Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
LEE
“How’s the knee?” I asked Chris after I spotted him wince on the bench.
“Only hurts when I first stand up. I can still shake it out,” he said, grimacing as he lifted his leg.
“You made it through six innings. Take a break like Silas said, and I’ll look at it later.”
Chris nodded, drawing his brows together.
“Hey, what’s happening by first base?” He nodded behind me.
I swiveled my head around to the section opposite the dugout on the first base line. A large crowd was gathered right where Stella and Bailee were sitting, but I couldn’t find either of them.
“Ricky knocked a foul ball into the seats, and I think it hit someone,” Nate said, stepping out of the dugout to get a closer look.
I caught Silas’s gaze over his shoulder, knowing he was remembering the same game I was.
A foul ball had been hit right into the stands and struck someone in the head.
It was a freak accident, they’d said, at just the right speed and in just the right spot.
We’d been in Cincinnati, and the stadium had sent security and an ambulance right away, but we hadn’t found out until after the game that they’d died on impact.
It had taken me a long time not to flinch at a foul ball sailing into the stands, but when one appeared to cause a commotion, that familiar dread would weigh heavily in my stomach. When I spotted security run up the aisle next to the seats, my heart seized in my chest.
I jumped out of the dugout and ran across the field, pushing over the side railing to weed through the crowd. I found Stella on the stadium floor, a bump already rising on the side of her head as she curled up in front of her seat.
I dropped to my knees, dread-laced adrenaline pumping through my veins while I slid my hand over her neck. I blew out a breath when her pulse beat against my fingers, and I almost slumped in relief when she stirred.
“Stella, it’s me,” I whispered, fighting to keep my voice even as I smoothed the hair off her forehead.
“Lee?” She peered up at me, her eyes blinking open then clenching shut. “What happened?”
“Two jackasses fought over the ball and knocked you over, then the ball hit you in the head,” Bailee told her as she knelt down next to me. “Way to be dramatic,” she joked, even though her breaths were coming as quick as mine.
“Can you sit up?” I asked, slipping my hand around the back of her head.
It wasn’t wet, and I didn’t find any cuts or bumps under my fingertips.
Her beautiful eyes were clear from what I could tell as she squinted up at me.
I searched her face for any bruises or scratches as my heart tried to make an escape right out of my rib cage.
What if the ball had found that same spot?
What if I’d lost her too?
“Yeah, I think so,” she said, rolling onto her side.
“Slow,” I whispered, slipping my arm under her legs and bringing her to my chest. My insides shook, but I managed to keep my hands steady. “I’m going to take you to the offices before we go to the hospital.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
I looped her arm around my neck and stood, security thankfully clearing a path for us to the exit gate.
She rolled her head to the side against my shoulder, exposing a scrape on her cheek but nothing that seemed like it would need stitches.
She’s okay. She just got knocked over. It happens.
As many times as I repeated it in my head, my body still quivered as I rushed toward the trainers’ offices and gently set Stella on my table.
“Sorry I ruined your first game in the good seats,” Stella said to Bailee, wincing as she turned her head.
“No sorry needed, girl. I’m just glad you’re okay.” Bailee swept her gaze around the office. “You did promise me we’d go behind the scenes.”
Stella laughed, then moaned in pain as she pressed her hand to the side of her head.
“Don’t touch it,” I said, grabbing her wrist. I bent to open the small fridge I kept in the office for ice packs. “Here,” I whispered, holding it to her head. “One of the security guys will get you to the hospital. We can do X-rays here, but you need a CT scan.”
“The only thing that’s badly bruised is my ego. Hopefully those guys falling on top of me covered my face for the camera.” A strained smile pulled at her mouth.
“I’m going to call Carl to tell him I’m going to be late,” Bailee said, her eyes darting back and forth between us. “I’ll be in the hallway.”
“I can have them drop her home if she needs to go,” I said when Bailee left. “I’ll come with you to the hospital.”
“Lee, you’re working. Bailee can come with me, or if she has to leave, I’m okay alone if you insist I have to go.” She tilted her head. “I’ve gotten more bumps on my head than I can count, so I know it’s solid.” She chuckled, but I couldn’t laugh with her.
“I am not leaving you alone. Nothing else hurts?” I said, feeling around her neck. “Can you lift your shoulder?” I kept my hands moving around her back and shoulders to hide the shaking I couldn’t get a handle on. “Any pain in your legs?”
