“Well, what have we here? Our new teammate has arrived.” Donnie elbowed Rick while they were removing bags of softball gear from the bed of Rick’s pickup truck before he pointed to the other side of the parking lot. Rick looked over to where Donnie was pointing and saw Maddie walking to the softball diamond. She was dressed in a pair of red jogging shorts and a white tee shirt with blue letters that said, “You don’t scare me. I’m a teacher.” Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was smiling at Mary and Joe, who were standing by the bleachers.
“What is she doing here?” Maddie’s being there at the ballpark came as a surprise. A part of him was angry that she was there. Her being there meant that Kathy had interfered in his life once again. That same part that was angry was also angry because he knew that, despite his good intentions to stay away from her, he was really happy to see her again. He wouldn’t be able to stay away from her now. With her on the team, they would have to see each other.
“Let’s see,” Kathy said as she and the kids walked over. She had heard Rick’s question. “Maddie is wearing cleats and is carrying a glove. I’d say that she is here to play.” Once she grabbed a few things to carry, she sent the kids over to the bleachers with Harvey on a leash. Harvey pulled Jessie along behind him and barked happily at Joe and Mary. It was amazing that Jessie didn’t fall down and skin her knee because the large dog outweighed her by several pounds.
“Your doing, no doubt,” Rick told her dryly. If he let Kathy see that he was happy about Maddie being there, then there would be no end to hearing about it or to Kathy’s interference into other parts of his life. She interfered enough as it was already.
“You can thank me later,” she said with a smile before she yelled at the kids to stop running the bases with Harvey before someone got hurt. When they didn’t listen, she caught Mary’s attention. Mary quickly told them to sit down. Rick and Donnie stayed by the truck after Kathy walked away while they did an inventory of what they had brought. No one had bothered to look through the bags since the previous summer, but Rick remembered buying a new bat and two new softballs when they went on sale at the end of the last season. They were there.
“Did you know that Maddie was on the team?” Rick asked Donnie, who was trying to look innocent while he counted out team tee shirts for everyone. They were delivered that morning to the store, so Donnie hadn’t had a chance to hand them out yet.
“Kathy said something about it on Saturday night. Look Rick, don’t be angry. I know that the girls can be a little more involved than you want, but they mean well. You don’t have to go out with Maddie if you don’t want to. Besides, we did need another female on the team. I like to win, and you do, too. Maddie’s a ringer. Try to look at the bright side, little brother. With Kathy now focused on you, she won’t focus on wanting another baby. You get to be her project.” Donnie slapped him happily on the shoulder and walked away with his load.
“Thanks,” Rick said to the empty space then picked up his bag and walked over to the bleachers where everyone on the team was gathering. The truth was that he really didn’t mind that much. Maddie had been on his mind all weekend, and her being on the softball team wouldn’t carry with it any additional expectations for a relationship if he didn’t encourage her. She probably wouldn’t want one with him once she found out about his leg and other issues, anyway. Well, it was now or never. If she acted funny at seeing him with a prosthetic, then he could chalk Friday night up as one night that wouldn’t be repeated. He wouldn’t go out with someone who treated him as a cripple. He didn’t see himself as one. He was a Marine. He adapted and overcame.
The blade attachment for his prosthetic compressed and sprung back when he walked and reminded him that he wasn’t wearing a shoe. He only used the blade for running. Since he still liked to jog to stay fit, and he jogged a few days a week, he was given one. It hurt a little to use it, and he had to be careful with it. The pounding from running put pressure on his bone, and the blade was more slippery on the grass than a shoe was. It was worth the discomfort, however, if he could run and play ball again. And because he couldn’t hide the fact that he had a prosthetic when he wore a blade, there wasn’t any point in wearing sweatpants. That meant that Maddie would soon find out the truth about his leg when she saw him in his shorts.
When he got closer to the bleachers, she turned and smiled at him. Her eyes went down his leg then moved back up again. Her smile didn’t falter, and she greeted him warmly, with that look that he remembered from Friday night. She was still interested in him! A feeling that could only be called happiness went through him. He smiled back at her and watched her smile become brighter when he did. Then she went back to talking with Mary, who was asking her a question about Kelly’s graduation.
While they talked, he picked up the playbook and looked at the lineup and position assignments. Donnie had Maddie batting first. He was batting cleanup in fourth place. He would play shortstop as he usually did. Maddie was in left field. He could feel her eyes on him again and looked up, but when he did, she was talking to another of the female players on the team. He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. His leg was only one of the hurdles that they would need to jump, but it was a start. It was a start.
