Page 15 of The Double Play

“That’s another thing we’re working on,” he replies with a grin. “Now who’s Hazel? Did you get yourself a girlfriend while we were off?”

I let my head fall back against the seat. “I wish we didn’t have to travel as a team.”

He laughs. “Come on, man. Tell me and I’ll leave you alone.” I raise a brow in disbelief. “For at least an hour.”

With a sigh, I answer his incessant questions. “Hazel is June’s nanny. My parents are overseas on a trip, so I hired Hazel.”

Against my better judgment, I open up my phone again and scroll through my text thread with Hazel. A few texts up is a photo of her and June smiling, park swings in the background. Their cheeks are rosy like they’ve been exercising, and they have matching ponytails in.

“This is her,” I tell him, turning the phone so he can see.

He whistles. “She’s gorgeous. Is she single?”

My brow furrows. “How would I know?”

I hadn’t thought to ask. Even if I wanted to date someone, I certainly wouldn’t ask out my daughter’snanny. Hazel would balk at the idea as well, what with the ten-year age gap between us.

“Could have come up in the interview process.” He smirks. “It would have come up in mine.”

I shake my head. “This is why we’re not friends.”

“Don’t be like that,” he says and throws an unwelcome arm around my shoulder. “We’re M&M. You can’t break us up.”

What is it with all my friends giving me ridiculous nicknames? Shaw started calling me E.T. after he found out my middle name is Thomas. Emerson has called the both of us M&M since he joined the team last year. Neither of them cares that I hate nicknames.

I toss his arm up off my shoulder and let it drop. It lands on the armrest between our seats.

“I told you what you wanted to know. Now I want an hour of silence.”

“You’re cashing in on that now? We’ve got a whole flight. You should probably break it up into chunks or choose a time when you know you’ll really want it.”

I reach into my backpack and pull out the noise-cancelling headphones I never travel without. As soon as I put them on, the plane goes blessedly silent. Emerson mouthsnot fairto me before I close my eyes and sufficiently block out the world.

He’s a nice guy, but no matter how great the person, I’m not the type to talk for an entire plane ride. Especially not after two days of being around people nonstop. I desperately need a break.

As I relax into the seat, an image of June and Hazel comes to mind, making the corner of my mouth hitch up on one side. It’ll be good to see June again.

“Daddy!” June yells as soon as I walk into the kitchen from the garage.

She hops down from a stool and runs toward me. I bend to scoop her up into my arms for a hug. She wraps her legs around me, not letting go even when she pulls her face back to kiss my cheek.

“I missed you, did you miss me?” she asks.

“Of course I did. Did you have fun with Hazel?”

I walk her further into the kitchen, noticing Hazel watching us with a smile while she spreads cheese onto what looks to be homemade pizza dough and sauce.

“We had the bestest time! She did my hair in a new style each day and took me to the park, and now we’re making pizza.” June wiggles out of my arms and goes back to where she was standing beside Hazel.

“How was your trip?” Hazel asks. She hands June the cheese, letting her finish spreading it across the three personal-sized pizzas.Three. She thought of me.

“It was fine,” I reply. Her smile shrinks a little. I must have sounded more curt than intended. “We won,” I elaborate.

“I saw that! Congratulations. I showed June the highlights while we ate breakfast this morning.”

“Yeah, we couldn’t watch it because it was soooo late at night,” June chimes in while placing pepperonis on one of the pizzas. “Miss Hazel said all princesses need their beauty sleep.”

A smile tugs at my mouth. The way Hazel explains things to her is much more creative than I ever have. From the beginning, I explained things to June like she was older than she really was. I think it gave her a bigger vocabulary and some independence, but she’s likely been lacking in thechildlike wonderarea.

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