Page 31 of Home Run

I wasdefinitelygoing to need help.

SEVEN

MILLIE

“Hey,Tanner wants to know if you’re still being sick,” Radley shouted, waiting until she had confirmation, namely the sound of me hurling my guts up. “I’ll tell him yes.”

I slumped down on the floor of the bathroom. I’d spent so much time in here recently that I’d considered dragging my bed in here, or at least a small cot. In the two days since I’d officially accepted the pregnancy, all this future baby had done was punish me with wave upon wave of sickness. Given it was already one p.m., it clearly wasn’t limited to morning. It wasn’t limited to any time.

It wasall the timesickness.

I don’t know how long I had been lying there, but the sensation of a cold washcloth being placed over my forehead had my eyes opening.

Radley slid down next to me and leaned against the pedestal of our bathroom sink. “It’s amazing you’ve got anything left.”

“Right.” I groaned. “They should take pictures ofpregnant women like this, it’s the most effective form of birth control I can think of.”

“Too late for you though.” She grinned, causing a smile to lift the edges of my mouth. “On the plus side, you look better than you did yesterday, which is something.”

Ugh, yesterday I’d been in bed almost the entire day. I only had to think about leaving the dorm and I was sick again. I ran my hand over my stomach. It was hard to tell, but it was possible I felt a little better than I did yesterday, and even though I’d spent most of my waking hours with my head in the toilet, I was hungry. Really hungry.

“If I shower quick, can we go for lunch? I’m starved.”

“Absolutely, and something arrived for you, which I have a feeling will tide you over until we find you some proper food.”

That had me perking up. “Something arrived? What?”

Radley stood and held her hand out to pull me with her. “Come and see.”

I followed her into our dorm room, immediately spying a large pink box sitting on my desk, wrapped with a wide pink satin ribbon. The bizarre thing about pregnancy sickness I’d learned was that feelings of nausea could immediately disappear, unlike food poisoning, which left you feeling queasy all day.

And that’s what happened because I knew exactly where this box came from—The Darling Bakery on West Tenth Street.

This baby might be turning me into the girl fromThe Exorcist, but it was also turning me into a chocolate fiend. I liked chocolate as well as the next person, but right now I could murder for it and be quite content with the repercussions.The only thing that had settled my stomach yesterday was a bar of Swiss milk chocolate Radley had run out for.

I couldn’t have ripped the ribbon off quicker. “Did you DoorDash these?”

Radley shook her head. “No, they’re not from me.”

Lifting the lid off the box, I inhaled the buttery, sugary, chocolate scent of freshly baked, still-warm brownies and chomped down on half of one before I could ask who they were from. Removing an envelope I hadn’t noticed in my haste to open the box, Radley took one look at my chocolatey, sticky fingers and opened it.

Thought these might help.

Tanner x

“Aww. That’s cute.” Radley simpered. “I tell ya, I’ve been very impressed with his response to the situation. Unexpected.”

I nodded as a second brownie followed the first. I guessed this was part of his plan to prove himself, either that or distract me with chocolate. If it was the latter, the plan could well be working. Perhaps that’s why it felt so much less annoying than it used to, back when Tanner’s attention always made his end goal appear to be getting in my panties.

Yeah, yeah,I know.

I debated on gobbling up a third brownie but decided against it. I’d been sick enough this morning, and instead, hurried into the shower. I suddenly felt much better.

“Decide where you want to go for lunch. I’ll be ten minutes.”

It ended up being half an hour by the time we made it into the sunshine, accompanied by Jake and Ethan, two of Radley’s Secret Service detail. The delay was mostly down to the fact that the button on my jeans kept popping open, so I gave up, threw on a pair of shorts and a loose button-down, and tried not to think about replacing my entire closet.

Radley still hadn’t come up with a place to go for lunch and was running through a list of food options to see if there was anything I wanted or, more importantly,didn’twant and wouldn’t likely be sick at the thought.

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