A Trip in the Fall Pt. 06

Brandon and Matt were the last through the line, joining the players at the table as Sarah sat at the bar with Lisa, Kim, and Jen. Sarah looked at Lisa, "Where is Mike?"

"Brandon asked him to stay and scout the team they play tonight...Well, I figure Mike volunteered. No one likes losing, but Mike HATES it."

Sarah nodded and was getting ready to reply when she heard a chair move on the floor and saw Brandon stand up, "Okay guys, listen up. Definitely a tough loss that shouldn't have happened. That said, we have to think about tonight. Dr. Cline is watching them now and we will have an idea of what to expect later this afternoon. As for this afternoon, I want everyone resting until at least 4. Take a nap, read, work on schoolwork, I don't care, but I want you all resting and drinking water and Gatorade. No pool or beach until you have rested. We are leaving here at 6 and dinner will be at 4:45. Any questions?"

No one said anything and Brandon turned to the island and said, "Mrs. Cline, did they get the red jerseys to the washer?"

Lisa nodded, "It looked like they were all there."

"If you haven't gotten your red jersey to the washer, it needs to be there in the next five minutes so I can get them going. Finish up, clean up your messes so these wonderful women don't have too, then get some rest."

There was a series of nods and "Yes sir" echoed around the table as the players made their way from the kitchen to their rooms and the couches scattered throughout the house.

Brandon grabbed his plate and put it in the dishwasher as Sarah and the moms began to put lunch away. He smiled, "Thank you all so much for taking care of this, I appreciate it and I know the guys do too."

Jen shook her head, "They have been very polite and thank us each time."

Kim said, "Yeah, if I could get Zach to be this polite all the time, it'd be perfect." They all laughed, and Kim continued, "What else do you need from us?"

Brandon thought for a moment, "I think we are good; I'm going to get the jerseys going, then I'm going to plop my ass on the beach for a little bit; once Mike gets back, we can put together some sort of game plan for tonight.

"Sounds good, then I am going to go grab a nap while it is quiet," Lisa replied. Jen and Kim smiled and excused themselves, heading back to their hotels and confirming that they would be to the house at 6:45 to pick up Sarah and Lisa for the game.

With them gone, Brandon and Sarah were left in the kitchen, she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest, "Sure I can't do anything?"

He gently stroked her back, "I'm sure, just the nature of coaching, I have to figure out what to do about tonight's game. Why don't you go change and grab Mya to see if she wants to hang out on the beach."

Sarah nodded, "Are you coming down?"

"Yeah, once I get the laundry going, I'll change and join you."

Sarah leaned up and kissed him softly, "Good, I'll see you there."

Sarah found Mya on a couch downstairs cuddled up to Brayden, when she came in view, Mya hurriedly scooted away, causing Sarah to smirk, "Shouldn't he be resting?"

Brayden piped up, "Sorry ma'am, we were just talking."

Sarah laughed, "Okay, none of that ma'am stuff, I'm not that old yet." The boy blushed and Sarah continued, "Mya, I'm going to change then go to the beach, wanna come?"

Mya looked at Brayden, then back at Sarah before replying, "Sure, he needs to rest anyway."

Sarah turned away, heading back towards her and Brandon's room; passing Brandon by the washer, she smacked his butt and said, "Mya is changing, found her cuddled up on the couch with Brayden."

Brandon's eyes got big, "What?!"

Sarah laughed, "Calm down, there were no blankets and two other guys there."

"I'm going to talk to her."

"No, you're not. It was harmless; and when I told her what was going on, she only hesitated for a second before she agreed to come to the beach."

Brandon mumbled something under his breath, then heard Sarah say, "Whatever you're mumbling about stop. She's a good kid, nothing is going to happen."

"If you say so."

As Brandon turned back to the washer, he found Sarah standing beside him, "I do say so. I know you have to worry, but she's got a good head on her shoulders, she's not going to do anything too stupid."

"Okay, if you say so. Now go get changed."

She smiled and kissed his cheek, see you in a few!"

Brandon finished up loading the washer, then set his alarm for an hour and a half to coincide with the timer on the washer. He headed upstairs and found their bedroom empty, so he stripped down, pulled on his board shorts than grabbed his portable charger, his iPad, shoving them in his bag and after filling his cup with Coke, made his way to the beach where he found Sarah and Mya sitting side by side under one of the canopies the team had rented for the week.