The adrenaline was dissipating, and the shock I hadn’t allowed myself to feel until I’d gotten to Stella and made sure she was okay took over.
“Lee, stop,” Stella said, clutching my wrists. “I’m okay.” She drifted her hands up my arms, squeezing my neck before framing my face. “It’s all okay. Breathe.”
“I can’t,” I panted, dropping my chin to my chest while I gulped back the air that had escaped from my lungs. “I can’t do this again.”
That awful day when we’d watched someone die from a foul ball had probably been a one-in-a-million occurrence.
While it hadn’t been the first time something that random and awful had happened in a ballpark, it was rare to be mortally wounded from a flying baseball.
Parks posted liability notices about balls in play, but that was more for the sake of injury, like those two idiots diving for it and knocking Stella over.
It brought me back to another time something awful had happened that I hadn’t seen coming—and how it had obliterated my life as I knew it.
That hadn’t happened today, but for thirty very terrifying seconds, I had felt as if it had.
I’d vowed to never love and lose anyone else, but it was too late.
I already loved Stella enough to freak out over losing her. Not just as a friend. I hadn’t seen her as “just a friend” for a while now, regardless of what I’d admit to myself.
I was fucked in every way imaginable, yet I couldn’t move or let go.
Stella brought me closer, resting her forehead to mine.
“Shh,” she crooned, drifting her thumbs back and forth over my cheeks. “It’s all right. I’ll be ugly for a few days, but I’m okay.” She dipped her head, a watery chuckle falling from her lips while her eyes glossed over. “Again, I’ve had worse blows than this.”
“You’re beautiful,” I told her, my voice raspy, my racing pulse halting my words. “So damn beautiful.”
I dropped my hands from her neck and found her waist, pulling her closer.
My chest rose and fell against hers while I tightened my hold, willing my racing pulse to slow.
“You’ll be bruised for a little bit,” I whispered, running the back of my hand down her cheek.
“But nothing about you could ever be ugly,” I said, skating my thumb over her bottom lip.
Her mouth parted as her jaw dropped, and I could almost feel that line I’d feared to cross but now did not give one single fuck about.
“Fuck, Stella,” I whispered, inching closer as she leaned in. “I can’t…” I trailed off, not even sure what the hell I was saying. Before, I’d meant that I couldn’t lose someone I loved again. Now, I didn’t know if I meant I can’t do this or I can’t stop, my lips so close to hers I could taste her.
It was both, because I wanted her too much to think of anything else but closing that last little bit of distance.
“Lee, the car is at the back exit for you.”
We broke apart at Silas’s voice at the doorway.
“Sorry,” he said, his face twisting in a grimace while he padded toward us. “Claire called ahead to the ER, so they’ll take Stella right in.”
“I said that you probably didn’t need an ambulance since you were alert,” Bailee said, coming in behind him.
“No, please,” Stella said with a whimper, the paper crinkling under her. “Getting hit was embarrassing enough.” She eyed me as she slowly pushed off the table to stand. “You don’t have to come.”
“The game is almost over, and the guys are fine. Lee can cut out of work a little early.”
I gave Silas a quick nod. “Thanks.”
“You can walk, right?” Bailee asked, looping her arm around Stella’s waist. “Just lean on me.”
Stella found my gaze over her shoulder as she shuffled out of my office with Bailee, slow but steady.
“Sorry, man,” I said to Silas. “I hate to leave before a game is over. I’ll follow up with Chris about his knee tomorrow.”
He held up a hand, shaking his head.
“If Rachel got hurt, the last thing I’d be thinking about is work. Go. How are you doing?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
The corner of his mouth twitched.
“The way you catapulted over the first base railing, maybe you want to play on my team instead of staying in sports management.”
I shrugged, a surprising chuckle escaping my lips.
“I was an athlete once upon a time. A long time.”
Silas coughed out a laugh.
“It’s amazing what you can do when you think someone you love is hurt.”
I shut my eyes and nodded. What was the point in denial? No one was buying it anymore, if they ever did.
I loved Stella. Whether I’d tried to avoid it or not. I’d loved her as my friend for years, but it had escalated into something more—so slowly yet so fast I had no idea when it had truly started.
All I knew was that it had. And even though our lips had never touched, everything had changed, and there was no going back.
The one thing I knew for sure today was that the only place I wanted to go with Stella was forward.
Once I figured out how.