The Changeup (Men of the Show) (22 page)

He smiled as he looked at Jerry. “For being such an ugly son of a bitch, you’re pretty smart at times.”

Jerry let out a hoot. “And don’t you forget that, my man. Don’t you forget it.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Friday night, standing outside the side gates at the ballpark with Bree, watching the mass of Rockets fans stream by, Maddie couldn’t believe she was about to do what she was going to do. She wasn’t sure if this was even going to work, but if it did work even a little, she hoped Chase would understand that she wanted him to be a part of her life, if he still wanted her. Of course, she was taking that risk. There was always the possibility that he would turn her down, but she was just going to have to take that chance. If she was going to try to fight for what she wanted, she was going to have to put her whole self on the line and pray for the best. If things worked out in the end, then it was more than worth a little discomfort or embarrassment.

As the crowds began to thicken, she grabbed Bree’s hand and held tight. She hoped she hadn’t gotten the time or the gate wrong since so far she hadn’t seen any signs of their other party.

“Mom, I want to go in and see Chase!” she cried, as she grew tired of waiting.

“I know. We will, but we have to wait for the Pattons. They have our tickets, remember?”

Bree sighed and slouched down, kicking at some rocks by her feet. She had her pink Patton jersey on and she wanted to show him that she was wearing it. Maddie didn’t blame her for her impatience. She was feeling anxious herself and wanted to get things over with. She was about to walk in the direction of the main gate thinking she must have gotten the meeting place incorrect, when Bree lit up and pointed at a spot in the sea of fans. “There they are! Look, right there, Mommy!”

Maddie craned her neck to try to see through the swarm of people when she finally spotted Rick’s smiling face just over most of the other heads. She raised her hand in a half wave. He waved back, pulling Anne toward them through the masses. When they finally emerged, he let out a deep breath. “Sorry, we’re late. We got caught in the traffic jam and the crowds.”

Maddie smiled as Anne engulfed Bree in a hug. “That’s okay. I thought perhaps I had the wrong gate or something.”

Anne looked up at her. “You ready?”

She let out a nervous breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Well, give it to her Rick,” Anne said to her husband.

He pulled out a jersey from a bag he was carrying. “We thought it might help things along if you were wearing this.”

She took the white jersey with red trim he was holding out to her and turned it over. On the back across the shoulders, red lettering spelled out
Patton
along with his number in the middle.

“Put it on, Mommy!”

Maddie grinned at Anne and Rick. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have your support in this.”

“Oh, you’re welcome, dear,” Anne said as she gave her a quick hug. “We want to help you as much as we can, so we tried to think of everything that might smooth things over.”

She pulled the jersey over her head. It was long and it hung to just above her knees completely covering her navy shorts, but she didn’t care. She would do anything to help her cause.

Following Chase’s parents, she and Bree fought their way through the crowds and into their seats. Just as Rick had promised, he’d somehow managed to secure seats on the field near the Rockets’s dugout so they could see Chase every time he came and went. If he noticed the Patton jersey she wore, all the better. She knew he couldn’t talk to her, but she hoped that her mere presence would be enough to let him know that she wasn’t going to give up.

Looking around, she could feel the tension in the air. Everyone knew this was a big game. If Chase could pull out a win, it would guarantee the Rockets a spot in the postseason. If not, then they had to wait until the season ended to see how the standings fell out. It would then become a game of numbers to determine who would take the final play-off spot.

She thought that was a lot to be putting on the shoulders of a rookie and she said as much to Rick. He explained that the Rockets didn’t want to leave anything to chance, so they were showing their confidence in one of their strongest pitchers, even if he was only a rookie. They could have gone with the Ace, Jerry, but that would have only provided a couple of days rest between games for him, and while they could have chanced it, they wanted Jerry strong and rested for the first game of the play-offs, assuming they made it. If Chase could do what he did for most of the season, then there was no doubt he could win this game for them. Maddie could only imagine what kind of stress was on him and she hoped that she didn’t add to it. She prayed that when he saw her, if he saw her, it would only help matters, not make them worse.

