you could buy one for Grant.”
“Sure did, and I got it embroidered specially.”
“What does it say?”
“Definitely his number, and a little something else,” I respond slyly. I haven’t worn it for Grant yet—I’m saving it for when they advance to the National League Championship Series.
The guys finish their warm-ups and wave us down to the field level.
After good luck smooches and friendly jabs at Miller, we return to our seats for the opening ceremonies.
The Troubadours take an early lead in the first inning and power through the game, showing exactly why they’re the division leaders this season.
Chase homers, Preston and Miller make an epic double play, and our starting pitcher ties a record for most strikeouts in a post season game. We’re on fire.
As expected, they win the second game the following day and then we’re off to New York for games three and four.
Grant flies with the team, but Gabby, Ivory, and I take the private jet separately and head straight to my condo to meet up with Allie, who greets us with excited squeals on the curb outside.
“Listen, I am not complaining at all to have you girls here,” she says, hugging both Gabby and Ivory before turning to me. “But when do I get to meet Grant?”
“He’s coming to dinner tonight,” I assure her. “And hi, it’s nice to see you.”
“Of course it’s nice to see me. I’m a ray of sunshine-y delight.” Allie squeezes me tightly. “Should we get this show on the road? There are moving boxes upstairs already and I’ve ordered lunch to be delivered in an hour or so.” She moves to the stairs and opens the door for us.
I freeze just inside the door to my place. I’m normally very tidy, and I haven’t been home in over a month so it should be neat, but right now it looks like a tornado has gone off in here.
“Allie, please tell me there’s a method to your madness.”
She pushes past me, moving a few boxes out of the way as she goes.
“Of course there is! It looks worse than it is, but I have it all planned out. First, mimosas!” Allie moves to the kitchen and pulls a small bottle of orange juice out of the refrigerator, passing a bottle of champagne to Ivory, who starts opening it.
“These are so cool. What are they?” Gabby asks, fingering the gold tipped roses in the vase on the kitchen counter.
“Gold-tipped roses.”
“Is it real?” She picks a purple one up and twirls it around.
“Mm-hmm. They take a real rose and dip it into gold.”
“Where did you find them? There are so many colors.”
“Grant found them. He gave me the first one for Christmas the year we got married.”
“There are eleven here.” Gabby points out putting the rose back in the vase.
“What can I say, the man sticks to tradition. Every year, a new one would show up on our anniversary in November.”
Gabby smiles at me. “Even though you never celebrated an anniversary together.”
The cork pops on the champagne bottle as Ivory says, “The pining!”
“Wait. Hotty McHotterson is the one who sent all these roses?” Allie asks, pulling glasses out of the cabinet.
“Hotty McHotterson? That’s what you’re going with now?”
She shrugs. “If the nickname fits.”
“The girl has a point,” Ivory says.
“I wonder if he’s going to get you one this year.” Gabby muses helping Allie line up the flutes on the countertop.
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t. Why break the streak? I need a perfect dozen.”
Ivory starts pouring the champagne and Allie goes behind her, adding orange juice to the glasses.
“Listen, give a girl a break. I’ve been working with you for years, Taylor, and I didn’t know that the Grant Davenport was your husband.
You could have told me any of the literal hundreds of times I said something about how hot he was. ”
“I don’t know. It was kind of a fun secret to have from you. You frothing at the mouth over him but only me knowing exactly what’s under all those clothes and the dirty filthy nasty things he says to me during spicy times.” I pick up a filled glass and hold it into the air to salute myself.
“Tell me please,” Allie begs. “Let me live vicariously through you.”
Ivory looks at her like she’s crazy. “Allie, you live in Manhattan. You should be getting some, or at the very least going on dates.”
“The men here suck and honestly who has the time?” Allie holds her glass into the air, signaling it’s time for a toast. “To Taylor, for getting the love of her life back.”
“To the next chapter,” I say, tapping my glass to hers and then to Ivory and Gabby’s as well.
We all take a sip while Allie downs hers in one big gulp before clapping her hands together.
