Playing Catch

"Come on Jenna!" Brett called to me from where he stood on the pitchers' mound. "Don't you want your dad to see that you can hit a ball?"

"But we've been doing this for hours, and I haven't hit the ball once!" I hollered back at him angrily as I walked towards the baseball that I had just missed hitting.

"That's not true; you hit that one like ten minutes ago," Brett replied smirking at me, he seemed quite pleased, because he did have a point; I made contact with one of his pitches. But it was a fluke; I would never be able to actually hit a ball.

"Please Brett let's just stop so we can have ice cream at my aunt's house." I knew that Brett couldn't say no to ice cream, and was just waiting for him to drop his glove and agree. But of course, being the stubborn boy that he was, he didn't.

"You were the one who asked me to help you," he said instead of exclaiming happily that he would love some ice cream. "Are you sure you want to quit now? If you do I'm sure that tomorrow when you come to practice with your dad he'll get frustrated with you again." He was right too, my dad and I had been coming to the baseball field every afternoon for ten days in a row and I still hadn't made any progress. Brett and I were both sure that he was about to give up on me, so we decided to take things into our own hands.

I reached the ball where it had landed after Brett had thrown it, I was mad that he was going to continue making me practice batting. I lowered my bat so I was holding it like a golf club and swung at the ball, sending it whizzing towards Brett.

"Jenna!" Brett shouted at me, his voice higher than I had ever heard it, he then began to run towards me.

"I'm sorry, I'm just upset, I should be able to do this!" I said to him, kicking my foot in the dirt.

"That's not it! I don't care!" He said as he came to a sudden stop in front of me, I looked up and noticed he had a huge smile on his face. "I know how to fix it; I know why you haven't been able to hit the ball!"

"What do you mean? I've known that since the first day we started." I told him, and I was completely serious. "I'm useless when it comes to baseball!" I whined at him while stomping my feet for emphasis.

"That's not it," Brett replied calmly, smile still in place. "You've been trying to swing wrong handed." He explained as if that cleared everything up perfectly. Needless to say, it didn't.

"I don't understand what you mean." I replied, completely confused, what did wrong handed mean?

"You've been swinging as though you're a right handed batter, but you just swung the bat holding it like a lefty would!" He was getting more and more animated as he went along, obviously much more excited that he had solved my batting problems than I was.

"So, what you're saying is I should be batting left handed?" I asked him slowly, making sure that I was understanding him completely.

"Yes!" Brett called happily. "Now stand on the other side of home-plate, okay?"

"Alright, but I still don't think this is going to do me any good," I said to his retreating back as he made his way over to the pitchers mound, and the baseball.

"Are you ready Jenny?" he said as he got ready to pitch the ball. I nodded my head and tightened my grip on the handle of the bat. His pitch came at the same speed as all the others, fairly slow, and I followed it with my eyes just like my dad had taught me and swung at it just like I had every other time.

But this time, instead of swinging at air, my bat made contact with the ball and sent it zooming off towards left field. We both stood and watched it as it flew away from us. Once it hit the ground I ran to Brett pulling him into a giant hug.

"Brett you did it!" I squealed happily, my smile spreading from ear to ear. "I hit the ball! Did you see that? I actually hit it!" I was hugging him and jumping at the same time, so excited that after this whole time I had finally hit a baseball.

"I saw it!" Brett shouted back at me, just as excited as I was. "Now can we go home and get that ice cream?" He said as he stopped me from jumping.

"Why would I want to stop now?" I asked him a slight laugh in my voice. "I just hit the ball for the first time I want to do it again!"

"Jenna!" He whined at me, his smile instantly gone. "We've been doing this all day, please?"

"Fine," I answered, now looking forward to getting some ice cream too. "Let's go home." We walked back to home-plate and grabbed my bat before heading back to my aunt's house, completely forgetting about my ball that was now laying somewhere in the outfield.

I rolled over in bed and grumbled, upset that the ringing doorbell had woken me up so early. I glanced over at the alarm clock trying to read the blurry little numbers but my eyes were too unfocused to be able to see. I flopped out of bed and crawled on my hands and knees to the door of my bedroom, feeling my way in front of me as I went because it was still extremely dark in my room because of the blinds.

