Straddling the Edge (24 page)

I ta
ke the two steps up to his porch and before I can back down, I knock on the door.

Time goes by like watching a turtle race. Finally, I hear the lock turn and see the door open.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Dean takes me by the wrist, pulls me into his house, and slams the door behind him.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react to me showing up on your doorstep so I thought I’d try and get your attention.”

“Well you got it, sweetheart.”

“You called me sweetheart.”
The tears that I was fighting so hard to hold back once I stepped out of the safety of my car come streaming down my face again. “I never thought I’d hear that again,” I murmur between sobs.

He reaches out to me, cupping my face in the palms of his hands and brushes the tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “You’ll always be my sweetheart.”

“I will?”

He nods.

“I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time. This makes us both laugh lightly.

“
Me first,” he says. He takes my hand and leads me to the family room where we usually sit and talk. We sit down at our usual ends of the sofa and he begins, “I’m sorry I said our relationship has been a lie. And I’m sorry I said it was over. I want very much for it to be anything but over.”

I open my mouth to say something, but he shushes me. “I should have told you about Chase and Molly a long time ago. But for some reason, I could never find the right words or the right time. A few times, I tried to tell you but we got interrupted.”

“Like when we had to watch the babies?”

“Yes, like then. And there were other times when you would talk about how we could trust each other and how open we are with each other. The moment was there
, but we were about to make love or we were walking along the beach on our romantic getaway and I didn’t want to ruin that with thoughts of Chase.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “And there was a small part of me that was worried that you would actually believe what Chase said. That I was only with you to get back at him, but sweetheart, that is so far from the truth. I love you so much. More than any words could describe.”

I want to say something but my tongue is tied and I’m still choked up by his apology. I don’t know what I expected, but I never thought it was going to be this easy.

“My turn?” I ask.

He nods.

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain. Instead of listening to you, I just reacted. I had been waiting for you to tell me something, I just didn’t know what. Your mom told me there was bad blood between you and Chase, but she said it was your story to tell. I kept hoping you’d open up to me, but when you never did and Chase said what he did, it was my first instinct to think the worst. I should have never listened to anything that came out of his mouth. I should have never made you feel like I would believe Chase over you. You’re my everything. You’re the one special thing in my life that I’ve been waiting for and I could’ve ruined it by reacting without thinking. I promise that I will always listen to you before jumping to conclusions. I never believed for one minute that you were just with me to get back at Chase. And I never believed that our love was a lie. Our love is nothing but true. I’m so sorry, Dean. I love you.”

He scoots closer to my side of the sofa and pulls me into his arms. “I love you, Summer McGallian, and one misunderstanding is not going to stop that. But in the future, let’s just walk away and come home if we have a disagreement. It does us no good to let anyone else in on what we have. You mean to
o much to me to let anyone ruin it.”

“Deal,” I say, and then pucker my lips really big for him. “Kiss me.” He smacks his lips to mine, making a loud
muah sound. I love it when we do that. It’s so cute and playful, and so special.

“Now, I can’t believe you came to my doorstep with my Angel’s jersey on.” He slides his hands down to my ass. “And nothing on underneath.”

“You said it was one of your fantasies.” I nuzzle my face into his neck. “I knew you couldn’t resist me and my apology if I wore it.”

“I couldn’t resist you even if you were wearing a Red Sox jersey.”

“Damn, that’s some love.” I tease him. “How about Yankees gear?”

“Now let’s not push it.” He brushes my hair away from my face with his fingertips and claims my mouth with his own. One night going to
bed without his kiss is one too many and I plan on making up for that right now.

Summer

I really wanted to surprise Dean, just like he has always surprised me but I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. After that night full of apologies and amazing make-up sex, I spilled the beans. The excitement just burst out of me uncontrollably. There was nothing I could do to stop it.

“I can’t believe you did this,” Dean says when we get to Angel stadium. “What’s going to happen when the Dodgers get a beat down?”

“That’s not going to happen,” I tell him.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself.” He parks his car, we both get out, and meet each other right in front of the hood. He snickers at my Dodger gear. I look his Angel attire up and down. “Shall we?” he asks, holding out his hand with a chuckle.

“We’re going to get booed.” I glance around to see if anyone is giving the mixed-fan couple dirty looks.

“You’re going to get booed,” he says. “I’m wearing the right colors.”

I roll my eyes.

When we get to our seats on the field level, Dean’s eyes widen.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Mel says. She’s sporting a Dodger shirt to support me and irritate the Angel fans. I love her.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” Shelly asks, with a wink.

Dean looks back at me. “Did you know about this?”

“Surprise!” I yell. “I didn’t blow the whole thing. I thought it would be fun if we all came together.”

He leans over and kisses me right on the mouth. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

Ty and Matt stand and shake hands with Dean, and I hug the girls.

“How about you guys go get us some food and beers? We’ll stay here and save our seats.” Shelly pats the seat next to her and waves me over to sit down.

“We have ticketed seats, smart one,” Tyler says.

“Yeah, I know,” she tells her brother, “but you guys can go anyway.”

He shakes his head at his sister, but asks his wife nicely what he can do for her. The guys hike back up the steps and I sit down with the girls.

“Don’t tell Dean I said this but this is a really nice stadium.” I look toward the outfield and notice the waterfalls coming down under the scoreboard. Nice touch.

