A/N: I don't own what you recognize, and I deeply appreciate any and all reviews.

"I could never even consider dating Will Darcy," Eliza Bennet pronounced. She was sprawled out on the couch in Eric Wentworth and Anne Elliot's living room with a pillow on her chest and her feet on the end table.

"If you get your feet off the glass on my end table, I won't kill you," Eric replied.

Eliza kicked her feet up in the air. "All that I'm saying is that I'd never date him. I know he's your friend, but I'd never date him."

"Hold it. Who said anything about you dating him? I just told you that he wanted to know if there was anything that he could do for the wedding."

"He should ask the bride, not the maid of honor."

Eric shrugged. "He actually asked the groom, and since you're here and the bride isn't, I'm asking you if you have any ideas."

"He could help with name cards?"

"Would that require him to write anything by hand?"

Eliza shook her head. "Nope, he would just need to fold them and maybe cut them out."

"He could do that," Eric said. "He also wants to know if your toast is going to be sentimental or funny. He doesn't want to step on your toes."

"I was planning on making Anne cry."

"That's no fair. Anne cries at everything-happy or sad. She cried when I asked her to marry me instead of answering. Will could stand there and just read my baseball stats for the past ten years, and she'd probably cry."

Eliza snorted. "Eric, you are so much darker than you ever let on."

"I'm Mr. Selfless, Mr. Humility; I leave being troubled to the bullpen."

Eliza rolled her eyes. "You're always so mild, Eric. How do you do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"How are you so calm?"

Eric shrugged. "I've just always been calm."

"But how?" Eliza persisted. "How have you remained calm even after Anne broke up with you after high school or when you have troubles in a game? You remain so calm. You don't scream. You don't yell. You just get really quiet and then you calm yourself down. How do you do it?"

Her friend's fiance shrugged again. "I grew up with Sophia. I had to be calm because she wasn't. Also, Sophia was five when I was born and she was loud and demanding and everywhere. I had to be sweet and quiet. And then two years, Jacob came along, and that was more of the loud, demanding noise. So I was quiet. It was easy. It's just the way I am, I guess. I've never really felt the need to scream or yell much. That was Sophia's thing."

Eliza just looked at him. "How does Anne know when you're mad?"

Eric laughed. "I tell her. I just tell her that I'm frustrated and we talk about it."

"Is that what you did when you guys broke up eight years ago?"

"No, then I put a hole in my parents' living room wall."

"And then you moved on?" Eliza asked, pulling herself into a sitting position.

"No, I made that break-up my professional fuel. I became the pitcher that I am today using that fire. I kept reminding myself that the Eliots didn't think I was a good pitcher and I was trying to prove to the world that I belonged in the big leagues."

"And you do."

Eric nodded. "And everyone knows that now. But when I started out, forget it. I had to earn my place in the world. And to be honest, I was better off alone then. It wouldn't have been good for Anne to have been around that experience."

"Why do you say that?"

Eric leaned back in his chair. "I poured every ounce of my being into baseball from the age of eighteen until twenty-five. Everything I did was about baseball. If I was playing it, then I was thinking about it or dreaming about it. It consumed me. I was thinking about it even when I said that I wasn't. My goal, my focus-everything was to be a better pitcher. My friendships, my family-all of that came second to baseball. It wouldn't have been a good place for Annie. I didn't know that then, but I know it now. And I'm glad that life kept us apart while we grew up."

"How are you so good?"

"I'm not good. I'm just quiet." Eric stretched his long body and smiled.

Eliza looked at him and shook her head. "I like you, and I'm glad that we're friends. And I'm even gladder that you're marrying my best friend. But I will never understand how people can be calm and reserved."

Eric laughed. "You know me, you know Anne and George. We're all reserved. We keep our emotions to ourselves. Will plays his cards close to his vest most of the time."

"He seems pretty extroverted to me," Eliza said.

"He's extroverted but he's surprisingly calm. When he's stressed, he just goes and throws baseballs at Ed."

"He throws baseballs at Ed?"

"Yeah, that's what I do too actually. I just go out in the backyard or to the bullpen and throw off my stress. That's what I've done my whole life. When Jacob and I were kids, Mom used to send us out in the backyard and tell us to throw baseballs until we were calm again."

"So baseball is your happy place?"

Eric grinned. "The diamond is my best friend."

"I thought Anne was your best friend."

He laughed. "She's my human best friend. The baseball diamond is my inanimate best friend. It has a soul, you know."

