It’s a relief that the Nighthawks were on the road for a full week after I came back. One: it gave me a chance to ease back into New York City without being in the spotlight; and two: I was able to move in and put my touch on Caden’s place. Uh … our place.
He gave me carte blanche. Told me anything I desired would be okay with him. But all I really wanted to do was add something to the one bare wall of his theater room. And now, it’s decorated with the hats he’s given me over the past seven months—each with a date inside coinciding with a memory we won’t ever want to forget. I hung each hat on a nail, that, once I have enough collected, will spell out the word LOVE. But at the moment, it looks more like LC, because I need one more hat to complete the circle of the second letter. Yes, he’ll probably think it’s sappy, but that’s what he gets for asking a chick to move in with him.
Today, however, the Hawks are back in town and a group of us are making our way to our seats in the stadium. Even my mother is here. She no longer stays with me when she comes to town. She stays with Shane. Even Scott seems to be okay with it for which we are all grateful. He and I have had some meaningful heart-to-heart conversations about losing a parent at a young age. It’s a club nobody wants to belong to. But it has taken our bond to a whole new level.
“So, they didn’t fire you?” Scott asks. “You still work at the gym?”
I laugh. “No, they didn’t fire me. I think they understood that I needed a few personal days. It’s a great place to work.”
“Do you think I could work there when I get older?” he asks.
I ruffle his hair. “You bet. When you turn sixteen, you could work in the café.”
“Cool,” he says. “I want to save up a bunch of money and go to a good college with a great baseball team so I can be a Hawk someday.”
I can’t help my smile. The kid is humble, I will say that. He doesn’t want for much, especially now that he has Caden watching over him, but he expects nothing. I think he sees that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible. He has two perfect examples of that in his father and Caden.
“Are you seeing this, Murphy?” my mother asks, with wide eyes.
I look around us to see what she’s talking about. Several women are wearing identical shirts. Shirts with my name on them. Shirts that read ‘Murphy Strong’ in Hawks colors.
“Oh, my gosh!” I stop walking and watch others pass by, seeing dozens of them.
I look at my mother. “I don’t understand. Why would they do this?”
She puts her arm around me. “Murphy, don’t you realize you are a role model now? You took the worst experience in your life and gave it your middle finger. Less than a week after you were humiliated, you came here—to the very place that could have ruined you. You’ve shown women they don’t have to be defined by bad experiences. That it’s how you deal with those experiences that shows the world who you really are.”
I look at her, confused by her uncharacteristic words of wisdom.
She shrugs and leans over to whisper in my ear. “Your father rubbed off on me, what can I say?”
Some of the t-shirt-wearing women see me and smile. Some shout out their praises to me. One even asks me to sign her shirt. I’m dumbfounded by the outpouring of support. I’m grateful that I no longer need to fear the place where I plan on spending every moment I can watching Caden follow his dream.
“Hey!” Lexi shouts to one of the women. “Where can I get one of those?”
“They are selling them by the east entrance,” she tells her.
“I’ll meet you at our seats,” Lexi says.
“Really?” I raise my disbelieving eyebrows at her.
“So, sue me. It could be a collector’s item one day. You want one, Irene?”
My mother gets out her purse and gives Lexi some money. “Get me a couple of them.”
“Get me one, too, Lex!” Scott shouts after her.
I eye him skeptically.
“It’s not like I’m gonna wear it or anything,” he says.
Shane and my mom laugh as we continue on our way.
Once in our seats, I see the real magnitude of the situation. Women wearing the shirts are everywhere. It’s not just dozens of them, or even hundreds. It’s thousands.
Tears sting the backs of my eyes.
Shane puts a fatherly arm around me. “I’m proud of you, Murphy. I couldn’t have hand-picked a better woman for my son.”
“Thanks, Shane. That means a lot to me.”
When Lexi comes back wearing one of the shirts, I roll my eyes.
“What?” she says. “Don’t you think it looks good on me?”
“It looks ridiculous,” I tease.
“Nonsense,” my mother adds. “You’ve started a revolution, my girl.”
Shane takes a shirt from Lexi and studies it. “Books will be written about you.”
“Oh, my gosh!” Lexi squeals. “I’ll bet Baylor Mitchell will write a romance novel about your love story. I mean, the way you two met and then this. And who knows what else will happen.”
Lexi shares a look with my mom and Shane. Shane winks at her.
I eye all of them curiously. “What?” I ask. “You guys look like you have a secret. Oh, God—Baylor isn’t really writing a book about us, is she?”
“I have no idea,” Lexi says. “All I’m saying is that I would totally buy it.”
When the Hawks take the field, Caden looks up at me. He usually doesn’t do that. But he looks nervous today, like maybe he wasn’t sure I’d be here. Which is silly, because I already blew him a kiss when he was in the dugout.
When the game starts, however, he’s nothing but a machine. He makes his plays expertly. He doesn’t look into the stands. He’s back to being himself again. He looks so at home down on the field. So happy. It’s where he belongs. I couldn’t imagine him giving that up for me.
Lexi catches me wiping a tear. She looks up at the scoreboard, then back at me. “Come on, let’s hit the bathroom, your mascara is running.”
“I don’t want to miss anything,” I tell her. “I’ll wait until the stretch.”
“You know how busy the bathrooms get then. We should go now.” She’s tugging on my arm as she scoots past the others. “Come on, Murphy.”
I’m not sure why she’s so adamant that we go now. Maybe she really needs to pee. Or maybe my face really does need a touch-up.
