The Changeup (Men of the Show) (6 page)

“It’s very nice to meet you, Bree. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Jerry said as he knelt down and held out his hand.

Her eyes widened as she shook his hand. “You have?”

“Oh, yeah. Patty’s been bragging about how he’s teaching you to be the next pro. He said you’re going to take my place on the team if I’m not careful.”

She giggled as Jerry stood upright. “I’ve heard about you too,” Bree piped up with a sly look.

He cocked one brow. “Oh yeah? What exactly did you hear?”

“My Aunt Karen tells me all the time how you’re the best pitcher on the Rockets and how hot you are and how much—”

“Okay, I think that’s enough, Bree.” Maddie interrupted by placing her hand over Bree’s mouth. “I’m sure Aunt Karen told you some of that in confidence.” She gave them an uncomfortable smile.

“Sounds like I should hear more about Aunt Karen,” Jerry said, bobbing his eyebrows before turning to Chase. “Anyway, I just came down to tell you I was heading out. Make sure you didn’t change your mind.”

“No, I’m good. You guys tear it up tonight.”

“All right, if you say so.” Jerry turned back to Maddie. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You too. Thanks for the lesson.”

“Anytime. See you guys.”

The three of them watched Jerry trot back toward the condominiums. “What did he educate you about?” Chase finally asked.

She gave him a sly glance and started to walk slowly back home. “Oh, he was just filling me in on some of your history.”

His brow shot up as he fell into step with her. “My history?”

“Yeah. It seems you’re much more accomplished than you let on.”

Chase was silent as he watched Bree walk ahead of them. “Well, hopefully whatever he told you wasn’t exaggerated. He has a tendency to do that.”

Maddie glanced sideways at him. “Like you understate?”

“What I have understated?”

“No, you’re right. Not understated, but more like not saying anything at all.”

“It’s not like I’m just going to rattle my stats off to you,” he said as he grinned down at her. “What do you want to know? I’ll answer anything you want to know.”

“Well, I have to admit that I don’t know what to ask, really.” She stopped and turned to him. “But it’s okay to toot your own horn every once in a while. It sounds like you’re extremely talented and successful, and you should be proud of that.”

“I’m proud of it,” Chase said with a shrug. “But I don’t feel like I have to tell everyone about it. If they come out to the park, see me, and like what they see, then yeah, it feels good, but I don’t want them to take my word on it. Of course I’m going to think I’m awesome,” he teased.

“Straight out of high school? Not that much time in the minors? An awesome rookie season? I don’t know, that sounds pretty amazing to me.”

He squinted as he looked up at the bright blue sky. “Jerry told you all that, huh?”

“Did he lie about any of it? Exaggerate anything?”

He fought a smile in embarrassment. “No. No, he didn’t.”

“Anything you want to add, then?”

He shrugged and she thought he looked self-conscious and uncomfortable. “I don’t know about awesome rookie season...” He trailed off and she laughed; it was so obvious he didn’t like being the center of attention. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I said I’d answer any question you have.”

“Okay. I’ll have to start thinking of some.” Maddie looked down at the ground as they walked in silence. “You didn’t want to go out with the guys tonight?”

“Nah.” Chase shook his head as he put his hands in his pockets. “I wasn’t in the mood to go hang out at a bar or club.”

“Are you ever in the mood?” She was seriously starting to question whether he truly was twenty-two years old. She was in agreement with Jerry that he did seem more like a forty-year-old.

He looked down at her out of the corner of his eye and shrugged. “Sure, every now and then, but not all the time. How about you?”

“Me?” Maddie snorted. “Chase, I haven’t hung out at a club in a long time.” After a moment’s pause, she made an impulsive decision. She really did want to learn more about him from him rather than others, and she wasn’t quite ready to let him out of her sights just yet. “Well, it’s not quite the same as tearing up the town with the boys, but I’d like to thank you for spending time with Bree and invite you to dinner tonight. It’s nothing gourmet, but it’s dinner all the same.”

“You don’t have to thank me for spending time with Bree. I enjoy it.”

“I know, but I’d like to show my appreciation nonetheless.”

He paused and studied her face, looking as if he wanted to say something more, but instead simply said, “I’ll be over in a bit, okay?”

