Hotbox (65 page)

“You think so?”

“Yeah, that’s a song you
wrote
,
isn’t it?”

She nodded. “W
e didn’t record the vocals
though
—I can do that separate
if I want
—but I just wanted to have her strings on there to see what Shawn thought.”

“What
’s his opinion gonna
do?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s your song. You can do whatever you want to it without his approval.”

She shrugged. “I’ll never perform it without him. I’m the one that joins
his
shows,” she
smiled
. “It’s up t
o him what gets put in the line
up. I would very much like for Ida to join us on that song for a couple of shows, just like
Amos
does with the keyboards.”

It was so odd to me that it worked that way. I really liked Shawn, and I thought he was an in
credible performer, but
I didn’t know if his shows would
be as good without Jayden. Maybe I was just too partial to her and it wasn’t a fair assessme
nt
,
but based on what Matt told me about Rod Halverson, I knew I was right on the money.

We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant we
sometimes
went to.
We sat together in a booth in the back corner, and although it wasn’t something we did a lot of while we were in public places, I couldn’t keep myself from kissing her while we had the privacy.

When the food arrived, we
talked about
living arrangements for a while. Jesse didn’t move back in with me when the school year started since Jayden and I were going to get married.
He was now l
iving with D
evin and
Everett
in another house. Jayden
wanted to live in my house for a few months while we took our time finding something together, maybe in the spring.
She
was
hoping to be pregnant by then, and j
ust the thought of having a baby with her was thrilling to me. I never thought I would ever want a family so bad
ly
.
I guess I realized what I really wanted in life when it was almost all taken away from me.

One change that Jayden had made—which she was still trying to get used to—was not teaching
music
. We had discussed it many times because I wanted to be sure it was a decision she was sure of. She told me that she did love to teach, but it was more of a hobby to her until she had other things in her life, like a husband and kids.
Our lives really were beginning to blend, and after everything that I’d just gone through because of Dean, I wasn’t going to take one second with her for granted.

We did go to a movie that night, and we sat in
the back row like usual
. I loved it when she cozied up against me, but it sure didn’t beat being able to stretch out on a couch with her at home. She stayed the night with me, claiming it was acceptable bec
a
use it was almost my birthday, and i
n the morning
she made me breakfast.

“So…” she smiled. “Are you ready to have some fun today, birthday boy?”

“Fun? Isn’t that what we’ve been having? Well, at least I have. Maybe it wasn’t as exciting for you…”

She was laughing. “A
different
kind of fun.”

“Oh,” I replied, eyeing her carefully. “What do you have planned?”

“Fun. I already told you that. Don’t you ever listen?”

With a smile I said, “Yes, I always listen.”

“Mmm, not always. Sometimes you kind of…space out. But that’s okay. I understand I can ramble on and become totally uninteresting.”

I was laughing, and
I
disagreed that she was
uninteresting, but I didn’t argue the spacing out part. When I had things on my mind, sometimes it was hard to
concentrate on anything else.

“So I’ll give you a hint,” she smiled. “What’s your fa
vorite thing to do
?”

A big smile slowly filled my face.

She
rolled her eyes
. “Okay, second favorite?”

“Mmm, play baseball.”

And that’s what I got to do.
She took me to the fields at the college where there were almost two dozen people gathered. Nine guys from my
former
team were there—including Jack and Jesse—and four other players that made the team after some of us graduated. Matt, Shawn, and Josh were there as well. Even Coach Tucker and Coach Farland came, each to officially manage a team. I realized Jayden had intended for this to be an actual game
,
and she wasn’t planning on playing.

“And I thought you were going to take me to church for my birthday,” I teased her.

With a smile she replied, “We can still do that if this isn’t good enough.”

“This is more than good enough
. But I wish you’d reconsider and come play. We’ll be easy on you.”

“That’s
why
. I want you guys to play a real game, without us girls slowing you down.”

“Maybe you can be the umpire and massage my shoulders while you stand behind me.”

“Nice try, but y
ou have an umpire,” she pointed. “
Three
official umpires.”

“Oh. The bat girl?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I want to watch from the stands. I’ll still be your biggest fan, though.”

“Okay, that’s plenty good for me.”

“Hey!” Tucker hollered. “Just because it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you can make us wait all day!”

I looked at Jayden and asked, “Since he’s my coach again, do you think I have to tell him I broke the twelve-hour rule?”

She shoved me and looked embarrassed.

“What?” I chuckled. “I’m beginning to believe the rule exists for a reason. I’m feeling a little weak.”

“Get out of here!” she laughed
and shoved
me
again
. “Good luck,” she added, blowing me a kiss.

