I sighed, “You’re right. Ok. Let’s stop at the gas station.”

  “Mommy is always right,” Peyton retorted with a giggle.

  “Always,” Camden emphasized.

  “I’ve got some very smart kids,” Pen said as she pulled off the exit and into the first gas station.

  I had circled the stadium the Oakville Bobcats played at on the map and found where the gas station was. It took us longer than it probably should have, but soon, we had our route mapped out, and on a separate piece of paper, I made note of where to turn and in what direction.

  “So, this is what people had to do before Google?” Camden asked.

  “Yes,” Pen and I both said at the same time.

  “Thank goodness for Google!” Camden said. “This is taking forever.”

  Soon, we were back on the road and heading for Oakville County Field, home of the Bobcats. We found a parking spot and went to the ticket booth, but it was dark and there was no one there. We headed around to the front gate and found it open with a few workers milling around.

  “Hi, we were wanting to buy tickets for tonight's game, and there was no one in the booth,” I explained as I flagged down a worker.

  The girl looked at her watch and looked at us with wide eyes. “You do know the game started a while ago, right? It’s almost the seventh inning.”

  “We know, but we’re willing to pay the full price. We’re the ones who are late,” I offered.

  “Just let them come on in,” another woman said. “Go ahead, and just sit in any empty seats you can find.”

  “Thank you so much,” Penelope said.

  “A free game? Yes!” Camden said with a raise of his fist. “Does that mean I can buy some popcorn since we didn’t have to buy a ticket?”

  “Yes, it does,” Penelope said. “What do you want, Peyton?”

  “Twizzlers!” Peyton cried out.

  “Go ahead, and find us seats,” Penelope said. “I know you’re anxious to see your man. Do you want anything from the concession stand?”

  “Maybe some nachos and a bottle of water, please,” I said and handed her some money. I then headed to the seating area. “Thanks, Pen.”

  I walked down the stairs towards the field and was glad to find an open section right behind home plate. I smiled as I saw Tyler walking towards the plate, and I admired him as he squatted down into position as the opponent’s batter walked up after his warm up swings. The first pitch by the Lightning pitcher I didn’t recognize went in the dirt. It was not like Tyler at all to miss catching a ball. Something was definitely off with him.

  “We want a catcher, not a belly scratcher!” I called out as I got close to the fence that separated the fans from the players. It only went around the home plate area and a small wall divided the field from the rest of the stadium.

  I was shocked when Ty stood up right as the pitcher was about to throw the next pitch. The home plate umpire said something to him, but Tyler wasn’t paying attention as he looked around frantically. Tyler’s manager yelled something, too, but he continued to look around.

  “I’m sorry for distracting him!” I called out, and a few fans looked at me, wondering what was going on.

  My husband made eye contact with me, and before I knew what was happening, he threw his catcher’s mask on the ground and was running towards me. He hopped over the small wall at the edge of the field and rushed for me. I found my feet running on their own towards him. I had never seen him do this in a game, and I had just seen him not that long ago. We had gone a lot longer without seeing each other before, and he would usually only give me a wink or blow a kiss during the game. Something was definitely off with him.

  Tyler stopped in front of me, and that’s when I noticed the tears streaming from his green eyes. “You’re ok? You’re really here? You are ok, right?” He asked as he took my face in his hands and began kissing me all over.

  “Yes, I’m here. Of course, I’m okay,” I replied. I wiped away his tears with my thumbs as he pulled me even closer to him. He wrapped his strong arms around me, and I found my arms winding around his trim waist.

  “I’m never letting you go again.” He pulled me as close as he could and held on tightly.

  “Ty,” I called out with my face buried against his chest pads. “I can’t breathe.”

  He pulled away slightly and leaned his forehead against mine. “How are you here?”

  “I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Surprise me?” He seemed very confused by my answer. “I don’t understand.”