When we return to our seats, the game is tied 3-3. Brady is up to bat. Caden tells me that pitchers aren’t usually very good hitters, but Brady is good. He hasn’t had as many home runs as Caden, but he does get on base a lot.
As I watch him at the plate, I think about what he told me at the coffee shop. That he lost two people. I wonder if that’s why he is the way he is. I vow to try and get closer to him. Maybe he’d open up to a woman who is a friend. My mind goes crazy with ideas of how I can make that happen.
I guess I lost track of time, because I don’t even notice when the seventh-inning-stretch starts. But what pulls me from my thoughts is when I hear a song blasting over the loudspeakers.
I turn to Lexi, who has a huge smile on her face. “I thought they didn’t play this song here,” I say.
“They don’t,” she tells me, looking like she’s about to burst. “Not ever.”
I look around, confused as ‘Sweet Caroline’ plays in Hawks Stadium for perhaps the first time. Then I become horrified as I look at the JumboTron to see my face plastered on it. I grab Lexi’s arm.
“It’s okay, Murphy.” She nods to the field in front of us.
When I look down, I see Caden walking over in our direction. I’m more than a little concerned that he’s left the dugout during a game. I notice he’s rubbing his right shoulder blade where his tattoo is. It’s something he only does before he goes to bat. He motions for me to come to the wall. I shake my head. I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s acting very strange.
He laughs at my apprehension.
“Go,” Lexi prods me.
I make my way down the four rows and lean into the net separating us. “What are you doing, Caden?”
He lifts up the net and asks a few guys to hold it. Then he reaches over the half-wall and lifts me over, pulling me onto the field. All the while, the stadium is going crazy singing the song that never gets played here.
“Have you lost your mind?” I shout as he puts me down so I’m standing in front of him.
He laughs again. “I think I have,” he says. “But in a good way.” He looks up at the large screen that shows me the cameras are still focused on us. “I wanted you to have a good experience here, because I hope you will be spending a lot of time in this stadium.”
“Caden, I told you, I don’t care what other people think. I’m going to be here for you no matter what.”
He nods. “And that’s just one of the reasons I love you, Murphy Brown.”
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls something out. Then he drops to a knee and the stadium goes wild. My heart lodges in my throat and I lose all my breath. I look up at Lexi and my mom, who are both crying. I look down at Caden, whose eyes are locked on me as I come to grips with what is happening.
My hand covers my mouth when I see the ring in his hand. Tears stream down my face as I forget about the noise, the JumboTron, the forty thousand people watching. Nothing else matters except this man before me.
I drop down to my knees in front of him, knowing he’d have to yell otherwise.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for months,” he says loudly, so I can hear him over the crowd. “I got this when I was in Florida. But I knew even before then that you were the one. Murphy, the day I hit you with my ball was the best day of my life.” He runs a finger across my scar. “I love your scar because it’s what makes you mine. I love your heart because it’s what makes you compassionate. I love your mind because it’s what makes you strong. I love everything about you. So, what do you say, Sweet Caroline, will you marry me?”
I have no words. All I can do is nod over and over as I stare at him with tear-blurred eyes. He slips the ring on my finger and then he stands up, pulling me with him and into his arms as he swings me around to the cheers of the crowd. He kisses me. He kisses me hard and long.
When our lips finally part, he nods to the screen. “This is one video I want the entire world to see.”
He kisses me once more and then sits me back on the wall.
“I love you, Kessler,” I tell him.
“I love you too, Murphy Brown.” He glances over his shoulder at the dugout, where his team is watching and cheering. “But I kind of have a job to finish up here.”
I laugh as he slowly backs away. But then he shakes his head and jogs back to me. “Shit, I almost forgot. I need the ring back.”
I wrinkle my brow in confusion.
“I’ve had that ring in my back pocket all season, Murph. And it’s been the best season of my life. I’m not about to screw that up now. You can have it on that pretty little finger of yours every other minute of the day—but during game time, it’s mine. In case you didn’t know, you’re marrying a ball player. Our crazy superstitions come with the territory.”
I happily remove the ring and give it to him. Then he takes his hat off and puts it on my head. “If I’m not mistaken, this one will complete the circle.” He winks at me and then turns around to join his team.
Lexi and my mother pull me in for a long embrace when it dawns on me. “You knew about this, didn’t you?” I ask them. I turn to my mother. “You never come to games.”
“We knew,” she admits. “And I guess I’ll be coming to a lot more, now that my future son-in-law is a star catcher.”
“I’d love for you to come to more games when you’re in town, Mom.”
She looks over at Shane and then back to me. “What if I were in town all the time?” she asks.
My jaw drops. “You’re moving here?”
She smiles. “Would that be okay, honey?”
I pull her in for another hug. “That would be great, Mom!”
Lexi squeals in delight. “Oh, we will have so much fun planning your wedding.”
I look at the woman who has become my best friend and think of how Kelly would have loved her. “I know it’s kind of early, but Lexi, would you be my Matron of Honor?”
We’re both crying when she wraps her arms around me. “There is no one else I’d rather have as a sister. Of course I’ll stand up with you.”
It’s hard to concentrate on the game after what has happened. I only hope Caden isn’t having the same problem. When it’s his turn at bat, my body stiffens and my heartbeat shoots through the roof.
He fouls a ball to the left. Then he steps out of the batter’s box and looks over at me. He pounds his chest and points at me. And for the second time today, the crowd goes wild. The stadium is as loud as I’ve ever heard it. The energy around me is palpable. I can barely contain my emotions as I lock elbows with both Lexi and my mother.
Then I watch my future husband step up to the plate.
Crack!