“Thanks again for coming with me,” I tell Lexi as we make our way to the suite in Hawks Stadium. “I don’t have many friends here yet.”
“I’m happy to do it,” she says. “It’s been almost a month since I’ve been to one of Caden’s games, so I was due. Plus, I know what it’s like to be new to the city and not know anyone.”
I laugh. “Oh, I know people. Just not anyone I’d consider a friend.”
“What about Caden? From the way he talks about you, I’d say he’s your friend.”
“Yeah, well, he may just be the only one.”
“Not true,” Lexi says, hooking her arm around my elbow. “Now you have two.”
Lexi Kessler Stone is someone I knew I would like from the moment I saw her. She greeted me with a hug and proceeded to immerse me in conversation as if we’d been long-lost BFFs. Her smile is infectious and welcoming, and although she’s supermodel gorgeous, the way she carries herself is not intimidating in the least.
“Thanks. That means a lot to me,” I say.
“Here it is,” she says, pointing to a sign labeled ‘Suite 19.’ “This is going to be fun.”
I show our tickets to the attendant at the door and we are ushered through into what looks like a swanky cocktail party, only instead of cocktail dresses and suits, the party-goers are all wearing Nighthawks shirts.
I look down at my plain white t-shirt. I thought about wearing the jersey Caden brought me in the hospital, but it was a men’s large and it looked ridiculous on me. And since I haven’t gotten paid yet, I couldn’t afford to get a Nighthawks shirt in my size.
Lexi looks around at the other people in the suite and then at me, laughter dancing in her eyes. “You don’t stand out at all,” she says, sarcastically.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I say guiltily, thinking the least I could have done was wear one of the hats Caden has given me.
“Drinks?” A waitress asks, circulating through the suite.
Lexi leans over and whispers in my ear. “In case Caden didn’t mention it, drinks and food are included in this suite, so don’t be shy.”
“Why else do you think I’m here?” I say, jokingly. Then I realize how bad that must have sounded. “I mean, I came for the game, obviously. It’s just that I lost my job and I recently started a new one and I won’t get paid for a week, so I was really looking forward to having some real food.”
Lexi gives me a sympathetic look. “You don’t have to worry,” she says. “I won’t tell Caden you just came for the food. I know good and well what it’s like to live from paycheck to paycheck. I know how it feels to be without a job.”
“You do?”
She nods. Then she calls over the waitress. “So, what will it be, Murphy? Coke, tea, champagne?”
“Are you kidding?” I ask. “Champagne, of course.”
Lexi laughs as the waitress hands us some pre-poured glasses from her tray. “I knew I was going to like you,” she says.
“Old Man Murphy?” a woman coming through the door shouts over the noise in the room.
I cover my mouth to avoid spitting out a mouthful of champagne. I look around at the now-silent room, embarrassed, but making every effort not to fall down laughing. I walk over to her. “I’m Old Man Murphy.”
The lady looks down at the box and then up at me in total confusion.
“I mean, I’m Murphy. Murphy Cavenaugh.” The woman continues to stare at me. “It’s a long story … er, an inside joke.” I feel heat creep up my face as I scramble for an explanation.
She laughs and hands me the box. “Lucky for you,” she says. “Murphy Cavenaugh suits you so much better, dear. This is for you. It’s from Mr. Kessler.”
“Oh, thank you,” I say, accepting the package.
She hands me a business card. “I’m Melanie. If there is anything you need, anything at all, don’t hesitate to text me during the game.”
I look back at Lexi to see her watching our exchange. “Okay, I appreciate that.”
“Enjoy the game,” she says before walking out of the suite.
I take the box over to a table and open it to see what’s inside. Then I look around at the ceiling of the suite. “Are there cameras in here?”
“Cameras? Why?” Lexi asks.
I pull out the Nighthawks shirt and show it to her. “Do you think Caden could see that I wasn’t wearing a Hawks shirt?”
Lexi laughs. “You don’t know my brother well enough to know this yet, Murphy, but when he plays baseball, he doesn’t think about anything else. Even before games, he has a ritual that he does to get ready. To get him in the right frame of mind. So there is no way he would have seen you even if there were cameras in here.”
“Oh.” I look down at the shirt in my hands. “I wonder how he knew then.”
“Knew that you wouldn’t have any Nighthawks stuff?” she asks. “You, the girl who hates baseball? Yeah, I wonder.”
“Okay, fine,” I pout, conceding her point. “I guess I’d better go put it on.”
By the time I come out of the bathroom, the game has started. Some people take seats right in front of the glass, but I hang back, picking at the hors d'oeuvres and sipping champagne. I realize there is quite possibly one inch of solid glass separating me from any potential fly balls, but it still makes me uneasy.
