Page 37 of Home Run

My eyes flicked between them. Bookstores were Lux’s department. While I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a bookstore, he’d go and hang out in themjust for fun.I mean, who does that? Apart from Lux. He was also a bubble bath guy, like, to relax in, and not just to help with an injury with bath salts and shit. Sometimes my bath salts had lavender in them, and that’s as far as I would go, and only because my sister was offloading all the beauty stuff she was sent every day.

“Can you take me?”

“You want me to take you to a bookstore?”

“I do.” I nodded firmly. My decision had been made. “Millie said she was going to buy some books, and I thought maybe I should buy some too.”

“What type of books?”

I lifted a shoulder as I glanced at Ace. “Pregnancybooks, I guess. She didn’t give me the titles. Does your bookstore sell pregnancy books?”

I was certain that Lux was trying to hide a smile. “I’m sure it does, buddy. When d’you want to go?”

“This week? Tomorrow? Before practice? We fly out tomorrow night so I can take them with me.” Yeah, pregnancy books could be my new in-flight reading material.

“Why don’t you just order them online?”

The crease along my brow deepened. It hadn’t occurred to me to order them online, I kind of had a vision of seeing them all in front of me and knowing which ones to pick. But yeah, online was safer. I would look less like an idiot, and no one would know.

“You know, yeah, that’s a better idea. I’ll order them online. Nevermind.”

“Excellent, that means Weston has time to make breakfast.” Ace slapped his stomach. “I’m feeling waffles and eggs. I’m extra hungry this morning.”

I picked up my laptop and took myself over to the couch while Lux grumbled his way around the kitchen. Before long, the sound of batter being whipped up and the scent of fresh coffee filled the air.

“Here.” Ace thrust a new cup toward me and dropped down onto the couch next to me. “What’ve we got then?”

I turned my screen toward him.

“Holy shit, there’s so many. How do you choose? How do you know what to get?”

Exactly my questions, which is why my cart was up to $867. I thought this would be easy. I figured I’d open Amazon and there would be a bunch to choose from. I was suddenlyglad we didn’t go to the bookstore because I’d have probably had a meltdown.

There were hundreds and hundredsand hundreds.

I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I don’t know. I just added a bunch to my cart.”

“Let’s see.” He clicked on the screen and nodded through the list as he read down. “Pregnancy for Dummies, yeah, that’s what I’d buy,Pregnancy Survival Guide,What to Expect When You’re Expecting? Didn’t they make that into a movie? You should just watch that, it’d be easier. Maybe they made others into a movie too.”

“You think?”

“Ask Holiday, she’ll know.”

“Good idea.”

“Haven’t you got nieces and nephews?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You don’t want to ask your brother?”

I shook my head. “Not yet, I’m going to wait until twelve weeks is over.”

“Okay, then what else is there?” He took the laptop and flicked back to the Amazon store. “There’s one here for dads, definitely get that one.The Expectant Father. Adding that. What’s a doula?”

Dropping my head onto the couch cushion, I closed my eyes, though I could still see all the books floating in front of me. I had so much to learn. “I don’t know.”

“Here’s one,Pregnant by my Best Friend’s Dad…hmm, this looks interesting. I’ll add it to the cart just in case,” he added with a snicker.

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