  “Something happened at the doc-”

  “STONE!” His manager interrupted our conversation. “I’m so happy your girl is okay, but you need to finish this inning. The batter wasn’t finished with his at-bat. Finish this inning, and then I’ll put Reid in so you can talk with your girl.”

  Tyler looked at his coach with a nod. “Don’t you dare move,” he said to me.

  “Ty, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to sit right here behind your dugout, okay?”

  He nodded but seemed very reluctant to let me go. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” I said. “Go finish the inning and come back to me.”

  He leaned down and gave me a deep, passionate kiss. The crowd around us cheered, and he hesitantly pulled away as he walked back towards the away team dugout and jumped over the half wall. I found an open row near the dugout and sat down. My heart was racing like crazy, wondering what would elicit a reaction like that from him.

  “I can’t believe they are losing,” Penelope said as she sat down in the seat next to me. She handed me some nachos and a bottle of water.

  “Something is going on with him,” I said to Pen. “He’s not himself. He was crying because I was here.”

  “Crying?” Pen asked. “Why?”

  “I’ve never seen a big baseball player cry,” Camden commented.

  “I don’t know why,” I said. “His manager even said as soon as the inning is finished, he could come talk to me. So we’ll find out soon.”

  “Maybe we should turn our phones on now,” Pen said with a shrug.

  “You think?” I asked. “Shit! Mine is still in the car!”

  “Ooohhh, Molly! You owe money in the swear jar,” Peyton said, with a mouthful of red vine candy.

  “I will pay when I get some cash,” I said.

  “I guess I left my phone in the car, too. I can go and get them,” Pen offered.

  “Thanks because I think he’d kill me if I left these seats.”

  “Are you going to eat your nachos?” Camden asked as he eyed my cheese covered chips.

  I wasn’t hungry anymore and just handed Cam my snack. Pen said she would be right back and told her kids to behave.

  I anxiously watched as Tyler seemed more like himself, catching the pitches a lot better and helping the pitcher decide which pitch would work against the batter. Soon, the home team’s hitter struck out. The next batter hit a grounder right to Montgomery, and he threw it easily to first base, so there were now two outs. I didn’t notice any of the noise or people talking around me. All I could see was Ty, who seemed to be trying to hurry the inning along. He and the pitcher seemed to disagree on the next pitch to throw, but soon the pitcher raised his arms, kicked out his leg, and threw a fastball that flew right by the batter. Next was a beautiful curveball that had the batter groaning out loud. The next pitch easily struck out the third batter. Tyler jumped up and jogged quickly to the dugout. I saw him talking with his manager and removing his catcher gear. Soon, he was coming out of the dugout and popping over the wall and walking towards me.

  “Hi, Ty!” Pen said as she was walking down the stairs with both of our phones in her hand.

  He looked over at her, then down to her hand, and eyed the phones with a glare.

  “Why didn’t you guys answer your phones?” he asked.

  “I told Molly to turn our phones off, so she wasn’t tempted to call you. She wanted to tell you her news in person.”

  Ty lifted his hat off his head and pulled at the brown strands of hair with his empty hand. “Ok, we’ll circle back to the news in a minute. You mean to tell me that your phones were turned off on purpose?”

  I nodded as Pen handed me my phone. I pressed the buttons on the side to turn it on. “I told her you’d be upset and worried that I didn’t call you after the appointment.”

  “I don’t know who is going to kill you both first. Me or Meadow,” Tyler responded. “So you have no clue what is going on?”

  “No clue,” I said. “What’s going on, Ty?”

  “Do you not have a radio in your car?” Tyler turned and asked Penelope instead of answering my question.

  “We do, but Mommy said we couldn’t listen to it because Molly wanted to listen to your game. We had to use Mommy’s old music thingy only,” Camden answered for his mom.

  “We used my MP3 player,” Pen explained, holding her hands up in surrender at the glare he gave her.