Eliza rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous."

"Will says the same thing. He swears that the pitcher's mound at Comerica Park can speak to him."

"Well, I now know that I should never take Will Darcy seriously. I could never believe a man who thinks that a pile of sand talks to him."

"You just don't understand baseball," Eric replied firmly.

"Annie, is Will Darcy serious about wanting to help with the wedding?" Eliza was hanging out with Anne and Emma over Labor Day weekend.

"Of course he's serious," Anne replied. "Why wouldn't he?"

Eliza shrugged. "I just figured that he was just asking to be nice."

"That's not his style," Emma said. "If Will says something, he means it. He's a lot of things, but insincere is not one of them."

"How do you know that?"

Anne shrugged. "Will Darcy may be a lot of things. He's crazy. He's a goofball. He really does eat a metric crap-ton of Taco Bell the night before he pitches. He loves to pull pranks. Sometimes, I think he's about five years old at heart. But he isn't insincere."

"He is incredibly genuine," Emma added, running her fingers through her long blonde hair. "He says what he means. And his actions come from his heart even if they don't always make sense."

"So dating Amanda Ferguson came from his heart?" Eliza asked with raised eyebrows.

"He genuinely thought he saw something there. I don't think he ever saw it as a long-term relationship, but he saw something of value in that relationship," Anne explained steadily.

"Yeah, her body," Eliza muttered.

"You're such a cynic, Eliza," Emma returned. "Sometimes, you have to go outside of your comfort zone and realize that not everyone has ulterior motives."

"I just don't trust him."

Emma sighed and leaned back into the couch cushions. "We're not asking you to marry him. We're asking you to believe that he is a good person."

"When he says that he wants to help out with my wedding, he means it."

"So what should I do?"

"Ask him to meet up for coffee and talk about what you need to do," Emma suggested. "Tell him everything that you need to do that he could even possibly help with, and then ask him what he is willing to help with."

"Well, he can't help with the bachelorette party," Anne joked. "I won't allow that."

"Oh, trust me," Emma returned. "He won't want to. That is SO not Will's style."

Eliza laughed. "What will he want to do?"

"I don't know. Ask him." Anne leaned back into the couch and shrugged. "If he says that he wants to help, then he means it. So let him."

Two days after that conversation, the Tigers left town on a ten-day road trip, which temporarily denied Eliza the opportunity of meeting up with Will Darcy. However, the same day the boys of summer left town, a new school year began at St. Benedict's Academy, the Catholic school where both Eliza and Anne worked. Anne was an English teacher, and Eliza taught Spanish. As always, both women found themselves completely consumed by work although Anne found that her impending wedding was keeping her almost as busy as her job was.

With Emma and Marisa Benoit both out of town with the Tigers, Anne was relying heavily on Eliza for help with the wedding. "This is making me so grateful that I have sisters," Eliza told Anne as she helped her decide what to use as favors. "I can make them help me if I ever have to plan my own wedding."

"I have sisters, but they aren't interested in helping me with my wedding to Eric. Now, if they thought that Eric was important and from high society, they'd be all-aboard. But since I'm just marrying a baseball player, he isn't good enough for them. His money isn't good enough for them."

"Jerks," Eliza replied. That had been her token comment on the Eliot family ever since she, Anne, and Eric had all been students at Our Lady of Consolation Catholic High School. As it happened, OLC was St. Benedict's biggest rival in sports, and Eliza coached St. Ben's girls' cross country and track teams, a job that consumed her Saturdays all fall and all spring. Winter was her only free time.

Anne smiled at Eliza. "Do you think that all of your sisters would be willing to help you plan your wedding? Can you really see that happening?"

Eliza laughed. "Oh gosh, you're right. Genevieve would help. Maria might help a bit as long as she could focus on the music."

"But you wouldn't want that because her taste is so bizarre when compared with yours."

"True."

"And do you think Kat or Lydia would ever really help with your wedding? They'd just give you obnoxious, trendy ideas that they'd pulling from Pinterest."

Eliza chuckled. "Why are you always right?"

"It's part of my Anne Eliot charm. But anyway, do you see why I don't mind not having Isabella and Maya around to help planning my wedding?"

"I do. And I'm also hoping that you and Emma can help along with Gen if or when I ever get married."

Anne squeezed Eliza's hand. "Of course I will. You're my best friend. I'll be there for you just like you're being here for me."

A/N: Please review!