Painting the Corners Page 14

  “At this point,” Collins told her, “we know it’s our fault that the team is where it is. Alcorn’s had an excellent year with San Diego so far, and Middleton’s been hitting like a young Joe DiMaggio since Toronto acquired him. You were right on both of them. It’s our stupidity that’s to blame if the Royals don’t at least win the division.”

  Collins caught himself slouching in the soft, leather chair and sat up straight. “We paid too much attention to the bottom line and never stopped to think about what a championship would mean for the city. You and Don Aikens should be able to call the shots on personnel in a pennant race. You’re baseball people, we’re not.”

  Michelle perked up as she listened to Collins. She and Aikens had had a number of recent conversations about other players who were becoming available as more teams dropped out of contention. The Royals still had the potential to win, she knew, especially with about 55 games remaining. She was convinced that one or two new faces could turn things around. And now it sounded as if Collins was about to tell her that the trustees wanted her to run the club as she saw fit from here on in.

  Collins continued talking. “We had been hoping to turn over control of the team to you as soon as possible, even if it was just limited to letting you do what you wanted with the players. That’s something we’d been discussing in the last week, so it was a pleasant surprise to come here and see that you were pregnant. I’m sure we would have agreed to let you handle some of these things even prior to your baby being born.”

  Before going on and speaking the words he had rehearsed several times that morning in his office, Collins clasped his hands over his belt buckle and tilted forward in the chair. His tongue moved slowly along the bottom of his silver mustache before he spoke again.

  “But finding out that you’re not married has changed everything.” He paused, and his voice dropped to almost a whisper. “I have to tell you, Michelle, that the trustees have voted against giving you power to run the baseball team when your baby is born.”

  He watched the look of disbelief spread across her face and waited patiently until he sensed that she had regained her composure. “I hope you can understand where we’re coming from. We honestly feel that we’d be degrading Wayne Lancaster’s memory if we did anything else. Wayne was devoted to family. You know that. And he obviously intended to pressure you into getting married and raising one of your own if you wanted to succeed him. We think he’d be awfully unhappy if he knew your situation, and that he’d be directing us not to let you take over the team. I’m sorry, but we’ve got to respect what we believe he’d say about this.”

  Michelle felt sick to her stomach. It was like reading the single essay question on a final exam and realizing it was based on the one part of the course she hadn’t studied. Recalling the meeting at which Collins had familiarized her with the stipulation in her uncle’s will, she felt betrayed.

  “But you told me last fall that the will provided for me to assume control when I had a baby. You never said a word about my having a husband.”

  Collins had prepared himself for that objection. “I may have put it that way, and frankly it is kind of loosely worded in the will. Still, we’re sure Wayne had in mind the traditional way of going about it. You get married and then you have children.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Michelle countered. “What if I married someone, became pregnant, and then got divorced before the baby was born? I’d still be a single parent.”

  “That’s a different set of facts,” he said. “We have to deal with the ones that exist.”

  Michelle got up and paced back and forth behind her desk. She stopped in front of the window in the corner of the room and looked out at the empty parking lot for a minute or so. Turning back to face him, she asked, “What if I marry the baby’s father before it’s born?”

  Collins thought about it. Michelle was familiar with his habit of looking up and studying the ceiling above him while he pondered a difficult question.

  “That might force us to look at it in another light,” he said. “I think that if you assured us the marriage wasn’t a sham, and if we retained the right to check on paternity if we thought it was necessary, that would be good enough. I guess you’re saying that you know who the father is.”

  “Of course I do. I asked him to father the baby and he agreed.”

  Collins’s legal experience guided his response. “Then why don’t you write his name on a slip of paper, put it in an envelope, and seal it. I’ll sign my name across the flap. If you get married, we’ll open it together. If the name inside the envelope is the groom’s, and subject to what I said a minute ago, I’m sure that would satisfy the three of us.”

  “Do I have your word on that?” she asked. “No changing your mind later on?”

  He hesitated, eyeing the ceiling again while he considered her question. “You do,” he said finally.

  “Okay, that’s fine,” she said, and tore a piece of memo paper from the pad on her desk.

  * * *

  Gregg Talbot was smiling. “This has to be very significant,” he said. “You’ve invited me to have lunch at the same place where you originally propositioned me. We’re even sitting at the same corner table we had then. I want you to know that I cancelled all my plans for the rest of the day, just in case you had something special in mind.” He winked at Michelle, and she smiled back at him.

  They had spoken on the telephone fairly regularly since the start of the season. He called at night to give her an outlet after some ballgames that were either very encouraging or disheartening for the team. On occasion he played devil’s advocate to the latest swap or purchase of players she and Don Aikens had in mind. They had also seen each other about once a month since having dinner the night before the Royals’ first home game in April. Over Memorial Day, with the team playing on the east coast, Gregg talked Michelle into driving south to Lake of the Ozarks, and they spent the weekend together. It was the first time they had made love since December. She realized afterwards that if he had asked her to marry him at the time, she would have said “Yes.” Now, back at “Sir Sirloin,” Gregg felt he was about to find out when he’d be able to put on the Kansas City uniform again. He figured that was the only reason she had for coming back to this place.

