amazing grace. christian yelich (book one)

fourteen. winner winner

It's the bottom of ninth inning and I'm ready to have a heart attack. The Phillies are hitting now and the Brewers are ahead by two runs. Scott is at third, Bryce is at first, and there are two outs. Rhys is up to hit and my heart is pounding. They need to win, Rhys needs to hit this home run.

          The first pitch is a ball, dropping low just like my heart.  The next pitch is a strike, one Rhys swings and misses at.  Scott is itching to run home, I can see it in the way he leads off third.

          "Come on, Rhys," I whisper, leaning over my legs.  "Come on, Rhys."  He hits the ball and my heart leaps into my throat.  "Yes.  Yes!  Yes!" I yell, standing up to watch the ball soar back towards center field—right towards Christian.

          The ball sinks and I fall back into my seat as Christian catches the ball.  "Shit," I curse under my breath, putting my head in my hands.

          "Oh, Grace Kingery!"  I look up to see Christian grinning widely, holding up the ball he just caught.  "I believe you owe me a date."

          "I don't know.  I'm going out with Scott and Bryce for drinks tonight," I say with a smile.

          "Come on, we are clearly the superior team.  We actually hit them over the fence," he chuckles.  I furrow my brows, his comment leaving a bad taste in my mouth as one of his teammates laughs.

          "No thanks.  I don't want to go on a date with a narcissistic douche," I huff, gripping my phone tightly before following the crowd up the stairs.  I can hear him yelling my name, but I don't want to turn around, not after that rude comment.

          I follow the flow of the crowd before separating to go down to the Phillies clubhouse.  There's no cheering excitement today, only a silent disappointment no one speaks of.

          "Hey, Scott," I say quietly, putting my hand on his shoulder.

          "Please don't try to make this better, Gracie," he sighs, shaking his head.

          "I'm not going to.  Sure you guys had errors, every team does, but you all played well," I tell him truthfully, turning him around in the chair.  "Scottie, everyone has a bad day.  You guys won yesterday and you're going to win tomorrow, I have full faith in that."

          "It still sucks, Gracie," he sighs.

          "Hell, of course it does.  You love baseball and you want to be the best, but sometimes that doesn't work out in the end.  Get up and do better tomorrow, that's all you can do," I encourage him, using our dads words he told us during our college games.

          He smiles, nodding his head.  He stands up to hug me tightly, my phone buzzing in my back pocket.  I hug him tightly, knowing the buzzing is Christian.  "You're an amazing sister," he whispers.

          "Can I get in on this hug?  I'm in need," Bryce says with a pout.  We nod, opening our arms to pull him into our hug.  "You guys give the best hugs."

          We both laugh at that, letting Rhys into our hug too.  Rhys is beating himself up, we can all see that in the way he slouches.

          My phone starts to buzz again, Scott leaning back to look at me with narrowed eyes.  "Why are you not looking at that?  You always do," he says with narrowed eyes.

          "Because it's probably Christian and I don't want to talk to him.  He made a comment that didn't sit right with me, joke or not, it was shitty to say," I explain with a sigh.