A Day Full of Surprises

Ginny

"Ginny this is good! You needed a change. This team isn't growing. We can't stay stagnant." Amelia reasoned. "You need to get back to the Padres and get some new energy going. And everyone already knows you so, it won't be awkward for once."

Amelia never found out about what happen between me and Mike so, she never understood why I avoided the city over the past 3 years.

I did not want to be traded. It wasn't my choice. It wasn't the end of the world either as being back with the boys would be a dream. I missed those guys. They were by far my favorite group yet. Sadly, Al passed away last season. I still have no idea who my new coach will be. I kept in contact with many of the players over the years. Avoiding my favorite player, Mike, hasn't been easy. I texted him once in a great while about big events in the game. Smart remarks and such. I didn't want him to think that I wasn't grown up enough to face him. Having to see Rachel post pictures of her and Mike on twitter and Instagram was unbearable. I went ghost on social media just to avoid seeing him with her. No one noticed since I never posted much of anything myself. I left all that to my social media manager. It took me a long time to get over my initial anger of Mike and Rachel getting back together. He had obviously moved on with his life. I couldn't say the same for myself. I tried to keep my dating life as private as possible. I had a couple of low-key relationships that turned sour the minute they wanted to go public. Some of them leaked pictures with me out of spite. I did not want any of my relationships in the public's eye. It was embarrassing and always brought up too much harassment from the guys. It seemed like they would tease me whether I was dating a player or not. Maybe it would be better if I were a lesbian. No matter what guy I dated, the guys in the locker room would begin trying to convince me what they had to offer in comparison. They would suddenly confess they loved me even though they hardly knew me.

My feelings for Mike… never disappeared. All I could do was avoid him and my feelings in every way possible. For he had clearly learned to love without me. I half expected him to show up at my door as soon as he retired. But he hadn't so much sent me a text message. Then word got out that he moved to LA with Rachel. My heart broke that day. The memory of his kiss by his pool became my torture. The thought of being in San Diego was going to bring back too many memories. At least he is living in LA with his ex-wife/girlfriend and not San Diego. Why Rachel and Mike didn't just get married again was a mystery. They may as well in my opinion. They live together and their relationship is very public so, what was the big deal? That's me just pretending it doesn't faze me.

Ginny in San Diego

Being in my old hotel was like going back in time. It still felt like home to me. This time I would make sure to find a permanent place of residence. "Are you ready to go meet the team?" Amelia entered my door with a big smile and my new jersey in hand. "Number 43!" She sang. "They saved your number!" Amelia had not let me watch any TV for a week. She said there was a big surprise at Petco and she didn't want it to get spoiled. As irritating as it was to play this silly game, I hadn't seen Amelia this excited about something in a while. Amelia had become one of my best friends. Before I got off the D List, I called her and groveled. I had been wrong about her intentions. I had been wrong in how I was treating her. She was now someone I had complete trust in. So, if she asks me to stay off the grid for a week for a big surprise, I wasn't going to argue with her about it. Even if it was harder than I had imagined. I watched a lot of HGTV.

Later that day

I walked into the clubhouse and found everyone clapping. I recognized many faces but there were so many new faces. Blip was smiling bigger than anyone else in the room.

"Ginny! Welcome home bubble butt!" Blip wrapped me into a bear hug and swung me around. Blipp was now the captain. He had been the captain for 2 years ever since Mike retired.

"We have a surprise for you Ginny, Amelia squealed. Blip's smile was more like a wince. Guess who the new coach is?" She looked like a small child ready to see Santa Clause. This of course made me laugh and I was now ready to see who this coach was that was soo special that she made me watch nothing but HGTV for a week. "None other than your favorite baseball player of all time! Mike Lawson!" Mike appeared from the back of the crowd of players. His face almost as surprised as mine. If I had to guess, he didn't know this was a surprise to me. Blip shrank behind a couple of other players.

Coach? Lawson? It felt like time stood still. My mouth agape, I couldn't find air or the ability to move my muscles.

"Hey rook." Mike padded me on the shoulder.

I forced a smile and nervously nodded my head. My heart pounding and trying to control the many emotions that flooded through me. Am I angry? Am I shocked? Am I swooning? I think I'll settle for shocked.

"Coach!?" I said with a crack in my voice. "Really?" That last response sounded like a high pitched out of tune violin.

I looked at Amelia. "I wanted to surprise you." Amelia explained now with worry as she read how uncomfortable I looked. I wanted to kill her.

"Well, you did." I managed to say through my gritted teeth and forced smile.

Mike slid his hands into his pockets. "We couldn't be happier to have you here Rookie."

"We couldn't be happier having Lawson as our coach!" One of the players shouted. "If we can't have Al, there is no one better we could hope for." The team started clapping.

