Page 27 of Home Run

I’d never thought of a building as being cute, but yeah, I mean, I guess it was okay. If you liked that sort of thing.

“What are you doing here?” she asked when I stopped in front of her, her big brown eyes wide, and her perfectlyshaped brows knitted together slightly while she tried to figure out what was happening, and how she felt about it.

Namely, me attending her appointment.

It wasn’t an entirely unwelcoming expression—thoseI was familiar with.

In the time I’d known her, the grumpy, surly side of Millie was one I had become well aquatinted with. It was the one I saw most, and, truthfully, the one I enjoyed. Even when she spent time in our apartment, coming over with Radley to watch a movie, or anytime we’d been out as a collective group of Lux and Radley’s friends, she barely offered me more than a withered look, or a snarl.

While we’d progressed from those days—evident by the reason for this doctor’s visit—I still hadn’t been certain that turning up unexpectedly wouldn’t cause us to regress. But she didn’t look mad, she looked confused. Though I’d take that over the crying.

“You have your doctor’s appointment, right?”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“Oh good. Let’s go.”

“You’re coming?”

I flashed her my best grin. “I told you, I’msupporting. Any and all appointments, plus the rest of the shit that comes with a baby, I’ll be there.”

The frown she was wearing only became more pronounced. “Don’t you have practice or something?”

“It’s nine a.m. What time do you think practice is?” I laughed.

She shrugged. “I dunno.”

Tugging on her arm, I moved us out of the way of several passing New Yorkers. The middle of the streetwasn’t the best place to stand at any time, let alone during rush hour, but it was a great time to be out and not get recognized because everyone was far too busy hurrying to work to pay attention to anything and anyone around them.

“For home game days, we have to report to the grounds by lunchtime. Therefore, any baby stuff that takes place in the morning, consider me there.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, why’d you look so surprised.”

“I dunno, I know you said you’d support, but I just didn’t know what that would look like.”

I waved a hand down my body. “It looks like this.”

Her mouth rolled into a line, and I tried hard not to stare. I didn’t know exactly what we were to each other, beyond two people at the beginning of a pregnancy journey with less than a clue between them, but I knew enough that I probably shouldn’t try to kiss her. No matter how much I wanted to.

“Okay then.”

My neck craned up at the brownstone. “So this is the cute building?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, my doctor is on the third floor.”

“Then let’s go.” I jogged up the steps and held the door open for her. “So what’s the appointment today?”

“Just to talk about next steps. I need to tell the doctor I’m…we’re…going to have the baby.”

I didn’t dare look at Millie when she uttered those words, because I also didn’t want her to see the nervousness on my face, but I figured she must have had at least some ofthe trepidation because the two flights of stairs we walked up were taken in silence.

I found a seat while Millie registered at the reception desk. I thought the place would be covered in pictures of babies, or parents with babies, or models of babies. But it wasn’t. Just a couple of large plants and a low coffee table covered in magazines, as well as a jug filled with ice and curled slices of cucumber.

In the opposite corner sat a man, his eyes darting up to mine every couple of seconds in that way where someone recognizes you but can’t quite rememberwherehe’s recognized you. If I hadn’t grabbed one of Parker’s plain black trucker caps which was a little bit too big, the guy would probably be asking for a photo already.

Luckily Millie barely had time to sit down before we were called in, and the guy went back to his magazine.

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