Maddie nodded and gave a slight wave as she continued behind Bree. She forced herself to ignore the voice in her head warning her that she was making a mistake. If she listened to it then she would have to turn around and tell him to forget it, which she didn’t want to do. She knew she’d extended the invitation masked as an innocent gesture of thanks—even she couldn’t lie to herself and believe there wasn’t more behind it.

She couldn’t deny it any longer. The more she was around Chase, the more she found herself wanting to be with him and talk with him. On top of that, seeing him with Bree made it that much harder to ignore how she really felt. She wanted him to be attracted to her and she wanted him to ask her out, as wrong as that sounded. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so overwhelmingly attracted to someone. She hadn’t even felt this way with Kyle. What kind of person did that make her? She was going behind her niece’s back, wishing her boyfriend would be interested in her. She needed to get her head checked.

Nevertheless, it was too late. The invitation was out and he’d accepted. She just had to make sure she kept her feelings to herself and didn’t do anything stupid like try to kiss him or pretend to fall into his lap.

Maddie sighed. She had definitely gotten herself into a fine mess.

Chapter Six

Full, with the remnants of dinner lingering on the table in front of them, Chase, Maddie and Bree sat outside on the backyard patio enjoying the warm summer night as twilight slowly advanced around them. The bright blue skies of the day slowly faded, passing through progressively darkening shades of blue. Tiki flames surrounded the small patio, casting hazy, dreamy shadows around the table.

“Go get your glove. I’ve got to show you something,” Chase said to Bree, breaking the peaceful silence.

She immediately raced into the house to retrieve her new glove from her bedroom. While they waited, he pulled out a nondescript bottle from one of the deep pockets of his black cargo shorts.

“Conditioning oil,” he said as he held up the bottle to show Maddie. “It helps to soften the glove up and create a pocket.”

“Ah,” she said as if she understood completely. “She has to oil it, huh?”

“If she wants it to be soft and loose she does.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

He chuckled deeply as Bree reappeared, crashing into his long legs as she threw the glove into his lap.

“Here, Chase.”

Chase could feel Maddie watching as he explained how to rub the glove with a small amount of oil. He was having difficulty getting a good gauge on what she was thinking, but so far, they’d had a pleasant night together. Granted, Bree had been with them since he’d arrived, but he still enjoyed simply hanging out with them. He hoped before the night was over, he could get some time alone with Maddie so he could really see where he stood.

He reached out and took the baseball off the table. “Then put the ball right here and close the glove. Put it like this under your mattress or the seat of a chair or something and leave it all night. Pretty soon the glove will be in perfect condition for you.”

“How will I know?” she asked.

“It will just feel right. You’ll know,” he assured her.

Maddie glanced at her watch. “Why don’t you put it under your mattress now and then get ready for bed.”

“Mom!”

“I know. I’m awful. I’m the most horrible mom in the world, but it’s getting late.”

“But we have company!”

“I’m sure our company understands. Now say good night to Chase and get moving.”

Bree pouted at him. “Good night, Chase.”

“Wait!” he said as he held out his hand. “Before you go, I’ve got something else for you.”

Bree’s eyes gleamed with excitement as they followed his movements, watching him pat down his other pockets searching for something. He pulled out two tickets and handed them to her. “Here you go. One for you and one for your mom. Wednesday night.”

“Oh, Mommy! Can we go?”

“Yeah, I don’t see why not. It sounds like fun. Thank you, Chase.”

“Thank you, Chase,” Bree repeated.

“You’re both very welcome,” he said. “I’m not pitching, but I still think it will be a good game.”

“Definitely. We’ll be looking forward to it, won’t we, Bree?”

“Yep!”

Maddie smiled warmly at Chase as she stood up from the table and followed Bree to the back door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He nodded as he watched them go into the house. When the door shut, he reached for his beer and raised it for a sip as he looked out into the yard. It was turning out to be the perfect night. The sky was clear, the air was comfortable and the company was enjoyable. He couldn’t have planned things any better. He’d bailed on Jerry and some of the other guys hoping it would give him more time to spend with Maddie and Bree, but he’d assumed he would have to work for it and initiate things. But when she’d extended the invite for dinner, everything had fallen perfectly into place—especially now that it looked like he was going to get that alone time with her.

