Page 36 of Time Out

“Right.” She grinned, and it was shaky, but she turned and headed toward her room. When she returned, another faint blush was on her cheeks. “So, um, Lance told me that for football players, your day off was Tuesdays, so my next appointment is then. And I only have a few scheduled out, but I tried, in case you were interested, to get them those days.”

An odd, warm feeling squeezed my chest and made my heart rate increase. Not only about the appointment, but that she’d thought of me. Maybe wanted me there from the start? Or at least hoped for it.

“I do. I want to be there. Thank you for thinking of me.”

I took a picture of her appointments with my phone.

This was really happening.

In a month, I’d be at a doctor appointment checking the health of my baby. My head swam with nerves and excitement. “Have you told anyone other than Belle?”

Maggie shook her head. “Belle’s all I have to tell, so…”

Right. Because she wasn’t close with her family. I wanted to dive into that, understand why that was the case, but not everyone came from normal, boring families like mine and it wasn’t my place to pry. At least not yet.

“Do you mind if I tell mine?” It’d been hell keeping secrets from them on Christmas. Visions of Annie’s kids and my future child, running around and chasing each other on the farm had been so vivid. I would no longer be solely the fun uncle, but a dad.

Would that change the way I played? Make me more cautious? Would I be too busy and have too many responsibilities to spend hours on the weekends doing nothing but swimming and throwing around a football or playing catch with a baseball mitt and ball?

“Can we wait a couple more weeks? At least until my next appointment? Everything’s going fine, I’m not nervous about that, but your family… what will they say? What will they think of me?”

“I…” I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. “I mean, they’re not going to be thrilled, you know. At least not at first.”

I rocked back on my heels, trying to imagine the disappointment on my mom’s face. The anger on my dad’s that would definitely make a rarely seen vein bulge at his temples. It’d be the first time in my life I’d earned that look for him in a major way. But after? Once they had time to get used to it?

“I think eventually they’ll be excited. They’re good people.”

“Excited a woman they’ve never met has gotten pregnant by their NFL playing son?”

“I mean… that might take a hot minute, but my parents are good, kind people. My mom doesn’t even kill flies in the house. She traps them and takes them outside. The saying she wouldn’t hurt a fly came from people like her. I figure once she can meet you, get to know you, then she’ll be okay.”

“Meet me?” If her eyes grew larger, they’d pop onto the old carpet at her feet.

“I mean, yeah, eventually.”

“Do you think, maybe, before that happens, we should get to know each other first?”

I grinned. “Absolutely we should.”

My phone pinged with the attorney’s information Cole sent me.

“Thanks, man.”

“Trust me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to always cover your ass, even if you want to think you don’t need it.”

“A shame it took you so long to learn that, huh?”

“Shut up.” He shoved my shoulder, and I tripped over my feet before I righted myself.

“Too soon?” His ex had put him through hell this last fall and even though things were settled and he’d moved his new girlfriend, Eden, into his house with his son, Jasper, neither Eden nor Cole felt completely settled yet. Selma could turn from sweet to sour with one little flick.

“No. Everything is cool there. So what do you know about this girl?”

“Maggie?”

“No, my mom.”

“Oh, well, your mom is cool. Makes the best lasagna I’ve ever had, but don’t you dare tell my mom that. It’d break Kim’s heart.”

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