As he set his chair up beside Sarah's, Mya looked up from her phone, "Bout time you got here."

He rolled his eyes and Sarah looked up, smiling, "Hey, get everything going?"

He sat down and replied, "Yeah, they will be ready to be switched around 3:30." He looked her up and down, admiring her lightly tanned skin and said, "That is a cute bathing suit."

Sarah smiled and stood up, spinning to show off her suit. Like the one the day before, this one was a one piece, it was orange and ribbed, showing off a little more of her butt without being too high cut. The top of the suit had a v-cut and while showing off her beautiful cleavage, it still provided full coverage, "I thought so. I wasn't sure what to buy for the trip."

Brandon nodded as she sat back down, "Well, I think you did a great job."

She leaned over and whispered, "I googled "Sexy mom suits" and both of these popped up." Brandon's eyes got huge, and Sarah quickly realized what she had said; she gasped and covered her mouth and began shaking her head."

He mouthed, "Are you pregnant?!"

She started laughing, drawing the attention of Mya, who gave them a weird look before turning back to her phone. Sarah finally calmed down enough as the tears were starting to roll, "No, hell no!"

Brandon began to take deep breaths, realizing that he had been holding his breath and finally squeaked out, "God, don't do that!" He let out a short chuckle and leaned back exhaling as Sarah continued to chuckle softly.

"Your face was priceless."

"Well, you just scared me to death."

"I didn't mean too, but damn that was good."

Brandon continued trying to catch his breath, causing Sarah to laugh even more; Mya took her AirPods out and looked over at him, "You gonna make it coach?"

Brandon nodded, "I think so, just was startled for a minute. I'm good."

"If you say so, you guys care if I take a walk?"

Sarah looked at Brandon who shrugged his shoulders, then she said, "I think you're good." Mya stood, said she'd be back in a little bit, and started walking down the beach. They watched her go and Sarah said, "She is so cute. She got over being star struck pretty quick."

"I'm glad." They sat silently for a few minutes just watching the waves when Brandon said, "We've never really talked about kids..."

Sarah was a bit shocked by his comment and clarified, "Brandon, I'm not pregnant. Remember IUD?"

"Oh I know," he said with a chuckle before continuing, "But we are moving in together and we have mentioned getting married. So, kids are the next thing you're supposed to talk about."

"Supposed to talk about?" She said with a laugh.

"Yeah, all those websites and shit say you're supposed to talk about stuff like that before getting married."

"Are you reading marriage magazines or something?"

"No, just something that has popped into my head."

Sarah shook her head and smiled; she stayed silent while thinking before finally saying, "I think a couple, maybe three would be good."

Brandon nodded, thinking before replying, "I definitely want more than one, but I don't need to field a baseball team."

Sarah started laughing at his comment, "How many is that?"

"Nine."

"Dear lord no! You're not the one pushing a watermelon out of a hole the size of a grapefruit."

"Ahhh, that's weird!"

Sarah continued laughing, "That is the best example! And honey, I love you, but you've got a big head, not looking forward to that."

"Hey! It's not that...well yeah, I do have a big head."

She nodded with a. smile, "Oh, I've noticed."

They sat silently, just smiling at each other until Brandon said, "I would like a couple too."

"I'm glad, a few years down the line, I think I need to have my first one before 30 or the doctors get concerned."

Brandon nodded, "So that gives us...you...three years?"

Sarah reached over and took his hand, "I like the idea of that giving us three years."

"I do too...". She leaned over and kissed him.

She broke the kiss and leaned back in her chair, "Good, now will you let me get back to reading?"

Brandon laughed, "As long as I can stare, your boobs look great in that suit."

"Brandon! Behave."

He laughed, "They do, and I am allowed to say it."

She laughed and shook her head, turning her Kindle on, finding the book she was almost done with and let go of Brandon's hand as he dug for his iPad in his bag. Once he had found it, his hand found hers again, bringing a smile to her face as she became absorbed in her book and Brandon began to look over stats from the team that evening.

Mya reappeared about 20 minutes later and lay down on her towel, she reached around to untie her top, but before Brandon could say anything Sarah piped up, "No way. That stays tied or I'm covering you with a towel."

"But my prom dress!"

"Figure it out on your own or when we aren't around."

Mya huffed and Sarah smirked, then said to Brandon, "See, I can be stern when necessary."

