Someone Someday (All in Good Time Book 2) (15 page)

Epilogue

Almost a year later.

I'd been with Morgan on four road trips so far this season, but this one was destined to be my favorite. I'd always wanted to go to New York. We'd played the Mets at home earlier in the summer, but it was now September and it was the first trip the Giant's made to the Big Apple. We were playing a three game series against the Yankees.

Visiting the city and Yankee stadium were exciting, but I was especially stoked that Maddie and Andy were coming to all three games. The team chartered their own plane, so I traveled with some of the other wives and girlfriends. I'd become good friends with quite a few of them. Not all of us went on every trip, but there was always someone traveling and we usually tried to coordinate plans so that we flew together.

For this particular trip, I flew with two other girls, Mindi and Rachel. Mindi was the girlfriend of one of our relief pitchers and Rachel was the wife of our veteran first baseman, Don Franco. Rachel and Don had been married a long time and had three kids who stayed back in San Francisco with their grandparents.

The whole team was staying in a luxury hotel right next to the stadium, so Mindi, Rachel, and I took a cab from the airport straight there. We only had an hour between our arrival and game time, so we quickly got changed and met back in the lobby.

We stood in line together and got our tickets from will call. Mindy and Rachel each had one, but three were waiting for me.

"You guys go on in," I said. "I'm going to wait out here for Maddie and Andy."

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked, staring into the mass of people filing in.

"I'm sure. I just heard from her. They should be here any second."

They left and I waited anxiously for my old friends. I kept up with them a little on social media, but we really hadn't talked much since she moved. We still loved each other and would no doubt pick up right where we left off, but it had been a while since we'd caught up. I spotted them from a ways off as they approached. It was relatively easy since most of the crowd had on blue and white and Maddie and Andy were wearing orange and black.

She squealed and ran toward me with open arms when she caught sight of me. "Ohhh, you look so great, Lexi!" she said squeezing me.

"You look great too," I said, hugging her back. Andy walked up and awkwardly hugged us both, making us all laugh. I pulled back and took a look at both of them. "It's so good to see you guys!" I reached out to grab Andy's arm. "You turned into a man, Andy!"

He smiled and shrugged as he flexed. "I've been hitting the gym. No big deal."

We ended up following the flow of the crowd, and making our way through the gate. There was so much hustle and bustle getting from the gate to our seats that we didn't really have a chance to talk. It was all we could do to stick together. Andy had stopped at a concession stand, so it was just Maddie and me when we sat down. We each breathed a sigh of relief as we looked at each other.

"I can't believe you're in New York," she said with wide eyes.

"I can't either." I shook my head. "I can't believe we're in New York together!"

"Have you been able to see anything?" she asked.

"Just from the plane," I said. "I just got here a little while ago."

"There's so much for you to see," she said. "We have to do Central Park and Times Square, and I have to bring you to eat at about twenty-eight different restaurants."

I laughed. "I can't wait. Morgan will be busy during the day, so for the next two days, I'm free till game time. I think we can fit in twenty-eight meals by then."

"Where are you guys staying?"

"Like a block from here."

"Okay," she said nodding. "I'll pick you up in the morning and we'll get started."

"So how are you and Andy?" I said.

She smiled when I asked the question and I could tell by the looks of it she was genuinely happy. "He's good to me," she said.

"He looks really handsome," I said. "New York looks good on him."

"I know, he's not so much of a string bean anymore, is he? How about you and your man?" She gestured onto the field even though he wasn't our there yet. "Morgan, right?"

"Yeah, we're good… great actually," I smiled and shook my head. "He proposed a week ago."

She squealed and pushed at me, freaking out that she didn't already know that. I showed her my ring, an emerald-cut solitaire. She gawked at it slack-jawed as she held my hand in hers. "What happened? He just got down on one knee or what?"

A huge smile spread across my face thinking of the way it all went down. "He did it at the stadium—on the jumbotron."

Her eyes got huge. "Nu-uh!"

I laughed. "It was during the seventh inning stretch. An usher came and got me beforehand. He said I needed to come down to the dugout to get one of Morgan's broken bats."

"That's crazy! Did he do it in front of the whole stadium?"

I giggled. "Of course. The cameraman got right up next to us. We were on the big jumbotron for the whole world to see."

She sunk her face into her hands, laughing. "What'd you do?"

