Page 33 of Home Run

“Well, one of them is a pregnancy yoga class at Hudson Yards, which is perfect as it’s by the boys’ apartment. I say we go to a class, and then visit them for snacks afterward. They have all the good food, and you’re going to need it now you’re eating for two.”

Eating for two was something I could get on board with. “Is pregnancy yoga like regular yoga?”

Radley shrugged. “Who knows, but I say we try it.”

“Sure, why not.”

“There’s also this app we have to download. It tells you what happens every week and how big your baby is.”

“How big it is?”

“Yeah, like it’s the size of a grape, or a sweet potato. Things like that.”

“Oh,” was all I replied while I imagined a sweet potato growing inside me, before I decided it was too weird. Also, sweet potatoes came in all different sizes; some were small and fat, others were long and thin. Then there were the ones that were longandfat. Then I decided it was too confusing and probably better not to overthink it. I had a feeling I’d be doing a lot of overthinking this year.

“Have you heard from Matty and Josh?”

I shook my head. My brothers were having a hard time coming around to the idea that their baby sister was having a baby of her own. I had only seen Matty at dinner the night I’d told him, then his friends had arrived the next morning and I’d come back up to New York with Radley. Josh had texted me congratulations, but given his messages were usually flooded with emojis and this was blank, I had to assume he was as pissed as Matty.

“I don’t know what bothers them more, that I’ve had sex or that I’ve had sex with a baseball player who doesn’t play for their team.”

“Yeah, you remember Henry and Ben had a hard time with that when I started dating Lux.” She replied, mentioning her brothers. “Boys are so dumb.”

“They are. But because my dad isn’t around anymore, they think they have to take on his role, so I’m giving them a grace period.”

“I can’t wait to see what happens when it’s over.” A smirk curved her lip before she singsonged, “Ass kicking.”

I chuckled in response, and we made our way along the winding path lined with thick, tall oak trees heading toward the far side of the park, where we’d exit and cross into Central Park. Aside from the freak lightning storm a couple of months ago, the summer had been mostly dry and the leaves were already starting to crisp around the edges. Come fall, this place would be a blanket of pinks, yellows, reds, and oranges.

“Oh look.” Radley pointed. “There’sdaddy.”

My gaze followed the direction of her finger.

The Upper West Side, around Columbia and Morningside Heights,was New York Lions territory, and woe betide if you should forget, but just in case you did, there were plenty of reminders. Radley and I hadn’t been in New York for last year’s baseball season; we arrived just before the playoffs and therefore hadn’t really noticed the massive marketing campaign that the Lions undertook every year.

I’d been too busy staring at the trees to notice the lampposts positioned twenty yards apart, and from each one hung a large flag. And on each flag was a player from the current New York Lions roster.

Just like the boardwalk by Lions Stadium, where life-sized posters of each player were plastered across the hoardings, flags hung from any and all available space you could hang a flag, including the Morningside Park lampposts it seemed. It had gotten to the point where I barely noticed them anymore—the flags or the players. There were enough of the Columbia school flags around campus that one kind of merged into another, but these ones I was now standing under were almost impossible to miss.

While most of the flags held the Lions logo along with a full body image of one of the players—sometimes posing, sometimes captured mid-swing—these featured a close-up of a player’s face, peering down at you as you passed underneath. I glanced behind me; we’d passed the great Jupiter Reeves, the Lions’ third baseman; Parker King, the catcher; we were standing underneath Ace Watson, the pitcher, and the next flag up was Tanner’s.

His piercing blue eyes stared right at me. It was all I could see. It was so intense and hypnotic, I swear I could feel it in every square inch of my body. I’d been subjected tothat stare before, and we all know howthatended. Before I realized what I was doing, my hand found my belly.

I managed to tear my gaze away from Tanner to glare at Radley. “Don’t call him that.”

“Why not, he is?”

“Yeah, but don’t say it in that way, all breathy and heavy.Daddy.It sounds like we’re in a sex shop.”

“Ooh,Daddy.” She cackled so hard it turned into a snort. “Yeah, I can totally picture Tanner in a sex shop asking for someone to spank him.”

It was exactly the sort of thing I’d have laughed at two months ago; I probablydid. Except it kind of wasn’t quite so funny, seeing as I was now pregnant with Tanner’s baby, and for the millionth time in two days, I was reminded of the day I’d thrown him out. The idea that I’d become one of many who’d also fallen for the intense, hypnotic stare sat as well with me then as it did now. It was how he got them, how he’d gotten me.

Now I was a cliché.

Apregnantcliché nonetheless, but still a cliché. And the thought of him with anyone else the way he’d been with me was churning in my belly.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

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