Chapter 14 – Bucket of Baseballs

Troy's POV

"I am madly in love with you." My eyes grew a few sizes and my heart sped faster than I knew it could. What did she just say to me? I took a few steps backwards and then I glanced at her. Tears were growing in her eyes, large tears that I didn't want to see. My head flew in a circle as I didn't know what to say. What were you supposed to say? My mind clouded together.

"What?" I sputtered, her eyes closed and she did not look back up at me. "You don't have to say anything," she whispered kicking the grass around under her feet. "It was stupid anyways. I mean, really stupid, I should probably just go." Her words muffled together as I could see her trying to stop the tears. She kept her head down before she walked off.

I was paralyzed to move. I did not want a girl to fall in love with me. I did not want that. I was too focused on baseball at the moment; I could careless for a girlfriend right now. I turned back around to see her figure walking off towards her car. It went from a slow walk to a steady run, she admitted her feelings to me and what did I do? I gripped the fence around me and then tried to keep myself balanced. I suddenly felt really dizzy.

Bending over I tried to catch my breath as I felt like I was hyperventilating. What the hell just happened? I mean, yes, for granted that kiss meant a lot more than nothing to me. I had feelings for her but not those feelings, or did I? No wonder she was so confused and had to leave, this sucked.

"Dude! Why does it look like a truck just hit you?" I turned to see Cody staring at me and then I looked back towards where her car sped away. The black car flashing into the street, my chest began to ache.

"I am," my words chased off before I turned to look at Cody. "She told me she was in love with me. That she was scared that I would tell her that, the kiss we shared meant nothing." Cody's face fell and then he shook his head. "No way, that is what you told her that made her leave wasn't it?"

Dropping my head to the ground, I kicked the dust around in the ground. "Troy! You never tell that to the girl unless it is true! I know for a fact that it was not true; you just don't have that extra speed without a lot more practice. You are feeling something more."

"Okay, maybe it meant a little more than nothing to mean but I don't know if I love her or not! I mean, I am beginning to understand why she left, this is making my head hurt."

"Troy, you talk about her non-stop. I have rarely seen you since she showed up and if I did, she was with you! She loves baseball; she has taken you to see the Yankees on the home opener. She is the one who let you meet most of them!" I shook my head, "Does that mean I love her?" Cody looked me hard in the eye. "Because she has showed me so much stuff that I should have suddenly developed such feelings for her?"

"I can not answer that question for you my friend. You can only answer that question but listen. I know, I have girls who are friends but I don't hang out with them like you hang out with Gabi. You flirt non-stop and when you told me about that kiss, you cared. You just didn't want to ruin a relationship you have loved. No, if you are going to tell her you love her back, you have to know it's not because of her dad, it's because you truly care about her and that is a girl you are going to focus on."

"When we touch anymore, it's awkward." I said looking at him and then I closed my eyes. "Why do you think it is awkward?" the question hung in the air for a while as I stood leaning against the fence. I thought about it for several minutes, thinking long and hard on why it had became such an awkward thing.

"Damnit! I just let her leave! It's been so awkward because we have feelings for her! Damn it!" I shook the fence for a moment before shaking my head. "I have to make this right. Maybe I do have feelings for her; maybe…maybe I love her too."

"Troy, don't doubt yourself on that. You have to be sure before you say those words to her. Just fix it before she won't talk to you or she moves on from such a thing."

Cody slapped my shoulder, "I will gather all your stuff and bring it to you tomorrow before practice." I nodded thanks as he tossed me my keys. I raced to my car as I had the perfect idea.

Curled up in a ball in my bed and I was scared. I had admitted my feelings to a guy and all he could say is what and then when I walked away he didn't even stop me. He looked so paralyzed, blindsided.

Tears flowed down my cheeks fuck my dad. He is the one who told me to do it and guess what. I was rejected! I wiped away the tears as I decided to go find my mom. I pulled my sweatshirt around my arms farther and then I went down the stairs. She was sitting in bed with her huge baby bump sticking out.

"Gabi! I am so happy to see you, wait, are you okay?" I went and crawled into the bed as I rested my head into her lap. "I told Troy how I really felt."

