Small Town Girls Don't Marry Their Back-Ups - Carol Moncado Page 0,66
guys.”
“What?” The exclamation came from the other four siblings.
“Tessa and I are going to run it,” Lexi interjected. “You guys get to help out whenever we need you. The apartment is going to be turned into a KrazBnB.” She glanced at Sean who nodded slightly. “The back room is going to have to be babyproofed, though, and not just for when Mia is there with Celia.”
Tessa figured it out first and gasped. “You’re pregnant?” she squealed.
Lexi nodded. “I’m due in mid-July.”
Wyatt grinned. So much for a conversation about Beach Reads, but this was too good to interrupt to talk about a bookstore.
The women all clustered around Lexi while the men congratulated Sean.
After his turn, Wyatt sat back in his seat and watched the rest. This was what he’d always wanted. A big family to share special news and special occasions with.
This wasn’t how he’d thought it would happen, but he’d take it. Someday, he hoped this gathering would expand with cousins, including several of the children he hoped to have with Madi.
Eventually, everyone left and the two of them were alone, though he wasn’t sure where Madi had taken off to.
A minute later, she came down the stairs with a package in her hands.
She held it out. “This is the craft I made for you. I thought about saving it for actual Christmas, but decided to give it to you now.”
“Thank you.” He was touched by the gesture and curious what she’d made for him.
The lid came off easily. He unfolded the tissue paper to see an off-white, roughed up baseball about two feet across. The red stitching along the sides left room for the two parts of the Maryland Heights Crimson Knights logo, similar to the home base of the wreath they’d made together.
But it was the quote in the middle that made him tear up.
“‘Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.’ Babe Ruth.” He ran his hands over the roughened wood. “This is perfect, Mads. I love it.”
“I kind of wish it said ‘Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from taking the field,’ which I know isn’t quite accurate as a description of baseball, and I found several variations on this quote attributed to Babe, but this is what the kit came with.”
Before she could go on, he rested a finger on her lips. “It’s perfect.”
He kissed her softly.
“We need to clean up,” she told him, her lips still on his.
Not exactly what he’d hoped to hear.
But he acquiesced.
“Hey, Wyatt,” he heard her call from their room a few minutes later. “Can you come help me with this?”
He tied off the last trash bag and headed through the French doors.
The sight caught him off-guard.
Madi, trying again to look alluring and sexy, and not quite achieving her goal in the glamorous way she wanted, but Wyatt had never seen anything so perfect as his wife wearing his jersey.
He grinned as she walked toward him, feeling as nervous as she looked.
Her hands rested on his chest. “We said the other day that small-town girls don’t marry baseball stars. Well, Mr. Baseball Star, it’s time to make this small town girl your wife. For real.”
Wyatt leaned downed to kiss her gently. “I’m going to need my jersey back.”
Madi giggled, but he stopped her with a kiss so intense laughter fled from both of their minds.
What could have been the best year, the best ball season, of his life, had turned sour, but in the potential destruction of his career, God had found the pieces to make something new and beautiful out of his life.
“I’m falling in love with you, Mads,” he whispered. “And I’m never going to stop falling in love with you.”
“Good,” she whispered back. “Because I love you.”
And that was the last thing either of them said for a very long time.
December 13, 2020
Violet Braverman paused the coverage of the HEA TV premiere two days earlier.
In the shot were all five Beach siblings with their spouses.
She’d tried to set all of them up with their future spouses, but only one had stuck the way she meant for it to.
Despite the production company and whatever role they might have had in Madi and Wyatt’s relationship, Violet decided she’d take full credit since she’d invited Wyatt to the book club.
Maybe it was time to hang up her matchmaking skills.
One out of five happily married couples wasn’t the best odds, but at least none had ended up in an unhappy marriage.