Page 9 of Until He Scores

“Don’t stay away so long next time,” Wes said, starting for the door. “We miss you. All of us.”

I stared at him, not sure what to say or if I should say anything at all. “O-kay?—”

“I know you’re not leaving this house without giving me a hug,” Mom chided, coming out of the kitchen. “Your momma raised you better.”

Wes smirked. “Yes, ma’am, she did.” He opened his arms to my mom and hugged her tight. “I shouldn’t hug you like this, my momma will get jealous and so will July.”

Mom giggled like a schoolgirl with her first crush then playfully batted him away with her dishtowel. “Come to the kitchen, I have plates for you.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Wes said, following her out of the room.

Her conversation with Wes trailed off as they stepped around the corner back into the kitchen. My phone rang a second later, and I glanced at the screen. I wondered how long it would take before Lily-Mae called me. She’d held out longer than I expected. “Hey stranger. Been awhile.” I grinned.

“I have news for you,” she said, greeting me. Excitement lit her voice, and I imagined she was bouncing from foot to foot, like she always had whenever anything good happened.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” I asked, grabbing the remote off the coffee table where my father left it.

“I’m pregnant,” she squealed.

Happiness bloomed within me. I’d been present for the births of all her children, along with being the godfather to them as well. “Congratulations! When is the baby due?”

“In June,” she said, and I frowned.

“Are you only finding out now?”

She laughed. “It’s a long story. Rick is crazy ecstatic, and the kids are ready for a new baby to join the ranks. Obviously, thedoctor reminded me I’m of an advanced maternal age, so there are more risks involved.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh. Might as well continue to call them geriatric pregnancies.” Why was it the older we got, the more doctors threw around words like geriatric to describe our ages? It wasn’t like we’d been in our fifties or even sixties.

“Right? I told Rick the same thing,” she laughed. I envied her. Lily-Mae had everything she could ever want in her life and marriage. She taught world history at the local high school while Rick played professional football for theTennessee Raptors.

I wanted the same thing.

I wanted myBoom.

Wanted—but could neverhave—Pope Ellis.

“I’m so happy for you, Lily-Mae,” I murmured. “That little bundle is going to be loved and fiercely protected by their big sister and brothers.”

“Secretly, I’m hoping for another girl,” she said. “The stinky boys outnumber Madison and me.”

I guffawed. “Don’t let Rick hear you say that. I bet he’d want a football team worth of boys if he could have it.”

She hummed a soft, loving sound. The one I’d heard all those years ago when she’d been achingly awkward and so shy. I thought she’d let Rick slip right through her fingers before she made a move. “Sometimes I wish I did too. But I love my girl and the boys so much. I don’t care either way.”

“You’re one of the lucky ones,” I said, scrolling through the channels before finding another game.

“I want you to be a lucky one, too,” she said, determination threading her words. “You deserve your happily ever after.”

The Mayson’s called themBooms. I met mine the day Pope said hi to me in the third grade. I hadn’t realized it then. Slowly, as the years rolled by, that gut clenching, deep yearning consumed my every thought. But Pope wasn’t gay. I was. So, Ipushed the notion aside, burying my feelings so I could stay by my friend’s side for as long as I could.

That lasted until high school. The night I kissed him in my basement solidified the fact he’d never be mine.

“Sometimes it’s not in the cards for everyone,” I stated. “I’ve made my peace with the idea that I might never find the one.”

She snorted. “Don’t even start with the woe is me, bullshit, Thierry Thomas! I know you better than you do. You need to go get your man and stop moping.”

I shook my head, taking the scolding like a recalcitrant child. “What if I want to stay in my feelings for a while longer?”

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