Anything but Minor (34 page)

Rafe: I just don’t understand why you didn’t want to come this time. We could have taken her to the zoo!

Alice: Whining again?

Rafe: Fine. I love you both. See you Sunday.

I smiled knowing he was disappointed and probably hurt for the time being, but it was a price I was willing to pay. He was in the playoffs, and I was sure he was close to earning his first championship. Every season he amazed me, and I’d attended every game I could, rain or shine. I wouldn’t miss this game for anything.

The perk of being a ballplayer’s wife
and
a pilot was his eight figure salary. I did his laundry for a few years and he bought me a small plane. I was now flying private charters for Denver’s wealthy while I attended Rafe’s ballgames anywhere in the country. Sound like a dream? It was.

Pretty sweet deal for a bonehead athlete and a nerdy pilot.

Another text came through. It was a picture of Dillon at his third grade graduation. He looked adorable and was smiling big. The text underneath read:

Kristina: Clover’s future husband?

Alice: We have about twenty years to plan.

Kristina: Miss you.

Alice: I’ll be there in two weeks.

Kristina: Finally!

Alice: I have to go chase your future daughter-in-law down, but are you going to tell me about the date?

Kristina: I went home with my panties in my purse.

Alice: That good?

Kristina: I think he found me.

Alice: You will tell me everything. Two weeks! ☺

Another text came through in a matter of seconds.

Andy: We just landed. See you in a few.

“Clover,” I begged as she ignored me. Clover pretty much always ignored me because, well, she was two, extremely busy, and had no time for anything other than her own agenda.

“You can’t finds me, Mommy!” I heard her taunt from the exact same closet I’d just found her in. For a brief moment, I was scared for her future. I laughed as she cracked the door slightly so that the light clicked on. She wasn’t a fan of the dark, and I was surprised she’d lasted as long as she had. I looked down at my waiting baby girl as my chest squeezed.

The minute I discovered she was coming, I knew I’d have my clover. Rafe’s and my relationship weren’t exactly cut from the cloth of the norm, and our love was limitless. We fit, we complemented each other by being different, and that was a rarity, and our Clover was proof. Rafe had completely lost it when I told him he was going to be a father. He was reduced to tears in a
very
public display, and in that moment, I knew I could never love him more. He’d been a doting husband and gone above and beyond to make a very uncomfortable pregnancy easier on me.

Of all the long conversations Rafe and I’d had through our relationship, neither of us had really touched on children. I knew I wanted a baby eventually, and I was sure with Rafe and his love of kids he would, too. It was the weirdest part of our union in that it was just simply...a given. But neither of us knew how badly we craved a family until the day we found out.

It was the best day of our lives.

Clover came into the world, lungs full of protest and covered in jaundice. Rafe held our light yellow baby and started his campaign of favorite parent by declaring to her that I’d peed on her.

It was also the best day of our lives.

And the days kept coming.

Days like that day when I scoured our expansive one-story ranch home for our little girl and was hell bent on making it the best for my husband, who had trusted me with the rest of his days. I was more determined than ever to keep what he’d so generously given.

So on that day, I gathered our little girl, determined to follow my flight plan with a quick stop and then onto California to surprise him.

“Naw naw Duc!” Clover squealed as she saw Dutch standing at the door next to Andy. Dutch reached out and gripped her great-granddaughter tightly to her as a single, happy tear slid down her face. Andy smiled over at her as he winked and pulled me into a hug. “Good job, doll.”

“It was all you, Andy,” I said as we beamed back at Dutch and Clover.

