Page 11 of Finding the Pieces

“Icare. I’ll tidy up the new toys.”

“Will you still complain?” I ask, raising my eyebrows at him, knowing the answer.

“I reserve the right, but that doesn’t change my answer.”

I smile to myself, loving that Dom wants to see his son spoiled, knowing he’s the kind of man who never cares about getting gifts himself. Dom has always been generous, always thinking of others and how he can support them. How he can show his love. The biggest heart I’ve ever felt. The sweetest one I’ve ever known.

“We’ll need a bigger toy basket,” I say. “Or a small shelf or something for the living room.”

“Consider it done.”

Dom flips the TV on, changing the channel to Aiden’s baseball game. The Columbus Aviators did well this season, earning them a spot in the playoffs. I move to sit on the floor, joining Luca while he plays.

“So, what seat are the Aviators in?” I ask, my focus split as I show Luca how to use the mallet on his toy xylophone.

“Say that again?” Dom asks.

“What seat are they in?” I repeat, nodding toward the game playing on TV. He gives me a look, and I tilt my head. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He stands abruptly, then jogs into the kitchen. When he starts fumbling and digging through our junk drawer, I gasp.

“What are you doing?” I call out to him from my spot on the living room floor.

“Getting the notebook,” he yells back, shooting a shit-eating grin my way before returning to his search. We need to clean out the junk drawer. It’s bad, even by my standards.

“It better be for you,” I say with conviction, crossing my arms over my chest and lifting my chin. “Sure as hell isn’t for me.”

He strides back into the living room, notebook jostling in his hand as he asks, “Ellie, what are baseball rankings called?”

“Umm…seats,” I say with little-to-no confidence.Shit.He definitely got the notebook for me.

Thenotebookis almost as old as the sweater I’m wearing. Back when we first started dating, we were at dinner when Dom confused the saying it’s adog-eat-dog worldand instead he saiddoggy-dog-world. I laughed so hard I snorted wine out of my nose.

Not even a week later, Imayhave accidentally saidnip it in the buttinstead ofnip it in the bud.Before he could control his laughter, he was digging in my school tote, stealing one of my notebooks. He dated the first clean page, claiming the notebook was being repurposed so that we could document which one of us was more confused about sayings we should most definitely know by now.

The edges are worn and the inside cover has been divided into two columns, marked up with sloppy tally marks to track which one of us is “losing.” Well, losingworse. There’s no winner here. This happens way more than it should.

“I fucking knew it. God, I love you, Ellie. It’s seed. Whatseedare the Aviators,” he says, flipping to the front cover to give me another tally before writing down my slipup with today’s date.

You’d think this couldn’t happen often enough to warrant a notebook, but we’re going to need a new one soon with just a few pages left to spare. Those first ten pages of Biology 101 notes are still there, even if a little faded.

“Seed? Why the fuck is it a seed?” I retort.

“Close your ears, Luca. Mommy’s about to cuss up a storm,” Dom says with glee.

I cover Luca’s ears with my palms and he smiles up at me, a big, lopsided, toothy grin showing off his four adorable baby teeth. I smile back at him, my heart trying to burst free from my chest from how adorable he is.

“Yes, mommy is,” I say with an exaggerated smile, which I keep on my face as I turn toward Dom. “Proof, Daddy. I want proof.”

“Ooo,Daddy? I think I like it, Ellie. Say it again,” he taunts.

“Ugh, you’re impossible.” I move my hands from Luca’s ears to his belly, giving him a little squeeze before pulling out my phone to do a quick search.

“Goddammit,” I mumble, the internet confirming Dom’s not lying. “Well, they should change that. Sitting in aseatmakes more sense.”

“No, babe…” Dom says, trying, and failing, to keep from laughing at me. “They aren’t sitting in a seed. They just…are.”

“So, they become aseed? I’m supposed to ask what seed they are?” Dom covers his mouth with his hand, crossing his other across his chest and nodding. “Sports are so fucking weird.”

---