Page 100 of Player Misconduct
Hunter:He's also been to four ultrasounds and has a diaper bag in his truck.
Me:It's a GO BAG. For emergencies.
Trey:With diapers.
I lock the phone and step out into the cool air, the kind that smells like wet leaves and woodsmoke from someone's chimney down the block. The house is painted a soft gray-blue with white shutters, there's a porch wide enough for a bench and a pair of boots and maybe a stroller someday. The lawn needs mowing. The hedges need trimming. It's perfect in the way things are when they're waiting for the right people to fill them.
I unlock the door and step inside and I’m greeted with hardwood floors, high ceilings. Light pours through windows that haven't been cleaned in a while, but it doesn't matter because the bones are good. The kitchen opens to a living room with a fireplace that looks like it actually works. Upstairs, themaster is bigger than I expected—enough room for a king bed and a chair by the window .And then there's the nursery.
I stand in the doorway and just… look.
It's small. Not tiny, but cozy—the kind of room that feels like a hug. The walls are a soft cream, the trim painted white. There's a closet with double doors and a window that overlooks the backyard, where a swing set sits rusting under a tarp that I'll have hauled away before next week.
I picture the crib here. The rocking chair there. The star map framed above the changing table, coordinates pointing to the night we met and the night everything changed.
My chest tightens.
I pull out my phone again, open the camera, and take a slow pan of the room. Then I text Trey.
Me:Send Vivi.
The reply is instant.
Trey:We're already in the car.
Less than two minutes later, I hear tires pull onto the cement driveway and then the sound of Vivi's voice before I even see her.
"Oh myGod,Trey, look at the porch!"
I meet them at the door.
Vivi shoves past me into the entryway and gasps. "Aleksi… This is—" She stops, hand over her mouth, eyes welling up. "She's going to cry."
The house is empty since the previous owners moved a couple months ago but I already know that Vivi’s going to fill this place and make it perfect for Kendall.
"That's the idea," I say softly.
She walks through the house like she's cataloging every inch for a presentation. I follow, watching her take in the kitchen, the living room, the way the light hits the stairs.
"I’ve been in this house before but it’s so different with nothing in it. A total blank canvas." she says, already halfway way up their staircase.
I nod.
She disappears. Trey and I exchange a look.
"She's gonna cry again," he says.
"Yep."
A beat later, we hear it—a soft, choked sound from the nursery.
When we get upstairs, Vivi's standing in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around herself, tears streaming down her face.
"It's perfect," she whispers. "Aleksi, it's perfect.Kendall deserves this."
I scratch the back of my neck, suddenly self-conscious. "I know she does. Can you make it everything she’d want? I need her to say yes to the house."
Vivi turns to me, eyes fierce. "She's going to say yes… but the house isn’t the only reason why."
