Laguna Beach: Fourth Installment of the Brennan Baseball Series

Chapter Seven: Day Two

Jake woke up the next morning and rolled over, pulling his fingers through Riley's hair gently. She slowly woke up and turned towards him with a sleepy smile.

    "Hey, momma," Jake said, softly with a smile.

    "Hi, dad," Riley replied, the same smile on her face.

Jake kissed her and smiled.

How could life get any better than this?

Nick tied his sneaker sitting on the end of the bed as he felt it move.

    "Nick?" Mackenzie groaned out softly.

    "Yeah, hon. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," He said, leaning over and kissing her.

    "You feeling any better?" She asked him as he stood up and grabbed his keys and phone and put them on the dresser.

    "Much. I'm fine, Mac. I already have Wolff checking in on me every two minutes. Don't you start too," Nick reprimanded her but it came out gentle and sweet instead.

She kissed him and he smiled.

    "Happy nine years" he said, as he pulled out a jewelry box from behind his back.

Mac just gave him a sweet look.

    "I thought we said no presents."

    "Hey, you know who you married," Nick said, sitting on the bed smiling as she took off the ribbon and pulled the lid off.

Mackenzie gasped softly as she saw what was inside.

    "Oh, Nick. You didn't."

She pulled out the ring and studied it. It looked exactly like her old one. It was a long story but Mackenzie had lost her engagement ring a while after they got married and she was devastated even if Nick said he didn't care- that he still had her. She couldn't help feeling bad.

    "It looks exactly the same!"

    "That's because it is," Nick said, his smile becoming wider as Mackenzie just stared at him.

    "What? Nick, honey. That ring cost you-"

    "Almost 8K? Yeah. But... you don't spend nine years with the girl of your dreams and just get her a necklace, Mac. Try it on, babe."

Mackenzie smiled as Nick took it and slid it on her finger gently.

    "Look at that," He whispered. "It fits perfectly."

Mac put her hands on either side of his face and rubbed her thumb across his one cheek as he smiled.

    "I love you so much. Do you know that?"

    "Of course I do. I love you more," Nick said with the sweetest smile that made Mackenzie melt.

    "Now stop it before you make me cry. You gotta get to the field."

    "I'll see you later. We'll go out to celebrate," Nick said, grabbing his stuff and kissing Mac one more time before he went out the door.

Mac fingered the ring and smiled as she watched him go.

Nick Zaminski was quite the catch for Mackenzie Froxin.

Nick pulled up at the field, the same dorky smile on his face as when he left the hotel room. He couldn't believe it had already been nine years with Mackenzie. Next year, it will be a decade. Whoa. He's gonna have to think about how to top the ring gift this year. He closed his trunk and smiled as he walked up to the field and waved to Jake who was leaning against the fence post watching the team warm up.