Zane swallowed hard. That wink had been for him.
Crystal-clear revelation struck Zane like a bolt of summer lightning sizzling through the chill February air. He wanted Ty with him, wanted him badly. Needed him as a partner, and not just at work. Craved him as a lover more than hed ever jonesed over heroin. Connected with him in so many ways that Zane couldnt see a way to untangle himself and didnt even want to try.
Ty loved him. Zane believed it. Zane had also believed he didnt have it in himself to love Ty like he deserved. It wasnt Tys fault. There was so much pain connecting Zane to the past, a tenuous lingering link between Zane and Becky, his wife years gone now, that Zane had skipped right over the obvious signs. Hed been too busy grappling with letting go of what was gone and wondering if he had any right to grab hold of what was in front of him.
It was important to Zane to understand when craving Ty had become needing him, and when needing him had become caring for him, and if it was possible for that caring to truly become even more. Because Ty deserved nothing less.
Zane could see it now. The craving he worried about wasnt an addiction. It was far more wrenching. Something significant enough that Zane was changing his entire life to be worthy of it, and there just wasnt any other possible explanation.
He loved Ty Grady with all there was to give of his heart, and in the end, all it had taken was one wink for Zane to finally come to terms with it.
As he sat dealing with the sudden realization, the world continued on without him. The players continued warming up. Alston had taken just one warm-up pitch, feeding into the cocksure, evil empire image the Feds team cultivated. The fans in the stands around him continued talking and eating and fussing with their various seating options, and Elaina jabbered on beside him.
Ty stood talking with the umpire, his body language clearly saying he was joking around with the man. He was loose and at ease, having battled past the painkiller and his natural inability to be still. Another moment later he stepped away from the umpire and knelt behind home plate as the first batter of the game approached the batters box. But Ty wasnt there for more than a heartbeat before he raised a hand to call time and stood back up.
A collective groan ran through both teams and the crowd. “Oh, good grief,” Elaina said as she rested her chin in her hand.
Zane shook himself out of his thoughts and looked to Elaina before turning his eyes back to Ty. “What?”
“He does this every game,” Elaina complained. “He says the plates crooked!”
A woman sitting behind them laughed. “He says its latent OCD.” Zane frowned. Tys shoulders were straight and stiff, in total contrast to the loose relaxation hed exhibited just a couple minutes before. That wasnt OCD. Zane leaned to the side to try to get a better look at what was going on.
Ty and the batter were standing together, Ty pointing down at the plate as the batter nodded. The umpire was shaking his head, holding his mask in his hand and frowning. It was anyones guess what they were saying to each other, but whatever Ty was saying, he was adamant. Finally, he yanked his mask off and knelt over the plate, pointing to something Zane couldnt see.
“Its not the freaking major leagues, Grady! It doesnt have to be perfect!” someone shouted from the visitors dugout.
Zane shifted on the metal bleachers as he watched. “Somethings wrong,” he murmured. The batter stepped closer and took his bat off his shoulder, pointing it at the plate. Ty reached out and grabbed the end of it quickly to stop him from poking it, then stood and held up both hands impatiently, like he was begging them to listen to him.
He turned to scan the bleachers, his eyes finding Zane quickly. Zane recognized the look on his partners face and was moving even before Ty started toward the fence backstop and waved to him.
He met Ty at the fence, reaching up to twine his fingers through the chain-link. “Whats wrong?”
“The plates wrong,” Ty said under his breath. “Its not crooked anymore.” “Maybe someone fixed it?” Zane asked. He had no doubt that Ty would notice if it was sitting differently than usual. He just didnt know if it was something worth stopping the game over.
“Ive been bitching about it for weeks, and they finally fixed it in the middle of the night last night?” Ty muttered as he looked over the crowd restlessly. His eyes met Zanes. Looking at him this close, it was easy to see what the painkillers were doing to him. “Its too high.”
The plate was not the only thing that was too high. But what Ty was saying made it sound like someone had wedged something under it. “You really think its trouble?” Zane asked quietly. “Theres plenty of cops around.”
“Thats what Im worried about,” Ty told him as several people shouted at them in annoyance. Ty ignored them like only he could. “Do you have your phone on you?”
Zane pulled it out of his back pocket and offered it to him. They struggled almost comically to get it through the chain-link as those around them became more vocal with their displeasure.
“Why dont we just take it up and adjust it?” the hitter asked Ty curiously.
Ty finally pulled the phone through and glanced over his shoulder at the man as he flipped Zanes phone open. “Who are you calling?” the umpire asked, obviously perturbed. “Bomb squad,” Ty answered gruffly.
Zanes fingers clenched on the fence. Ty wouldnt joke about something like that. “Better start telling people to clear out,” he told the ump evenly. Hed back Ty up no matter how stoned on painkillers his partner was. “Is there a field announcer?”
“Are you shitting me?” the umpire said incredulously. Other players were beginning to drift closer, obviously realizing that something was wrong beyond the crooked plate and Tys supposed OCD.
Alston came jogging up to them from the mound, and Ty took a quick step and pointed at him. “Stop!” he shouted urgently before Alston could get to home plate.
The tone of his voice seemed to do the trick. They all knew Ty didnt screw around, and he sounded truly scared.
“Ill get the announcer going,” the umpire mumbled as he hurried toward the wooden tower near the dugout. Zane watched silently as Ty quickly gave information over the phone while the players on the field came in to the dugouts to wait. Word hadnt gotten around yet. Zane glanced over his shoulder at the stands. Lots of families and kids were here. His eyes fell on Elaina. She looked incredibly small and innocent sitting there.
The chain-link rattling near his head drew his attention back to Ty. Tys fingers gripped the fence, and he looked through it to the bleachers.