Page 46 of The Foul Out

Me: Careful if you’re too nice I might think this is a prank text and not really Harper Wallace.

Crabby: Selfie of Harper at her desk frowning

Me: Selfie of Kyle and Sam, both grinning, in front of a Lego tower

JJ: Harper says Hope Speaks is helping with Piper’s therapies?

Me: Are you asking for the details, or are you asking what we told Harper?

JJ: Motherfucker. I know we agreed that you staying neutral would be better, all things considered, but lying is what got me into this situation to begin with.

Me: No one has lied. Some things are just being left vague.

JJ: GIF of a man beating his head against a desk.

Me: Look she seems less uptight and stressed right?

JJ: I guess…

Me: And I guarantee the kids are happier. I see them every day.

JJ: Rub it in man. You said you’d help me get more time with them and fix this fucking mess of a family.

Me: I am. I swear. Trust me.

Mama: You’ll be home for Thanksgiving?

Me: Of course. I need some of my favorite chocolate cream pie.

Mama: JJ had just mentioned a trip to Tahiti with some other ball players.

Me: Yeah I ended up canceling that.

Mama: Oh really? That doesn’t sound like my boy.

Me: Just got some stuff here.

Mama: Would stuff happen to be a girl?

Me: Don’t start again Mama.

“Thirty-four?”Dylan scrutinized the massive pile of colored boxes, a frown tugging at her lips.

“Sam wanted more Lego sets. It didn’t seem fair to get him a new set only, so I got a few for everyone.” I shrugged.

“Our facility isn’t big enough for all the stuff you keep bringing in.”

The place looked plenty big to me. There were huge areas of play space, and there was room for more shelves under the far windows.

“It’s not that much stuff.”

She pursed her lips as she dragged the pink crystal on her neck along its silver chain. “First it was more dominos so you and Piper could beat the other team.”

“It’s not my fault your fiancé cheated.” I shrugged. Cortney had gone out of his way to get just about all of my teammates here, as well as his former teammates from the New YorkMetros, to vote for his domino run. “I had the lead almost all day, but then he pulled ahead.” I roughed a hand over my jaw. Still couldn’t get over how close I’d come to losing. “Piper and I needed some extra material for the final push.”

“And you won.” Dylan sighed. “Then you got the full Playmobil set. Do you know how many pieces came with it? I still don’t understand why you thought we needed it.” She put her hands on her hips and scanned the colorful space.

“Grey and Sam asked for a pirate ship, so I did a little research. Once I started looking, I couldn’t pick just one. There were so many awesome options.” I’d never put much thought into kids’ toys. At least not since I was little. So I’d never realized how cool they could be. These, especially, had so many details. The cannons on the ships even had little balls that shot out of them. “So I bought a few.”

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