Best Date EVER

I can safely say I'm the least spontaneous person I know. I'm not a spur of the moment kind of gal, never have been. So yesterday when my hubby waltzes in the door at lunchtime, I thought something was wrong.

Me: "Did your computers crash or something?"
Him: "No."
Me: "You got fired."
Him: Glares. "No. We're going out."
Me: "What? No, I can't. I've already arranged a play date for the kids." Plus I've already got stuff laid out to do a painting project for my powder room. The entire afternoon is spoken for. Don't mess with my schedule.
Him: "Play date's cancelled."

I look over at my mom, who's standing behind him. She and her twin sister moved in with us in mid August and are staying until the renos on their new house are complete. Anyway, mom's shaking her head at me to get my attention and then puts on an excited look, starts prancing behind him in joy to prompt me. As in , hello? Cue excitement anytime now.

Oh, right. Don't kill the guy's effort by not being thrilled. I'm supposed to be excited. My bad.

So I mentally switch gears, put on a smile and off we go. He won't tell me where we're going, but soon enough I figure out we're heading toward the border. Well fine, if he won't tell me, the border guard will find out soon enough when we declare where we're off to in the good old U.S.A. But hubby's foiled that plan too. He's tucked a note to the border guard inside my passport so the surprise won't be spoiled.

I'm starting to get a real kick out of this. He's obviously put in a lot of effort. My mind starts humming. He's taking me to find a Victoria's Secret store where I can indulge in my lingerie fetish.

No, he says with a little smile.

I'm getting puzzled. Why else would he be taking me down south in the middle of the day? My eyes light up. A ball game?

"You're taking me to the Mariners game." I gasp. "Oh my God, are the BoSox in town?"

Another grin. "Maybe." He's still Mr. Mysterious.

Nah, I think. The M's usually play at 1 or 7, not in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.

About twenty minutes down the road, Hubby can't stand it anymore. "Yeah, we're going to see the M's play the BoSox."

I gasp. Hooray! I'm so stoked. I spend the next hour and a half writing in my little plotting notebook (I never leave home without it), and we finally arrive in Seattle and make our way to Safeco Field.

Next great surprise--our seats are 19 rows behind home plate. Dead center. Awesome! Now I'll have a great view of the whole field, not to mention the catchers. (Please let Varitek be catching...)
We sit down and hubby leaves me with my bag of roasted peanuts to go in search of some better food. He comes back with a hot dog, garlic fries and a hot chocolate for me (what a guy), and the starting lineups are announced. I hold my breath when the BoSox lineup comes over the PA system. Please let Varitek be playing. Pleasepleaseplease...
Nope. Victor Martinez is catching. Bummer! Ah well. Maybe Varitek still isn't healed up enough to play, and it's late in the season anyway. They're not going to make the playoffs this year, so maybe they're just giving him some extra time to heal his foot.

It's all good though. I'm on an unexpected date in the middle of the day with my man, and there are no little boys fighting beside me or whining for more junk food or that they're bored. I've got nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the game. That in itself would have been more than enough to made the day incredible. But there's more.

Partway through the third inning, hubby nudges me. I look over to the third base dugout, and my heart trips. There he is, in the flesh. My heartthrob. The hunky Red Sox captain is leaning over the dugout railing with his back to me. Be still my beating heart! I can barely take my eyes off him.

Two innings later, he shoulders a ginormous duffel bag and heads onto the field. I perk up. He's going to the bullpen!

I grab hubby's hand. "Come on," I said, tugging him impatiently out of his seat.

"You really want to watch him warm up the pitchers that bad?"

"Uh yeah, he's on my list." All you Friends fans out there know what I mean by that. Varitek shares my five-man list with The Rock, Gerard Butler, Ben Affleck (who's not only hot, but a die hard BoSox fan), and one spot I haven't filled yet. So yeah, I'm going to the bullpen.

Hubby rolls his eyes and comes along for the walk around the stadium to the bullpen, where the relieving pitchers warm up.

I spot him the instant we round the corner. There he is, not forty feet from me, number 33 with all his gear on. Oh my God he's sexy. I take up position at the far end, right next to the stencil of home plate, and camp out there. And I'm watching nothing but him. I couldn't care less who was standing next to him. Not even Papelbon, their famous closer. My eyes are for Varitek only while he does his stretches.

About the 7th inning he's finally all limbered up and grabs his mask. He strides toward me. I swear my mouth went dry. He plays catch for a bit to loosen up his arm, then drops into his squat. Like, fifteen feet from where I stood. My insides go all jittery. He can tell I'm there, but he goes about his business and I'm way too shy to wave or call out to him. We're sorta hard to miss though, because we're two of about five people standing on his end of the pen. And trust me, I'm not at all being subtle as I stare at him.

I feast on the visual treat before me. I watch his positioning, the way he sets up behind the plate, the tape around the fingers of his throwing hand (helps the pitcher see the signals he's giving), the way he grips the ball. His throwing mechanics. After a couple minutes they take a break and he stands up. Looks over. Sees me. My heart pounds.

"He just checked you out," hubby says in outrage, and steps closer to me to put an arm around my waist.

While I roll my eyes, Varitek goes back into his squat and catches a bit longer. "He did not. He looked at me because I'm standing here gawking at him. It's a natural reaction."

"No way. He was totally checking you out." Hubby's arm tightens. Jeez, maybe he's taking this whole list thing too seriously. It's only a hypothetical list, for fun, and I'm way too shy to do anything about it even I Varitek and I were both single. I think hubby's pretty safe. I push him aside so I can see better.

We watch Varitek catch for a while longer. Next time he stops, he stands up. Looks over. Tips his mask back.

Holy hell, he's looking right at me. I go rigid and stare back with a stiff smile on my face.

Varitek grins at me. And then...he winks. I swear on my childrens' lives, the man winked at me before tugging his mask down again.

My heart nearly stops beating altogether. While my face goes red as a tomato, hubby whirls to face me with a look of astonishment on his face. "Did he just wink at you?"

My face is about to combust it's so hot. "Um, yeah, I think he did." Oh no, I don't just think it. I know it. My heart is still all aflutter thinking about it as I type this.

Talk about the perfect way to top off an awesome date with my hubby. And let's be honest, how many husbands would willingly stand there and let their wives ogle a man on her list? The man won serious brownie points with me yesterday.

Come October the BoSox won't be in the post season, but I'll still be a faithful member of the Red Sox Nation. And you can bet I'll be cheering for whoever's playing against the damn Yankees.