"Oh no." she said as her hand rested on the top of my head. "I am assuming that did not go over well?" tears gathered in my throat as I shook my head. "No," I finally let out the sob and my mom ran her hand through my hair. "I am so sorry honey, maybe it was for the better." I cried and my mom let her hands run through my hair. She rubbed my back softly and then I turned my head a little to look at her.

"I really liked him. I think I love him." I whispered, my mom stroked away some of the tears that were on my face. "I know honey, I know." She finally let me crawl underneath the blankets and I rested my head on her shoulder. We lay together and turned on my dad's game that he was playing in. He was currently standing on first holding a Tampa Bay player on.

"You know what we need to do?"

"What?" I asked it had been about thirty minutes since my last tear. "We need to paint the babies nursery." I was quiet for a few minutes and then I nodded. "Let's do it."

"Well, I don't know what color I want to do. Since we don't know the genders,"

I scrunched up my nose and then I rolled over on to my stomach. I rested my head against my arms before thinking. "What about a navy? Navy goes great with Pink and it also will go amazing with orange or something like that. Plus it's a Yankees color."

My mom's eyes glowed. "That is perfect. Gabi you are genius. We can go navy and white for now until the babies are born!" I smiled and then my mom hopped out of bed.

Her overwhelming stomach stuck out as her back leaned back. "How about you call in some pizza and then we can paint the nursery tonight. Go shopping tomorrow and then we can decorate."

"What about like a beach theme?" my mom grinned and then hugged me; "You are fantastic. I do not know what I would do without you." I hugged my mom back tightly, "I don't know what I would do without you." I whispered back to her. My mom pulled back and then she kissed my cheek.

She brushed my hair back, "I love you baby girl," she pulled back and then went into her closet. My mom was living in yoga pants with one of my dad's Yankee's hoodies. She flipped it inside out before pulling it over her head. "I will be back shortly alright?"

I nodded as she escaped from the house. I slumped back against the bed as I picked up the phone and pressed it against my ear.

"May I help you? Cody speaking," I let a sigh drop from my mouth, "Hey Cody, it's Gabi," Cody didn't speak for several seconds before I finally shrugged. "I am just ordering a large cheese pizza." I mumbled quietly.

"Sure thing. Do you want me to deliver it?" I nodded but knew he couldn't see me. "Please."

"He didn't mean to hurt you," he whispered fast, "I know, it just…it hurt." I told him quietly, "Well, I will see you in about twenty minutes."

"Thanks Cody,"

I hung up with him and crawled up in my mom's bed. The Yankees were up five to three in the top of the seventh. My dad caught the ball at first to record the first out of the inning. His easy grin was fixed on his face as he tossed the ball back to one of the many pitchers.

His black sunglasses placed on the base of his hat with one batters glove poking out of his back pocket. My dad looked good for thirty three. My parents were really young for me being seventeen. It almost shocked me that they were having a baby seventeen years after they had me.

A swift knock came from my door and I groaned. I could have sworn Cody said twenty minutes and it has only been about ten. I stood up off of my mom's bed and went towards the front door. I poked my head out the window but I didn't see anybody. I heard the rap again and it was coming from my bedroom.

Going up the stairs I went into my bedroom to see Troy standing on the other side of the door. I took a deep breath as he had on his famous Yankee cap with a pair of jeans and a button up shirt.

Our eyes caught each others and he held up a thing of flowers. I scrunched my eyebrows together before walking to the doors. I unhooked the locks before letting the doors fly open. Troy walked in and then turned to hand me the beautiful flowers. "Those are for being a jerk."

I closed my eyes to sniff them. The wonderful smell drifted up my nose and I let out a deep breath. They smelt amazing. I set them down onto my bed and then I looked at Troy closer. "Why are you here?"

"To finish what you started." He set down the bucket he was carrying and then he plopped down onto my bed. "Sit next to me." He said patting the bed. I sat down and he popped open the bucket to reveal about fifteen to twenty baseballs.

"What the hell?" I asked as I looked down closely at them. He turned to smile at me and then he reached in to pick one up. "This baseball symbolizes when we first met at the pizza place. It has the date and approx. time of the hour."