The first inning starts by the time the guys get back, but they don’t miss anything. Dean passes me some nachos and a large beer. I fill him in on who got out and how. The game is uneventful through the fourth inning. Mel and Shelly are totally bored. The only time some life springs into them is when the crowd gets the wave going. That lasts about two rounds before it dismantles. They also like all the claps.

“I feel like I’m a cheerleader,” Mel says, “Stand up, sit down, fight, fight,
fight!”

Without warning, the crowd begins a chant that roars through the stadium
. This happens often and by the six inning, I’m even joining them. Only, I shout Dodgers instead of Angels.

“Wow, the game is really flying by,” I tell Dean.

“That’s what happens when there’s no score. I’m ready to go out there and hit for them.”

“If you do that, I’ll go out and play the field and stop you from getting on base.”

He just shakes his head with a laugh and leans over and kisses me.

“Hey, it’s the Kiss Cam!” Shelly shouts, pointing at the big screen.

“Oh, I love those.” I look up at the screen and watch as an older couple is stunned to see their faces appear. The little old man kisses his wife and the crowd cheers. Next is another couple who … is not a couple at all. The girl mouths to the camera, “He’s my brother!” Uh, no thanks. They should come over here and get Shelly and Ty. That would be hilarious.

“Oh my! That’s me!”
I shout. “That’s us!” I’m so busy watching the screen that I don’t notice the camera right in front of my face. I look over to grab Dean but he’s not sitting next to me.

What?

Oh my!

He’s kneeling in front of me. I glance up at my friends and Shelly and Melissa have tears in their eyes. Then, I catch a glimpse of the screen and see Dean on a bended knee holding out a box.

“You want to look over here now, sweetheart.” My gaze meets his and I almost pass out. “Summer McGallian, I love you with all my heart. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you, even if that means I have to look at that ugly shirt and go to that other stadium across the freeway. Sweetheart,” he opens the box to reveal a very impressive diamond ring, “will you marry me?”

I throw myself into his arms, yelling for the whole world to hear, “Yes! Yes! Yes! I will marry you, Dean Michaels. I love you so much!”

He pulls my face back to look into my eyes and kisses me soundly. “I love you,” he whispers against my lips.

“I love you too.”

He reaches down, holds out my left hand, and slides the ring on. “Damn you. I can’t even spoil you right. I tried with this game and you just swoop in and spoil me instead.”

He kisses my left hand. “Get used to it.”

The crowd erupts into a roar of cheers and I can’t help but fall a little bit in love with Angel stadium too.

Dammit.

October, 1 year later

“What the hell were we thinking getting married in October?” I say, pacing the bridal room. “Never in a million years would I have thought that the Dodgers would have made it into the World Series.”

“And played Game 7 on your wedding day?” Shelly adds, rubbing it in.

“And played the Angels in Game 7 of the World Series on your wedding day?” Mel adds, pouring salt on the wounds.

“You guys aren’t helping.” They laugh at my pain. It’s not like they’re baseball fans. Dean isn’t even all
that nutty about this. He thinks it’s funny.

Yeah, right.

Our teams are playing each other in the World Series for crying out loud. How is that funny? It’s like one of the things that you hope will happen in your lifetime, but just know it never will. I had come to terms with that. In fact, it wasn’t even something I considered when I chose a late October wedding. I was thinking about the weather, and the season. With a name like Summer, I really didn’t want to get married in the … Summer. I’ve always known that someday I’d have a fall wedding, just not on the same day that my beloved team made it to the biggest game of the year, or ever for all that matter.

This has never happened, yet it’s happening today, right in the middle of my wedding day. My team is playing my
fiancé’s team. In the World Series. The final game. On my wedding day.

“There are really more important things to think about,” Mel says.

Do I want to know? “What’s that?”

“My dress!” She points at her breasts. “What the hell was I thinking picking this style? I had to go buy a bra that would perk up my boobs because after nursing Mia, my tits are as saggy as Tyler’s nut sac on a hot day.” She puts her hands under her breasts and lifts, letting them sit on her
palms like they’re on a display shelf. “Seriously. Look at them.” She drops her hands and her tits fall. “Saggy balls. Like an empty sac.”

I crack up. Like really crack up. “Oh my. Mel, you kill me.” Shelly is laughing too and suddenly I can’t stop. The snorts come on and I’m practically wheezing, trying to calm myself long enough to take a breath.

“Sounds like a bunch of hyenas in here,” my dad says when he steps into the room. “I’m surprised you don’t have the TV on.”

I cough a few times trying to catch my breath. “We recorded it. We’re going to watch it in the morning.”

“Well, are you ready?”

“I sure am.”

“You look absolutely gorgeous,” he says.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

“I’m going to peek out and give them the thumbs up so we can get started.”

I look over at the photographer and ask, “Can we get one last picture of the three of us?” I swirl my hand around, pointing to Mel and Shelly, my bridesmaids. They’re both wearing Dodger blue gowns with a thin Angel red ribbon around their waist. They look gorgeous. My dress is like a
Cinderella ball gown—fitted at the top with a big skirt and a long train. I also have a red sash tied around my waist. It’s my little tribute to my future husband, letting him know that marrying him means that I’m also marrying his team. “When they’re not playing my team, of course,” I had told him when I picked out our wedding colors. But again, I never dreamed that our teams would choose to make history on our wedding day.

When my dad comes back,
I ask, “Are the kiddos ready?”