I made it to the door, and only banged my head on the dresser, which was an improvement from the last time I woke up in the middle of the night, that time I had tripped over a shoe and fell into the laundry hamper. I was always tripping on things because I wasn't used to this room yet, even though it had been a little over three years since I moved here. I still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was back at my mom's house in Denver, and not in Russell living with my aunt. I reached the door and stood up to open it and was greeted by the morning sun shining into my face. It was amazing what a good set of curtains could do for you.

I made it to the door, just as the person behind it rang the doorbell a second time. "What do you want?" I said quite rudely as I swung open the front door.

"Jenna? I thought you weren't going to be back for a couple more days?" Brett said to me confused, I was confused though too, I hadn't told him I was back in Russell. How did he know that I was here?

"What are you doing here if you didn't know I was going to be home?" I asked him as I leaned against the door frame and blocked my still tired eyes from the bright sun.

I had gone back to Denver to visit my mom, I hadn't seen her for a good six months, not since Christmas holidays, and before that I hadn't seen her in a couple years. After I graduated I packed up my car and drove to Russell so that I could go to university here, and live with my aunt. The visit with my mom hadn't gone so well though, I had been planning on staying for two weeks, but I barely made it five days.

"Your Aunt asked me to mow the lawn for her since you weren't here to do it," Brett replied. I shuddered as he said this, I never once mowed the lawn, and I never would. Lawn mowers scared me. "But why are you back so soon?"

"Why do you have another girlfriend that you didn't get to finish up with while I was gone?" I asked him jokingly. "My mom and I had a fight, so I cut my visit short." I said afterwards shrugging my shoulders in a 'what can you do' sort of way.

"I'm sorry Jenny; I know how much you wanted to have a good visit with her." Brett said as he pulled me into a hug.

"It's okay, I don't mind," I answered wrapping my arms around him and breathing in his wonderful boyish scent. "I'd rather spend more time with you anyway."

Brett let go of me and smiled, "as much as I'd love to spend time with you right now I have work to do, but how about we go to dinner tonight and then play some catch afterward?" Brett said as he reached over and grabbed the key to the shed from where it hung on the hook by the door.

"I'd like that," I replied as I backed away from the door. "Pick me up at six?" I called as he made his way down the front walk.

"You bet!" He hollered over his shoulder just before I slammed the door shut. I walked down the hall and into my room closing the door behind me to block out the light. I was ready to go hop back into bed, and sleep for a long time. I got back really late the night before, and wasn't ready to be up yet.

Several hours later I was wide awake and ready for Brett to pick me up. He was late though, as usual, I don't think I'd ever gone on a date with him when he was actually on time.

"Jenna!" My aunt called from the living room where she was reading one of her self-help books, I'm pretty sure this one was on better cooking. She had tons of them laying around, most of them on how to be a better parent because I was living with her. "Brett's here!"

I glanced at myself one last time in the mirror and then made my way down the hall to where Brett and my aunt stood talking.

"No, you see, this one clearly states that leaving healthy snacks out is a good idea to keep your kids eating food other than junk, because if you keep the chips in the cupboards and the fruit in a bowl on the counter they'll go for convenience and grab an apple instead of a bag of chips." My aunt was saying as she pointed to a page in her book. "It's all right here; I'll pick your mother up one of these when I'm at the mall next."

"Thanks," Brett said then quickly pressed his lips together to keep his laugh from escaping.

"We're going now," I said as I slipped on my shoes and grabbed hold of Brett's arm. "See you later tonight Auntie Candace." I called over my shoulder as Brett and I walked quickly out of the house.

Once we were in Brett's car, and safe from being overheard, Brett burst into laughter. "She is so funny sometimes." He said once he stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry, she's still really into being a great parent, even though I'm an adult now." I said shaking my head. "So where are you taking me?"

"I'm feeling pizza, or some extremely fancy restaurant that neither of us can afford, so we'll have to wash dishes there for the rest of our lives just to pay for the breadsticks," Brett said, in the most serious voice I'd heard, if I had been the one saying it I would have gotten pizza out and then started laughing.

"I think I'd rather have a pizza," I said to him smiling, he always wanted to go for pizza.

