Page 63 of Home Run

She earned herself a scowl.

“Anyway…” Holiday continued. “You can totally tell me to mind my own business, and not meaning to sound like my mom, but what’s happening with you two?”

“They kissed the other day.”

“Radley,” I snapped, shooting her another glare, but it was hard to be really furious when my feet were being massaged so incredibly well that I could feel the tension melting away. Also, I didn’t care about Holiday knowing, but there were another six people in here doing our nails and I didn’t want to discuss my romantic life in front of them.

But the news had been spilled now.

“Oh my god, you did?” Holiday clapped her hands together. “I can’t believe he hasn’t told me.”

I was still wrapping my head around the kiss. Not because I hadn’t enjoyed it, but because Tanner hadn’t tried to kiss me since, and I was working hard on not being disappointed.

I was reliving it every moment I could. The way his eyes skated over my face until I was on the verge of implosion, the gentleness of his mouth teasing mine, the scent of him still embedded in my brain. All of it.

It had to be the baby hormones, there was no other explanation.

“It was nothing. It was after the ultrasound and we were caught up in the emotions of hearing the heartbeat.” I waved her off.

“Do you like him?” she pressed.

“I like that he’s not annoying me as much as he did,” I replied.

Thinking about it, he hadn’t annoyed me in a while.Not for a few weeks now, maybe longer. In fact, I couldn’t remember when he last boiled my blood.

The past couple of mornings I’d even woken excited to see him, and for more than the smoothie he brought me.

“Just think, I could be your sister-in-law.” She winked. “Which means we’ll get to do this all the time.”

“Jesus, Holiday. I said I liked he wasn’t annoying me so much, not that I wanted to marry him.”

She peered at me pointedly before concentrating on her nails again, and for the rest of the day all I could think about was the way she said, “Hmm, we’ll see.”

FOURTEEN

TANNER

“And next atbat is Uncle Lux. Uncle Lux is what we call a heavy hitter, which means he has a lot of power in his swing. In the opening season game he hit 498 feet, and set a new record for himself. We’ll see where it goes today, but he’s looking good?—”

“Why are you talking to yourself?”

I clicked off the recorder and turned to where Jupiter Reeves had annoyingly taken the seat next to me.

As usual, the dugout was busy, but throughout this game I’d purposely sat all the way down the other end, away from the coaches, because it was quieter. I mistakenly thought no one would notice me commentating the entire game.

The baby recorder had arrived weeks ago.

On the front of a box was a lovely picture of a mom and her massive baby bump happily listening to whatever it was that had been playing. There she was, smiling widely and looking like she was having the best day ever.

I’d never been intimidated by a picture before, but youhad better believe that box stayed unopened on my dresser while I tried to figure out what to say that would make Millie smile as big as the mom on the box.

I was now a week into the voice notes. I didn’t want to admit the amount of times I’d gone over and over what I’d said, only to delete it. I knew this much—it was weird listening to yourself.

I thought I’d be used to hearing what I sounded like from all the interviews I’d given over the years, buttheywere about baseball and I knew what I was talking about. I didn’t know what to say to a baby that hadn’t been born; I didn’t know what it would find interesting. What if I said something wrong and it entered this world thinking I was a dumbass?

And then there was the small matter of what I wanted to say specifically to Millie.

Before I spiraled into a panic attack, I decided I needed to start somewhere. Therefore, I was sticking to baseball for now.

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