Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Liam

Nine Months Later

I t was opening day for the Lombard Stingers. After we sold Margot’s condo, it all came together quickly for the team.

I could hear a few people outside, but it was almost two hours before game time, so only a select group of family and friends were here yet, along with the teams. I knew more would come to watch what was supposed to happen. The Stingers had been drawing a steady but decent crowd, thanks in part to Margot’s expert marketing.

“You ready?” Donovan stepped into the owner’s box, his white tuxedo jacket showing only a peach rose in the lapel. We’d learned that peach roses were our finance’s favorite flower.

He handed me a matching one for my tux. “I can’t wait. It feels like my life has built towards this day,” I said.

When we got downstairs and walked to the pitcher’s mound, our family and friends cheered from their seats behind the dugout.

My sister Carrie was waiting for us in a purple dress. She’d become ordained online to do this for us. Our license showed that Margot was married to one of us. But no one would ever know which, and no one in our circle wanted or needed to know. We were a team.

The wedding march played via organ music from the loudspeakers.

Two team members rolled down the white carpet to home plate.

Margot came out of the locker room in a white wrap dress and stepped on to the field. Her parents joined her and helped her walk along the path.

She had a crown of multicolored flowers in her loose, dark hair. She’d wanted to wear things that reminded her of our first full night together in her old condo. We’d sold it and got a small mortgage on my family’s building. She was doing social media for the Stingers for free.

The bee mascot was dancing around, tossing a few flowers. Ok, that was a detail we didn’t ask for at our ceremony, but I could hear the gathering crowd was getting into the spirit. The college kid who wore the costume all summer helped Margot and was very fond of her.

Margot reached for our hands when she reached us, and everything else fell away as we got married.

The players crossed their bats over us as we walked out, married. Our friends and family cheered around us as if we’d won a game. She kissed Donovan, then me, when we reached home plate.