I smiled softly as I let the ball fall into my hand. I smoothed my fingers of the red seams and then rolled it into my hands. "The next one," he reached in to grab the next. "Would be the next day when I found out I have five out of seven classes with you, spending all that wonderful time getting to know each other."

I giggled and then held that ball in my hand also. "The next represents the night you came to meet everybody. That was the night where you showed me up with the Alex Montez bullshit but that isn't fair anymore, you hustled me." I smirked and then I leaned against him. "This one is for when you came over to help babysit. Then the next one is for when you came and beat everybody's ass at training."

I was holding five baseballs with black scribbly writing on my ball. The red glowed and I felt like I had all the power holding them in my hands. "This one…got out of order. This would be the basketball game. The one where you tried to get me to forget about that Gabriella Montez that I thought was somebody else."

"This one is when you dropped the bombshell of finally telling me that your dad was Alex Montez." I took a deep breath as he had forgotten the party but that wasn't the fondest memory of my life.

"This one would be for your birthday party. Your dad was still in town and life was good. It was fun and happy." Eight baseballs sat in my lap as Troy bent over for the next one. "This one would be for your birthday when you came to me for your crying shoulder. I was so happy you chose me then." Troy and I caught each other eyes as he smoothed one of his hands over my knee.

Break the eye contact, I watched as he bent over again and then he grabbed the next one. "Ah. One of my fondest memories, the diner, where you asked me to go to the Yankees home opener with you, you have no idea how excited I was." I smirked, "I might have to let you keep that one." I said pressing my head into his shoulder.

"Nah. I think I will let you keep it." He said giving me a little smile before going back in for another one. "This would be," he stopped to read it over, "One of your first times with the guys at somebody's house, I think it was Cody's but I am not sure so I will say somebody."

I was a little to choked up to talk. I just wanted to let Troy finally do all of the talking.

"This one would be for when we went to the home opener. You let me meet all of these people; I would say that may be my favorite." Twelve baseballs that Troy had bought and there was still more to go.

"This is for the awkward moment in the restaurant where we didn't know what to say with each other, this was the first time I realized something had happened and I didn't know what."

He grabbed the next and then he turned towards me. "The fateful game that turned our lives around, the one game where I let my lips touched yours. The one where I kissed you and it meant a lot more to me than nothing." I gasped and I looked him in the eyes. The blue was intense and long lasting look.

Those words that I never wanted to hear were untrue, or at least according to Troy.

Troy grabbed the bucket and reached his arm into it before coming up with the next one. "This would be for the one where I came and followed you to the bathroom because you were upset and crying. This would be the one where I made the dumb mistake of telling you nothing mattered."

I felt hot tears roll on my cheeks as I felt a wave of emotion run through my body. "This one is for when I came up to your house to find that you had fled the area, I was shocked that you had left because you were ready to talk or I thought you were. I just, didn't know how much I hurt you then."

I choked back a soft sob that was building in my throat. "Three more," Troy mentioned before grabbing the next. "This would be for when you came to find me this morning. Telling me that you were madly in love with me, I was shocked; I won't lie to how shocked I was."

The sob tumbled out of my throat and Troy wrapped one arm around me shoulder. He held me for a moment, letting his chin rest on my shoulder, and then he found the next one. "This one is where I was dumb again and let you leave. This is the one where I finally realized something that needed to be said out loud."

The tears couldn't stop as my body shook and then Troy finally pulled out the last baseball. "You need to read this one, aloud." He said handing it to me. I turned the baseball in my hands and then I closed my eyes as I almost couldn't believe it. His blocky penmanship curved along the ball.

"I'm madly in love with you too Gabriella Montez," I read aloud towards him. I dropped the nineteenth ball into my lap before letting them all drop to the floor. I clasped my arms around Troy's neck as he squeezed me close to his waist. "I'm am madly in love with you Gabi, I am, I am so sorry about this morning, I just couldn't realize it then."

I cried into his neck and he rubbed my back. "I love you too Troy, I never though of this happening."