"I said yes and kissed him of course!"

Maddie squealed again as she crossed her hands on her chest "My goodness that is so romantic! When are you getting married?"

"Soon," I said. "We're looking at the first Saturday of December. We want to do it while he's in the off-season so we can take a honeymoon and relax a little bit. It'll be pretty small."

"I seriously can't believe he did that," she said, shaking her head as if she was trying to imagine. "You opened a coffee shop recently, too, right? I saw something about that on your Facebook page."

"The Painted Bear," I said. "I bought a house a few doors down from Zack and Laney's and fixed it up. The first floor is the coffee shop, and the second and third are my house. Even once we're married, that's where I'll stay when Morgan's out of town since it's so close to Zack and Laney. Morgan's house is a ways out of town, so it'll be nice to have a second place in the city."

"How's the coffee shop doing?"

"It's amazing. I hired this guy named Jake to manage it for me so I don't have so much responsibility and can come on trips like this. He's a total coffee nerd and my right hand. I don't know what I'd do without him. The shop turned out really cool too. You'd like the looks of it, I think. I got a bunch of old eclectic stuff from flea markets and auctions, and Laney made me this huge stained glass window of a bear standing up holding a paintbrush in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. He's got bright colors spilled out all over his fur. He's so cute. I used the image of the window as the logo for my brand. He's what's on all my bags of coffee and everything."

"I think I saw that on your page too!" she said. "That's so adorable! I'm gonna have to order some of your coffee. Do you ship?"

I nodded. "But I brought you and Andy a few pounds," I said. "It's at my hotel."

"Aww, I'm so excited for you! And it's good to hear Laney's still making stained glass."

"When she can," I said. "She's busy with little Henry, and she just found out she's expecting another one."

"Oh, tell them congratulations for me. We'll have to shop for a baby gift while you're here. We have some really awesome stores."

Just then Andy appeared with his arms full of food and drinks. Maddie and I reached out to take some of his load before he sat down. As we did, we heard a sharp, short whistle from the direction of the field. We looked out there to find Morgan staring up at us from in front of the dugout. He wasn't much for huge gestures while he was out on the field, but he smiled and gave us a curt nod with one of those two-fingered waves that was sort of a mix between a wave and a salute. I blew him a kiss and his smile broadened. A year later, and I still got butterflies in my stomach at the sight of him. I couldn't believe my life. I would have never in my wildest dreams believed I'd be sitting at Yankee Stadium with my soon to be husband waving at me from the dugout.

"Oh, my goodness, he's so handsome!" Maddie said, reading my mind. "He's even more handsome in person than he is in pictures."

Andy had just sat down, but looked up in time to smile and wave at Morgan too. Morgan did another one of those quick waves at him before heading back into the dugout.

"Wow, he
is
handsome," Andy said dazedly, making Maddie and me both laugh.

"Lexi's getting married!" Maddie said.

"Really?" Andy said, looking over her at me. "When'd that happen?"

"He proposed last week. We're looking at December for a date."

"Nice," Andy said. "Congratulations."

"When are you and Maddie gonna get married?" I asked.

Maddie sat back in her chair with wide eyes, waiting to hear how Andy would respond to a question like that.

"What?" he asked as if he hadn't heard.

"When are you going to propose to Maddie?" I asked, putting him on the spot.

"Oh okay," he said.

Maddie and I looked at each other, confused by his odd response. And then, just like that, he stuck his drink in the cup holder, stood up, and reached into his pocket to pull out a diamond ring. It was a loose diamond ring with no box or anything. Andy sort of got on one knee as best he could in the cramped stadium seats, which was more like teetering on the very edge while one knee almost rested on the ground.

"I've been carrying this thing around for months, waiting for the right time to ask, and I guess it's now." He smiled at her. "Madeline Harris, will you marry me?"

She glanced around before reaching out to hug him and saying, "Yes!"

Ten or fifteen people in the stands around us overheard the whole thing and all started clapping.

I was so happy for them I could just burst.

I was happy for me too.

I glanced down at the dugout where I saw the love of my life getting ready for the game.

It had all come together just the way it should.

God allowed Laney and I to travel on some bumpy roads, but I've learned that sometimes the bumpiest roads lead to the best destinations.

The End

Thank you for reading Someone Someday.

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