Page 107 of Home Run

“Yes, Parker. Go and find Scout, let’s all go home,” I added through gritted teeth, hoping to portray just as much urgency in my voice as Lux had in his.

“Great idea,” he replied, pushing out of the couch only to fall back again.

“I think we all need to go home,” said Radley sensibly, standing up and reaching for Millie’s hand. “Let’s go get our coats and find Scout.”

I tried not to take it as a warning that Millie didn’t even look at me as she walked off. Or stormed off, it was hard to tell when you were five months pregnant.

My head immediately snapped around. “Parker, what the fuck? What did you just do?”

His brows dropped in genuine confusion. “What?”

“Code of silence. What happened to the code ofsilence?”

He didn’t reply, but Lux picked up his phone as it buzzed with a message. “The girls are by the entrance, Scout’s with them. Let’s go.”

The look he gave me as we walked down the stairs said exactly the same thing my gut was shouting.

That the rest of the night was going to be rocky.

Never underestimate a woman’s ability to be mad with you. If it were an Olympic sport, they would win gold every single time.

For the entire forty-five-minute drive back to our apartment, Millie hadn’t said a word.

She’d done nothing except stare out of the window. Radley on the other hand had not stopped talking because otherwise we’d have only had Parker’s snoring to fill the very uncomfortable silence.

It was when we arrived home, the elevator doors opening on both sides, and Millie silently heading into hers and Radley’s place, that I realized that we might very well be in the middle of our first fight. Assuming you didn’t count all the other fights we used to have pre-baby.

I followed her in, stopping in the middle of the living room while she stomped into the kitchen.

“Mills, babe, c’mon. Parker’s so drunk, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

She didn’t reply. Instead, she dropped her shoes on the floor, opened the fridge, and pulled out the carton of orange juice, which was then slammed onto the counter.

Yes. We were having a fight.

“Mills, please don’t be mad at me.”

Pouring out the OJ, she took a long sip, and I’m not gonna lie, the way she stared at me over the top of the glass brought out a little cold sweat. It was like the way she used to stare at me, when she could incinerate me at any moment with some kind of terrifying laser beams, or fire shooting out of her nostrils.

“We agreed to take this slow, Tan.”

“Yeah, slow. We are taking it slow.Sloow.”

“Then why are you telling Parker that I haven’t told you I love you yet?”

“I didn’t say that,” I blurted, only for Millie’s eyes to narrow even further into tiny slits. “Okay, maybe I did, but it was in a wider context of a conversation about love. It wasn’t like I just came out and said you didn’t love me.”

She was silent again, pouring out more orange juice, and somewhere between the party and here, I’d picked up Radley’s inability to withstand uncomfortable silences.

“But he has a point, don’t you think?” I said, immediately regretting it.

“A point about what?”

“Well…” I swallowed hard. “You won’t tell me how you feelat all.”

The glass was put down much more carefully than the juice. “You know how I feel.”

“I don’t actually.”

---