"I never imagined this either Gabs," I pulled back from him and I straddled his lap while he leaned in and touched my forehead with his lips. "I never imagined that you were going to come strolling in my life. Not in a million years did I think I would find somebody like you. You waltzed in and I just suddenly was attached. I tried to stop feelings, we both did, and we both denied it for so long."

"I never did either and then I was suddenly feeling everything." He hugged me again and then I pressed my lips against his. We both finally kissed each other back and it was not a mistake. The kiss was long and heated the passion that lusted in with the kiss made me crave more. Troy's fingers rested against the small of my back as he kept me close.

Troy finally pulled back as he pulled on my strands of hair, letting his fingers glide through them. His blue eyes looked into mine as he kept me close, his body pressing against mine as I circled my arms around his neck. "Thank you," he finally said, his eyes blinked.

"For what?"

"For talking to me, for not pushing me away because of the few mistakes I have made."

I shook my head as I brought him into another kiss. His lips moved against mine as I never wanted to let go of him.

Then I heard the garage door open and the ringing as it went up.

I pulled back away from Troy and then I rested my head against his shoulder. "Do you mind staying over and help paint the nursery?" I whispered into his ear. He stroked my back with his fingers.

"Yea, it sounds like a lot of fun."

"There is one more thing I have though," Troy said as I began to stand up. I sat down and then he looked at me with his deep blue eyes. "I just have to ask, will you be my girlfriend?" I smiled and I wrapped my arms around his shoulder. "Yes, I will be your girlfriend."

He pulled back and then kissed my lips. "Fantastic. I think today has been a pretty productive day."

I smiled and then I giggled, "Now that you have officially made yourself boyfriend status. You have signed up to help with these babies."

He grunted and then he stood up, "Well, maybe I will have to rethink that but until then you are all mine." Troy grabbed his hand in mine and then we headed downstairs. "I guess we should just make this official to my mom."

"Yea, I think we should too." Troy whispered back to me. I looked over at my mom who was standing in the kitchen leaning over the counter. "My mom was never that big! How far along is she?" Troy leaned over to whisper into my ear. "Six and half months, remember twins."

He locked his jaw and then I dragged him forward. "Hey mom," she turned around and then she looked shocked at Troy standing there. "Well, hello Troy!"

He smiled and then waved at her, "Hi Mrs. Montez, how are you and the babies?"

"Fantastic. Just going right through, now are you here to help paint?" she threw her hands on her hips and I giggled. "Uhm, yes." He squeaked out. I tried not to laugh again but he pinched my hand. "Mom," I started, "Troy and I are dating now." I looked her in the eye to tell her, I will tell you all the details later.

"Awh, that is fantastic," she came waddling over and grabbed us into a tight hug, "But Gabi! You have to see this! I went to go grab navy paint thinking fun; Gabi had such a great idea. Well then I stopped in Pottery Barn kids to see what they have and oh my god. I found the cutest idea in the store. The walls were a deep tan with white strip at the top. It it so cute, then it's an animal theme."

"Sounds great mom lets just get to painting."

"The only tricky part is going to be taping and sanding down everything. I mean, I don't think we are going to paint today. Maybe this can be an all week thing or wait until next weekend."

I squeezed Troy's hand a little tighter, "Mom, how about we take care of the taping and things like that tonight. Then next weekend we can start to paint and everything." My mom gave a big smile and then she nodded. My mom had become a little different since her pregnancy began.

"That sounds like a great idea. I mean, I guess I came up with the idea." I took a deep breath as a mood swing was coming on. I let go of Troy and then I went over to my mom. "Calm down, take deep breaths and think,"

"I am really tired," she officially said, "Then go lay down. Troy and I can do the tapping and everything. Just show us how you want it then we can do it."

"If it helps I helped paint my little brothers nursery with strips." Troy suggested my mom let out a yawn. "Sounds great, the magazine with the picture is in it right there."

She pointed to it before grabbing her huge water and heading towards her room. "You ready to do this?" Troy nodded and I snatched the tape, sanders, and the magazine off the counter. The doorbell rang and I had completely forgotten about Cody and the pizza.

