Page 126 of Mom Ball

She exhales into the phone. A few long seconds pass, then she speaks. “I want that too. But you can’t tell him over the phone. We’ve got to make it as normal as possible.” She lets out a tense laugh. “Not that any of this is normal.”

“Yeah, but whose life is normal?” I wipe my brow and adjust my cap.

“Funny, Aniston said pretty much the same thing to me recently.”

“Yeah, she’s a lot wiser than she’s let on all these years.”

This time her laugh is genuine, and it makes me smile.

“Whatever you decide is best will be what’s best for Timothy. I’ll give you full control of this since you’re the one who really knows him.”

She groans, and my stomach drops.

“I didn’t mean anything by that other than you do know him best.”

“I know.” She swallows. “I already feel guilty for keeping him from you this long.”

“It’s fine. It did sting, but I get it.” After a long pause, I try and lighten the mood. “Besides, there’s plenty of MLB players with secret babies.” I chuckle.

“In a weird way, that helps a little.”

“Good, because I love you both, and I want us to be a family.”

“I want that too,” she whispers.

“I want us to talk while I’m gone. I want to talk to Timothy and assure him I’m coming back. But you talk to me about anything at all—including the big news, if you want. I’m here Brooke, forever.”

My heart beats faster, as if the word “forever” climbed from my chest up my throat and out of my mouth like a throttle.

“Now that the hard stuff is out of the way, I also wanted to say y’all can use my shop and property for practices and stuff.”

“Thanks.”

“There’s a key to the shop and my house hidden in the ceramic frog’s mouth by the pool.”

She laughs. “I wondered why you kept that ugly thing out there.”

“It seemed like a convenient location for hiding small objects.”

And that’s the only reason I kept it, especially out in the open. Paul gave it to me as a housewarming gift not long after I moved in. I’m almost certain he came by to snoop so he could gossip about what I’d done with the place. Most people hadn’t been inside the mansion in years. But he left me a heavy ceramic frog that he said would ward off bugs.

That’s not true. I’ve shaken spiders and caterpillars off the thing several times. However, with all the crap Paul sells, I consider myself lucky.

“We won’t use your place unless necessary.”

“No, I insist. You go there anytime, for any reason. I hate not being there to help them.”

“Thank you, Nate.”

I straighten my cap and turn from the setting sun. “Of course.”

“I wasn’t talking about your property.” She swallows again. “Thanks for not hating me.”

“Brooke, I could never hate you. Even when I wanted to hate you, I couldn’t. Trust me, hating you would’ve made the first few years after our breakup so much easier.”

“Hating you would’ve made my life easier too.” She almost laughs, but it turns to a sigh.

“The only easy thing I’ve done in my life is love you, and that’s the only easy thing I want to do.”

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