Ghosts (A Christian Yelich Story)

Chapter Seventy-Four: A Date

I was going to wait to post this until the previous chapter had been up for a bit, but I'm impatient, so here you go.

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We had stopped for sandwiches at a local coffee shop. We decided to eat them on the large rocks at Doctors Park that were partially submerged in Lake Michigan. I had never been to this place before, but Annie told me she went here all the time as a teenager when she just wanted to be alone or hang out with her closest friends. It was a peaceful spot on a late Friday morning. Just a few dog walkers and joggers. No one paid us any mind.

"It's pretty nice for early May," Annie commented while picking some mushrooms off her veggie and egg sandwich and placing them on the wrapper in front of her. "Just too many mushrooms," she muttered when she noticed me giving her a funny look.

"Considering only a few weeks ago I saw snowflakes, I'm happy." I wanted her to finish her sandwich quickly, so I could restart the marriage conversation, but she always ate so slowly. In the interim, I decided to engage her with a baby name question. "Any ideas for baby names? We could stick with the C theme of my immediate family."

"We are not picking a C name. We should start our own letter trend." She smiled at me before finally taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Oh, so you're saying we can have more than one kid? Nice!" I joked.

"There is no way in hell I'm letting you impregnate me again. This is horrible. I miss deli meat. I miss gin. I miss having a nice full view of my feet," she groaned.

"So you're saying we can adopt?"

She laughed. "Let's see how we do with her before starting this conversation. Anyway, how about I say a name I like and then you say a name you like until we agree on one. I'll start. Mae."

"Mae Yelich," I considered. "Pass. Too short. How about Rea."

"That's literally the same amount of letters as Mae."

"Yeah, but it's an extra syllable," I countered with a smirk.

"Rea Yelich. I mean, it's fine, but I don't love it."

"What do you love?" I asked.

"Eloise. But it doesn't work well because the first syllable rhymes with the first syllable of your last name. El-Yel."

"Eloise Yelich sounds fine. You're being silly. I love it. Let's do it."

"This shouldn't be that easy," she remarked. She had placed her sandwich down, which indicated that she might not finish it. "What about a middle name?"

"Eloise Alecia Yelich is a mouthful, so, if you have a family name, be my guest."

"Eloise Christine Yelich . . . after my grandmother. I never met her." Annie shrugged and bit her bottom lip.

"So we have a name. We have a due date. What are we missing?"

"The actual hard stuff." She sighed. "How many nurseries do we need to set up? Where should we live? I know we both don't want to give up our houses."

"How about we keep both of our homes in Malibu. We'll set up the nursery in yours because I think you're more attached to your house than I am to mine; it's also just more homey feeling. We'll live in yours until we want a little more space – then we'll move to mine. Is the manny going to live with us?"

"Yeah, I think Andrew has to be considered a part of our family. We're not going to be able to raise her without him around."

"I agree," I muttered, a bit reluctantly. "Unfortunately."

"What about in Milwaukee?"

"We'll get a house here for next season. I mean, your family is here, so it makes sense even if I'm not with the Brewers forever. I don't really want to deal with living on the sixth floor of a building with the baby for the next few years."

"You know sometimes it's just going to be you, Andrew, and Eloise, right? And sometimes it's just going to be me, Andrew, and Eloise? You understand that?" She sounded worried – like I wasn't considering this part of the equation. I was. And I had been for a while. I knew I had to share her with her career, and she wasn't going to be a traditional baseball wife. There were trade offs. 

"Yeah, and it's going to suck, but we'll adjust. We're going to fight sometimes because we all miss each other, but we'll adjust."

She nodded. "We have to trust each other, or this isn't going to work."

"I trust you completely. Do you trust me?" I questioned her.

She hesitated a bit before answering. "I trust you more than I thought I'd be able to after Asher, but it's not perfect. I'm trying, though. I promise."

"That's all I can ask of you." I was a little frustrated, but I was trying to empathize. "We'll get there. I won't mess this up."

"Yeah, we will," she said quietly.

"Are you done eating?" I asked, pointing at her discarded half sandwich.

"Yeah, I want ice cream, though." She gave me a playful smile.

I chuckled. "Let's go get you some ice cream before I have to be at the park." I offered her my hand and helped her up before pulling her into a hug. "I'm glad we finally got to go on a date."

She smiled and gave me a brief kiss. "Yes! Thank you," she exclaimed. "This was great. And no one even noticed us. We should come here more often before your games."

"We should," I agreed. 

I fiddled with the pocket of my sweatshirt, where I was keeping the ring I purchased in New York. My stomach churned as I considered pulling it out and dropping down on one knee.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, probably because I had halted the conversation. She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me another sweet kiss.

"Everything's perfect." I meant it. "Only one thing could make it better," I practically whispered.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" she teased. Her green eyes were sparkling as she looked up at me, and everything just seemed right.

"Marry me?" I whispered, pulling the ring out of my pocket.