Maddie watched as the groundskeeping crew raked the infield dirt and pitcher’s mound before taking a hose and lightly wetting everything down, readying the field for the game. They added the white baselines and the batter’s box around home plate with puffs of white chalk powder following in their wake. The usual scents of a baseball game filled the air. Happy chatter from the fans swirled around and became a constant hum in the background. The sky was clear and starting to darken as night slowly descended on them. The stadium lights were blazing down onto the field ready to light the way for the players. She closed her eyes and took it all in as she willed her pounding heart to calm down.

She turned when she felt Bree poke her. “Mommy, he’s coming. Look!”

Her gaze followed Bree’s finger and she saw him slowly walking from the bull pen to the dugout. Her heart started to thump heavily in her chest while at the same time it was clogging her throat. Her nerves twitched and she swallowed deeply as she watched him. He focused on the ground in front of him with a look of concentration on his face.

As he neared their seats, she had to fight the urge to duck under the railing and hide from him. Doubt suddenly filled her as her mind reeled. If he didn’t want her there, seeing her before the start of the game would only make things worse. What if he looked at her and all she saw was anger? She would feel horrible. Everyone would blame her. Not that she personally had any control or impact over the results of the game, but in her freaked-out state, she certainly could convince herself that she did.

As if sensing her discomfort and sudden distress, Rick placed his hand on her arm. He said the same thing he always said to Chase before a game as his son passed by.

“Go get ’em.”

Maddie studied Chase’s profile, tight and hard, and saw when he acknowledged his father with a glance out of the corner of his eye. As his eyes took in his father’s hand on someone’s arm, he quickly glanced over. When he registered who it was, he stopped. He stared hard at her and she felt her breath catch in her throat. She felt frozen under his stare, but she didn’t see the cool anger she’d been expecting. Rather it was as if he was waiting for her to say something. She felt Rick give her arm a squeeze.

She smiled faintly. “You can do this,” she said with as much conviction as she could put in her voice under the circumstances.

Chase nodded almost imperceptibly before his gaze slide down to her jersey and he turned and ducked into the dugout.

Maddie let out the breath she was holding and looked at Rick. “Well, that didn’t go as badly as I thought it was going to.”

He patted her arm. “It went perfect. You said the right thing.”

She looked down at Bree, who beamed up at her. “Let’s win this game, shall we?”

* * *

As Chase sat in the dugout waiting for the ceremonies before the game to end, he let his mind wander away from the game for a moment. Despite his small moment of panic where he’d contemplated putting the brakes on things, he was glad that the plan he’d put together with Karen and his parents had worked out so far. They’d gotten Maddie to the game under the pretense that she’d come up with her own plan to apologize to him. Little did she know that he had much more important things to say. That was where Bree came in. He knew by now she would have the box Rick had given her tucked away in her pocket. He chuckled when he recalled the look of terror on Maddie’s face when he’d stopped in front of the stands. She looked as if she was waiting for him to scream and yell at her, but he’d felt relaxed, he’d felt comfort and he’d felt love. He wanted to hear her say something, anything to show her support, help build his game fire and she’d said the first thing that had come to mind, and it had been perfect. He was at peace with his decision.

With everything settled in his mind with Maddie, he had to turn his focus to the game. He could do this. He knew he could, and he felt even more confident knowing she, along with his parents, was right there behind him, giving him all the encouragement she could. He knew his teammates were going to give him all the support they could on the field. All that remained was for him to go out and execute.

Standing outside the dugout with his teammates, he removed his cap for the singing of the national anthem. He let his gaze wander over the stadium at the thousands of fans who were also putting their faith in him. He had a lot riding on this game. A lot of people were counting on him and he couldn’t have scripted it any better. This is what he lived for. This is why he played the game and what he thrived on. When the anthem was over, he tugged on his cap. Matt shoved the ball into his glove. Chase picked it up and thumped it into the seat of his mitt once before turning and trotting out onto the field.

“Let’s kick some ass.”

