paunch strained against the buttons of his checked shirt. The ankle of one leg rested on the knee of the other while his foot bounced up and down to some personal tune. Abruptly, Brooke saw them as a perfect match. 'I like you, Lee,' she said with a wide smile. 'I really like you.'
He blinked twice, then his lips curved hesitantly. 'Well, thanks, kid.'
She's just given us her blessing, Claire thought with an inward chuckle as she took Lee's hand in hers.
Brooke made her way through the airport crowd with steady determination. In addition to the usual flow of traffic at LAX, there were fans, mobs of fans, waiting to greet the incoming Kings team. Some carried handmade signs, others banners. There were, she noted with some amusement, a good number of truants in the Los Angeles school system that morning, not to mention a deficit in the work force. After the twelve-inning victory, Brooke thought the players deserved a bit of adulation. She also wondered if she'd ever be able to fight her way through so that Parks would see her. The impulse to surprise him, she realized, had not been practical. A truant father hoisted a truant second-grader onto his shoulders. Brooke grinned. Maybe not practical, but it was going to be fun.
Pushing her sunglasses atop her head, Brooke narrowed her eyes against the sun and waited for the plane to touch down. As it stopped being a dot in the sky and took on form, she began to experience the first flicker of nerves. She fidgeted nervously with her bag while she stood, crushed shoulder to shoulder, with excited fans.
He'll be tired, she thought as dozens of conversations buzzed around her. He's probably looking forward to going home and sleeping for twenty-four hours. Brooke ran a hand through her hair. I should have told him I was coming. She shifted her weight to the other foot, curled her fingers around the chain link in front of her and watched the plane glide to a stop.
The moment the door opened, the cheering started, building, rising as the first men began to deplane.
They waved back, looking tired and somehow vulnerable without their uniforms. Men, she thought.
Simply men suffering from jet lag and perhaps a few hangovers. Then she smiled, deciding that the gladiators might have looked precisely the same the day after a bout.
As soon as she saw him, she felt warm. Beside Brooke, a teenager grabbed her companion and squealed.
'Oh, there's Parks Jones! He's bee-utiful.' Brooke swallowed a laugh as she thought of how Parks would react to the adjective.
'Every time I watch him, my knees get weak.' The teenager pressed her lithe young body against the fence. 'Did you see him in the commercial? When he smiled, it was like he was looking right at me. I nearly died.'
Though she didn't take her eyes off Parks, Brooke smiled inwardly. My plan exactly, she thought, pleased with herself. Why do I feel like a woman watching her man come home from the wars? Though her sharp director's eye had seen a group of tense and tired men, the fans saw heroes. They cheered them. Some of the players merely waved and moved on, but most came up to the fence to exchange words, jokes, a touch of hands. Brooke watched Parks walk toward the barrier with a man she recognized as Snyder, the first baseman. She wondered, by the intensity of their discussion, if they were outlining infield strategy.
'It would only take twenty-five or thirty cans of shaving cream to fill his locker,' Snyder insisted. 'Takes too long and evaporates too fast,' Parks commented. 'You've got to be practical, George.'
Snyder swore mildly and lifted his hand in acknowledgment to a shout in the crowd. 'Got a better idea?'
'Carbon dioxide.' Parks scanned the crowd as they neared it. 'Quick and efficient.'
'Hey, yeah!' Pleased, Snyder gave him a slap on the back. 'Knew your brains were good for something, Einstein.'
'And as long as I help you work out the mechanics,' Parks added, 'my locker doesn't get filled with the thinking man's shaving cream.'
'There's that, too,' Snyder agreed. 'Would you look at these people?' His grin widened. 'Fantastic.' Parks started to agree, then spotted a mass of red hair touched with gold in the sunlight. The fatigue drained as though someone had pulled a cork. 'Fantastic,' he murmured and walked straight toward Brooke.
The teenager beside her made a moaning, melting sound and took a death grip on her friend's arm. 'He's coming over here,' she managed in a choked whisper. 'Right over here. I know I'm going to die.' Brooke tilted her chin up so that her eyes would stay level with his as he stopped on the other side of the fence. 'Hi.' Parks's hand closed over hers on the metal wire. The simple contact was as intimate as anything she had ever known.
'Hi.' Brooke smiled slowly, accepting the flare of desire and the sense of closeness without question. 'Can I get a lift?'
'Anytime.'
He pressed his lips to the fingers still curled around the wire. 'Meet me inside? I have to get my baggage.' Out of the corner of her eye, Brooke saw the two teenage girls gawking. 'Great catch last night.'
He grinned before he stepped away. 'Thanks.'
Snyder caught him by the arm as Brooke melted back into the crowd. 'Hey, I like that catch better.'
'Off limits,' Parks said simply, making his way down the line of fans and outstretched hands. 'Aw, come on, Parks, we're teammates. All for one and one for all.'
'Forget it.'
'The trouble with Parks,' Snyder began to tell a grandfatherly type behind the fence, 'is he's selfish. I make his throws look good. I bite the bullet when he lines a hospital pitch at me. And what thanks do I get?' He sent Parks a hopeful smile. 'You could at least introduce me.'
Parks grinned as he signed a snatch of paper a fan thrust through a hole in the fence. 'Nope.'
It took him nearly thirty minutes to get away from the crowd and through the terminal. Impatience was growing in him. The simple touch of fingers outside had whetted his appetite for a great deal more. He'd never been lonely on the road before. Even if there was a rain out or an off day away from home, you were surrounded by people you knew. You became as close as a family-close enough to spend endless evenings together or opt to spend one alone without bruising feelings. No, he'd never been lonely. Until this time.
Parks couldn't count the times he had thought of her over the last four days, but he knew that everything had suddenly slipped back into focus the moment he had seen her standing there. Now he saw her again.
Brooke leaned back against a pillar near the baggage belt, Parks's suitcase at her feet. She smiled but didn't straighten as she saw him. She'd hate to have him know just how crazily her pulse was racing.
'You travel light,' she commented.
He cupped her face in his hand and, oblivious to the people milling around them, brought her close for a long, hard kiss.
'I missed you,' he murmured against her mouth, then kissed her again.
There were enough of his teammates still loitering around to start up a chorus of approval.
'Excuse me.' Snyder tapped Parks on the shoulder and grinned engagingly at Brooke. 'I believe you've made a mistake. I'm George Snyder. This is our aging bat boy.' He gave Parks an affectionate pat. 'How do you do.' Brooke extended her hand and had it enveloped in a huge, hard palm. 'Too bad about those two strikeouts last night.'
There were several jeers as Snyder winced. 'Actually, I'm luring the Valiants into complacency.'
'Oh.' Amused, Brooke gave him a big smile. 'You did very well.'
'Sorry, Snyder, time for your shot.' Parks signaled to two teammates, who agreeably hooked their arms through Snyder's to haul him away.
'Aw, come on, Jones, give me a break!' Goodnaturedly, Snyder let himself be dragged away. 'I just want to discuss my strategy with her.'
'Goodbye, George.' Brooke waved as Parks bent to retrieve his bag.
'Let's get out of here.'
With her fingers laced through his, Brooke had no choice but to follow. 'Parks, you might have introduced me to your friends.'
'Dangerous men,' he stated. 'All dangerous men.'
With a chuckle, she matched her pace to his. ''Yes, I could see that. Especially the one holding a toddler on each hip.'
'There are a few exceptions.'
'Are you one?'
Parks caught her around the waist and drew her close against him. 'Uh-uh.'
