Page 19 of Home Run

I nodded. “Yes. I do.”

“Now?” She laughed.

“Hey, people always say you’re never ready for a kid, right?” I grinned, but Millie’s face fell, and I really didn’t want her to start crying again because then I might start. I took a deep breath. “When do you need to make any decisions?”

“I have another appointment with the doctor next week.”

“So we have a week to come to a decision?”

She glanced up at me and nodded slowly.

“How about we do this, take a week and think about it. Write down a list of pros and cons, then we go through them together.”

“Okay, that’s a good idea. Better than anything I came up with at least.” She quirked a brow at me.

“What?”

“I dunno, I just thought you’d be way more freakedout. Angry. I thought you’d want nothing to do with me. But you’re calm.”

My forehead creased as I stared at her. “When have Ieverwanted nothing to do with you?”

She didn’t answer, just kind of curled her mouth and picked up her tea. For the life of me I couldn’t think when I would have ever given Millie the impression I’d want nothing to do with her. It reminded me of the day this all happened, when she thought I was pretending to want to stay with her. I’d never been more real in my life.

Now wasn’t the time to talk about it—because, one enormous life decision at a time, and all that. But it was a subject I would definitely be revisiting.

“What will your mom say?”

She shrugged sadly. “She thinks I’ve had food poisoning, so I’m going to have to tell her why I’m still puking every day.”

“What?”

“I’ve been sick for the past few weeks. Morning sickness.”

“Oh.” That didn’t sound fun. “Do you want me to come with you when you tell her?” I added, trying to find a break in my schedule for when I could get down to D.C. outside of games. We weren’t playing the Nationals again until next month.

“No, thank you. I’ll do it.” She shook her head, then dropped it in her hands. “She’s going to kill me.”

“She won’t. If she’s anything like my parents…”

Oh my god,I was going to have to tell my parents.

Maybe Holiday could tell them. It might be better coming from her. While my dad would be more concernedabout making sure my money was secure, I knew for a fact my mom would freak out. And I meanfreak.

I think it was still a shock to her that I was a functioning capable adult and not her youngest (albeit favorite) child. On the flip side, I’d been working hard to become more independent from my mom’s insistence to do everything she could for me, so perhaps this would finally prove that.

Or would they see this as an example of me not being mature enough to manage my life? Whatever conclusion they came to would be followed up with the question of whether I was planning to marry Millie.

Huh. Marry Millie. That was an idea I could certainly get behind.

“Yes?” asked Millie, and I realized I’d zoned out thinking about my mom. “What are your parents like?”

I smiled as wide as I could. “They’re great, very supportive and enthusiastic. Holiday and I have an older brother and sister, both of them have kids and my parents love being grandparents.” No point adding the rest. Millie had enough worries, plus Holiday could sweet talk them around enough that they’d fall in love with Millie at first sight.

“What’s Holiday going to say?”

“Holiday is going to want to take you shopping for all the baby stuff.”

Millie picked up the remaining brownie crumbs with the tip of her finger. “That could be fun.”

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