Calling It

by Jen Doyle

  The air that Nate had had so much trouble finding was suddenly there. For fear he might actually fall, he made himself sit down. “Please tell me there’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere...”

  “But I’m about to go find them all and tell them they’ll need to figure out a way to deal with it. And if it weren’t for the plans I have with Robbie and Marcela tomorrow, I’d already be on a plane to tell you in person that...” Her voice broke again, but he barely even noticed. He was right there with her when she said, “That I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you this, but I love you, too.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Marathon Monday had been one of Dorie’s favorite days for almost as long as she could remember. She loved everything about it from the family breakfast that started it all off to the party at the restaurant that ended the day.

  And, of course, the baseball game.

  This particular year the day seemed even brighter—the sky was bluer, the sun shone warmer and the flowers that had just yesterday pushed their way out of the soil seemed in full bloom.

  “Has she stopped smiling yet?” Dorie heard Christopher ask Shay.

  Chomping down on a piece of bacon, Shay just rolled his eyes and shook his head as he looked at his phone.

  “Seamus Donelli!” their mother shouted as she smacked him on the side of the head. “I will not have phones at my table.”

  “Ouch!” Straightening up, Shay put his phone in his pocket. “Okay, okay.”

  Although her brothers were still occasionally throwing glares her way, everyone was in good spirits as, decked out in their Red Sox gear, they loaded onto the 57 bus, the one that would take them to Fenway.

  Though they got to the ballpark a little later than usual, they were still in time to catch batting practice. Sitting between Seamus and Colin, Dorie settled back into her seat, trying to get comfortable. She sat up straight and glared at Seamus when, for the first time ever, he missed the box of Cracker Jacks that had just been tossed at him and instead hit her squarely in the head.

  “Seriously, Sha...?” she started to ask, but stopped at the look on his face as he stared down at the field. The box fell out of her hands. “What...?”

  It seemed as though her whole family noticed at the same time, but it was the completely unrelated college kid two rows behind them who said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Is that Nate Hawkins? Didn’t he sign with the Watchmen?”

  She stood up. Yes, that was Nate. God, yes, she’d know that body anywhere. Even from this far away she could feel the heat rush through her both from, well, lust. Sheer lust. But anger, too, and not just a little bit.

  She trusted him. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. So there had to be an explanation as to why he would have spoken to her for half an hour last night and not mentioned that he’d be here at Fenway today. That he’d be on the field at Fenway. With a team he wasn’t part of anymore.

  She pushed her way down the steps, causing several people to bump into each other and swear. But she could barely even nod her acknowledgement, much less her apology. Luckily, Seamus and Colin weren’t too far behind her so they apologized for her. She kept moving.

  They were close enough to game start time that security was already blocking off the sections closest to the field to everyone except the ticket holders for those seats. “You don’t understand,” Dorie said, wanting to push forward but trying not to make a scene. “I need to talk to Nate Hawkins.”

  The guard laughed. “Yeah, lady. You and every other woman in here.”

  “But... But I’m...” she sputtered. Well, what was she? She wasn’t sure she could call herself his girlfriend if he hadn’t, oh, thought to mention that he wasn’t in Cincinnati today.

  Colin came up behind her and, being a police officer, did manage to get the guard to at least be willing to hear her out. But she still had no idea what to say.

  “Look,” Seamus said for her, putting on his most charming bartender-honed smile. “Nate is actually a friend. He and Dorie—”

  The second her name was uttered, a huge smile came over the guard’s face. “Dorie? Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? Hold on.” He took a phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. Nodding, he turned back to her, saying into the phone, “Okay. Yeah. Verbatim. Go.” Holding up his hand—as if he didn’t already have her full attention—he looked into Dorie’s eyes and said, “‘I’m sure that at some point today, someone’s going to knee me in the balls...’” The guard winced and, it appeared, his hand dropped involuntarily to protect himself, but he gamely continued, “‘...But this was the only way I could think of to make you believe.’”

  Dorie’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes flew to the field and... And there Nate was, standing with Tim Kozlowski on third base, watching her with a gaze so powerful that she actually took a step back. When he smiled her whole body melted. Thank God Seamus was standing right behind her, laughing as she stumbled back into him.

  “Oh, and, ‘P.S.,’” the guard said, his face crinkling up as he concentrated on what was being told to him at the other end of the line. “‘I figure nothing’s going to drag you away from your family, but if Claire and Liam want to join Robbie in the bullpen, all they have to do is say yes.’”

  It was Colin who said to the guard, “Yes. They totally say yes.”

  In a daze, Dorie went back to her seat, leaving it to Seamus and Colin to explain what had happened. And although she didn’t typically listen to the radio broadcast when she was at the game, she was grateful to Seamus when he let her use one of his earbuds.

  “...no information coming out of Chicago,” the broadcaster was saying. “There’ve been some whispers over the past few days—someone even swore he took batting practice here at Fenway yesterday morning and, as you know, he wasn’t on the roster for today’s game in Cincinnati—but no explanation as to why he would be here today.”

  “I’m reading the wires now,” the second man said, “but it’s ‘no comments’ across the board. Even Hawk’s own people aren’t saying anything. This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.”