He laughed, "Good because I figure Brayden and a few of them will trickle down here shortly. Don't need to give them any ideas." He heard talking behind them, turning his head he found Mike and Matt making their way onto the sand.

They set their chairs down and Mike said, "Check your email, I sent you some stuff to look at."

Sarah shook her head, "Welp, that is my cue, have fun boys."

She stood, grabbed her towel from the back of her chair, and tossed it besides Mya, laying down beside her and saying softly, "It's nothing personal kid, there are times you have to maintain certain appearances."

Mya smiled softy, "I guess, I just don't want tan lines. My dress is a halter."

Sarah smiled, "I understand, did you bring anymore bathing suits?"

"No..."

"Bummer, have you used self-tanner before?"

"I always end up orange."

"Okay, we will get that taken care of, you have to use the good stuff and use it gradually. When is prom?"

"Three weeks."

"Oh, that is plenty of time." They spent the next 10 minutes talking about make-up and self-tanner while Brandon, Matt, and Mike went over Mike's notes and the video clips he took, dissecting certain aspects. Just as Brandon was standing to go switch the jerseys over to the dryer, Lisa texted telling him that she had switched them, so he went back to his planning, but not before smiling as he watched Sarah and Mya talk and laugh about who knows what.

***

After dinner, the team dressed and left on schedule; Sarah helped clean up the mess, then changed into a tennis skirt and the t-shirt from the night before. When the women arrived, the Panthers were already on the field taking warm-up and shortly after taking their seats, the game got rolling.

Unlike the that morning, there was plenty of offense with the score being tied up at four a piece going into the sixth inning. The Panthers we able to get two runs in the sixth, giving them a cushion as they entered the seventh. As the top of the inning wound down, Brandon yelled out, "Mitchell! Get loose." The player hopped up and followed their catcher down the line to the rudimentary bullpen.

Matt looked across the diamond and gave Brandon a look of uncertainty. Brandon motioned with both hands to calm down and they finished the half of the inning. Matt met Brandon outside of the dugout, "You sure that's a good idea?"

"Not really, but they haven't hit a curveball all night."

"He threw five yesterday, and if you want him to throw tomorrow, he needs to be quick tonight."

"That's my hope." Brandon yelled down the line," You two good?"

The pitcher gave him a thumbs up, threw one more, then both players made their way towards the field. Brandon caught the catcher, who without prompting said, "He's throwing good."

"Okay, I'm going to call each one, expect curves and two seamers, you call the locations."

The catcher nodded and trotted out to the field, setting up behind the plate as the pitcher tossed a few pitches to get used to the mound. As Brandon settled down on his bucket, Matt sat down beside him, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too."

Over the next 10 minutes, Brandon called the pitches and other than one batter reaching on an error by the third baseman, their pitcher threw a total of 22 pitches sealing the win. After the teams shook hands, Brandon was approached by the tournament organizer, "Coach Baker?"

Brandon turned shaking his hand, "Yes sir, how are you?"

"Good! Hell of a game there and you've got a hell of a team."

"Thank you sir. What can I do for you?"

"Just wanted to give you the rundown of tomorrow." Brandon nodded and the man explained, "You all will play tomorrow morning at 10:30, If you win that game, you will for sure play again at 2:30. Then, depending on the bracket, that 3:30 game may be the championship, or the championship could be at 7:30"

"Three games?"

"Yes, that is just how the tournament has fallen this year."

Brandon shook his head, worrying about the length, "Okay, it is what it is then. Thank you."

"Thank you for coming and good luck."

Brandon turned back to the dugout and filled Matt and Mike in, before announcing to the team what the plan was, "Good game tonight, I'm proud of how the bats got going. Defense was good, just have to watch those stupid mistakes. Tomorrow, our first game is at 10:30, when we win, we play again at 3:30. That game could be the championship, or we could be looking at a game at 7:30."

There were mutterings around the dugout, and Matt spoke up, "It's a lot, but it's things like this that define who a team is. We have the conditioning; we can handle it."

Brandon nodded, "Any questions?" No one replied, and Brandon continued, "Okay, get packed up, get back to the vans. Need to get plenty of sleep tonight, tomorrows gonna be a long day."

The players began shuffling around while Brandon and Mike made their way out of the dugout to find Sarah and Lisa waiting with Kim and Jen. Sarah smiled, "Well that was much better."

