Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/ Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART THREE (7 page)

“Mom and I stopped at the hardware store this morning for a new baking pan for the potato casserole for tonight.” He rolled his eyes.

“Mom needed
another
baking pan?” How much was she planning to make today?

“Told you. Therapy was rough on her.”

Caitlyn nodded. Okay, she’d deal with that in a minute. “So I take it you talked to his dad?”

“Yeah. Chip said that some guy named Duke, the Catfish manager, was the one who told Eli that he was getting called up. He’s the one Eli told no.”

“But didn’t Duke just tell the Friars?”

“I guess a guy who works with Crush Taylor, someone named Stewart, convinced Duke to hold off on notifying the Friars. He’s trying to get Eli to change his mind.”

“Oh my God. The Friars really don’t know yet?”

“Chip said Stewart has been calling for Eli nonstop. Once Eli stopped answering his cell phone, Stewart found their home number and the number at the hardware store. Eli doesn’t know, but Stewart and Chip have been talking. Chip told Stewart that Eli was going to propose to you.”

Caitlyn felt her mouth drop open. “What? Chip knows?”

Bryan grinned at her. “Eli knows what he wants. He’s going to tell everyone.”

“And now Stewart knows.” Caitlyn realized that probably meant all of the Catfish knew. Hell, all of
Kilby
probably knew.

“Yep. And he thinks it’s great. Said something about how great you’ll look with a California tan.”

Caitlyn felt her heart soften and a smile lift her lips. She liked Stewart. “How much time do you think we have?”

“Well, Chip said to give him a couple of days to work on it. Stewart said twenty-four hours, that’s the most he and Duke can stall.”

Her mind raced at that. A million things seemed to need her attention at once. Most of all, however, was the thought that she needed to get ahold of Stewart. Right away.

She didn’t have his number. She assumed Chip would, but she couldn’t go to the hardware store or their house without risking running into Eli. And she knew the next time she saw him, he would want to talk about the proposal. And she knew that she couldn’t keep saying no to him.

She wanted to marry him. Of course, she did. She wanted to be with him forever. She hadn’t been lying when she said she’d wait for him. She’d never love anyone else now that she’d given her heart to Eli and she would enjoy every second of watching his baseball dreams come true. It would be hard to be away from him, but if that’s the way it had to be, then she’d make it work.

She looked at her brother though and couldn’t help the little bubble of hope she felt rise up. Maybe she didn’t have to be apart from Eli. Bryan was…good. He really was.

But he was only half of the reason she was home. The other half was her mother.

* * *

Caitlyn pulled in a fortifying breath. One thing at a time. First she had to be sure that Eli had a spot with the Friars. Which meant getting ahold of Stewart. How was she going to do that?

The answer came to her easily.

Jill.

Jill, who wanted to buy Caitlyn’s Cracker Jacks and cupcakes, was Stewart’s daughter. Caitlyn had Jill’s number. On a napkin from Scoop.

Thinking about Scoop made her smile and feel sad at the same time. How could she miss a place she’d been
once
in her life?

Caitlyn shook her head. Scoop wasn’t what she should be thinking about right now.

Except that she could easily look up the number for the ice cream shop and find Jill if she couldn’t locate that napkin.

“I’m going to call Stewart,” Caitlyn told Bryan. “Right now before any decisions are made. I’ll assure him that Eli will be in San Diego by tomorrow.”

“How are you going to get Eli to California?” Bryan asked.

That was a good question. She could break up with him.

Except there was no way she could really do that. She loved him. She could never hurt him, even if it was for his own good.

And he wouldn’t believe it anyway. No one knew her the way Eli did. He’d see right through any attempt to convince him she didn’t want him.

She needed a plan. She needed a convincing argument. She needed…

A sidekick.

Or a few sidekicks.

She grinned at Bryan. “I think I have a plan.”

“You need some help with it?” Bryan asked, sitting up a little straighter, a gleam in his eye.

“Yeah, I might need
a lot
of help.”

Bryan rubbed his hands together. “I’m in.”

She laughed. “You don’t even know what it is.”

Bryan lifted an eyebrow. “Since when has that ever mattered?”

She grinned, love for her older brother filling her up. He was going to be okay. He was getting stronger. He had a lot of friends. He was a business owner. At the time he’d first mentioned buying the Come Again when Tex and Mary retired, Caitlyn had felt sad that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish his huge plans of owning a business and making a normal life in Sapphire Falls. But she hadn’t been fair to Bryan or his fighting spirit and his eternally optimistic outlook. She hadn’t trusted him to know himself well enough to make that kind of plan.

At that moment, she determined to be more supportive. She was going to stop telling the people she loved about the things they couldn’t do and start believing wholeheartedly that they could do anything they wanted.

That definitely included Eli. He could have it all. She could help him have it all.

Caitlyn felt her heart flip. There was still a chance for Eli in San Diego.

There was still a chance for
them
in San Diego.

Suddenly a loud crash sounded from the kitchen. A metal pan hitting the linoleum.

Caitlyn met Bryan’s wide eyes.

“Uh, I’ll be right back,” she said, starting for the kitchen.

“I’ll be right here,” he said dryly.

She hesitated for a moment, then crossed back to the couch, leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You do amaze me,” she said quietly.

He smiled. “If I had a nickel for every time a girl’s said
that
to me.”

Caitlyn rolled her eyes, but laughed. Yeah, he was going to be okay.

She hurried to the kitchen. Her mother had every cupboard open, the countertops covered with supplies and multiple pots and pans. Maggie Murray now knelt on the floor cleaning up blobs of what looked like brownie batter.

“Mom? Can I help?”