  “They are okay. Molly is okay. They are here,” I repeated to myself to calm the mix of emotions swirling through my body. Relief that they were okay, frustration that they had turned off their phones willingly and didn’t listen to the radio, and shock after all the ups and downs in the last few minutes. I decided to just tell Molly and Penelope what was going on. “There was a big tornado, and it hit Trinity Falls.”

  I watched as Molly’s blue-green eyes grew very wide. “What?”

  “No way,” Penelope said, almost in shock. “Is everyone okay?”

  “And you couldn’t get a hold of us,” my wife said, finally putting all the puzzle pieces together. She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. “Oh, Ty. I’m so sorry.”

  At that moment, her phone began going crazy with beeps and sounds as it came back to life. I saw that she had over 100 text messages and a notification that her voicemail box was full.

  “Wow,” Molly said while looking at the phone in her hand. “I now understood why you hugged me so tightly. You had to have been so scared.”

  “I am really sorry,” Penelope said. “I just didn’t want you to ruin the surprise.”

  “You didn’t know,” I said. The emotions from the day were getting to me, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I hardly ever cried, but I couldn’t keep them away. “When the phones finally began working, and I was able to talk to Ivan, Hayden, and Cooper, they said they couldn’t find you guys. I thought…”

  Molly brought her small hand up to my lips and shook her head. “Don’t finish that sentence. We’re okay. We’re here.”

  I nodded and pulled her tightly against me again. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to let you out of my sight. I can’t lose you. I love you so much.”

  “I love you, too,” Molly said, her own tears now streaming down her face.

  “Is Cooper okay?” Peyton’s small voice asked.

  I took a long, deep breath and looked into the little girl’s chocolate brown eyes. “He will be once your mommy calls him and tells him you guys are okay.”

  Penelope looked at us with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was one tough woman I had never seen cry before. “I’m going to call him now.”

  “And you better call Meadow,” I said, looking down at the face of my beautiful wife. One that I didn’t know if I would ever see again just minutes ago.

  “Oh my gosh! Meadow!” Molly cried out.

  “Maybe we should make these calls away from the field,” I said as I noticed we were drawing a lot of attention.

  Molly and Penelope both nodded in agreement. Penelope began walking up the stairs, and her two kids grabbed the handfuls of snacks and followed her. I trailed close behind with Molly still tucked against me.

  While Penelope called Cooper, Molly called Meadow. I pulled out my own phone and dialed the last person I would have expected to call until earlier today.

  “Son, how are you? Is your game over?” Dad’s deep voice asked with genuine concern after only one ring. “I am sorry to tell you we still haven’t found Molly and the others.”

  “No, my game isn’t over, but you’ll never believe what happened.” I felt the tears coming again and squeezed Molly’s hand with my free hand. She looked up at me as she spoke to her best friend and squeezed my hand back. I could hear Meadow’s voice yelling through the phone and had to smile through my tears. Molly began telling Meadow that she couldn’t talk to Penelope at that moment since Penelope was making her own phone calls. I had to smile when I looked over at Penelope to see that her daughter had the phone to her ear and was talking to my friend and former roommate.

  “Tyler? Are you there? What happened?” Dad asked.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I replied. “Molly showed up at my game. She’s here, Dad, and she’s fine. Penelope, the manager of her bakery, is here, too, with her two kids. Dad, they are all okay.”

  “I don’t know how that is possible, but I am so thankful!” Dad said into the phone. “If they had been here…”

  I had to nod, even though he couldn’t see me, and quickly interrupted him. “I know, I know. But we’re not finishing that sentence.”

  “We should call your mom,” Molly said to me, and I noticed that her call with Meadow was over. I heard Penelope telling Cooper she had an incoming call and would call him back. My guess was that Meadow didn’t care that Pen was talking to someone else and wanted to hear her voice for herself.

  “Was that Molly saying you needed to call your mom?” Dad asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “She’s my next call.”

  “She really is a smart and sweet girl,” Dad said. “You’re a lucky man, Tyler. I feel bad for all I said about her and your relationship. I would like a redo of our family dinner. I am so glad she stood up to me.”