Brandon smiled, "That it was. Mrs. Cline, where are we on things like sandwich stuff, fruit, Gatorade, etc?"

"I think we have plenty. What's tomorrow look like?" Brandon explained everything to her and once he was done Lisa said, "I think we are fine for two games, but if we have a third, we will have to figure something out."

"Can you handle that?"

"Of course. I'll do an inventory at the house, Sarah you ready to go?"

Sarah nodded hugging Brandon, "Good game babe, I'll see you back at the house."

****

The team arrived back to the house and after unloading the van's Brandon and Matt sent the players to shower and gave them a 7:00 wake-up call; they then went upstairs to check on the preparations for the next day. Sarah had already showered and was standing in the kitchen with Lisa counting out Liquid IV packets and writing a shopping list for what they needed. She smiled as they walked in, "Hey babe."

He walked up to her, kissing her cheek as she went back to counting, "How's it going?"

Lisa looked up, "We are good for the first two games. Like I said earlier, if we have to play a third game, we will have to get food."

Brandon nodded, "Sounds good, thank you for handling this."

Lisa smiled, "You're welcome."

Brandon looked over at Sarah, "Having fun yet?"

She scoffed, "Of course! Being the coach's girlfriend is so much fun."

Brandon laughed, "Even though you don't understand much about the game?"

"I don't have to understand the game to do this."

Brandon laughed, "Alright ladies, I'm going to go shower, then I am going to get to bed. I told Matt and Mike we could talk game plan first thing."

Both ladies wished him a good night and Sarah added, "I'll be in once we are done getting stuff ready for tomorrow."

He nodded and made his way down the hall. After getting in the shower, he slowly washed off, half expecting Sarah to join him, but after 10 minutes with her not appearing, he finished up and climbed out, slipping on his gym shorts before brushing his teeth and heading back into the bedroom. He found Sarah reclined on the bed in her gym shorts, but instead of her tank top, she was just wearing a sports bra. He smiled, "I thought you might join me."

She laughed, "I already showered, I don't need two."

He climbed into bed beside her, kissing her, "But you're so dirty normally."

She laughed again, smacking him before climbing out of bed, "Behave."

"Never!"

She went into the bathroom and after brushing her teeth, reemerged, shed her shorts, then stripped her bra off, slipping into a shirt of his that she had been sleeping in. She climbed into bed and scooted against him before saying, "Mind some TV while we talk?"

"Talk? That's never good."

"Oh hush. I want to talk about the house."

He lifted his arm, wrapping it around her shoulder and pulling her against him, "Okay, so what do you want to talk about?"

She snuggled against him and said, "I got a phone call earlier today that the furniture is going to be delivered on Tuesday."

"Oh nice! Do you still have the drawing of where to put everything?"

"Yep! It's at home on the bar in the basement."

"Perfect."

"Yeah, I also have the painters coming in a week to finish up the paint in the basement. And your new lawnmower is set to be delivered in two weeks."

"Sounds like everything is coming together."

"I think so, which is good because I leave in three weeks for tour."

"Shit, that has creeped up."

"No kidding. Rehearsals have been going well; the trucks and busses head to Dallas in two and half weeks. We fly down two days later."

He smiled, "I'm still planning on coming for the first leg of the tour."

She returned his smile, "I'm glad you're coming, what about the team?"

He shrugged, "It'll only be an issue if we make it out of the region and into the actual state playoffs."

"Then what?"

"Then I may have to get creative."

She laughed, "How in the world are you going to do that? We can't move tour stops and you can't move games."

"I have no clue. I'll be honest, it'll take a miracle for us to reach that level. We are good, but we aren't that good."

Sarah nodded, "I guess we will see what happens."

"Yep. You still going to be good to fly in the middle of June and drive with me?"

"Yes, I was very clear to Morgan and the company that they couldn't add shows then."

"They do that?"

"Not really, but they did just add one that I want to talk to you about."

"Okay?"

In September, there was an open Friday night. We play Merriweather Pavilion near Baltimore on Wednesday and Xfinity Theater in Connecticut on Sunday; the tour company scheduled the Prudential Center on Friday night."

"In Newark?"

"That would be the one. I was thinking about getting Mya, her mom, and Brayden if they are still a thing, backstage passes?"

Brandon smiled, "She'd love that. Maybe add Matt and a guest?"

"I thought so, I also thought it'd be good for you to see people if you were with us. Guest for Matt?"