“Do you think lasagna and chicken casserole will be enough? I’ll have garlic bread, lettuce salad, green beans, pasta salad, baked potatoes and fruit salad. I’ll also have brownies and cheesecake. Or, I
was
going to have brownies.” Maggie got to her feet and put the pan in the sink. “I don’t know if I have enough sugar to make another batch.”

Caitlyn stared at her. Okay, this was bad. She’d never seen her mom make
this
much food at once.

She moved in beside her. “What can I do?”

“Go next door and get some sugar from Mrs. Wright?”

Caitlyn nodded, then said carefully, “I’ll ask Bryan to go.”

Their father had, after all, built a brand-new ramp on the front of the house for Bryan’s chair. And Bryan’s upper-body strength was phenomenal. He could easily get the chair up and down the ramp and over the sidewalk by himself. Or he could probably even use his crutch.

It was as much Caitlyn’s fault as anyone’s that their mother didn’t see that. Because Caitlyn hadn’t seen it either.

Maggie sniffed. “Okay.”

Slightly surprised, but pleased, Caitlyn called out the favor to Bryan.

“On it!” was his reply.

“Now what can I do in here?” Caitlyn asked.

Maggie directed her to the pasta salad prep and they worked together for nearly twenty minutes without talking. Caitlyn also mixed the fruit salad and buttered the bread. She was in the middle of cutting tomatoes for the salad when Bryan rolled into the house with a small container of sugar.

He grinned. “Ask and ye shall receive.”

Clearly the moment had been big for Bryan as well.

Maggie turned to look at him. For a moment, her lip trembled. Then she smiled, took the sugar and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks, honey.”

Bryan spun in his chair and headed for the living room.

Maggie watched him go. “He’s not going to get better.”

Caitlyn finished the tomato. “He
is
going to get better. He’s gotten a lot better already.”

“But he’s not going to be back to normal.”

Caitlyn put her knife down and turned to her mom. “He’s the same guy he’s always been, Mom. His legs just don’t work the same way anymore.”

Maggie took a shaky breath and nodded. “I know.”

“It doesn’t mean things are bad. They’re just different.” Caitlyn was happy to find that those words came easily and that she absolutely meant them.

Maggie nodded again. “It’s just so hard to see your kids hurting.”

“Of course it is.” Caitlyn moved to put an arm around her. “But he’s not hurting, Mom. I mean, yes, his hip is hurting right now at times and I’m sure therapy made that a little worse, but he’s not hurting emotionally. And the physical pain is going to get better.”

Maggie took a deep breath and looked at Caitlyn. “It’s hard for me to see you hurting too.”

Caitlyn pulled back, surprised. “I know I’ve seemed upset over Bryan, but I’m not really. Well, not anymore. I know he’s going to be okay.”

“Not Bryan, honey,” Maggie said, turning fully and taking Caitlyn’s hands. “Eli.”

Caitlyn swallowed. Oh. “Eli.” She didn’t know what else to say.

A few hours ago, before she’d seen him again, made love to him, had him
propose
to her, before she’d realized that she’d been underestimating her brother, she would have said Eli was a friend, or that he had been a fling. But now…

Now it was time for the truth. For all of them.

She nodded. “I’m in love with Eli.”

Maggie smiled, her expression softening. “I know you are.”

“He asked me to marry him.”

Maggie didn’t seem shocked. “What did you say?”

Caitlyn shrugged. “I said no. He has a chance to go play ball in the big leagues.”

“So Chip said,” Maggie told her. “And that’s wonderful. I don’t understand what one has to do with the other.”

Honesty. That was what they all needed.

But it was hard.

“When he asked, I didn’t think I could leave Bryan. And you.”

Maggie searched Caitlyn’s eyes. Caitlyn wondered what she saw.

“But now something’s changed?”

“Yes, Bryan…” Then Caitlyn realized that no, nothing had changed. Except Caitlyn’s ability to see clearly what was right in front of her. She shook her head. “No. Not really. Except maybe my belief that dreams can actually come true.”

Maggie took her by the shoulders. “Bryan and I are going to be okay,” she said. “I’m going to talk to your father about cutting back on his travel. It’s time he thinks about at least partial retirement. And Bryan told me today that he’d like to move out. He wants to have his own place.”

Caitlyn was surprised. For two seconds. Then she nodded. “I think that would be good. After his hip heals.”

Maggie smiled. “That’s what I told him. But I also told him that I would still be cooking and putting food in his freezer and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.”

Caitlyn laughed and pulled Maggie in for a hug. “I’m so glad.”

Maggie squeezed her and then let her go. “I am too. And now, let’s talk about Eli and what you’re going to do.”

“What I’m going to do?”

“You’re going to need to stock up on sunscreen. Your fair skin in California is a recipe for burns. And you’ll need some California clothes. We could go shopping next week.”

Caitlyn felt her heart swell. “Well, that sounds awesome. But I might need a raincheck on the shopping spree.”

“Oh?”

“I have a plan. But I need your help. All of your help—Bryan and Chip and Stewart—everyone. And it has to happen tonight.”

Maggie gave her a smile that made tears sting Caitlyn’s eyes. She saw love and pride and happiness and even a little mischief in her mom’s eyes.

“Then I’ll just send you a couple of sundresses I saw downtown at Julie’s that I thought you’d love and we’ll shop when you come home to visit,” Maggie said.

At that, a tear slipped down Caitlyn’s cheek. “I would love that, Mom.”

Maggie wiped the tear and gave her a smile. “Now get back to work. We’re not just having company tonight; it’s family coming over.”

Eli paced across the living room for the seventh time.

He wanted to get to Caitlyn. Yes, the dinner with their families was going to be nice, yes, he was glad to see his dad eager for the night out, yes, he was thrilled that this was the start of many family times all together.

But mostly he needed to see her. See how she was after talking with Bryan. See how she was dealing with her mom’s obvious unhappiness.