Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART TWO (8 page)

“I was in Denver at culinary school. I had just finished up and was ready to start my first job. My plan was to start there, learn the business, network, and start saving money and working on a business plan.”

“So your plan is to go back to Denver?” His gut knotted at the thought.

Did she want Denver? Her restaurant? Her baking and candy making? If so, could he let her go without an embarrassing display of begging? If she was ready and willing to leave Sapphire Falls, he wanted her here, in Kilby.

But that wasn’t fair.

She shook her head. “I don’t really have a plan.”

“But you have a dream.”

Her eyes studied his for a long moment. “I do have a dream.”

“So tell me about that.”

“Three kids.”

Eli wasn’t sure what that meant. “What?”

“Three kids. A dog. A fireplace to cuddle in front of. A kitchen with a big table and dinner together every night. A refrigerator covered in drawings and artwork that my kids made. Big Christmases. Huge birthdays. Summer vacations. Bedtime stories. Romantic weekends away while the kids stay at grandma and grandpa’s. Falling asleep in my husband’s arms every night and waking up to his face every morning. A fiftieth wedding anniversary.” She took a deep breath. “That’s my dream.”

Eli’s breath lodged in his throat as if he’d swallowed a huge glob of glue.

It was weird, but listening to her list off the things she wanted, and looking into her eyes as she talked about it, a sense of rightness came over him.

That dream completely fit the sweet, giving, beautiful woman in front of him. He
loved
her dream.

And he wanted to be a part of it.

“Thank you for telling me,” he said softly, stroking the back of her knuckles with his thumb.

“Thank you for wanting to know.”

He was so glad she could tell that he really did want to know.

“So where do you want this dream to come true? If your heart’s not set on Denver?” he asked.

She sighed. “Sapphire Falls. I guess.”

No. That
didn’t
feel right. He loved his hometown. He knew she did too. And someday he’d go back, after he retired, after he’d had a chance to chase his dream clear to the end. Or rather, after he’d chased this part of his dream. Because now that Caitlyn had shared her dream, he knew that she’d just told him the rest of his.

Caitlyn would be content back in Sapphire Falls someday too. But her dream could, and should, start right now. Here. With him.

“Bryan is doing great,” he said. He knew that her brother was actually what was keeping her in Sapphire Falls.

“Bryan is doing better,” she said.

“He’s…” Eli trailed off, not sure what exact word he was looking for.

“Bryan,” she filled in.

He laughed and nodded. “He’s Bryan. He’s tough, he’s stubborn and he finds a way to make it all work out.”

A sadness came into her eyes. “He can’t make this work out, Eli. The injury is permanent. He’s improved, the doctors think he can still make some gains. But he’s never going to get back to where he was.”

Eli took a second just to breathe. He knew all of that. But he hated hearing it. It was hard to believe that Bryan Murray was permanently sidelined. Bryan had always been larger than life. He took risks, he went hard and fast. And he had a hell of a good time doing it.

That was the thing. Bryan seemed to still be, if not having fun, at least adjusted to everything. Bryan faced everything head-on. Good and bad. His competitive spirit and his natural ability to see negatives and setbacks simply as reasons to try again and go harder, had brought him a long way.

It was Caitlyn who hadn’t adjusted.

“You know how I know he’s going to be okay? He’s been flirting with Tessa,” Eli said.

“He’s been teasing about flirting with Tessa,” Caitlyn said. But that did get a little bit of a smile. “He’s not getting anywhere.”

Eli laughed. “Because Tess knows that a wheelchair doesn’t change Bryan’s player status.”

That made her smile a bit bigger. “Yeah, probably.”

“For sure. Because it doesn’t. That wheelchair has become his
best
play in a lot of ways. Have you seen him out with the girls?”

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “No. He behaves himself when I’m around. At least mostly. He’s definitely gotten more than his share of pies and casseroles and lots of free coffee and beer.”

Eli nodded. “Exactly. And I
have
seen him with the girls. He’s still Bryan. And with the guys. With everyone.”

She shook her head. “Not everyone. My mom…she’s in such deep denial about his injury, and he feeds it. He never lets on about how bad it is. He lets her think it’s all fine. He never uses his chair over there. Which means, when he does need family, it’s on me.”

“And you think that you need to stay in Sapphire Falls for Bryan, forever?” Eli asked.

But of course she did. Caitlyn was one of the most loving, generous people he knew.

“Someone has to be there for him.”

“Bryan has tons of friends, the rest of your family…he can hire the specific help.”

She pressed her lips together and tried to pull her hand away.

He hung on. He couldn’t let her get away. He was pushing, he knew that. And he understood that he was asking her to make a choice…between him and her brother. And that if he pushed too hard, he would lose. He couldn’t lose.

“Okay,” he said, still holding her hand. “Then tell me that you can come and visit for extended periods of time. You can come down here and stay for a couple of weeks at a time.”

She chewed on her bottom lip.

“Bryan will be okay for a couple of weeks at a time, right? People will step up and help him.” It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted her all the time, fully his. But he would take what he could get.

“You would really want that?” she asked. “That would be enough?”

“No. Yes. If it’s that or nothing, I choose that.”

“Really?”

He laughed lightly. It was time she knew this for sure. “I love you, Caitlyn. I’ve probably loved you for a long time. But I fell for you fully when you tricked me into your car and forced me to try out with the Catfish. You are the most amazing person I know, and yes, I love you and I want you here as much as possible.”

She was staring at him, her hand tight around his. “Wow. I could…yeah… Be here. More. Often.”

