Page 25 of Love in the Outfield

A brilliant smile lights up his face. “Geege, you’re as red as a strawberry.”

I bury my face in my hands. I’m an idiot. My voice is muffled as I say, “I’m sorry if I was gawkin’ and it made you think a certain way but it’s not going to happen.”

“You’re just sorry you got caught,” he teases, tweaking my ponytail.

I kick him, my bare foot brushing against the soft hair on his legs. Another mistake. Oh Lord, but I want this man.

He reaches up and peels my hands from my face. “I said you call the shots and I meant it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. I hope I can prove to you that I’m worthy of your trust.”

“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be letting you into Auggie’s life so easily. But with regard to us as a couple… that’s in the past, where it shall remain.”

He smirks at my fancy declaration and says, “We’ll see.”

Auggie opens his eyes and points at the sky smiling. “Cowds.”

“Big puffy clouds,” I say.

“Is he always this happy?”

“Mostly, unless he’s overtired or hungry, then he can get cranky.”

August rolls onto his stomach then crawls to Cade and climbs on top of him. Straddling his chest, he touches Cade’s face following the contours like he’s reading Braille or something. Cade seems frozen as if he’ll ruin the moment if he so much as breathes.

I decide now’s as good a time as any so I take a deep breath in and out then say, “Auggie, this here is your daddy.”

I’m holding my breath as Cade and I exchange a nervous look, waiting to see how Auggie reacts. He repeats, “Da Da.”

“That’s right, he’s your da da.”

He lunges forward buries his face in Cade’s neck and hugs him. My heart is about to melt clean out of my chest. I swear,it is one of the sweetest moments of my life. Cade has tears in his eyes, same as me. We share another sweet parental moment. That is all it is or can ever be but it is more than enough. This could not have gone any smoother.

I stand up to give them a moment and get to cleaning up while Auggie and Cade play quietly on the blanket. For just a teeny tiny second, I allow myself to thinkif onlythen slam that fantasy right back in the vault where it belongs.

12

CADE

My mom was christened as Wendy Sue Brown, then she married my dad, Marcus Alexander Jennings. He came from money, she most definitely did not. In fact, her family was quite poor. She marriedintomoney. My dad’s family is loaded. They own a business started by my father’s father. Thank God my brother Quinn wanted to be in on the family business, which took the pressure off me, allowing me to pursue my baseball dreams. I say this to point out the conundrum I’m facing trying to make sense of Mom’s way of thinking as she reacts to my big news.

I watch the color drain from my mom’s face. “What?” she screeches. “A child? With that country bumpkin?”

“Mother I willnotput up with you disparaging Georgia.”

“Well, it’s true,” she insists.

“I expected more from you. She is the mother of your grandchild.”

“Supposed grandchild! I, for one, won’t believe it until you take a paternity test. It’s very convenient to attach oneself to a successful athlete. Latch on to the proverbial gravy train.”

“Wendy,” my father gently scolds.

“Mark, let me have my moment. You’re a big softie and see the best in everyone. Not everybody is a nice person.”

“But Georgiais,” I say through gritted teeth. “Mom, I ran into her at the grocery store. It was a fluke, not her stalking me. She flew out of there like she’d seen a ghost. Hardly someone trying to catch her man. There will be no paternity test,” I say firmly. “There is no doubt he’s mine.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! How can you be so sure? By all means, there will be a paternity test! This is a con as old as time. Trap a man into child support.”

“Do you even hear how misogynistic you sound?”

---