Lexi stands next to me, watching the game from the back of the suite. “Caden’s probably batting fifth,” she says. “You know, in case you were wondering.”
“Does that mean he will get to bat this time, before his team is in the field?”
“Hopefully, unless the guys before him all strike out.”
I nod. “He’s trying to teach me about baseball,” I tell her.
“I know. He told me. I think he’s quite enamored with you, Murphy.”
“Enamored?” I shoot her my crazy eyes. “No. I’m just his charity case, Lexi. That’s all.”
She smiles, shaking her head as if she has some kind of private joke.
“What?” I ask.
“Caden hasn’t told you how I met my husband, has he?”
“Your husband, the doctor?”
“That’s right.”
I shake my head. “No, he hasn’t.”
“I was once a charity case, too, you know. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, Murphy. Plus, my brother feels genuinely guilty for putting you in the hospital. And let’s be honest, it’s not like he can’t afford whatever he’s done for you.”
“I don’t care how much money he has,” I tell her. “I don’t want to be beholden to anyone.”
“Beholden?” She turns to face me, head on, ignoring the game. Then she laughs once again. “Murphy, you and I are more alike than you know. I think we’re going to be great friends.”
There is cheering from the crowd as one of the players runs around to second base.
Lexi pulls on my elbow, dragging me to the front by the window. “Come on, Caden is up.”
I find myself getting nervous when we reach the front of the suite. Strangely enough though, I’m not nervous about getting hit, I’m nervous about Caden being up at bat. I look down at the tens of thousands of fans in the stadium and I wonder how anyone could stand up at the plate and hit a ball with all those people screaming and cheering.
He whacks the ball and I find myself yelling and clapping. Then I realize I’m the only one in the suite doing it. I turn to Lexi, embarrassed. “He hit the ball, didn’t he?”
“It was a foul ball,” she says, pointing over to left field. “That counts as a strike.”
I shrug. “Sorry,” I say to the people sitting next to me. They chuckle as if they know it’s my first time watching a game.
Caden swings and misses, giving him a second strike. Then he swings and hits the ball again. Before I embarrass myself by cheering a second time, I look around. Again, nobody is cheering. “Another foul? Does that mean he’s out? Third strike?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. You can’t get out on a foul ball. You can hit them all day long and not get out. Well, unless somebody on the other team catches one of them.”
He fouls off another and I find myself tensing up as I watch the guy in left field dash over to try and catch it. Caden does it again, hitting the ball straight up in the air, and I grab Lexi’s arm waiting to see if the catcher will get a hold of it.
Lexi laughs. “Pretty intense, huh?”
Then he swings and misses and gets called out. “Oh, no,” I say, feeling bad about his strike out.
“It’s okay,” Lexi says. “They get out more than they get a hit.”
“They do?”
“Yup. If they only get a hit a third of the time, they are doing well.”
“I have a lot to learn,” I say.
Someone taps my shoulder. I turn around to see Melanie. She hands me another box. “Mr. Kessler has invited you and Mrs. Stone to wait for him outside the clubhouse after the game.”
“Oh, okay, thank you.” I turn to Lexi. “That’s the locker room,” I say, proudly. “Bet you didn’t think I knew that.”
She laughs and points to the box. “What’s in this one?”
I open it and pull out a giant foam finger with the Nighthawks logo and a large #8. I put the box aside and roll my eyes. “A little over the top, isn’t he?”
“I think he just wants everyone to love baseball as much as he does,” Lexi says.
I can’t help myself as I watch intensely every time Caden is behind the plate as catcher. I worry he will get hit with the ball and get hurt like I did. I know he wears that pad thing and a face mask, but I heard some guys in the suite discussing how the pitcher throws close to one hundred miles per hour. That is crazy. I wonder if Caden has ever gotten hurt. He seems to expertly know where the pitcher will throw the ball.
By the time Caden gets up to bat again, I’m really getting into the game. I don’t know if it’s Lexi and her encouragement, or the fans that surround me, but my heart pumps wildly when he steps up to the plate.
He swings twice and misses twice. I find myself getting bummed out. Then, on the third swing, I hear a crack and everyone in the stadium stands up and yells.
Lexi grabs me and hugs me in a tight embrace while jumping up and down. Everyone in the room is high-fiving everyone else. I’m caught up in the excitement as I cheer and even wave my foam finger around in the air. Then I walk up to the glass and watch Caden as he runs around third base. We’re pretty far away up here, but I think I can see a smile on his face. Then, right before he touches home plate, I could swear he glances up at the suite.
Lexi comes and stands next to me. When I look over at her, she’s studying me.
“What?” I ask.
She looks back down at the field where her brother is joining his team in the dugout. “Oh, nothing,” she says, a huge smile overtaking her face.