Page 86 of Home Run

“Is that slow?”

“She’s already pregnant. It’s not like we’re starting at the first date,” I replied. “But to be honest, I don’t know. I’m going with whatever it takes not to freak her out. I think slow means we’re not getting married tomorrow.”

That’s what I assumed it meant. Even though I would marry her tomorrow. She already knew I loved her, she knew I was in it forever. Therefore slow was whatever she wanted it to mean. I didn’t care, as long as we were together.

Lux reached over and patted my knee. “Happy for you, man, you’ve got everything you wanted. The girl of your dreams.”

“We all did,” Parker added, ripping open his bag of nuts. “Since we moved into the apartment, we all got the girls of our dreams.”

There was a moment of silence as we all sat back and thought about it. It was true, we weren’t the same twenty-three-year-olds who’d moved into that place. We’d grown up, we’d matured, and we’d found a meaning to our livesoutside of baseball. And hopefully I could speak for all of us if I said we’d found our futures.

“Um”—Ace scratched through his beard, his eyes darting between the three of us with a slightly nervous appearance—“while we’re on the subject of our dream girls, I have news.”

Lux put down his phone, Parker put down the bag of nuts, I put down my book.

“I’m…um…I’m going to ask Payton to marry me.”

For the second time, Parker unbuckled and launched himself into someone else’s seat, wrapping his arms around Ace. “Buddy, that’s amazing news. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, man.” Ace nodded, taking a deep breath, almost like he’d been worried about telling us. “Butit also means I’m moving out. Payton and I have been talking about getting a place together, and this seemed like the perfect time. Our lease is up soon?—”

Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I nodded. Ace getting engaged, me due to become a father—so much had changed in the past couple of years. The apartment was never a forever home, but it was hard facing the idea that we were moving onto the next stages of our lives. Even if was for awesome reasons.

“You guys can decide what you want to do with my room, but I figured with the baby coming along you might have other plans too.” His eyes flicked to me.

“Maybe we should talk about it now and think about what to do,” Parker said, dropping back into his seat. “Scout and I have had a couple of conversations about moving in together. Her roommate is never around, so we’ve been on our own there a lot, and we like it.”

I glanced over at Lux. “What do you think?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged. “Radley’s still in school, and we aren’t making any big decisions until she’s finished. Now she’s across the hallway, it’s almost like we live together anyway, and the Secret Service is comfortable with it because it’s secure. We’ll stay until she graduates.”

“Where Radley goes, Millie goes. And I have no interest in being any further than across the hallway from her and the baby. Even that’s too far for my liking. And Millie will start back at school next year, so we’ll be in the same boat.”

“So you’re staying?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m staying. We can take the place just the two of us.”

Lux lifted his bottle of water and knocked it against mine. “Okay, roomie. You got it.”

My eyes flicked between Parker and Ace. “You best not be strangers.”

“Hey, who’s ass am I going to kick onCall of Duty?” Parker shot back. “Plus, I have my godchild to visit.”

“You know this means I’ll be the favorite, right?” Grinned Lux. “I’ll have daily visits with the baby, plus Radley will be godmother. We’re a shoo-in.”

Ace chuckled as Parker’s face dropped, and I could almost see second thoughts flashing through his mind.

“No one will be favorite.”

Lux raised his hands. “Someone will be.”

“Dude, you’re going to make Parker cry,” I added, before Lux could continue down the path of winding up Parker, no matter how amusing it was.

Thankfully, or perhaps not, Boomer Jones was makinghis way down the aisle to us, distracting Parker enough to forget about who was going to be the favorite godfather.

“Hey, Boom, how’s it going?” Ace nodded to him.

“Can’t complain. Pumped about this series. We’re gonna nail it. I can almost taste this victory, ya know.”

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