  “I want to make you an offer you can’t refuse,” Michelle said. She had on a long, loose-fitting cotton dress in a red, yellow, and blue floral pattern. Her hair was cut short for the summer and her lipstick matched the color of the roses in her dress.

  Gregg had already told her several times how beautiful she looked. “And what could that be?” he asked, in a playful tone. He was certain he had guessed right.

  “But seriously, Gregg, if you say ‘No,’ I’ll understand.”

  Why the hell would she think he’d say “No,” he wondered. “Okay, godmother,” he teased, “let’s hear what you’ve got.”

  “It’s like the last time we were here,” Michelle said. “You’ve got to be patient until I get to the end.” She waited for him to agree, and then told him all about the conversation with Collins. “So here I am, needing you again,” she concluded.

  Gregg leaned his left elbow on the table as she spoke, covering his mouth with the curled fingers of his hand. He realized that she didn’t have to tell him everything she was confiding. She could have simply said she’d been wrong about his relationship with the baby and her feelings about wanting to raise it on her own.

  “You know how I feel about you, Michelle. You could have said just enough to get me to propose.”

  “I couldn’t do that, Gregg. I wanted you to know the truth, to know what prompted this.”

  He thought about what she was telling him now and what she had said so often since the start of her pregnancy. There was no avoiding the question he asked. “Are you saying that you’re ready to love both me and the baby right now?”

  Michelle’s eyes studied the face she knew she wanted to look at the rest of her life. “That’s all I’
ve thought about since my meeting with Herb. I wouldn’t be here today if the answer wasn’t ‘Yes,’ even if it meant that I’d never get to run the team.”

  He reached over and took her hand. “Have you thought about the fact that Collins and his friends could turn you down again when they find out I’m the baby’s father? All they’ve got to do is say they’re sure Wayne Lancaster wouldn’t want you married to a bum like me and running his old empire.”

  “Yes, I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think they will. Besides, I really don’t have any other options.”

  “Of course you do. You could find yourself another guy and say it’s his kid.”

  Michelle decided not to say anything about the slip of paper in the envelope, the one with his name on it. “Too late for that. Uncle Wayne always told me to marry for love,” she said, “and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  Gregg grinned. “Then let’s sum up what we’ve got here. The offer I can’t refuse is your proposal that we get married, right?”

  “Wrong,” she answered, and covered the hand holding hers with her other one. “The offer gives you the chance to ask me to marry you. A girl has got to have a proposal she can accept or turn down.”

  “What a broad,” he whispered, smiling at her. “Okay, Michelle Edwards,” he said, completing the union of their hands, “will you marry me and make me an honest father?”

  “I will, Gregg Talbot, I absolutely will. Are you doing anything tomorrow?” They laughed, and their lips met halfway across the table.

  * * *

  Michelle would always look back on August 15th as the biggest day of that season for her baseball team. In the morning, she brought Gregg to the office and introduced him to Herb Collins when the lawyer arrived just after eleven o’clock.

  “My husband, and father of our baby,” she said.

  If Collins was flabbergasted, he was too diplomatic to let it show. He offered Gregg his hand. “Congratulations,” he said.

  “And here’s the envelope,” Michelle added, retrieving it from the top drawer of her desk and handing it to him.

  Collins glanced at his signature across the seal and slid the envelope into the inside breast pocket of his gray pinstriped suit jacket. He had no doubt that Gregg Talbot’s name was written on the slip Michelle had inserted two weeks earlier, but he would open it and make certain later, in private.

  “Well, Michelle,” he said, settling himself in a chair as he spoke, “there’s a month and a half left to the season. The trustees aren’t sure whether you can pull off a miracle and get the team into first place, but it’s in your hands as of right now. If you want to make any roster changes, just do it, and let us know. When the baby’s born, you’re in full control. We’ll be there to give you any help you need until you’re ready to handle it all yourself.”

  She thanked him, and they talked about the division race for a while before Collins got up to leave.

  “What are you doing these days?” he asked Gregg as the two of them walked from Michelle’s office toward the elevator.

  “Thinking about winning four more games,” Gregg answered.

  Collins pushed the “Down” button, and the door opened immediately. “For whom?” he inquired, stepping into the elevator.

  “I don’t think the boss would let me do it for anyone else,” Gregg replied. He gave the lawyer a big smile.

  * * *

  Signing Gregg to a contract was one of the two moves Michelle made that same August afternoon. The other was the purchase of Lance English, a 30-year-old power-hitting first baseman who was in his sixth year of playing for the Cubs Triple-A team in Chattanooga. He couldn’t be used at any other position and had no chance of moving up to the parent club while Frank Casey played for Chicago. But Michelle and Aikens were convinced that English could hit at the major-league level and would make a difference in the Kansas City lineup as the designated hitter.

