Page 64 of Crossed Up

Good?

Daddy

Yeah, angel. Good. He might as well get used to calling you that now

Me

This is insane, you know that, right? We’ve known each other two months. Been dating officially for a day. What happens if we don’t work out?

Daddy

Hate to break it to you, Lyla, but that’s not even a remote possibility. I love you, Crew loves you, and one day soon I’m going to put a ring on your finger and my baby in your belly. Ready or not, angel. You’re a mom now.

My heart flutters inside my chest as I reread the words on my screen. I’m a mom now. These guys are my family. The one thing I’ve always known I wanted beyond a shadow of a doubt, and I somehow found it in the most unexpected place possible.

“Can we go inside now, Mommy? I wanna see Auntie Wren!”

I clear my throat and wipe my fingers under my eyes to clear away the unexpected tears. “Yeah, Crew-bug. Of course we can go inside.” Cal rounds the hood of my car with a nod, his serious expression back in place. He’s dressed down for the game in dark wash jeans and a black Raptors tee, but his size and the sheer power radiating off of him means he’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Oh well, at least I know nobody will mess with us with him around.

Plastering a grin on my face to cover my nerves, I help him out of the car and hold his small hand the whole way into the stadium.

28

AIDAN

“What has you grinning like you just landed a 70-pound Spottail Bass, Preach?” Rhodes’s amused voice knocks me out of my giddy trance.

Tearing my eyes away from the phone screen is akin to torture, but we’re minutes away from first pitch, and I’m more keyed up than ever before. Knowing Crew has completely accepted Lyla the way I have has my heart soaring in my chest.

Even if the words haven’t actually left her lips yet, I know she loves me. Loves us. I don’t even try to reign in my goofy grin when I meet my best friend’s stare. “Crew called Lyla Mommy.”

Rhodes’s eyebrows hit his hairline as a shit-eating grin splits his face. “I owe Wren fifty bucks and breakfast in bed.”

“How is that different from any other morning?”

A blush heats his cheeks and he clears his throat loudly before murmuring, “I have to serve it naked, wearing a bowtie… not around my neck.”

A bark of laughter has us both turning to see Copeland with a smirk. “Why do you bet her at all when you know she will always be right? And why the fuck would you agree to that?”

Rhodes shrugs. “I would’ve done it without the bet if it’d make her happy.”

I just know we’re wearing matching sappy ass grins and Cope shudders, faking a gag. “There’s so much love in the air I’m practically choking on it.” He drops down next to us and stretches his shoulders out, trying to hide a wince.

Warning bells go off in my head when I see his wince, but I don’t want to stress him out before the game, so I file it away to bring up later. He hooks a thumb in Rhodes’s direction. “I know why this idiot is being a sappy motherfucker, but what’s the look on your face for, Preach?”

I couldn’t contain my smile if I tried. “Crew started calling Lyla Mommy today.”

His face immediately softens with a small smile. Coming from the broody bastard, a small, genuine smile might as well be him shouting his excitement from the rooftops. “I think she’s really good for y’all. I’m happy for you, Aid.”

Coach yells for us to take the field for opening ceremony, but I clap my friend on the back. “Thanks, Cope. Now all I need is for her shithead ex to be arrested and for her to tell me she loves me too, and everything will be perfect.”

He snorts, punching me on the shoulder. “If you think she isn’t head over heels for you, you’re an idiot.”

Opening ceremonies are over quick, and then the game begins. The Renegades chirp at us any chance they get, but there’s tangible tension between their players, and it shows. Their plays are half-assed, and where their teamwork is usually tight and seamless, today, it just seems sloppy and stilted.

The first several innings pass quickly, and though we’re up by two runs, they were hard-won. New York is our number-one competition for the World Series this year, and we’re determined to bring the Commissioner’s Trophy home to Charleston, where it belongs.

“Is it just me, or are the Renegades off their game today?” Rhodes asks from the fence next to me. Our goal as a team is to keep our focus on the pitcher and the ball at all times - whether we’re on the field or in the dugout waiting to bat, so neither of us moves our eyes from the field as we talk quietly.

---