"Great, pizza it is," he pulled out of the driveway and swung a left down the street.

I grabbed my glove from the back of Brett's car, where I tossed it before we went in to eat dinner. "Did you bring a ball?" I asked him as I glanced around the backseat trying to locate one of his millions of baseballs. Usually there were tons laying back here, today I couldn't find a single one.

"Yeah, I cleaned out my car while you were gone," Brett replied as he got out of the driver's seat. "But I brought a ball, no worries."

I shook my head at him but got out of the backseat and closed the door following him as we made our way to the middle of the ball field. We stopped at home-plate and he looked at me, giving me a crooked smile.

"You know to play catch we can't be attached at the hip," he said as he began to back away from me towards first base. Once he reached the base he stopped and threw the white baseball at me. My glove wasn't on yet so I just let it soar past my head.

"Nice catch Jenna!" Brett called to me a big smile on his face.

"Why thank you, I'd like to give all the credit to your wonderful throwing skills," I answered back as I walked over to where the ball had landed. I picked it up and tossed it to myself once before throwing it to Brett.

"Hey Jenny, do you know what day it is today?" Brett said to me as I walked back to home-plate, glove on, ready to catch his next throw.

"Is it Saturday?" I asked him as I caught the ball in my glove.

"Well yes, it is," Brett said deflating a little, we both knew that was not the answer that he wanted. "But that's not what I meant."

"Okay Brett, what did you mean? What day is it today?" I asked before throwing him the ball again.

"It's our three year anniversary, you goof," He said catching the ball quite easily; I was going to have to make him run for the next one. "We've been dating for exactly three years today."

"No kidding," I said, I had completely forgotten, we didn't usually celebrate little dates like this, but I guess three years is a pretty big milestone.

"Yeah I know it's pretty crazy. Who would have thought that after not seeing each other for ten years, we'd end up dating a year after we met again?" Brett threw the ball back to me and I caught it, but just barely.

"And for three years straight too," I said to him tossing the ball up in the air to myself. "You know I've never dated anyone this long before," I mused allowed.

"I haven't either," Brett said raising his gloved hand a little for me to notice that I hadn't thrown him back the ball yet, I continued to toss it to myself though, enjoying that I was bugging him just a little. "I wouldn't want to date anyone other than you for this long though."

I smiled and tossed him the ball lightly, he was so cute sometimes. "Thanks Bretty, I wouldn't want to date anyone but you for this long either."

Clumsily he dropped the ball, I laughed at him, that throw was the lightest I had thrown yet. "Careful butterfingers, don't want anyone on the ball team to see you missing an easy catch like that."

"Don't worry, they won't care, I'm one of the best batters on the team," Brett said as he reached down and picked up the ball. He then proceeded to toss it up in the air just like I had done before him, now bugging me.

"Don't get too cocky," I said grinning at him, although it was true, he was the most consistent batter on the team.

He chucked the ball at me and I caught it without paying attention, but before I could throw it back he began to walk towards me. I pulled the ball from my glove with my throwing hand and looked down at it. It definitely was not the ball we had been throwing around moments before.

"Brett," I said to him as he came closer still. "This isn't the baseball." I looked at the small blue box in my hand and then back up at Brett.

"I know," he said once he reached me. I looked down at the little box again and realized what I was holding. When I looked at Brett again he was on the dirt on one knee looking up at me expectantly. "Aren't you going to open it?" He asked grinning at me.

I pried open the little box and even though I knew what was going to be in it, because what else came in little boxes like this, I gasped.

"Jenna," Brett said to me reaching up and taking my hands in his. "Will you marry me?"

I couldn't stop the huge smile the spread across my face as he said it. "Yes!" I squealed at him happily. He took the ring from the box and slipped it onto my forth finger and then stood up looking down at my hand in his.

"It looks a lot better on your finger than it did in the box," He said as he pulled me towards him for our first kiss as an engaged couple.

A/N: Well since almost everyone who commented on I Will Be Back asked to see what happens next, I thought I might as well give you what you wished for:) To those of you who I said I wouldn't be writing a sequel, I'm sorry, at the time I really hadn't been planning on it. I hope that you enjoyed reading, and again if you see some terrible mistake that I've made, please let me know, I would be extremely grateful!