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The donated tickets were closer to the bullpen than the actual game, but that meant Maggie could watch Diego and lose her shit with the two students she’d persuaded into her lusty Diego daydreams. I didn’t let Rowan spoil the game for me, but it was strange to watch him warm up in the outfield and not think back to his goodbye outside my room in Vegas.
“Ugh,” Maggie groaned, squeezing my shoulder and pulling me out of the memory of his mouth so close to mine, and wondering why I thought about it again. “I could just grab him.”
“And Ellis,” Becky cried, causing me to gag a little. “Look at them!”
“Who wants a drink?” I stood up, not looking at Diego and Rowan. “I’m buying.” Maggie leaped up to help, offering to get drinks and food for everyone. She took Becky and Lauren with her, leaving me to stand and stretch before the game. Our section was overcrowded with kids trying to catch foul balls, no matter the team who hit one our way. Some little dude knocked into my legs as I leaned them against the railing, and I had to catch him before he fell onto the field.
“Baby, you’re on the screen!” A woman shrieked from behind me, knocking my cap off as she reached over me to shake her son’s shoulders. No manners. But sure as heck, there we were on the humongous screen. Me and the little guy with my hands latched onto his waist. What a catch! Rolled across the screen, mortifying me even more. Some players in the field cheered, turning to us once they realized where we were sitting.
Our faces were still plastered up there when Maggie came back. She was squeezing back through our aisle with an enormous beer and hot dog with my name on it just as the teams finished warming up. She took good care of me and I loved her for it.
“Think we’re close enough to get his attention?” Maggie freaked out, bumping into the kid in my lap and spilling the beer on my shirt. “Meredith, oh my god! I’m so sorry!”
“Hey, kid!” a deep voice shouted from the field.
“Why me?” I groaned, lowering onto my back as I squeezed beer from my white shirt. Maggie tried dabbing the beer with napkins, but I grabbed them from her and nudged her out of the way as someone on the field kept calling for the little stranger kid who thought my lap was his new home.
“He’s talking to me?” He asked me, slapping my knee. I nodded, smiling at how adorable and excited he was. His mom couldn’t make it around the aisle to him because the jerks blocking the end wouldn’t let her through, so I told her I’d help. His name was Micah, and he was nine, freaking out on my lap, getting his back wet from my saturated shirt, which his mom brushed off because she was too busy hanging over the seats as the center fielder leaned over the railing.
“That was some catch,” he teased me, and I understood in that moment exactly why Maggie was paralyzed at my side. Diego Leon was a deity on the outside with huge brown eyes and perfect eyelashes, and his mouth… Oh, my god.
“Th—” I began, but his teammate bounded over, shaking his head with laughter.
“You need a glove?” Rowan asked, taking his glove off and waving it in the air.
“Why is Rowan Ellis, first baseman, one of Portland’s most eligible bachelors, offering you his glove?” Maggie murmured as she stood with me, grasping my arm.
Diego was giving Micah’s mom the flirt she begged for as I caught Rowan’s glove. He motioned for me to move closer, which made Maggie gasp.
“Why aren’t you on my side?” Rowan whispered into my ear as I leaned over the railing. “I could’ve gotten you a seat at home if you asked.”
“I’m here for work,” I motioned behind me. “The seats were donated. Look, could you do me a favor?”
“What are friends for?” He smiled, tugging on my braid. I could feel Maggie melt behind me, unable to hear anything Rowan and I were saying.
“Could you ask your center fielder to acknowledge my intern? She’s obsessed and I feel like I’m dating him because I know so much about him.” As I asked, Rowan was quiet, his chest heaving slightly from warming up, with his hands on his hips.
“What?” His question was between a scoff and a laugh. I put my palms together in prayer, willing him to give Maggie what she wanted so she’d get off my back. The clock ran out while they stood by us, so Rowan knocked Diego’s shoulder and whispered something to him.
I was gooey with humidity and the beer on my shirt, waiting for a chance to thank Rowan before going to a team store for a fresh shirt. Micah mirrored my posture as I leaned over the railing again, staring down at the dirt.
“Meredith!” I heard Rowan call out for me. I was too distracted by my shirt and watching Maggie turn red while producing single syllable sounds when Diego talked to her.
“Do you know him?” Micah shouted in my ear, bouncing up and down when Rowan was beneath us again.
“A little,” I mumbled, looking to Rowan. Our eyes met, the giggling from the girls around me deafening. “Yes?” I asked him.
“Here,” he said while taking off his team sweatshirt to reveal his jersey, tossing the dark green pile to me. “You look a little wet,” Rowan pointed to me. “Nice bra, by the way.” With a wink, he and Diego were jogging back to the dugout as Maggie and Micah climbed on top of me.
“Micah,” I picked up the invasive little guy and set him on the ground, “I have something for you.” His eyes were saucers when I handed him Rowan’s glove. He shrieked, bouncing up and down with his mom, who was still blushing over Diego.
I got it. He was a babe. I couldn’t hate Rowan for being even hotter, but I could not let it get to my head. Settled into his sweatshirt, I waved for a vendor to come to us with a beer, and waited for the game to begin. Although, as I watched players jog to their places with Diego waving back at us, I felt like some sort of game had already started.
FOUR
While we waited for the stands to clear, Lauren quizzed me on my job and told me more about herself. She and Becky were freshman and their home lives were full of adversity. That’s half the reason their undergraduate program admitted them, the other half being their vision for working with or creating organizations to help kids like them.
“Can we include this,” Becky joked, waving her empty cup in the air, “in our reflection essay?”