“Alright, so here’s the plan. We have boxes.
” She points to all the boxes that have been put together and pushed off to the side in the main area.
“So, I think we tackle the bedroom first because your clothes are the most important part, obviously, and then we’ll just go room by room and hopefully finish by dinner. ”
“Let’s do it,” I agree. The game is tomorrow night and if the Troubadours lose then there will be another game in New York the following night before we head back to Nashville. If they win, which we all believe they will, then the series is over, so we need to tackle this project swiftly.
“I also thought of a fun game to do while we’re going through your closet à la Sex in the City.
We’ll divide everything up in piles.” Allie holds up different colored flags.
“We have the green for ‘pack and take to Nashville’, red for ‘donate because girl you have some clothes’, and I am accepting donations, specifically that little coral number. Coral is my color after all.”
I laugh at her and sit cross-legged on my bed. “You can have whatever you want out of my closet.”
“I know, that’s why I already put it in my suitcase.”
“You brought a suitcase to pack up my house?”
She waves her arms emphatically. “Of course I brought a suitcase to pack up your house. How am I going to scavenge your closet without a suitcase? Anyway, the yellow will be the storage pile that we’re taking to Grant's house.”
“Sounds great.” Gabby sits beside me on the bed. “If we’re doing the Sex in the City thing, doesn’t that mean Taylor has to try it all on?” She bounces excitedly.
“Why don’t we go through and pick the most obvious options first, and then if we need help narrowing things down, she can be a runway model,” Ivory suggests.
“Yes, I like that idea, because there are way too many clothes for me to try on everything.”
“Okay fine, I’ll make a fourth option for further review and then we can get started.
” Allie quickly rearranges things to make room for a fourth pile and a fourth sign for all of us.
It appears she’s going to be the one holding up the items while we sit and direct where it goes.
Stepping into the closet, Allie grabs an armful of clothes and walks out again, laying them over a chair in the corner.
For the next hour, we make it through all of my clothes and some of my shoes, deciding what needs further review and what can be packed up.
By the time our lunch arrives, we’re slightly tipsy and surrounded by piles of boxes in their designated spots with color-coded sticky notes per Allie’s instructions.
Taking a break for lunch. We catch up on the latest for Ivory’s Christmas movie and the dating competition for Landon.
“I don’t know, I think we need a new venue. The one place we had originally planned to use just doesn’t feel like it’s going to work now,” Ivory says.
“We definitely need something festive to lean into the holidays, and we need something local,” I tell her. Now that I’m Landon’s agent and on the Serentia team, I’m even more invested in making sure the competition goes off without a hitch.
“I can do some research,” Allie offers.
“That would be great because as soon as this postseason run is over, Preston and I are going to try to squeeze in a trip for our one-year wedding anniversary before the competition starts the weekend after Thanksgiving.”
“That’s a tight timeline,” Gabby pops a chip into her mouth.
“Where are you guys going?”
“I have no idea. That man doesn’t tell me anything when it comes to a super secret surprise mission.” Ivory laughs.
“And you love it that way,” I point out. Preston went above and beyond when they met in Belize, surprising her with adventures and an at-home spa day. He’s never stopped the surprises either.
“I do. He’s pretty great.” Ivory gives me a wistful smile.
Like they know we’re talking about them, the group chat starts going off.
G
Ready for reinforcements?
MILLER
[photo of Preston, Chase, and Miller flexing]
ME
Who took that picture
MILLER
Boss man
G
Under duress
ME
I’d hate for you to hurt your little muscles, Mills
MILLER
I’ll show you little muscles, Baker
PRESTON
We’re finished up here so we can head over whenever
“The guys are ready to help whenever we are.” I look to Allie for confirmation since she’s in charge today.
She checks the time and nods. “Perfect. There should be a truck coming shortly. They can help us load up.”
ME
Allie said to come on over.
G
See you soon.
When the guys arrive, we’re finished in the bedroom and are ready to tackle my office and living room. The extra hands prove to be a huge help, and we put the last box in the truck an hour before our dinner reservation at the hotel.