Page 98 of Catching the Coach
“Chill dude,” Brent tells me, slapping my other shoulder and sitting down at his cubby on my right. I lean forward and scrub my face with both hands. “This shit is romantic as fuck. Of course she’s going to say yes. You guys fell in love on the diamond, what better way to ask her?”
“She’s not going to hate the ring,” Reese says. “You agonized over that design for weeks, I thought the jeweler was going to fire you.” He laughs, pulling on his socks.
I finally picked up the rings yesterday and he’s right. The delicate band has an engraving of the seam of a baseball and one perfect half carat diamond sits on top. I would have gone much bigger, but Lucy isn’t a flashy jewelry person. The matching wedding band has the same seam pattern but inlaid with tiny rubies. My band is a gunmetal gray with a red seam. They’re perfect. It’s us.
“You bought her a house numb nuts, do you really think she’s not going to want to marry you?” Judd asks.
I blow out a breath. “You’re right, it’ll be fine… Right?”
“Plus, she won’t say no and bring us bad luck on our first game of the championship series. So, you picked a great time to ask,” Brent says, digging around in his locker.
There’s a knock at the door and cracks open slightly. “Everyone decent?” a female voice asks.
“In terms of if we’re naked? You’re good, we’re all dressed. If you’re asking if we’re decent people, two of the four are,” Reese tells the voice.
Charlie chuckles, pushing through the rest of the way. She helped set this whole thing up for me, so she’s probably here to go over everything one last time.
“Hey, who are you insinuating isn’t decent?” Brent asks, throwing a towel at Reese.
“You, nut sack,” Reese says, throwing it back.
“Guys! We have a lady in our presence,” Judd says
Charlie waves him off. “Please, I grew up in this clubhouse, remember? This doesn’t phase me a bit.” She shrugs. “Side effects of being the coach’s daughter.” Charlie isn’t only our PR rep, she’s also Coach Dixon’s only child. So naturally she was thrown into the world of baseball whether she liked it or not. Luckily for us, she loves everything baseball.
“Ok,” she says, clapping her hands together. “Everything is set and ready to go. Lucy is with her team, down on the field. Once Hudson throws the ball, you’ll run up to them. We’ll take a quick picture of the whole team with you. I’ll give you the thumbs up when we got it and then you can turn to her and do your thing.”
I nod, taking another deep breath.
Charlie pats my arm. “Everything will be perfect Kessler.” She looks at her watch and back at me. “It’s time, we should get going.”
I give her another nod and turn to my locker and grab my chest plate and catcher’s mask, feeling robotic in my movements.
“Come on, let’s get you engaged,” Brent says, grabbing his mitt and following Charlie out the door.
Judd gives me a fist bump and takes off after Brent.
Reese grabs his mitt and sets a hand on my shoulder, looking me in the eyes. “You good?”
I take one last grounding breath and nod. “Good.”
He slaps my shoulder and turns. “Let’s do this!” he yells, walking out the door.
“Let’s do this,” I repeat, following them all through the door.
* * *
LUCY
I’m going to puke, I think to myself, standing on the field with my team. We were invited to throw the first pitch to start the Championship series after winning the Little League State Championship this summer. The stadium is packed, there’s not an empty seat to be found. I look over at Hudson to make sure he’s good. He’s laughing and joking around with his team, no nerves in sight.
I had the team vote on who got to throw the first pitch, they all chose Hudson. He sealed the deal for our win at state. He got the out at home plate and kept us ahead by one point. I rub my arms chasing away the goosebumps. It was a beautiful play. But that’s not what I’m remembering that’s giving me the chills. It’s how Kessler and I celebrated later that night after Hudson went to bed.
Another wave of nausea rolls through me and I actually think I’m going to puke this time.
“Take a sip of your water,” Kara whispers to me. I take a few tiny sips, letting the cold water ease my stomach. “Here, suck on this.” She hands me a peppermint. I take it and pop it in my mouth.
“What would I do without you?” I say around the mint in my mouth.
