Page 109 of Unexpected Forever
“Yeah, we got a couple,” Charley says.
“Oooh, you should name your child after a fruit or a direction,” the other twin says. “All the celebrities are doing it.”
Clarice rolls her eyes. “Have you lost your damn mind, AnnaMae? They’re not celebrities.”
“Shows what you know. Nate here is a famous baseball player. He’s been in the tabloids and everything.”
“I’m well aware of who he is. I’ve watched him every year since he started playing.”
It isn’t the first time I’ve heard that kind of thing. But for some reason, knowing this cranky lady from Charley’s hometown has followed my career since I was a rookie makes me stand a little taller.
“Okay, ladies,” Faye says, clapping her hands. “Charley here looks like she needs to lie down. Probably feeling faint from hearing y’all bicker.”
She pats Charley’s arm with a liver-spotted hand. “We just wanted to come see how you’re doing. Let’s go, ladies.”
We watch them walk away and I tilt my head. “Did she just say she wants to call me daddy?”
Charley laughs and puts an arm around my waist. “I’d be worried about her stealing you away, but I know she says that to all the boys.”
“And here I thought I was special.”
Her face is a bit flushed and she looks exhausted. I run a finger down one cheek. “Let’s get you home.”
A few hours later, I’m manning the grill and watching Charley work the cookout like a pro.
Her whole family—Mom, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles—is here as well as people from town that Charley knows.
Everyone knows everyone here.
I stay on the upper deck, using the fact that it’s my grill and only I touch it.
But the reality is I’m reluctant to go down and mingle with her family. I don’t know how to handle being around family, or how to have that easygoing camaraderie with someone you also shared childhood with, or what it’s like to have a mother who still dotes on you no matter how old you are.
My mother stopped paying attention to me when I was about six years old. It’s no coincidence that she and my father started using around that same time.
Rolling my neck, I try to ease the tension that matches the anxiety in my stomach. I blow out a breath and flip a burger, tamping down the sudden sensation of dread that overcomes me.
My eyes flick back to Charley as she moves around the lower deck area. I narrow my focus on her, much like I do when facing a pitcher who knows how to strike me out.
The invisible band of panic around my chest loosens, and the headache brewing behind my eyes eases.
That’s what she does to me. Brings me peace in the middle of the storm.
When my heart rate settles, my eyes rake down her body. The strapless sundress she changed into shows off her pregnant belly and enormous boobs.
I can’t wait to peel her out of it later.
A few of the guys at the party notice her too. My grip on the spatula tightens.
“Easy, tiger.” Aidan walks up behind me and slaps me on the shoulder. “They’re just boys. Charley’s known them forever and never had any interest in them.”
“Hey, glad you could make it. Megan said you had to work. You headed in soon?”
He’s dressed in his sheriff’s uniform, a soda in his hand. “Yep. Would you mind taking Megan home later? I don’t want to make her leave if she’s having fun.”
“Absolutely, no problem.”
“Thanks.”