I forced another laugh. I didn't want to give away the hurricane of confused emotions swirling inside of me. "Wow! This… really is a surprise! I'm…I'm…. soooo excited!" I awkwardly punched my fist into the air. "Awesome!" I turned slightly to face Amelia who was now standing behind me. "Amelia, I'm going to kill you." I grunted through my teeth. She half smiled and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"As surprised as I am that you didn't know I was here, we have a bigger surprise for you actually." Mike teased and led the way to the first cubby in the room. It looked just like all the other cubbies lined next to it except my jersey and name hung on the rack. Was he expecting me to dress with the boys now? To the left of that cubby was a frosted glass wall. He pulled a handle and the wall slid away into the existing wall of the locker room. He gestured for me to step inside. I walked into a dressing area and shower room with a second private door to the clubhouse hallway. Mike followed and closed the glass wall and locked it. I nearly jumped as I turned to face him. "Now you can dress in private whenever you need to. When you're done dressing, you can unlock this latch here, and the wall slides open like this." The wall was opened again so all the players were once again insight. "This frost is solid so no shadows or silhouettes will be visible. Now, it looks like you aren't even separated from the rest of the guys. What do you think?"

It was incredible. I now entered a whole new level of shock. "You guys did this for me?"

"Well Mike did." Oscar interjected.

Mike gave me a warm smile. "I don't like the way things went down when you first came to us. I want to make it up to you. And now maybe other teams will make the same accommodations for their female athletes. "

"Lawson, I mean Coach, I don't know what to say. This is beyond thoughtful." I held a hand over my heart. This really was such an incredible surprise. I loved it. Amelia stood by nodding her head in approval. She knew about it all along.

"I'm glad you like it." He beamed.

"Well enough of pimp my locker. Let's get to practice Y'all!" Blip announced.

The guys whooped and clapped and turned to their lockers to begin getting dressed. Some made jokes about how they weren't feeling very special and wanted upgrades to their locker.

"Can I speak to you in my office Baker?" Mike requested. Another wave of shock went through my system. I don't think I can handle anything more.

I nodded and followed him to his office.

Mike closed the door after I entered and walked over to lean on his desk. His arms crossed. He was slimmer than he was 3 years ago. Still carrying muscles in all my favorite places. His beard short and neatly trimmed. He moved with much more ease than before. This must be the results of his double knee surgery I heard about. He must have rehabilitated his body in retirement. He looked a few years younger now.

"I just want to check in with you before we start." His eyes were serious and directly locked onto mine. His warm smile he shared with me moments ago had disappeared and his lips drew a straight line.

"About?"

"I'm excited to have you on the team. I'm excited to be back in the game too. But you and I haven't talked much over the years. I just want to make sure we are good. We had some unfinished business for lack of a better way to put it." This was a different Mike than I remembered. He wanted to talk about our feelings? He used to run away from talking about anything serious.

"Yeah. I'm good." Be a grown-up Ginny. Show him you can be just as brave as he is right now. "Having you as my Coach will take some getting used to. But, nothing I'm too worried about." I lied. "I'm sad about Al."

"Yeah." He bowed his head. "We all are. It would have been nice to have him as an advisor."

"I bet." Now there was the awkward silence. With both our heads down in what seemed like a moment of silence for Al, I felt the need to break the silence. "How's Rachel taking you coming back to ball?"

He shot his head up and with repeated nods of his head he answered. "Good. Everything's good."

"Good?" I cocked my head.

"Yeah, good." His eyebrows shot up high. There it was. That awkwardness I knew Mike to have.

"I'm happy for you guys." I smiled with a slow blink of my eyes.

"Thanks." His smile was warm but, a little sadness touched the corners of his eyes. I could still pick up on his emotions. I hope he wasn't still as good to pick up on mine.

He cleared his throat. "How about you? I've seen some fun with Ginny after hours."

"Naw. Nothing really. Just playing ball." There wasn't anything to tell. Why couldn't I have gotten a boyfriend at least to show him I had moved on? Even if it wasn't true?

"I see." He looked to the ground with a small smile. "So, we're good?"

"Yeah, great."

"Great"

"Okay, I'm gonna go play ball now."

"Yeah, good idea. I'll see you on the field."

"Right. Coach." I wanted to call him 'old man.' But he wasn't looking much like an old anything right now. "I'll see you out there." My heart was left pounding, aching. I walked into my private locker and closed the wall. My thoughts started racing. What a weird meeting. Why would he need to see if I'm okay? What did he mean? He want to see if my feelings were ok? Really? He has Rachel. What right does he have to know how my heart is feeling?' Coach Lawson? What. The. Fuck. Just happened.