  Dorie couldn’t agree more. She honestly had no idea what to think. Although, after a while, she decided that she really didn’t want to think anyway. She just wanted to watch baseball. To know that, in a few hours’ time, she’d be back in Nate’s arms again. She supposed she should be wondering why he would have hidden all this. Since he’d done it for her, however—of that she had no doubt—she was going to trust that there was a good reason behind it. And she would—

  Jumping to her feet, she, along with several thousand other people, yelled, “Come on, Kozlowski! Take your pitch like a man!”

  But she was probably the only one who Tim Kozlowski winked at when he showed them all up and hit a grand slam.

  * * *

  Nate paced the locker room. He couldn’t believe his presence had attracted enough attention for the media to still be hanging around; that was a complication he hadn’t prepared for. He especially hadn’t prepared for all the higher-ups to conspire together to make him promise to talk to the press when all was said and done. He’d finally conceded, as long as he could talk to Dorie first. But it just made the stakes that much higher.

  There was a knock on the door and then Alexis walked in. “Showtime,” she said.

  Right. Okay.

  He followed her out. Alexis had managed everything from prepping the security teams to holding off the grounds crew so that he could have the field after the game.

  She came to a stop in front of a closed door. “Ready?”

  No. He absolutely wasn’t. No matter how many times he’d told Dorie her brothers didn’t bother him, he couldn’t deny this was the one part of the whole day that had him truly worried.

  Not that he was afraid they’d take him down or anything like that. B
ut even if they didn’t see things his way, there was no way he was walking out of this stadium today without Dorie wearing his grandmother’s ring. If they didn’t like that, well, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  The second he stepped in the room, they all turned. And, yes, they were an imposing bunch, Mrs. Donelli and Claudia no less so than the men in the family. To probably no one’s surprise, Sean was the first one who came over. Before Nate even had a chance to react, Sean threw the punch, hitting Nate square in the jaw. Also unsurprisingly, no one rushed to Nate’s defense, not even the two women in the crowd.

  “The Jim and Marco Show, for Christ’s sake?” Sean seethed. “If you hurt her again I will end you.”

  That Sean gave not one fuck about who Nate was said just about everything. Everything except, “I won’t.” Rubbing his jaw, he met Sean’s gaze. “I’d try to convince you that leaving her was probably the worst mistake I’ve ever made, but all you need to do is watch one of those games from spring training to know it’s true.”

  Though Sean’s mouth twitched, that was all he allowed. Satisfied enough with that answer, Sean took a step back, opening the floor up to Seamus. “Let me get this straight. You created a media storm just so you could see her today.”

  Nate hadn’t really expected anyone to notice, but, yeah. It appeared the airwaves were going a little crazy at the moment. “Pretty much.”

  “So,” Tommy continued, picking up Seamus’s thread, “you had to pull in the people here at Fenway, plus your old and new teams.”

  Nate nodded. “From what I understand, there are some majorly big VIPs up in the owner’s box today.”

  Now it was Christopher’s turn. “And I’m guessing this wasn’t all just because you wanted to grab an ice cream with Dorie after the game.”

  As Alexis had said, showtime. Nate took a deep breath as he turned to Dorie’s father. The man had barely spoken two words to Nate in the entire weekend he and Dorie had been visiting Boston. Nate honestly had no idea where he stood. But that wasn’t about to stop him now. “I love your daughter. I’d like to spend the rest of my life with her. And I’m hoping that I can ask for her hand with your blessing.”

  Her dad folded his arms in front of his chest. “And if I say no?”

  Right. “Then I’ll do everything I can in my power to make you change your mind someday. But I love her too much to let another day go by without asking her to be my wife.”

  The silence was heavy and tense, but nothing Nate couldn’t wait out. He was prepared to do whatever it took. He was beyond surprised, though, when her father’s response was, “My little girl is going places. You think you have what it takes to stay out of her way?” Nate gave an incredulous laugh. He’d been fending off dads since his Iowa Dream days. Yet Dorie’s dad just wanted him “out of her way.”

  Yeah. He could do that. Hell, he replied, “I’ll buy her her own plane.” She could go anywhere she wanted as far as Nate was concerned—as long as she took him along.

  Mrs. Donelli stepped forward right then. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Thomas. All you’re doing right now is keeping your daughter waiting.” She turned to Nate with a smile. “And, Nathan, that’s very generous about the plane, but I think you should be saving your money for retirement or maybe a down payment on a house. You can never be too careful.”

  Uh... Was she serious? Nate glanced over at Seamus, who just rolled his eyes as he groaned, “Mom.”

  With a small smile—it was still a bit unclear whether she was kidding or not—Dorie’s mother took his face in her hands. “You have it,” she said. “Our blessing. What a sweet boy to ask.”

  Just when Nate had absorbed the fact that he was the sweet boy she was talking about, she pinched his cheeks. “Now go find my daughter. And don’t you dare tell her that her brothers knew first.”

