Someone Someday (All in Good Time Book 2) (10 page)

I hesitated and cleared my throat before saying, "Morgan Turner."

"Oh, your tickets are under Mr. Turner's name?" she asked. I nodded before glancing at Zack whose brows were furrowed as if he was wondering how in the world he didn't already know this piece of information. His expression made me smile. I felt a wave of nervous anticipation as she began digging again. She pulled out an envelope marked with Morgan's name and looked inside. She pulled out a set of tickets that were paper-clipped together along with a scrap of paper with my name written on it. "Here you go Ms. Lexi," she said with a huge smile. "Enjoy the game."

Chapter 13

"What in the heck was that?" Zack said, as soon as we left the will call window in search of our seats.

I handed him one of the tickets and stared down at my own, trying to figure out what section we should head for once we got inside the gate.

"What?"

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," he said. I wasn't looking at him but I could hear the grin in his voice. "How'd you get Morgan Turner to leave you tickets?"

I turned to face him as we walked. "Do you know him?"

He laughed. "I don't
know
him, but I know who he is. The question is… do
you
know him?"

"Sort of," I said.

"How do you know Morgan Turner, Lexi?"

We made our way to the ticket-taker who scanned them one by one and let us go past. The next person we approached asked me to open my bag so he could look inside with a flashlight. He shined it in there for a split second before waving us through.

"I met Morgan at Summit," I said. "Apparently he trains there a little bit during the off season."

"Have you had a conversation with him personally, or did you just get the tickets through someone you mutually knew at the gym?"

Zack seemed so intent with his question that I laughed. "I had an actual conversation with him," I said. He glanced at me in amazement and I wiggled my eyebrows. "Is that something I should brag about?"

"Yes, you should brag about it," he said. "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

He was totally serious, which made me giggle again. "Why? Is he popular or something?"

We'd been walking pretty fast, but he stopped dead in his tracks and I did the same. "Lexi, take a second to look around," he said.

We were in the huge corridor that wrapped around the stadium. Concessions and gift stores were on our right, and stadium sections were on our left. It was packed in there—wall to wall with fans all decked out with orange and black. "I know," I said. "It's a pretty big deal."

"No,
he's
a pretty big deal," he said. Zack pointed, and I followed his finger in the direction he indicated to find a man holding hands with a young child. They had their backs to us, and their jerseys were clearly marked with the name 'Turner' and the number 8.

I looked at Zack. "Oh, that's his jersey, huh?" I said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," he said. "And so is that, and that, and that, and that." He continued to point out people in our vicinity who had on jerseys with Morgan's name and number.

My heart started beating fast. Suddenly, I was much more nervous than before. He glanced at his ticket then up at the sign that told us what section we were in. "Come on, we have four more to go," he said.

We walked a few strides before he brought it up again. "So, are you friends with him or something?"

"I guess you can call it that," I said. "We met at the gym one night. He needed a ride home, and we ended up hanging out for a while."

"You gave him a ride?" he asked seeming amazed. His excitement amused me. Between that and the nerves, I felt like I couldn't stop giggling.

"In the hatchback," I said.

"You met him way back when you had the hatchback and you didn't tell us?" he asked, flabbergasted.

"I didn't think I'd ever even see him again," I said, shrugging. "I didn't talk to him at all after that until he came into J.D.'s this morning."

"Did he just randomly come into J.D.'s for coffee and recognize you?"

"I think he came in to see if I wanted to come to the game tonight," I said.

"Morgan Turner made a special trip to see you at work—he came to invite you to a game, and you didn't think to tell me this?"

He was so impressed and intense that I couldn't help but smile. "I didn't know he was such a big deal. He's super sweet and down to earth."

Zack just shook his head as if I was being impossible. I followed his lead when he stopped walking. He looked up at the sign above our heads and matched them with the ticket he was holding. He glanced past the seats and onto the field. "These are good seats," he said. "You wanna get something to eat or drink before we sit down?"

"I'm okay for now. We can get back up in a minute."

We handed our tickets to the usher who contemplated for a few seconds before turning to explain to us where to go. He pointed down the isle and to the left. You're the fourth row from the front of the section. Do you see the couple with the Turner jerseys on? You're right there."

Zack was wearing a satisfied,
I told you so
expression when I glanced at him.

"Thank you," I said.

"We've already missed half an inning," he said as we walked down the steps to our seats.

The section was packed, so it was obvious which seats belonged to us as we approached—they were the only two empty ones. Our seats were numbers 3 and 4, so we'd have to squeeze past the couple with the Turner jerseys to get to them.

"Excuse me, do you mind if we come through," I said, as we walked up to our row. The man on the end stood up, but the lady just shifted in her chair to let us pass.

She glanced up at me, and when she did, recognition dawned immediately. These seats were apparently right next to Morgan's parents.

"Lexi!" she exclaimed, smiling and standing up to hug me. She squeezed me tightly. "I should have known it was you! Morgan said you would be here tonight. I just wasn't even thinking when you asked to get by." She let go of me and held me at arms length, looking me over. "You look beautiful!" she said.

I smiled and glanced at Zack who was wearing a stiff smile. He was utterly dumbfounded, but trying his best not to act like it.

"You two better get in your seats," she said, hurriedly. "We're up to bat."

Zack and I switched places so he could go in first and I could sit next to Teresa.

"Morgan bats second, so he's on deck," she said. My heart was pounding as we sat down. The crowd responded with consolatory cheers for the first batter who had somehow been put out at first and was headed back to the dugout when I looked up.

"He's up," Teresa said, grabbing my leg. I felt like I could shake right out of my skin. Music played over the speakers as he made his way into the batter's box and a close-up of his handsome face appeared on the enormous jumbotron in centerfield.