  Talbot worked out with the Royals’ minor league team in Vero Beach for twelve days, appearing in two games, before being called up to make his first start. He was limited to five innings against the Yankees at home, and left the ballgame trailing 4-3. But Kansas City won the game with a rally in the eighth inning, thanks to a clutch double by English. The victory allowed them to gain a full game on the league-leading Angels. Seattle had gone through a disastrous month of August, losing thirteen in a row at one point, and had fallen into fourth place in the division.

  “We’re only five games behind California now,” Michelle told Gregg when he woke up the next day. He had learned that the first thing she did every morning was devour the sports pages.

  “And the writers thought you looked great last night for someone who’s been out of the game for so long. It looks like they’re all pulling for you to reach 300.”

  On Labor Day, Gregg threw six innings against Seattle and left with a 3-2 lead. After the Mariners tied the score, Kansas City came back with a run in the ninth to win it, but Gregg’s victory total remained at 296. Still, the fans calling the talk shows and the writers giving the Royals more ink in the newspapers every day were excited by the fact that the team won both of his starts. The gap with the Angels had been closed to four games.

  There were 25 games left in the season and Kansas City had to play fourteen of them on the road. But the final eight contests would be in Royals Stadium and California would provide the opposition in a two-game series to close out the schedule.

  While the team was on a five-game road trip out west, Gregg moved one game closer to the 300 mark with seven strong innings against Gene Autry’s Angels. The big hit for the Royals was a three-run homer by Lance English. When the club returned to Kansas City for a series against Minnesota, it was still four games out of the lead and hoped to make up some ground with three games against the last place Twins. But they played sluggishly, losing twice, and were fortunate that California ran into the same problem against Seattle.

  Michelle’s doctor had calculated that September 20th would be her due date, but warned that the baby could come any time after the middle of the month. Since the Royals’ final road trip of the season took them away for ten days, starting September 12th, Gregg insisted that Michelle have her mother come up from New Orleans and stay with her in his absence. He told her that he would call every day and he made her promise to let him know if she had to go to the hospital.

  “I don’t care whether I’m supposed to pitch that day or not,” he said. “I’m going to be there with you when the baby’s born.”

  The team played three games each in Texas, Seattle, and Minnesota. They got hot and won seven out of nine, including a sweep of the Twins before returning home. Both games Gregg started on the trip resulted in “W”s, although he got credit for the victory in only one. The excitement in Kansas City grew greater by the day as the Royals moved to within two games of the top.

  Gregg got into bed at almost three o’clock in the morning after the plane ride from Minnesota.

  “Two down, two to go,” Michelle said.

  He turned toward her and kissed her on the forehead. “What are you doing awake?” he asked. But before she could answer, he said, “And hopefully number 299 will come tonight against the Rangers. I may only get one more start after this one. How’s the baby doing?”

  “It never stops kicking, but I’m not sure it’s interested in getting here in time to see who wins the division.”

  “That’s because it already knows we’re going to finish in first. It just wants to let you get out to the ballpark and watch me win those last two games.”

  In the first inning that night, the Royals made two errors behind Gregg. He opened the game by walking the first two batters, but then got three consecutive ground balls from the heart of the Texas lineup. Unfortunately, one was a seeing-eye single over second and the other two went through the legs of his infielders. The Rangers scored four runs before taking the field for the first time, and coasted to a 9-2 victory. Gregg was taken out of the game after
five innings when “Foxy” Moore, the Royals manager, saw that the visiting pitcher had everything working for him that night. It was his first loss in his comeback. He and Michelle were back in their apartment before the seventh inning was over.

  Texas won two out of three and knocked Kansas City three games off the lead. Several reporters covering the team wrote that it was almost impossible for the Royals to make up that kind of deficit with just five games left on the schedule. They felt the best the club could hope for would be a tie with California and a one-game playoff to decide the division championship. At a meeting in the office of the American League commissioner, a coin toss was held and the Angels won the right to host a playoff, if it was necessary.

  Kansas City had a day off before Oakland came in for three games. During practice that afternoon, Ray Woodard, who was scheduled to throw the series opener against the A’s, slipped on a wet spot while running in the outfield. The accident resulted in a mild groin pull. When “Foxy” Moore learned that Woodard couldn’t throw for a couple of days, he asked Gregg if he thought he could step in and pitch on three days’ rest.

  “No problem,” Gregg assured him. “I never liked hanging around four days between starts.”

  “I figured you’d say that,” Moore answered. “Give us a win tomorrow and you get the ball again Sunday.”

  “You got it, Foxy.”

  And win he did. Career victory number 299 was a five-hit complete game 4-0 shutout that sent the team on its way to a sweep over the Athletics, with Woodard pitching the final game of the series. At the same time, California was having a ton of unexpected trouble in Seattle. It barely hung on for an 11-10 victory in the final game of the series after dropping the first twoslugfests as well — by wide margins. The Angels were reeling, just a game ahead of Kansas City, but had to win only one of the two weekend contests in Royals Stadium to capture the western division crown. Toronto, which had finished ten games ahead in the east, would have to wait and see whom it would face in the playoffs for the American League pennant.