“It’s beautiful, thank you. The views are stunning.”
Lowe clasped her hands to her chest. “That makes me so happy. Beulah and I chose it. We wanted somewhere you had a great view of the city, but also the sky.”
My throat thickened again slightly at their unexpected kindness and thoughtfulness. “That’s really incredibly sweet of you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. We hope you feel at home. It’s hard to move so far away, so we picked somewhere special to enjoy when you’re not traveling with the team.”
I thought back to the empty house I’d left in Houston. Even when I’d been married it hadn’t had much in it; the plus side of that was it hadn’t taken long to pack up. No wonder we’d barely spent time there.
But my new place couldn’t have been more perfect if I’d chosen it myself.
“It’s the most gorgeous apartment I’ve ever had.” I smiled widely for the first time since I’d arrived here. “I guess Penn told you I worked at N.A.S.A.”
“Something like that,” muttered Beulah, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was a response she meant me to hear – especially when I swear Lowe nudged her slightly.
“Well…” I continued, “Perhaps you’d like to come over for dinner so I can thank you. I’m not the greatest cook, but I do make a mean fried chicken.”
Lowe looped her arm through mine and squeezed it; something that I found oddly comforting considering I’d only just met her. “We’d love to.”
I smiled then immediately forgot my train of thought when the sun blinded me as we stepped outside. Squinting until I found my sunglasses, we walked through the massive club grounds toward the stadium’s entrance – the grand arch of climbing lions. Compared to when I’d been here on Saturday during the game, and the deafening levels of cheering, today it was more reminiscent of an eerie ghost town.
A well-kept one, but eerie nonetheless.
It would be the same this Saturday according to Mike on our tour this morning. We had a few home games coming up once the boys returned at the end of the week.
We were now walking past a grounds-man expertly trimming a lion shaped hedge. “Do either of you go to away games? Are you required to?”
Lowe’s nose crinkled up. “Well, to tell the truth, this is only the first week of the season. Penn took ownership at the end of last season, so there haven’t been any away games to go to. Plus,” she dropped her voice slightly, “Penn has been like a coiled spring leading up to this stretch, and there’s only so much I can take.”
Beulah let out a loud snicker. I wasn’t in on the joke, though my only experience of Penn Shepherd was when he’d spent weeks trying to get in contact with me, then flown to Houston to find me in person when I didn’t reply to his many messages and voicemails.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what he was like when a game was on.
Intense.
“I run the press and marketing teams here, so we do have to have presence at every game – right now a couple of my guys aretravelling with the boys to capture content. I’ll attend in future, but I’m using this week to get organized. The club never had a proper communications team before so I’m trying to make it all run smoothly, and the social media is all new.”
“I’m not required to go, but I’ll join on occasion if I can get away,” Beulah added.
We walked under the arch and turned left, heading along a blossom-tree lined walkway that led to the river. It was busier here, and I spotted several groups of tourists taking pictures along the outside wall of The New York Lions stadium which rose high above the Hudson, its shiny black and gold paint glinting in the sunshine.
Billboards ran along the side, plastered with a larger-than-life sized image of each player, one after the other. The more we passed, the bigger the shiver that whooshed across my skin.
“On game days, the river here is filled with boats of people all trying to catch a home run ball. When the season opened, we decided to have t-shirts made for anyone who caught a ball out there. They then have to collect it from The Lions merch store under the stadium. The shirt says ‘I caught a Lion’ and we ask them to post on social media. It was really popular on Saturday,” grinned Lowe.
I forced myself to turn away from the billboards and ignore the gnawing slowly growing in my belly as we walked past the stadium, because I knew what would be coming, “Oh! That’s what they were! When I arrived, I couldn’t figure it out. I just saw them all stationed out there, like canoe-shaped battleships.”
“Yeah, and you should have seen them fight it out. Two guys fell in,” Beulah laughed loudly. “Lowe did a great job with it. She’s been working her butt off in the offseason.”
I didn’t have a chance to respond or offer congratulations as I was knocked sideways into the two of them by a group of squealing young women not looking where they were going.
“Oh! Sorry!” one giggled. “We didn’t see you.”
“That’s okay,” I said, rubbing my ribs while Beulah glared at them.
“Actually, could one of you take our picture?” another asked, thrusting her phone at the three of us.
Beulah just stared disapprovingly, so Lowe took it from her. “Sure.”