"I'm gonna meet your friend in a second, but I want to watch this," she whispered, leaning over.

I was speechless, but I nodded when she glanced at me after saying it.

The pitcher threw the ball toward Morgan at an ungodly speed and he swung the bat. It happened on the very first pitch, and it was all so fast, but I saw the ball fly over the second baseman's head into the open space between center field and right. The outfielder for the other team fielded the ball cleanly, but wasn’t able to get to it before Morgan made it safely to first.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Teresa shouted, standing up and clapping. "Way to go baby!"

Zack and I along with the tens of thousands of other fans began clapping and cheering. My heart was still beating like crazy. Teresa sat back down and nudged me with her elbow as she leaned over to speak to me.

"Wave," she said. "He'll look up here." I did as she said, and sure enough, Morgan, who was standing on first taking off his batting gloves, glanced right at our section. Even from so far away, I could see his eyes fall on us. He smiled and grabbed the edge of his batting helmet, tipping it to us. She elbowed me again. "Did you see him?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes," I said, unable to contain a giggle.

Teresa and Jim were obviously distracted the whole time Morgan was on base, which was the rest of the inning. There were some pretty exciting moments, but he ended up being stranded on third, and never able to score.

He was taking off his helmet and waiting for someone to bring him his glove and cap when Teresa and Jim turned to speak to us.

Teresa breathed a sigh. "Never a dull moment," she said, turning her attention to us and smiling brightly.

"I can't believe how exciting that was," I said.

"I'm sorry I was such a bad host," she said. "I just get carried away. Who'd you bring with you?" She reached out to shake Zack's hand.

"This is my brother-in-law Zack," I said, leaning back so they could see each other.

"Oh, the one with the new baby?"

He smiled. "Yes ma'am. It's nice to meet you."

"It's so nice to meet you," she said. She nudged Jim. "Honey this is Zack, Lexi's brother-in-law. Remember? The ones that just had the baby?"

"Oh yeah," Jim said, leaning over Teresa and I to shake Zack's hand. "So you're wife is Lexi's sister… Laney, is it?"

"Yes sir," Zack said, continuing to smile. "She's at home with the little nugget. She'll be sad she missed all this."

Jim smiled. "Aw, you'll have to bring her to the next one. We have nine more games to go."

"For sure, Zack said, "She'd love that."

Jim and Teresa made a little more small talk with Zack about the joys of fatherhood before tuning back into the game. Once they were preoccupied, I glanced at Zack to find that he was staring back at me with a hilarious, serious, wide-eyed expression.

"You barely know him?" he mouthed the words, but whispered them just enough for me to hear. I squeezed my eyes shut and silently cracked up before looking back at him.

"Sorry," I said.

I was sorry. Maybe it should have crossed my mind to fill him in a little more, but I never dreamed we'd be sitting right next to Morgan's parents.

Something else I never dreamed was how exciting a baseball game could be. I watched all nine innings on the edge of my seat even though I didn't know much about the game. Teresa and Zack both knew that I wasn't well versed, and they did their best to fill me in on what was going on between plays. The energy in the place was electric, and it was easy to have fun in spite of my lack of baseball knowledge. We ate, drank, and stood up to sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' for the seventh inning stretch.

Teresa and Jim were easy to be around and seemed to have fun talking to both Zack and me. Jim was a computer guy and was already familiar with the internet business Zack started and sold to make his millions years ago. They only talked about it briefly since they were sitting so far apart, but Jim made Zack promise to come over to their apartment sometime for a slice of pie so they could talk shop.

Baseball was a long game, but we were having so much fun that it went by quickly. Before I knew it, we were in the top of the ninth inning. Zack explained that as long as the other team didn't score, the game would be over without even playing the bottom of the ninth.

That's exactly what happened. Our closing pitcher got three quick outs and we won the game 5 to 3. We all stood and stretched when the game was over.

"Jim and I usually just go on back to the apartment, but Morgan said if you made it to the game, he wanted us to walk you down to the clubhouse afterward."

"Me?" I said, dumbly.

"Yeah, they have a players entrance. It takes you right out to their parking lot. He said he'll give you and your friend a ride to your car. Does that sound good?"

I felt overwhelmed and instantly began shaking my head in denial. "Oh, that's okay, we're not parked too far."

"We'd love to," Zack said. "That's a very nice offer, isn't it Lexi?"

"Yes, we'd love to," I said. "Thank you."

She smiled. "Great. It takes him a few minutes to talk to the manager and shower, but we'll go ahead and go down there if you want."

"That'd be awesome," Zack said with a huge smile.

The crowd was making their way out of the stadium, and we were going deeper into it. Teresa and Jim led us to an unmarked elevator with two stadium officials standing at the door. "Hey Rick. Hey Ollie," Teresa said with her characteristic huge smile.

"Hey Mrs. Turner," one of them replied. "You going downstairs tonight?"

She took a special card out of her wallet and scanned it on the little device next to the elevator door.

"Yes sir, we've got a couple of Morgan's friends to deliver." The door opened with a ding, and the guys both nodded to us as we stepped inside.

"Is this a VIP elevator?" I asked.

"Yes ma'am it is," Teresa said. It opened to a small, barren hallway with yet another place for her to swipe her card at the end. There was a big bouncer-looking guy on the other side of that door. "Oh, hi guys," he said, nodding at them and stepping out of the way.

"Hey Tony," Teresa said. "Exciting game tonight."

"Yes ma'am," he agreed. We passed him and ended up in a long, wide hallway made of cinderblock that was brightly painted with Giant's logos. It was mostly empty except for a few people who had on stadium jackets like the ones the ushers wore. "He'll come out of that door right there," Teresa said, motioning to the set of doors in front of us, "and you'll go out those—they lead to the players' parking lot."