It might have been fun to go out with the guys, have a few beers and check out the girls, but he hadn’t had it in him. He knew that was one of the reasons why his teammates constantly teased him, saying he acted like an old man, but he found the bar scene stale after a while. Why should he spend his time with false pretenses and empty promises when he could have the real thing? This is what people spent their life looking for—someone to sit outside with and enjoy a nice quiet evening, good conversation and easy laughs.

It made him feel grounded and secure in a way that he hadn’t felt since starting in the pros. Everything was usually such a whirlwind, but the times he spent with Bree and Maddie were calming. It seemed silly to him to go out looking for it when it was just within his grasp, even if it wasn’t the conventional situation, but he also knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

He knew he had work to do in order to put himself on a level playing field with Maddie, to get her to see him as someone she could go out with and not as her daughter’s playmate. He was still trying to figure out how exactly to do that, but this dinner was his initial foot in the door and he’d find a way to swing it around. It was tricky because her first assumption would likely be that he’d used Bree—he hadn’t, his interest was genuine—but he knew just from the short time he’d spent around Maddie that she was fiercely protective of her daughter. He was going to have to roll with the punches and play it out as it happened. He’d never met anyone like her, a rare combination of natural, stunning beauty and down-to-earth “realness” that he could easily relate to. He felt like he could talk to her about anything and she would listen without judgment or preconceived notions. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sights without a fight.

He looked over his shoulder as the back door creaked opened again and Maddie stepped out. She had a refreshed glass of wine in her hands as she sat down across from him and looked up at the same sky he’d just been contemplating. “Pretty night.”

“I was just thinking the same thing. Everything okay in there?” he asked.

“She’s in bed, whining and complaining about not being out here to entertain our guest and how rude it is, but she’s in bed.”

He grinned. “She’s a good kid.”

Maddie glanced at him over her shoulder before focusing on her glass and clearing her throat. “So, I have a question for you. What’s going on with you and Sandy? I can’t help but notice that you don’t mention her and you don’t seem to spend much time with her, from what I can see anyway.”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask.” He gave her a crooked smile as he took a sip of his beer. Putting the bottle back down on the table, he fixed his big brown eyes on her. “I realized when I had dinner that night at her parents’ house that something was going on.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sandy and I were never together. I only went out with her a couple of times and it was always with a group of people. It’s not like we went on dates or anything.”

Maddie’s eyes widened a bit in surprise. “Really?”

He nodded. “I didn’t realize that was the story she was giving everyone. I felt bad. I didn’t want to mislead her or anything, and I didn’t think I had been, but I made sure I cleared things up.”

“By?”

“I told her that there was nothing between us. Simple as that.”

Maddie’s eyebrows rose slightly. “And how did she take it?”

He grimaced. “Not as well as I would have liked, but she got the message.”

“Yeah, I can imagine she didn’t take that very well,” she said with a laugh. “She and Lenore practically had you guys married off.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling.”

She rested her head back against her chair and looked back up at the sky. “They’re some pieces of work, that’s for sure.”

“You’re very different from them. I mean, considering Lenore’s your sister.”

“You’re telling me. I often wonder how I’m related to her.” Maddie eyed him over her wineglass. “What about you? What’s your story?”

“My story?”

“Yeah—your family, siblings, where you’re from. All that.” She gave him a shy look. “You said I could ask you anything and you’d answer it.”

“Right,” he said and cleared his throat. “I did say that. I’m from Delaware, a small town outside Dover, and I have a younger brother. We’re both in baseball —he plays third base right now, but I think he wants to move to short.”

“Does he want to go pro?”

“He wants to, but I think he’s going to go to college first, though.”

“So, how did that happen? Both boys into baseball?”

He grabbed his beer and sat with it cradled in his lap. “My dad. He’s a baseball fanatic. He played in college, wanted to go pro, but that didn’t work out so he made sure that we grew up with a ball and glove in our hands.”

Maddie gave him a bittersweet smile, and he suspected she was thinking about her ex again. About all the things that he’d chosen not to do for Bree, all the time they’d never spend together and all the memories that they would never make.

“That and hiking,” he added trying to rid her of her sad thoughts.

“Hiking?”

“Oh yeah. We all love to hike. We love to walk through the woods, follow whatever trail there may or may not be. Enjoy the peaceful quiet. Maybe do some fishing while we’re out there too. Great stress reliever.”

“Really? That sounds more like stress to me, worrying about getting lost in the woods.”