* * * * *
The game was called after seven innings because the Davidson Bombers had so much of a lead that the ten-run rule was applied. Despite a slow start, they found their stride in the fourth inning and scored six runs. Three more were scored in the next inning and five more were scored in the sixth. At a couple of points, play was delayed due to the need to clear the field. Jessie chased Harvey onto the field to get back her corndog in one instance, and a naked toddler belonging to a member of the opposing team ran onto the field the second time. Everyone had a good laugh.
Maddie loved playing that evening, but what she loved most was watching Rick play. He hadn’t lost any of his athletic ability. He always was a great player and was very competitive when he was on the field. He homered twice, ran in another two times, and had five RBIs. He was, by far, the best player on the team, and the smile on his face throughout the game showed that he enjoyed himself.
The memory of the happy smile that he gave her when he saw her stayed with her throughout the game, and she knew that she was grinning all throughout the game, too. This man, whom she was so attracted to, was Rick, and he was wonderful. It was so easy being around him, and she felt accepted by his friends and family, too.
Rick reminded her of the way he was years ago. He joked with everyone and teased the kids. Little Jessie ate up the attention, and Evan always wanted to talk about fishing. Everyone could see that Rick and the kids had a special bond between them. What’s more was that the more that she watched him interact with others, the more attracted she became to him. Who cared about his leg? It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen veterans with missing limbs before. Iowa City did have a VA hospital to treat veterans, so she saw veterans around town all of the time. Her elementary school principal, who was a Vietnam veteran, was an amputee.
“Anyone want to go downtown for drinks?” one of the male players named Al asked the group after the game. Several people agreed to go, but she had things to do before she went home. One was that she wanted to talk to Rick, who declined going along with the others. Once the pub crawlers had gone, she was left with Rick, Joe, Mary, Donnie, Kathy, and the kids. Rick, Joe, and Donnie began to gather the gear together to bring to Rick’s truck, and she walked with Kathy, Mary and the kids to the parking lot. They stopped at Kathy’s minivan and talked about the game for a few minutes before Kathy looked over at the guys who were still talking by the bench. When she looked back at Maddie, she had a bright smile on her face and a curious gleam in her eyes.
“Maddie, do you have any plans this weekend for the holiday?”
“No. Not really. My parents are helping Kelly move to his new apartment in Chicago and are visiting friends, and Jeffrey is fishing at Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota with some friends of his. The rest of the family is kind of dispersed this year. I’m spending Saturday with my friend, Lisa, but I was planning on playing Sunday and Monday by ear.”
“We’re all getting together at the lake,” Kathy told her. “We’ll have the camper set up and a tent, so it will be a little like camping. You should come out and join us.”
“Thanks, I’ll have to think about it,” she told Kathy then looked over at Rick. He should be the one asking her, not Kathy. Unfortunately, other than his big smile and joking with her during the game, he had treated her like every other person there. Then again, there were the times that she caught him watching her. But still, he should be the one to ask her to the lake.
“Kathy, is this a setup?”
Kathy looked shocked by the question and shook her head. “A setup. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Oh,” she smiled knowingly. “You think that I’m trying to set you up with Rick. No.”
“We always have a group out at the lake every year,” Mary quickly interjected. “Don’t we, Kathy?”
“We sure do. We have an open invitation for everyone to come out and join us. We do it every year to kind of kick off the softball season.”
“Maddie, you should come. It will be fun.” Mary added. She looked back at the guys who were now at Rick’s truck. “Oh, shoot. I almost forgot. Maddie, I ran into Lisa yesterday at the mall. Joe and I have that dinner to go to on Thursday, and I just cannot find the right dress. I even went to Cedar Rapids on Sunday, too. Anyway, Lisa said that I could borrow her red dress, but I need to get it cleaned first. You can call her if you need to. I totally forgot to call you to have you bring it today. Would it be all right if Rick stopped by on his way home to pick it up? I really need to drop it off at the cleaners first thing tomorrow to have it ready on Thursday. Joe and I would stop over, but he needs to run to the shop. Please, you would be a life saver.”
“That would be fine with me. But I need to stop by the grocery store first. Can you tell Rick to give me about twenty minutes?” She began to look for her keys in her purse while she talked. It wouldn’t bother her at all to have Rick come over. It was exactly what she wanted, in fact. Where were her keys? She really needed to get a smaller purse.
“Will do,” Mary said. “Don’t forget this weekend. It will be fun.”
Maddie said that she wouldn’t forget then took her leave, completely missing Kathy and Mary’s shared conspiratorial glance. Rick was coming over again, and she didn’t have much on hand. Should she pick up something other than bread and yogurt for her breakfast? Maybe a cake was in order? He never did get his coffee the other night, and coffee and cake would be good after the game. No man would turn down chocolate cake, especially Rick, who had a sweet tooth. They could eat and talk. Just the thought of him in her small apartment made her heart jump in anticipation and her nerve endings hum.