We knew it was a big step for her. It was the first time she’d managed a trip to Denver and her first real trip anywhere since Rafe’s grandfather died. Rafe had confessed to me shortly after our engagement that Dutch was his estranged father’s mother, and that she, too, had sided with Rafe after her son had betrayed him. In a way, she’d lost her son and then shortly after lost her husband. She’d always been an introvert and uncomfortable with attention, so Rafe and Andy had protected her from the intrusive media by treating her as his biggest fan, which she remained to this day. But Dutch’s love for her great-granddaughter was unmatched and seemed something like a new beginning for her. She’d managed to take leaps and bounds since her arrival. I never faulted Rafe for not coming clean about Dutch. He protected those he loved and trusted without fail, and I had to earn my way into that circle. It seemed Dutch’s invitation for me to join her at each game had been a part of that push. She’d seen something in me for a reason she never explained, and I was forever grateful.

I knew months after our marriage and after several trips home that loyalty, the kind Rafe was capable of, was embedded in him and was one of the most amazing things about him. Though we had no abundance of free time aside from the winter months in the off season, we still managed to get to Charleston whenever our schedule allowed. For Rafe, Charleston would always be home, and it would always be where I’d found mine. And my husband never let any good amount of time pass without a visit.

We’d take Clover to the beach and fall asleep on the sand. We would stop by Peggy’s Fish Camp and have dinner with Sue, or get our hands dirty in Dutch’s yard. Our little girl would have roots and wings, and to us, that meant everything. We were completely focused on giving her the parents we so desperately wanted for ourselves. Though my mother and I had completely reshaped our relationship for the better, Rafe’s relationship with his father remained non-existent, as did mine.

Though our new life together in Denver was different from where we began, Rafe remained the same man I fell in love with. He was grounded, faithful, loving, admirable, insatiable...and cocky.

When my husband was eighteen years old, though he hadn’t known it then, he chose loyalty and love over fame and quick money. And as I think over our life now and his level of devotion, I’m convinced he saved those gifts for us, his family.

As we exited the truck and Andy, Dutch, Clover, and I gripped hands with each other to make our way toward the stadium, I felt nothing but elation that we were together for him on a day where I knew he wanted us with him the most.

It never ceased to amaze me just how different league games were from the minors to the majors. The stadium was filled to the brim with fans and the crowd was deafening as the players were announced. I spotted Rafe in the dugout as we took our seats to the left and gave us all the perfect view of him. I pulled Clover into my lap as my husband, clueless to our whereabouts, pulled his hat off, peeked inside the inseam, and gripped the small piece of paper. It was a note I’d written to him, a new ritual we’d started when we married. Sometimes I wrote random facts about movies, sometimes I got a little romantic, and others a little dirty. Today’s note read:

Look to your left, Daddy

– Love, Clover

Clover had already spotted him as she frantically waved and called out “Daddy!” into the roaring crowd.

I saw Rafe’s slow smile as he turned and saw the four of us. His twisted lips and face turned incredulous as he heard the announcement of his man crush throwing the first pitch. He zeroed in on the mound and then back to me with an awestruck expression. When his idol walked up to him minutes later, I watched the exchange with a happy sigh. I was sure Nolan was telling him just how persuasive his wife had been to get him there. I saw Rafe throw his head back with a hard laugh as he shot a glance in my direction and shook his head. After they exchanged a handshake, Rafe looked over our way until I was sure he met my eyes and mouthed “Best day of my life” and I returned it with an “Every day.”

Andy, Clover, Dutch, and I sat in the stands as Rafe fired pitch after solid pitch, fulfilling his dream in the majors with a family behind him who adored him with a love that was anything but minor.

Listen to the Anything but Minor Playlist

on
Spotify
(https://play.spotify.com/user/authorkatestewart/playlist/2mkzgEAwaFcfs04sqtFr40)

Room 212

Never Me

Loving The White Liar

The Reluctant Romantics Series

The Fall

The Mind

The Heart

❖ ❖ ❖

KATE STEWART WRITING AS

EROTIC SUSPENSE AUTHOR ANGELICA CHASE

Sexual Awakenings Series

The Waltz

The Tango

The Last Dance

Curtains

❖ ❖ ❖

Excess Series

Opulence

Reverence

Hindrance

❖ ❖ ❖

Predator and Prey Series

Camouflage

Thank you to Beth aka Dutch and Jon Rustenhaven for your ball expertise and for answering my hours of questions. You two ROCK!