“You need to learn how to relax. Either that, or you need to have the right company,” he added with a chuckle.

“What do you do with all that time...just walking?”

“Think. I think about everything—life, baseball, whatever. I’ve made some pretty big decisions about my life while hiking.” He smirked. “Somehow I don’t see Lenore or Sandy being into that.”

Maddie snickered. “No, you’re definitely right. They would never consider anything like that. Nature is too yucky for them. Just trying to visualize them by a lake, with nothing around...it cracks me up.”

He watched her with a pensive look for a moment before clearing his throat. “I do have to be thankful to them for one thing.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“I met you and Bree.”

She studied his face, which he was trying to keep expressionless, and seemed to struggle to keep her thoughts—and hopes—off her own. She laughed again but it sounded forced, an attempt to lighten the sudden tension between them. “Yes, that’s true. You did make a new playmate that night whether you wanted to or not.”

Of course, she’d jump to that, Chase thought with frustration. He was going to have to drop the subtlety. “I’ve got a question for you.”

“Okay,” she said simply, but she tugged on the sleeve of her shirt as if it was suddenly tight.

“Do you date?”

“What kind of...why would you ask that?” she asked, clearly startled by his question.

“You never mention ever going out and you always seem to be home...” he broke off afraid that he’d revealed too much, that he’d let her know he’d been keeping an eye on her coming and goings of as much as he could. “I was just curious.”

She looked away. “I do date, every once in a while. I’ve just had some...bad luck in that department and so I thought I’d take a break. I haven’t met anyone that I’d be interested in having a relationship with.” It sounded like as if she was lying through her teeth.

“But if you did, you would?”

“I guess. I don’t know. It would depend.”

“On what?” he pushed.

“I don’t know, on a lot of things.” She finally turned to face him. “What does it matter anyway?”

Chase kept his eyes steady on hers. He was tired of trying to find the perfect time and the perfect opening. He was going to go for it. “Would you consider dating someone younger than you?”

He waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to respond. His heart was beating wildly in his chest and his palms were sweaty, but he forced his face to remain neutral. Maddie had to believe he was nothing but cool and confident, like he’d done this before, and not that he was as nervous as a teenager asking his first girl out on a date. He watched as a multitude of emotions flashed over her face, starting with and landing on what looked like fear. “Chase, you can’t be serious,” she finally breathed out lamely.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I’m too old. I’m probably old enough to be your—”

“Don’t say mother,” he interrupted. “You’re not old enough to be my mother.”

“Okay, well, old enough to be too old for you to even be interested in,” Maddie stammered.

“Why do you say that?” he asked with a frown.

“Why do I say that?” Her voice rose with nerves. “Because...I just am!”

He felt himself relax, happy not to be the only nervous one. “That sounds like a pretty lame excuse to me.”

“It’s not an excuse.”

He raised one brow. “Then what is it?”

“Who said I’d be interested in dating you anyway?” she said, trying for a different angle.

The corners of Chase’s mouth tipped slowly upward. “Well, you’re right. I didn’t officially ask you out. Maddie, would you be interested in going out with me?”

She let out the air she was holding and stood up in exasperation. “This is ridiculous. I’m not having this conversation with you.”

Picking up some dishes off the table, Maddie rushed into the house. He grinned at her back, enjoying her agitation. It was a good reaction in his opinion. He picked up some other dishes and followed her in.

Her gaze flicked up at him before quickly focusing back on her furious scrubbing of a plate. Chase placed the plates on the counter and leaned his hip against it, watching her. “Are you trying to scrub the pattern off that thing?”

Her hands hesitated before she threw the sponge down and placed it in the dishwasher. “No, it had something stuck on it.”

Since it had held only lettuce and tomatoes for the burger toppings, he doubted it, but he let it pass. “I don’t think we’re done with what we were discussing.”

“Oh?” she asked innocently as she intently studied the next plate. “I thought we were.”

“Come on, Maddie. Don’t play like this.”

She blew out a breath as she straightened up to face him. “Fine. We’ll have this ridiculous conversation. It’s a bad idea any way you look at it.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I’m too old for you, Chase.”

He studied her face for a moment as multiple arguments passed through his head. He dismissed each one until settling on his approach. “So, if I was say, thirty-four, would you go out with me?”