Page 26 of Mom Ball

“They’re absolutely real kids,” Maribelle calls loudly behind us.

Morgan pats her knee. “We got this, girl.”

She smiles at Morgan.

I pull my legs into my chest. It will only be by God’s good grace if we make it out of here without a bunch of mad mamas attacking Jeffrey.

“And an Angel and Precious. Last name on both says . . . Pending?” Jeffrey flips the page over as if he will find an answer.

“Custody crap,” Tami says from the corner of the gym.

I hadn’t noticed her until now. She must’ve come in late, because she’s hard to miss. Sadly, she’s as close to a celebrity as our town has thanks to her TikTok following.

Well, unless you count Nate with baseball.

I twist my mouth. I’d almost made it a full day without thinking of him.

“Why don’t you put your girls in softball, Tami?” Jeffrey asks.

“Why don’t you put your tongue back in your mouth, Jeffrey?” She widens her eyes and lunges forward, almost dropping the baby on her hip.

Jeffrey clears his throat and turns toward us. In his defense, Tami isn’t wearing much and often advertises that she’s on the prowl for a new baby daddy—in more ways than one.

“Anyway, that’s where we’re at in making a team.”

Maribelle raises her hand.

“Yes?” Jeffrey points to her.

“What can we do to get our babies off the wait list? I mean, my kids need something to do while my husband is working. Besides destroy our house.” She follows her comment with a long sigh.

“Get more people to sign up by Friday.”

“Then those new people and the wait-list kids will be a team?” I ask.

Jeffrey opens his mouth, but Bubba beats him to answering. “According to section A, item twenty in the rule book, we would then hold a draft.”

Jeffrey glares at Bubba, who pulls a tiny booklet from his shirt pocket and waves it to make a point.

“That’s right, Bubba. Jeffrey can’t stack a park-league team this year,” Morgan coos loud enough for Maribelle and me to hear.

“So we need like five or six kids by Friday?” Maribelle asks to clarify.

“Yes, and it’s already Tuesday. So I get it if that’s too much to ask.” Jeffrey’s voice is filled with fake pity.

“Nah. If I can get a thousand followers every new post, I can come up with a few kids to play ball.” Tami straightens against the door frame, giving Jeffrey a smug expression.

“You can’t do anything illegal to get kids, Tami.”

“Neither can you, Jeffrey.” She snaps her head, again almost dropping the baby.

I don’t know what happened between those two, and I’m good with that.

“So if I register more kids in this age group by Friday, say when school ends, we can draft teams?” Morgan asks.

“Correct.” Jeffrey has a begrudging tone, which makes her smile.

“Heck, we’ll have plenty by then,” Tami chimes in.

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