"Hey, look who else we can hire to tag along." I looked in the window to see Cody standing there with a pizza. He looked up and then over at Troy before back to me. A 180 had been pulled since the last time I had talked to everybody.

Troy unhooked the door before I invited Cody in. "I already paid for the pizza and I am off work." He looked at Troy and then back to me. "He came over and apologized,"

"We are dating now," Troy said standing on his tiptoes and then grinning. Cody winked at him that must be code for something I will never understand. "Well since you are off work I am hiring you to help me tape this nursery up so we all three can paint it next weekend. My dad said my mom can not help paint."

"Why?" Troy asked, "Because, she is pregnant with twins at six months. You said she already looks full term with one baby." Troy looked towards me and then walked away. I giggled and Cody shook his head. "You are not dating on of the brightest ones in the drawer."

Two and half hours later the nursery was ready to be painted. "Good job on those strips," I said as I looked up at the room. We were all three lying on the floor looking around at the top.

"I know," Troy said cocky, I rolled my eyes and Cody smacked his arm. "Not nice."

"Boys," I warned, "Does your mom know what she is having?" Cody asked, "No. It is supposed to be a surprise."

"Fun," Cody murmured and then he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I better get home. You two love birds have fun," Cody stood up and brushed his hands off on his pants. "Eleven thirty on Saturday!" I yelled after him. I was answered with a slamming door. I rolled my eyes and then let my head rest on Troy's chest.

"Do you know when I found out I liked you more than a friend?"

"When?" he asked, I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't exactly remember but I know one day you were just more than a friend. One day I felt something a little bit more from you. I had to keep telling myself to not think of you that way."

Troy laughed, "I feel the same way. There was this one time where you looked so good. I don't know when but it took a lot for me not to kiss you then. You were just so perfect and I just don't know what to do with you sometimes. I wanted this to have happened a long time ago."

"I love how it happened though. It may have been a little dramatic but it was well worth it."

"So, I have one rule."

Troy raised his head a little and then dropped it, "What would that one rule be?"

"This relationship has nothing to do with my dad the baseball player. This relationship is based purely on us."

Troy sat up and then I sat up giving him a look, "Brie, this has nothing to do with your dad." He frowned and I looked at him harder, "It may not to you now but it can't ever. I know right now it may not but later it may. I just don't want that for me because I have to trust people, it's hard for me to do. If suddenly something happens and you don't want to break up with me because of my dad, I don't want that, at all."

"I understand. I am not going to do that to you. I am going to be your dad's number four favorite," I giggled as he smoothed me close to his body. "I won't give this up for a million things Gabi,"

We were both quiet for several minutes until I grabbed his hand. "Are you sure that you are ready for a relationship?" Troy laughed, "Yea, I think I am because somebody pointed out to me that I have spent more time with you since you came around than I have with my baseball team. Only so many people get that privilege."

I let my head rest on his shoulder, "And only so many people get the privilege to make me cry in the morning and then come to ask me to be your girlfriend."

"Well, when I realized I was blinded by love, I just didn't know what to do this morning. I have had feelings for you for a while now."

"Good, this makes this look more real."

He laughed shaking his head, "You are a piece of work Ms. Montez," I gripped onto his shirt before I pressed my lips firmly against his. "I'm glad," I whispered against his lips.

Troy then popped up and went running to my room; he gave back two minutes later with another baseball. He pulled a sharpie out of his pocket and then wrote on it.

"Ball number twenty," he started staring at me, "When I asked you to be my girlfriend." I grinned softly and then I stood up with the help of Troy. He placed it in my hand and his fingers gazed mine.

"Thank you for that bucket of baseballs."

"I thought you might enjoy that," a smile played on his lips and then I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I love you," I whispered to him. "I love you too,"

:) How did you guys like it? I love this chapter! One of my plenty favorites! The idea came to me about it but it was fun to write,(: Did you think them getting together would be simple….noo. Good. :)

Thanks for all of the reviews! I love them all! Only two more Sundays while I am in school! Yeaaa!

Now you will get to read more about there relationship. Woot woot!

PLEASE REVIEW!