Page 86 of The Triple Play

Cole

The four of us were tangled up across the mattress in the dim light, fully bare, limbs everywhere, half under blankets and half on top. Annie was tucked up against Colton, her legs partly intertwined with mine behind her. Xavi was stretched out halfway down her front, his head tucked right up near her thighs like he could roll over and use his mouth if he wanted. Colton and I were both on our backs, looking up at the ceiling, our hands occasionally crossing paths as we both drew circles on Annie’s side.

Annie giggled, soft and sleepy and absolutely adorable, and the sound triggered a round of laughter from the rest of us like dominoes falling in a line. All of this, every bit of it, was absurd, and we weren’t above recognizing that.

“You know…” Annie mumbled, her words a little quiet from being pushed into the side of Colton’s chest. “We’re going to have to start thinking of names once we know what we’re dealing with.”

“Hockey names,” Xavi said immediately, turning his head a little to look up at us. “Obvious solution. We can all agree on that.”

“Byall, do you mean you, Cole, and Colton? Because it’s a no from me,” Annie said, already laughing.

“Wait, wait, wait, he’s got a point. Hear me out,” Colton chimed in, holding up a hand like he was about to deliver gospel in church. “Stick Miller.”

Annie snorted. “Absolutely not. And you don’t just get to decide that it’s taking your last name!”

“Ooh,” Xavi cooed, sitting up just enough to grin wickedly at her. “What about Netta? Like net, but, I don’t know, feminine.”

I wheezed, my body shaking with a round of laughter. “That’s awful.”

“Or Puck,” Colton added. “Just Puck. One syllable. Iconic.”

“Puck Miller sounds like a cartoon raccoon that lives in a trash can and terrorizes the neighborhood,” I said, covering my mouth like it could keep the chuckles at bay.

Annie reached back to me, smacking my chest playfully. “Don’t join him on the Miller front!”

“All right, all right,” I laughed. “What about normal names? Ava? Riley? Liam?”

She hummed as she mulled them over. “Not awful.”

“Those areboring,” Xavi groaned. “There’s no spice there. No chaos.”

“You’re not naming our baby Chaos,” I deadpanned.

“I didn’t say Chaos!” he argued. “You know, actually, when I was little, I swore I’d name my daughter after my first-grade teacher.”

Annie lifted her head a little to look down at him, raising a single brow. “Really?”

“Yep,” he said, popping the P dramatically. “Miss Echeverría. She used to give me extra glue sticks and let me stay in from recess to draw. I was absolutely smitten. First crush.”

Annie snorted. “That’s actually adorable.”

“Still can’t spell her name, though,” Xav added, and I couldn’t help but laugh again, rolling over onto my side to bury my face into the pillow to try to contain it. “So I guess that’s out the window. Gotta be something easy to spell. Knowing me, I’ll have at least a little bit of brain damage by the end of my career, so…”

Colton shifted a little, tucking Annie in a little closer. “What about Melody?”

I sucked in a breath. The room went still, Xavi and I quiet as hell, none of us moving.

But Annie did.

She sat up a little, looking between the three of us. “What?” she asked. “Why’s everyone gone quiet?”

A second passed, then two, and Xavi opened his mouth to finally answer her, but Colton cut him off before he could. “It was my sister’s name,” he said softly.

Annie looked down at him beneath her, blinking. “I… I don’t think you told me her name.”

I let out a breath. He must’ve already told her she’d passed.

Colton shook his head. “No, I didn’t,” he said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t talk about her a lot. Maybe I should.”

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