I watched her head for the stands to sit with Megan, Cali, Stacie, and Silvia. A few of her other friends joined them as well, and the bleachers actually filled up a little with other spectators that came to watch friends or family.

I have to admit it was the best birthday ever.
Between having Jayden with me for the past eighteen hours and getting to play a game of ball, I was a very happy guy.
We actually played two entire games, mixing up the teams the second time around. Jayden later told me she thought of taking a bunch of us to another Mariners game, but she realized that I would rather
play
baseball than watch it. She was absolutely right.

Devin was now a senior and he had taken over my position as catcher for the upcoming season. But Tucker had a
freshman he’d added to the team
with the hope that he was going to turn out just like me. His name was Justin
Sanders
, and he really was pretty good. He played catch for the second game and it was obvious he had a
perfect
understanding of the game.
He probably had twenty pounds on me and wasn’t as agile, but I had no doubt that he’d make a great team leader one of these days.

Jayden had pizza delivered in between the two games for anyone that felt like eating. Most of us were hungry and had a couple of pieces while we took a break on the bleachers. There was a case of bottled wate
r that she brought from her car
as well.
I was impressed by how much thought she’d put into the day.

When the second game was over I was surprised that a lot of the guys still stuck around. I guess many of them missed playing the game as much as I did. Jayden did join
a third game we started, one that was a little more laid back. Megan played as well, and about four or five other people th
at were in the stands joined in
too.

When five o’clock rolled around, Jayden returned to the bleachers to sit and watch. I was done for the day so I really didn’t need to be on the field anymore either. I went and sat with her while she laid her head against me, and we watched the remaining people play around for another half hour.

We headed home
and I
shower
ed
up. I was planning on spending the rest of the evening alone with my fiancée, but she cringed and said there was one more thing she wanted to go and do.

“You’ve already done plenty,” I told her. “We don’t have to go anywhere else.”

“Are you too tired?” she asked.

“No, I’m not tired. I’m a l
ittle hungry again,
but I was hoping that you might make me a sandwich and we could…hang out on the couch for a bit.”

“We can still do that later,” she smiled. “But first there’s one more thing I’d like to do.”

I shrugged. “Okay, that’s fine with me. I’ll go anywhere you tell me to go.”

“Good, I was counting on that.”

Howard had half the
restaurant shut down for us at
Time Out
,
just so we could have a private party. Most of the people that played ball with us earlier were there, and sever
al others including Chris and Joe
, a
nd even my own father. I was shocked.

What was most surprising was that Jayden had put together one of those video montages of our baseball season
, and
played
it on the big screen
. It was really cool because of the way she did it, and the music she used fit the scenes perfectly. I don’t know a single thing about video editing, but Tuck had given her all of the recordings of the games over the past two years, and she took only the best footage and put them onto a DVD. There were so many great moments, at least
two
of every guy on the team. The end of the whole thing consisted of more than a dozen plays at home plate, mainly a lot of collisions. The room was roaring with different exclamations over every play
.

“Oh!” Jack yelled. “I remember that game! I thought you were
unconscious
!”

“I thought I was too at the time,
” I replied.
“B
ut I had the wind knocked out of me so bad, it
just
took a few seconds to sit up. At least the guy was out. That’s all I remember.”

“I almost cried when I saw that,” Jayden said next to me with a
sad
chuckle
.

The night carried on with a lot more baseball stories, and a lot of food. After a couple of hours people began to trickle out, saying their farewells and birthday wishes before they left.

When we were back at my house, finally alone again with some quiet, I told Jayden how much I loved her, and how important she was in my life. She
told
me how much I
meant to her
as well, and that her life wouldn’t be the same without me.

“Yeah because then you’d be back to the single life, fighting the guys off every time you turn around.”

“Thank goodness
that’s
changed. At least you’re good for something,”
she winked.

We lounged on the couch together
and watched
TV. The baseball video she made came up and I asked her how
she found the time to do it all
.

“Why do you think I’ve been so tired lately?” she smiled. “I watched
hours
and
hours
of baseball games!
It took longer than I thought and I was running
out of time to work on it. But
it was a good thing you were sick last weekend. That’s when I got most of it done.”

Huh, f
unny how things work out that way. I still had bitter feelings about that weekend, and just the reminder made me think about it all over again. I wished I had an entirely different life sometimes, but the only thing I wouldn’t change is Jayden.

Chapter Thirty-Six

If I could have predicted the future several months ago like I’d wanted, when Jayden and I first started dating, I wonder
what I would have decided to do at the time. Would I have avoided her at all costs, just so I didn’t have to ruin her life, or would I have still selfishly enjoyed my time with her while I could? I honestly didn’t know the answer to that, but right now I was wishing for the former. I never should have let myself get close to her; I never should have fallen in love with her.