Page 51 of Batter Up!

“Bring whatever you need. You’ll probably need your hair dryer and whatever other girly stuff you use,” I said to her as I turned her around to wash her back. “Or better yet, can I just bring my awesome all-in-one bottle to your place?”

Molly laughed and said, “That sounds like a better idea. I do have a bigger shower, and it’s not as messy.”

“Yeah, Cooper isn’t known for his cleanliness,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Speaking of Cooper, you know I love him and all the guys, but at my place, it’s just me. If you’d like to come stay with me whenever you want, I could give you a key. I also have an actual fridge, an oven, and a bigger bed.”

“Molly Green, are you asking me to move in?” I asked and turned her around to look at me.

“I think I am,” she said as she bit her bottom lip. “If you want. Do you think we’re moving too fast?”

I shook my head and kissed her lips. “Not at all. I would love to move in.”

The water began to get cold, so we quickly rinsed off. I wrapped her in my towel, then dried myself off as she got dressed.

“I also have more than one towel,” she added with a laugh.

“Way to rub it in,” I chuckled as I rubbed the towel over my body before putting on a clean pair of boxers. We went to my room, where I finished putting on my jeans and a blue polo shirt.

“Can you wear jeans when you go to the stadium?” Molly asked as she was putting her long red hair into a messy bun on top of her head.

“Yeah, our coach likes us to wear a collared shirt to look nice, but jeans are okay. When you get to Triple-A or the bigs is where you have to wear a suit when you come and go from the stadium.”

I pulled on my sneakers and linked our fingers together to go out to the main room.

“Have fun in there, kids?” Cooper asked from the couch. He was wearing his bright orange collared shirt. He didn’t own any collared shirts before, so he went out and bought the cheapest, most outrageous one he could find. He now has five of the same shirt.

“Yet another reason for you to move in with me,” Molly said with a squeeze of my hand.

“Move in?” Cooper asked. “Holy shit! Things just got real.”

“Um, Dixon, they got real when she got pregnant,” Hayden said with a chuckle.

The door suddenly flew open, and Ivan came charging in. He looked around and zeroed in on my girl. “Molly! No!” He exclaimed and thrust his phone out at her.

“What’s going on?” I asked Ivan while I looked from him to my girl.

“You know this?” he asked me while waving a white envelope in front of my face.

I shook my head, “No, man, I have no idea about anything.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t know,” Molly admitted while she read what was on his phone and began typing a reply. She was typing quickly and seemed to have a lot to say. I looked over at Hayden and Cooper, but they were both as baffled as I was and had no idea what was going on.

“I thought your English was getting better, Cruz,” Cooper said. “You haven’t used that app for a while.”

“Important,” was all Ivan said as he watched Molly typing out her response. She handed his phone back to him. He read it carefully and then slumped into the chair closest to him.

“What is going on?” I asked. “Ivan, are you ok?”

Ivan handed me his phone, so I was able to see their conversations and read the English parts of both.

I looked over at Molly, who was just watching for my reaction, and I knew at that moment that I was madly in love with her. I didn’t want to be the first one to say it because I knew she was already wondering if it was too fast to move in together, and I didn’t want to scare her.

“You did this?” I asked, and Ivan handed me the check with a large sum of money.

“Not alone, but I was up all night stress baking. I figured all the stuff I made while trying to think of ways to help could go towards helping your friend. Penelope helped a lot, too.”

Hayden got up, took the phone from me to see what was going on, and then passed the phone to Cooper.

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