“Promise? It would ruin everything, and I couldn’t bear that.”
“Promise,” he said after a long pause, and followed up his word with a lengthy kiss.
—
The baseball game the following day was magical. How he managed it, Maisy would never know. Patrick got to be the batboy for the Cubs. Her brother was stunned. He couldn’t stop talking about meeting the players. He received an autographed ball from the team.
Maisy had to hold back tears seeing the joy on her brother’s face.
“Don’t you know I would do anything for you, Maisy?” Chase said, as he escorted her from the field to the suite.
The Cubs won the game, and afterward Chase, Maisy, and Patrick went out for authentic Chicago pizza. Chase arranged for the restaurant to deliver the same pizza they enjoyed to Maisy’s mom, along with Sean and Katie.
When Maisy called home, Patrick went on and on about his experience as a batboy, the rookie Ernie Banks baseball card, and the river cruise.
Maisy noticed something was off with her mother and wanted to question her, but with Patrick hogging the phone, she didn’t get a chance.
Monday morning, Chase drove to the airport with them. Before Maisy and Patrick entered the line for security, Chase hugged her close.
“I don’t know when I’ll be able to see you again,” he said, reminding her that within a few days Simon would be leaving for his European business trip. That meant Chase would be doing double duty.
“We’ll still be able to connect each night, right?”
“Right. I’ll need that.”
“So will I,” she told him, holding on to him for all she was worth. Chase’s nightly calls had become an important part of her day, of her life. She hated the thought of going a single night without hearing his voice.
Patrick grew restless at her side. Maisy knew he was eager to get home to share his experiences with his friends on his Little League team.
Reluctantly, Chase and Maisy pulled apart. Chase held her face and kissed her one last time. “Text me once you’re home.”
“Will do,” she promised.
The flight home seemed to take less time than it had when they flew out from Seattle. Patrick continued to chatter away, recalling every detail of their weekend, highlighting again and again everything he’d experienced. It didn’t seem to matter that Maisy had been with him for nearly every minute. Maisy would always be grateful to Chase for giving her little brother the trip of a lifetime. Patrick would never forget meeting his baseball heroes.
Once they landed in Seattle, it wasn’t Sean who came to collect them. Instead, it was their mother. Maisy took one look at her mom and instantly knew something was awry. She’d noted a hesitation in Sophie on their call the night before. She wished now she’d pressed her mother for answers.
“What’s wrong?” Maisy asked, as soon as they pulled away from Sea-Tac Airport.
“It’s your grandmother,” Sophie said. “She insisted I not tell you while you were away.”
“Tell me what?”
“Your grandmother is in the hospital. It’s her heart.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Maisy’s own heart shot to her throat, making it difficult to swallow as she rode with her mother to the hospital. Grams hadn’t seemed feeble. The thought of possibly losing her grandmother so soon after her father terrified Maisy.
“Maisy,” her mother said, reaching for her hand while keeping her eye on the road. “Don’t panic.”
“How can I not?” she cried. “This is Grams.”
“What happened?” Patrick asked from the backseat. He sounded scared, too, all the news he was eager to share forgotten in light of what had happened to their grandmother.
“Thankfully, Lloyd was with her,” their mother said. “Eileen said she wasn’t feeling all that great after their bridge game. Lloyd told me he thought something was wrong earlier when she made a couple of foolish mistakes in bidding, which she never does.”
“Did she lose the game?” Patrick asked.