“Hey, I have some news.” Jill was beside the table again.

They both jumped and looked up at her.

“Everyone’s really excited about selling your stuff here.”

“That was…fast,” Caitlyn said.

“It’s good to be the boss,” Jill said.

“Right.”

“I’d love to have stuff by the next game. So I just need to know if you’re going to send it down here for me or if you’re going to stay and make it all here.”

Caitlyn cleared her throat. “Um, I…don’t…” She looked at Eli for help again.

This time he shook his head. “
You
gotta answer this one, Cait. You going back or you staying here?”

Emotions flickered through her eyes. Eli wanted to take it back. He wasn’t at all sure about what she was going to say and he was afraid that pushing would only force her toward the answer he didn’t want to hear.

“I’m going back,” she said softly.

Eli’s heart dropped. Disappointment coursed through him.

He knew this was all too fast. It was too soon. He’d known better than to push.

“But I can come back. Midweek. I’ll get everything made and then…” She looked at Eli. “I’ll stay for a while.”

“A while?” he repeated.

“Yeah. A while.” She looked from him to Jill. “I can spend a couple of weeks a month here. We’ll work it out.”

“Awesome!” Jill gave her a big grin. “My dad will insist this was all his idea and will want us to all tell him how brilliant he is. Just so you know.”

Caitlyn smiled and nodded. “Got it.”

Eli had no trouble telling Stewart he was brilliant either. If he was part of bringing Caitlyn back to Kilby, or making it easier for her to visit as much as possible, then Stewart was one of Eli’s favorite people.

Jill moved off and Caitlyn turned back to Eli. “I—”

Her phone rang just then, but she reached into her purse to silence it without looking at it.

“I love you too,” she said. “I’ve loved you forever. I—”

As Eli was trying to get his heart to beat again after hearing what he’d been craving, her phone rang again.

She gave a little growl and glanced down and frowned.

“Who is it?”

“Ty.”

“You can pick up,” Eli told her.

She silenced it again and shook her head. “They’re probably in jail or something. They can wait.”

He chuckled. “Cait, I heard what I needed to hear. You love me. That’s all I need to know. We have forever now.”

Her eyes widened and then her whole face, her whole body, seemed to soften. “That’s so—”

Her phone rang again.

“Oh for—” She picked it up and swiped the screen. “What?”

Eli saw the immediate change in her expression and the tension grip her body. He leaned in.

“Where?” she asked Ty. She paused to listen. “We’re on our way.”

Eli was already out of the booth and tossing money on the table. “Where?” he asked, when she disconnected and slid out of the booth.

She looked up at him, her eyes full of worry. “The hospital.”

* * *

“You rode a mechanical bull?”

Caitlyn had already asked her brother that question twice, but she was still waiting for him to say “just kidding” or “no, that would be stupid.”

Bryan grinned at her. “Are you sure you’re not the one with the concussion?” he asked. “Your hearing’s not so good.”

No,
he
was the one with the concussion. He was the one who had fallen and whacked his head. He was also the one who had undergone an x-ray and MRI for hip pain that hadn’t been there before he’d gone into the Roadhouse.

“You rode a mechanical bull.” She shook her head. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I’ve never ridden a mechanical bull before and I really wanted to try it,” Bryan said.

Caitlyn gripped the railing of her brother’s bed. His
hospital
bed. Her brother was in the hospital. She’d taken him on a trip, one trip, and now he was in the hospital, away from his doctors. And doing stupid shit.

She should have known.

Bryan and Ty were the kings of the stupid shit club. They always had been. Along with their love for all things that would make their mothers have heart palpitations, they’d both been blessed with the tendency to always land on their feet.

The irony of that was not lost on her now.

“Bryan,” she said calmly. “I realize we haven’t really talked about all of this and I’m sure you don’t want to think about the fact that you can’t do all the things you used to do, but I kind of thought this was an obvious one.”

“What was kind of an obvious one?”

“You spend thirty percent of your time in a wheelchair.”

“Yes, that’s about right.”

She looked at him for several seconds, but he didn’t go on. Okay. “I think that getting on a mechanical bull is a kind of stupid thing to do anyway, but I’m pretty sure that being in a wheelchair makes it an even stupider thing to do.”

Bryan frowned, as if truly confused by that. “Why is that?”

“Because you could fall off,” she said patiently, with the tone she used on the little kids who came into the Sweet Shop.

“People who don’t spend any time in wheelchairs fall off of mechanical bulls all the time.”

“Right. That’s part of the ‘stupid thing to do anyway.’”

“So why shouldn’t I try it?”

“You could get hurt!” God, he was infuriating. She was happy to help him. Happy to be there for him. But he wasn’t helping himself. “Your legs could not work the way they used to and you could fall off the damned thing and—”

“Caitlyn.”

She took a deep breath and looked up. Bryan had been lounging against his pillows, looking like he was sunning himself at the beach. He’d flirted with every nurse who’d come into the room. He already had a side table filled with flowers, balloons and what she thought might be a pair of women’s panties, but she hadn’t looked closely enough.

Now he was sitting up, his usual cocky grin gone, a seriousness in his eyes that she hadn’t seen since long before he’d been tossed down a mountainside and come up with a partial spinal cord injury.

“I did fall off the mechanical bull,” he said. “After two seconds. But I didn’t get
hurt
falling off the bull.”

She crossed her arms. “Then how did you end up with a possible hip fracture and a concussion?”

“I went to the bar for another drink.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And?”