Page 92 of The Curveball
Unfortunately, I can’t stick to that. And when practice ends two hours later, my arms are on fire from the ninety push-ups we’ve had to do.
“Seriously, Dix. You’re dead to me,” Foxxy mutters under his breath. “Dead.”
“Sorry.” I groan as we make our way back to the dugout where Rafe is waiting.
“Alright, not bad, boys. Some of you were dragging,” he stares pointedly at me, his lips twitching. “But the rest of you did fine. Let’s hit the locker room to review the training plan for this month.”
I shuffle behind some of my teammates, already looking ahead to going home and crashing. I guess I can blame my exhaustion for my utter lack of awareness of my surroundings, because when the guys all yell “Surprise,” I’m so shocked, I actually jump back.
“What the fuck?”
The locker room has been transformed. It’s now covered in pink and silver streamers and decorations that say “It’s a Girl!” There’s a giant stuffed bear and what looks like a cake made out of diapers on a table at one end, and a pile of wrapped gifts next to it.
“We thought we had a few more weeks to plan this, so there’s not as many games as we wanted,” Cal says casually, coming to stand beside me. “And you can thank Isla and Juniper for the decorations. I wanted to do it all baseball-themed, but they said it needed to be girly.”
“My girl will play baseball,” I reply automaticallybefore turning to look at everyone. “I’m not sure what this is, but thanks?”
“It’s a baby shower, dumbass,” someone calls out from the back of the room.
“Isn’t that meant to be for the mom?”
“Nah, why should she get all the fun? We even have games.” Cal grins.
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
He leads me over to another table, this one with rows of folded-up diapers and baby bottles full of different coloured liquids.
“We’re gonna guess what’s in the dirty diaper and have a bottle chug race.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just melted chocolate bars and Gatorade,” Foxxy says, coming over to join us.
“Yeah, no real shit here,” Griff adds. “And I’m gonna smoke all of you in the bottle chug.”
“It’s on,” I say, holding out my fist for him to bump.
Someone starts some music, and we spend the next hour playing stupid games. Griff does, in fact, beat everyone at chugging Gatorade from a fucking baby bottle, which leads into endless rounds of teasing about exactly how he got so good at sucking from a nipple.
But then Rafe steps up with a small package in his hand. “Listen, we’ve got to wrap this up and let you get home to your family. But there’s one present we wanted you to open now. It’s from all of us.”
I take the soft gift and unwrap it to reveal the smallest Cedar Creek Thunder jersey I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely not something we sell in thefan store, I know that much because I looked for one months ago. Turning it over, I see my number on the back and the word “DADDY” above it.
“Guys.” My emotions catch me off guard. I know my family is waiting for me back home, but as I look around the room full of baseball players holding baby bottles full of Gatorade, it hits me. I’ve got another family right here.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice cracking. “I don’t know what to say except that. This has been a crazy year for me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t want to play with any other group of guys. So, yeah. Thanks.”
“Don’t start crying, Dix, nothing worse than a room full of men crying,” Foxxy gripes before pulling me in for a hug. “We’re happy for you, man.”
“Group hug!” Cal shouts, grabbing Griff’s arm and surrounding me and Foxxy. The rest of the guys join in, and despite being almost smothered, I’ve also never felt so much love from a group of guys. Teammates that have become close friends.
It doesn’t get better than this.
38
SAGE
There arethings no one ever tells you about having a baby. Things like, you will never have a clean shirt at the end of the day, or that you’ll develop a sixth sense for hearing the slightest noise your baby makes, or you’ll desperately want to have a caffeine IV inserted permanently. If such a thing existed.
