Page 43 of Batter Up!

“Okay,” she said with a shrug like it didn’t matter to her all of a sudden.

I let out a loud chuckle and shook my head. “Of course, you can open it now.”

She let out a giggle and began pulling at the tissue paper. She pulled out the tiny piece of clothing, held it up, and began to sob.

“Oh, fuck, baby!” I quickly got out of my chair and kneeled down beside her. “I wasn’t sure if you would like it or not. I know it’s boy colors, and we don’t know if our baby is a girl or a boy yet, but -” my speech was cut off by her wrapping her arms around my neck and placing her lips on mine.

“I love it so much!” she cried. “This is the first gift for our baby!”

“What is it?” Penelope asked from over the counter.

Molly grinned through her tears and held up the tiny onesie that was in Raptor blue. It had the Raptor logo and said ‘My favorite player is my daddy.’ on it

“That is so perfect!” Penelope said as I got up and went back to my seat. “I’m a little bummed I didn’t think about getting that for you.”

“It was my idea!” Cooper said after he walked in the door holding Molly’s pizza. It smelled disgusting. Pineapple does not belong on pizza, and no one was going to change my mind. If my girl wanted pineapple pizza, though, I wouldn’t complain.

“It was not!” I said with a roll of my eyes at my friend and turned to Molly. “I’m really glad you like it.”

“I really love it,” she remarked as she pulled out a slice of pizza and took a big bite. Melted cheese and sauce stuck to her lips, but she didn’t seem to mind. She took another big bite and sighed. happily. “This is amazing.”

“Here’s the ranch,” Cooper said as he put the cup of ranch on the table.

“Oh! This will make it even better!” Molly dipped the pizza in the ranch and took another huge bite. Ranch was all over her mouth, and I just shook my head. She took a napkin and wiped it off and took another bite.

“So, we need to take care of a few more things before I have to go get ready for the game tonight,” I said as she ate. She gave me a nod to keep talking since her mouth was full. “Number one, I need your phone number.”

She hit her palm over her forehead in disbelief. “I can’t believe we still haven’t exchanged numbers! Here, put your number in my phone and text yourself then you’ll have mine. My hands are too greasy to do that right now.”

I added my number to her phone and made my contact name “My Man” then texted myself. I saved her contact as “My Girl” and smiled at her, making sure my dimples popped out since I knew she liked that so much.

“You’re officially ‘My Girl’ now.” I said as I showed her my phone, “It’s in my phone, so it has to be true.”

She grinned and laughed when she saw my contact name in her phone. “And you’re ‘My Man!’”

“You’ll be at the game tonight, right?”

“You couldn’t keep me away," she said and closed the pizza box. She stood up and climbed onto my lap. She cuddled against my chest, fitting perfectly against me. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stay the whole time since it's a night game, and I have to get up so early. I do need to talk to you about some baby stuff, and I need to figure out a good date for us.”

“Any plans tomorrow? It’s an off day. I have practice, but my evening is free.”

“I have two or three dates scheduled with other guys, but I guess I could cancel them for you.”

“You better not have dates with other guys,” I said with a growl and laughed. “Don’t worry about the date. I have something planned already. Be ready at 6pm tomorrow night.” I looked at my watch and groaned. “I really hate to cut this short, but I have to be at the stadium for batting practice in 20 minutes.”

“Thank you again for everything today. It's been a day I will never forget.”

I leaned down and kissed her soft lips. “I’m glad you forgave me. You’re my good luck charm, Molly.”

That night, I played an awesome game and threw out two opponents trying to steal second base. My coaches were super excited and knew I had been working out my arms and throwing extra hard to catch stealers. I was happy it was working.

I also loved seeing Molly in the stands. I guess Penelope couldn’t find a babysitter since she was sitting alone, but a couple times I checked on her, she was talking with the people around her. Around the sixth inning, she made sure to get my attention and blew me a kiss goodbye. I wish she could hang around after the game, but I knew she had an early morning.

Some company executives took the Kitchen Aid mixers home to test them out, but no one knew what to name the new invention until an executive’s wife called the appliance “the best kitchen aid I’ve ever had.”

The next day, I arrived at the bakery at 5:57. Practice had gone longer than I thought it would. I took a fast shower and was glad I still made it before six. I sent her a text to let her know I was there, and she said she’d meet me downstairs in a minute. I half expected her to be like my ex, Aubree, and say she was ready to go but still be in the bathroom for at least another half an hour. However, before I was able to knock on the door, it opened, and my breath was stolen away. She was wearing a light blue sundress with little white flowers all over it. She had a jean jacket over her shoulders, and her hair was loose around her shoulders in soft waves.

“You wore my favorite color,” I breathed as I pulled her into a hug.

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