* * *

Going into the bottom of the seventh, Chase had a one-run lead. The Rockets were currently ahead 3-2, and they wanted to build on that. Chase struggled a little bit in the top of the sixth and the seventh, allowing a couple of walks and two runs to score, but he’d rallied and managed to get a couple of strikeouts and a few fly outs in order to end the innings. He sat on the bench in the dugout and closed his eyes. He was starting to get tired, he could feel it, but he wasn’t ready to leave the game yet. He felt he still had a few more outs in him. Of course, that wasn’t up to him, but he hoped he could convince Coach to leave him in a bit longer.

He took a drink of water and gave a shout of encouragement as he watched his teammate drive a single into left field. That was a start and he hoped they could score a couple of runs to give him some padding going into the eighth inning. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Coach Smith slowly amble in his direction.

“How you feeling?”

“A little tired, but I can keep going,” he answered truthfully, keeping his attention on the field.

“You sure? Maybe we should bring in Anders.”

Chase shrugged. “It’s your call, but I’m telling you I’m okay.”

Coach Smith nodded as he walked away. He conferred with the head coach who nodded and looked down in his direction. Chase wasn’t surprised when Coach Brooklyn strolled down and sat down next to him.

“Smith says you’re tired, but want to go more.”

“Yep.”

Coach Brooklyn turned his head and eyed him sharply. “I don’t need to remind you of the implications of this game. We don’t need you playing hero.”

“No, you don’t need to tell me. I know and I’m telling you I’m all right.” Chase looked back at his coach, his eyes hard. “I want this.”

His coach eyed him shrewdly before nodding. “Okay. You’ll go back in, but one more walk and you’re out.”

Chase nodded and looked back over the field. “Fair enough.”

* * *

The Rockets didn’t manage to score any additional runs, and so Chase entered the eighth inning with only a one-run lead. To Maddie’s novice view, it appeared that Chase was taking longer between pitches and shaking his arm more, but no one else seemed to be concerned. She leaned closer to Rick. “I’m surprised he’s still in. He looks tired to me.”

“He is a bit, but he’s holding his own. I’m sure he told his coaches he could handle it. He wouldn’t go back out there if he felt he would cost them the game.”

She nodded, but she still couldn’t help worrying as she glanced at the large electronic scoreboard that loomed over center field. They only had a one-run lead and it was nerve-racking enough as it was. She couldn’t understand how he could handle the pressure, especially if he was tired, but he seemed to thrive on it and used it to fuel his game. Even so, at the sound of the bat cracking, she winced and saw Chase hang his head as the ball soared out of the park and over the fence in right field.

As the lone runner rounded the bases, tying up the game, the catcher and pitching coach went out to meet with Chase on the mound. Maddie watched as he shook his head and nodded, but never spoke. The conference was quickly over and both catcher and coach were trotting back to their respective positions as Chase took a walk off the mound. He leaned down and toyed with the rosin bag before standing up and setting his shoulders. He seemed to be staring right at Maddie. She wasn’t sure if he was seeing her or just seemed to be looking in her general direction, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care if everyone around her thought she’d lost her mind. She was going to make a fool of herself later anyway, so she might as well start now. She clapped and yelled. She did all she could to let him know that she was rooting for him and believed in him. He would get the rest of the outs. When he turned and stepped back on the mound, she sat back down and wrung her hands nervously.

* * *

Reaching down into some reserve he didn’t realize he had, Chase managed to put some fire behind his fastballs and strike out the next two batters. Amped with adrenaline raging through his system, he shouted and pumped his fist when he got the next hitter to groundout to second. The crowd went wild and stood on their feet as he walked back to the dugout. They all assumed it was the last inning for him, and he figured that to be true as well. Now it was up to the offense to score some runs and the bull pen to close it out in order to give the Rockets the win. All Chase could do was sit in the dugout, watch and wait.

He sat down with his elbows on his knees and hung his head. His teammates walked by patting his shoulder with words of congratulations. He felt tired and he felt good. The instant Maddie’d stood up and cheered, glowing in her white Rockets jersey sporting his name and number, he’d immediately felt reenergized, as if she’d somehow refueled him, giving him that push he needed to get over the hump. He wanted to win this game for the team, he wanted to win this game for the city and he wanted to win this game for her.