  “I would like that, Mr. Stone,” Molly said next to me, with her ear as close to the phone as she could. “I’m right here and can hear everything you’re saying.”

  Dad chuckled, then I am sure I heard a sob escape. “Thank you for that. Tyler, I want to tell you I’m so sorry. While I was driving up here, I did a lot of thinking, and I want you to know how proud I am of you and Landon both. I never got the opportunity to follow my dreams, and I was bitter and angry. I’m so sorry. I am so glad you are both following your dreams, despite your jerk of a father.”

  Dad, Molly, and I were all a blubbering mess as we talked. I had no clue my dad even had other dreams. I honestly thought running the auto shop was it. We all agreed to talk more about his dreams later. We then called my mom, who also began crying the minute she heard Molly’s voice. Luckily, Carter was at her house, probably to be with Mom as the search for Molly continued, and we were able to tell him at the same time that she was okay. Carter and Mom agreed they would call Landon and Julia and let them know.

  After all those phone calls, I was exhausted emotionally, and I could tell Molly was, too. She slumped against me and just held on to me.

  “Where are you guys staying?” I asked as Penelope and her kids came over to us.

  “We don’t know. We just got in the car and headed here after the doctor’s appointment,” Pen said.

  “Did you tell him about both the babies yet?” Peyton asked.

  “Oh my gosh, no, I haven’t!” Molly exclaimed.

  “Babies?” I asked and looked down at my wife and her growing baby bump. “As in plural?”

  “Peyton Jane!” Penelope scolded. “That wasn’t your news to share.”

  “Sorry,” Peyton said, and her lip began to wobble like she was about to cry.

  “It’s ok, Peyton. I should have already told him,” Molly said sweetly to the little girl before looking up at me with a smile on her beautiful face. She pulled a small picture from her purse and handed it to me. “It’s the reason we drove straight here. I wanted to tell you in person. But, yes, Tyler, we are having twins.”

  I looked down at the ultrasound picture, something I had never seen before. There were two smaller grayscale images side-by-side. It was kind of hard to tell, but on the left, I saw a picture of a baby looking right at me with its head toward the middle and labeled Baby A. On the right, the baby's head was in profile and labeled Baby B. Baby B's spine was visible. I was in complete shock.

  “This is the most beautiful picture I have ever seen. Have you sent it to Mom yet?”

  Molly shook her head. “I wanted you to be the first to know.” She continued, “You can’t tell from the picture, but the doctor said they are fraternal and not identical.”

  “So it could be one boy and one girl,” Camden said proudly, parroting what the doctor had said when he asked what fraternal meant.

  “Or it could be two little girls!” Peyton cried out.

  “Or two little boys as cute as their daddy,” Molly said with a smile.

  “Twins. Wow,” I said with a smile of my own. “Does this change anything about wanting to find out if they’re boys, girls, or one of each?”

  Molly shrugged and shook her head. “Not to me. Does it change for you?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be happy either way.”

  “Guess when my due date is?” Molly asked, obviously very excited.

  “No idea,” I said honestly. I had no clue about that kind of stuff.

  “November 7th! Seven really is our lucky number,” Molly said with a huge smile. “They will probably come early, but it’s still a special date.”

  ”That is awesome! Damn, twins! I am good!” I then got down on my knees in front of my wife and kissed her stomach. “So, there are two of you in there, I guess. I love you both so much already. Your mommy sure gave me a scare today, and I am so thankful that the three of you along with Pen, Cam, and Peyton are safe, too.”

  “I think I need to sit down,” Molly said, suddenly.

  I jumped up and led her over to a table near where concessions workers were announcing it was last call for beers. “Baby, are you okay?”

  Molly shook her head. “I got lightheaded all of a sudden.”

  “You never drank your water,” Camden said and handed her the bottle. Molly opened it up and took a long drink.

 

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