My mom pretends to ignore me as a smile lights up her face. “Cameron had a poster of your dad on his bedroom wall growing up. He never missed a game.”
“Mom,” I groan.
“What? It’s sweet.”
Paisley turns to look at me, and I expect her to be smiling too, ready to give me shit, but her face is stone serious. “You were a fan of my dad?”
“Yeah, I think all boys my age who liked baseball were Easton Monroe fans. Especially those of us who played first base.”
“You were a fan of my dad’s, but you didn’t know who I was?”
Fuck. I see where she’s going with this. “No. I mean, I knew he had three daughters, but I promise you the day we met, I had no idea who you were. At least not until the media told me.”
“It’s true,” Mom chimes in. I know she’s only trying to help, but I’m not sure anything she could add would help me in this situation.
My head spins, trying to come up with the words to make her believe me. I didn’t have any idea who she was that day, and I’m glad. I wouldn’t change the way we met for anything.
“That day, Cameron called me as soon as he left the field. He liked to go to as many Blaze games as he could, and I was supposed to go with him that day. I got caught up at the hospital. I’m a nurse,” she adds. “Anyway, we were short-staffed, so I canceled, and I knew it wouldn’t matter anyway. You get my boy to a baseball field, and he checks out. He’s been that way since he was little. I made it home during the fourth inning but started it over on my DVR. I record all of his games.”
“Mom,” I say in warning, but it’s no use. She’s determined to say whatever it is she feels like saying, and my objection isn’t going to stop her. I’m surrounded by stubborn women.
She ignores me, keeping her eyes on Paisley. “He called me as soon as he left the game. I was expecting to hear about the win and all the other comments about line drives and foul balls. That’s what we usually talk about after a game, whether he was playing or not, so that’s what I expected. However, that’s not what I got.”
My eyes are now glued to Paisley. I watch as she swallows hard, her full attention on my mother. “What did you get?” she asks, her voice gravelly.
“All I heard about was this woman. She was into baseball. Not just into it, but she understood it. She cheered at the right times, yelled at the players and umps at the right times, and she was beautiful.”
I exhale, sitting back in my seat. My mother has sealed my fate. There is no playing it cool, not that I’ve really been trying, but she basically just gave me away.
“All he could talk about was you. You have no idea how hard it was for me to ask questions. It was even more difficult for me not to point out that this was a first for him. At least when it came to me. You see, Cameron has always told me that when he found someone worth me meeting, I would be the first to know. He didn’t tell me I was going to meet you that day after the game, but it was clear that you made an impression on him. Imagine my delight when I turned on the news and saw the two of you kissing on the kiss cam.”
If Mom’s grin grows any wider, her face is going to crack. “Okay,” I say, but my mother continues to ignore me, keeping her eyes on Paisley.
“I knew when I heard the excitement in his voice that you had made an impression on him. When I saw the kiss, I could tell it wasn’t one-sided. Then tonight, my son tells me that he has someone he wants me to meet. I didn’t have to ask him if it was you. Sure, I might have given him a hard time, but I knew, in here”—she places her hand over her chest, right over her heart—“that you were the someone I was going to meet tonight. So, while my son might have been a fan of your father’s growing up, I can assure you he didn’t know about you. It’s impossible for anyone to fake that kind of excitement.” Mom takes a sip of water and places her glass back on the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I need the ladies’ room.” She slides her chair back and leaves us to discuss the bomb she just dropped.
Turning in my chair, I reach out and take Paisley’s hands in mine. “I fell hard for you that day. You were unlike any woman I’d ever met. You were cool as hell to hang out with, and you loved the game that has meant so much to me in my life. You more than loved it. You understood it. You weren’t there to land a player. You were there for your love of the sport.”
“It has nothing to do with my dad?”
“No. It had everything to do with the beautiful, outgoing, baseball-loving woman who was sitting next to me. It was your smile and that kiss… life-changing,” I say, leaning in and kissing the corner of her mouth.
“Life-changing? That’s a tall claim, Taylor.”
“I stand behind it.”
“I’ve never in my life met anyone like you before.”
“Is that a good thing?” I ask with a grin.
“I’ll let you know.”
“You do that,” I say, leaning in and this time kissing her full pouty lips.
“Come on now, there are no cameras,” Mom teases as she takes her seat across from us. “Now, Paisley, tell me how you plan to keep my son in line,” she says, giving my girl her full attention once again.
Paisley laughs, and for the rest of the night, I can barely get a word in edgewise while my mom, the most important person in my life, bonds with the woman I’m falling hard and fast for.
Chapter 11