Thank you Benley Ramos for schooling me on all things MiLB at the game while you cheered for your brother and I cheered for his opponent.

Thank you Adrian West for being my kick ass cover model. I can’t believe you won your second Emmy a week later!!

Thank you to LeRoy from Pixel Studios for your patience and guidance. The shoot was a blast and you made it even more so.

I have to thank my street team, Kate’s Asphalt Asskickers:Stacy, Tabatha, Cindy, Akeisha, Sophie, Julie, Paula, Susan, Melissa, Theresa, Jessica, Jess B, Gia, Sarah, Vrsha, Jessica R, Jen, Kathy, Lina, SB, Donna, Karrie, Lisa D, Rachel, Kristan, Erica, Beth, Angela, Kelli C, Sharon, Beverly, Courtney, Jessica, Jen, Stephanie, Danielle, Jules, Yamara, Vrosha, Sopie, Christin, Karrie, Paula, Tristan, Sarah-Jane, Christy B, Cathy, Theresa, Malene, Kim B, Kathryn S, Cheryl, Jessica B, Suzanne B, Donna, Alison, Letitia, Stephanie, Katy, Kathy, Darlene, Marie, Heather, Cezanne, Keanna, Melissa, SB and Sanne, thank you for all you do and for having my back. I love you ladies and I love all the fun we have.

You ladies have been the driving force and reason for most of my sanity. It’s been one hell of a year so far, and I just wanted to thank you for your love, friendship, and support. I cherish every single one of you and can’t wait to see what happens next.

To my betas and partners in crime: Beth Rustenhaven, Anne Morrilo, Stacy Hahn, Sharon Dunn, Christy Baldwin, Beverly Tubb, Heather Oregon and Patty Tennyson, I can’t thank you enough. This book scared the crap out of me in that it wasn’t my usual genre, but your words of encouragement and awesome critique gave me the courage to keep going. I love you ladies dearly. Thank you!

Thank you to my amazing cover designer Amy Q. You little bad ass, you! Thank you for sharing your gift with me and reading my mind!

To my girls from Wrapped in Reading Patty, Mel and Dee. You are seriously the most amazing group of ladies. Thank you for being the women you are and for your unconditional friendship. I’m so lucky to have my three fairy godmothers in my life.

Thank you, Edee, my editor extraordinaire, for all that you do and the friend that you are. Fist bump soul sister. We finished another one. XO

Juliana Cabrerra, you make me a better human. I love you with all my wicked heart. I love that you know me as well as you do and still speak to me.

To my dear friend, Christine Stanley, I can’t even believe what a golden person you are. I’m so blessed to have you in my life. I’m lucky as hell to call you friend. I love that you call me on my bullshit. I’m so thankful that you look out for me. I love you.

Thank you to all the bloggers for doing what you do. With so many books to choose from, I’m honored anytime you give my words a chance. I appreciate every single one of you. XO

Thank you to my Texas and South Carolina families for your love and support.

And a huge thank you to my husband, Nick, for being the safe, soft place to land. I can’t believe your enduring love and that you haven’t smothered me with a pillow yet. ;)

A native of Dallas, Kate Stewart now lives in beautiful Charleston, S.C. She lives with her husband of 9 years, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie.

Kate moved to the city three weeks after her first visit, dropping her career of 8 years, and declaring the city her creative muse. Since the move in 2010, Kate has written and published 15 novels including Room 212, Never Me, Loving the White Liar and many more.

Kate writes messy, sexy, angst filled romance books with ‘hard to get’ happy endings because it's what she loves as a reader. She has a scary addiction to chocolate milk and a deep love for rap music specifically the genius known as Marshall Mathers.

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