  * * *

  This had been a seriously strange day. After getting over the shock of it all, Dorie had enjoyed the game. But she understood why the players’ wives sat together. She’d almost gotten into three fights with some particularly obnoxious fans over things they were saying about Nate—and he hadn’t even been playing. Seamus and Colin had had to hold her back. Tommy had been assigned to escort her to the concession stand.

  At the bottom of the ninth, Dorie had looked up to see Alexis standing at the end of the row. And, maddeningly, Alexis refused to tell Dorie anything.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, holding her hands out to the side. “But he did ask that I come get you right about now.”

  Since the game had not exactly gone in favor of the home team—Tim’s grand slam had made the score 8—5 and Boston wasn’t able to recover after that—some of the seats right up behind the dugout had cleared, and that was where Alexis took her for the last inning of the game. The same guard from before just smiled as they walked past him.

  It wasn’t Nate who appeared as the stadium emptied out, though, but... “Rico? What are you doing here?” The fact that she was on a first-name basis with the shortstop of the Chicago Watchmen was no more mind-boggling at this point than anything else.

  Evading her question, he just wrapped her into the biggest hug ever and quickly changed the subject as the final out was made. They chatted for a few minutes, mostly about Marcela and Robbie, who, Dorie now realized... “They’re part of it, too?”

  Rico smiled. “Nate was concerned that you might decide not to come to Boston this weekend. He wanted you to be here for this game.”

  “Yes,” Dorie answered wryly. “He certainly went through a lot of trouble.”

  He stood up right then and held out his hand to her. “Would you like to go out on the field?”

  “Are you kidding?” she asked, shooting to her feet. But there were still players out there, and the grounds crew hadn’t even begun their cleanup. Plus, there were security guards and stadium personnel. Everywhere. Gathered at various points, their attention on her and Rico even though they didn’t seem to be looking her way. She leaned in closer to him, whispering, “They won’t kick us out?”

  Rico laughed as he took her hand and led her down the row of seats. “No, querida. No one’s going to throw us out.”

  Not only did they not throw her out, in fact, but one of them even opened the gate for her that let her onto the field. Rico followed after her, then stuck his head in the visitor dugout. “Anyone have a glove Dorie can borrow?”

  If she’d been able to speak at that point, Dorie would have. She could not stand here in the middle of Fenway Park and play catch. But that seemed to be Rico’s intention as he guided her to home plate.

  “Hey, Eduardo—you want to throw a few?”

  Eduardo Andrade? “No way,” Dorie murmured.

  Though she’d met him the night of the poker game, he hadn’t really said much. And considering the man had just pitched eight solid innings, she started to shake her head. But then he threw her the ball. She would have turned to see where her family was—she couldn’t believe that they’d just cleared out along with everyone else, but that was their loss—except she was afraid to take her eyes off the ball for even just a few seconds.

  They’d been throwing the ball back and forth for a few minutes, when Eduardo threw one so far over her head that there was no way she could reach. She turned to get the ball, and—

  Nate.

  She snapped her mouth shut and her hands dropped to her sides as he snatched the ball out of the air. She was so happy to see him that she couldn’t help the smile that came over her face. It was like the sun had just risen in front of her after the longest, coldest, darkest winter ever. At the same time, she was also irritated enough that she kept herself from running forward and launching herself into his arms. Just barely, but still...

  “You’re here,” she stated.

  “Yes,” he answered. His eyes sparkled with amusement as he came up to her,
no doubt because he knew exactly how pissed off she was and was enjoying every minute of it.

  Oh, no. She was not letting him get away with anything just because he made every cell in her body want to jump up and beg for attention. “You were in Boston last night and you didn’t tell me.”

  A smile. “True.”

  Eyes narrowing, she started to say, “But why—”

  “So here’s the thing,” Nate said, echoing her words from last night and drawing Dorie’s attention back to him. And for a moment, she just looked at him. Stopped her mind from running and her irritation from showing and even her happiness from overwhelming her. She’d been a little afraid of this moment, truth be told. Afraid that once she put it out there into the world that she was in love with him that something about it all would fade; that maybe she wasn’t, really, and it truly was just a childhood fantasy that she hadn’t quite been able to let go.

  But here, as he stood in front of her and looked into her eyes, she knew. Without a doubt in her heart, she knew that he was the man she had always loved and that there would never be anyone else after him.

  “I, uh...” Nate stepped closer, right up to her. He was so close that she could practically feel his heart racing; or maybe that was just her own. “I know this is kind of soon, but I, well...” He took her hand. “I’m not sure how the rest of this season will go and I don’t know if I’ll ever have the clout for something like this again.”

  Though he was smiling, he was clearly nervous about something. Which was, yes, a little strange. He wasn’t the nervous type. He was definitely more the take-a-majorly-obvious-day-off-to-hang-out-with-his-old-team/rope-in-Rico-Marcela-Robbie-and-practically-the-entire-staff-of-Fenway-Park/make-the-grand-gesture type.

  “The clout for wh...?” The air went out of Dorie’s lungs. “Oh, my God.”

  She took a step back at the roar of sound in her ears so loud that she actually glanced up into the sky for the fighter jets that sometimes flew over the park. When she looked back at Nate, he was nearly eye level with her, down on one knee.