Page 15 of Home Run

FOUR

TANNER

Millie: Are you awake?

Millie: Never mind it’s too early, can you meet me when you’re awake?

Millie: At the diner where we had breakfast that time

Millie: It’s Millie by the way

Well,well, well.

The clock said 6:40 a.m. She’d sent these messages thirty minutes ago. Why was she even awake? Come to think of it, why was I awake?

I turned my phone over and tried to go back to sleep, but even as I was closing my eyes I knew it was pointless.

I reached for my phone again. Four messages from Millie among another dozen from theSimpson Family Group Chat, and a couple from my mom, which I ignored.

It was the first time I’d heard from Millie in six weeks. Since the day we’d slepttogether.

I really should go back to sleep. I had a game later, and we were flying to Chicago as soon as we were done.

Butthere was no way I could sleep now. Millie had had my full attention from the day I’d met her, and right now was no different. Throwing back the covers, I jumped out of bed and ran out of my room to across the hallway. I needed advice.

Inching open the door, I could just about make out the mop of blonde hair on the pillow. Usually waking up my sister resulted in pain close to death, but this was an emergency.

“Hol.Hol,”I hissed, padding across the hardwood floors. She didn’t move, so I knelt on the mattress and tried again, this time with a prod. “Holiday. Wake up. Millie texted me. I need you to tell me what to do.”

A loud grunt came from somewhere under the comforter.

“What time is it?”

I glanced at the clock and decided no good would come from telling her. “Um, not sure. Morning time. Hol, I need you. Please.”

A hand emerged and slapped down on the pillow, palm facing up. Taking the opportunity, I carefully placed my phone in it, only for it to disappear back into the tangle of sheets.

I hoped she wouldn’t take too long, but I laid down next to her anyway and stared up at the ceiling.

In an unusual turn of events, I hadn’t told any of the guys about the afternoon I’d spent with Millie all those weeks ago. Six weeks. Forty-five days. One thousand and eighty hours.

Not that I was counting.

But for all that time I hadn’t spilled on the biggest secret I’d held since I was a teenager and Holiday had sneaked us out of our parents’ house in the middle of the night to watch a midnight showing ofThe Wolf of Wall Streetat the drive-in, even though we weren’t old enough to drive. We’d taken a blanket and sat on the hill behind the drive-in field. After the first hour of Leonardo DiCaprio, I’d fallen asleep.

I knew if I told the guys, they’d share their opinions about me needing to move on, and burst my bubble. I was officially the only single guy in the apartment, therefore they all felt they had expertise over me—they didn’t, at leastParkerdidn’t.

The only person I’d confided in—because I’dneededto tell someone—was Holiday, my twin, my best friend, and favorite person in the whole world. The one who knew me better than I knew myself. She was also who I turned to whenever I needed help, plus I told her everything anyway, so it didn’t really count.

Holiday’s advice had been to sit tight, give Millie her space, and let her come to me when she was ready.

A month went past, and I truly began to doubt my sister knew what she was talking about. I’d stared and stared at my phone for hours, waiting to see if a message would come through. I’d had all the guys message me, in case my phone was broken, but it wasn’t. I was spending more and more time at Holiday’s place in Greenwich Village because she was the only one I could talk to about Millie.

“Tanner,” Holiday screeched suddenly, her headshooting out of the covers. “It’s not even seven a.m. Gahhh.”

Turning my head on the pillow as nonchalantly as possible, I replied, “Oh, really? I was wide awake. Huh, well, what do you think I should do.”

“Go and meet her,” she snapped, pulling the pillow from under my head and throwing it over her face. “And let me go back to sleep.”

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