Page 44 of Fighting Chance

I KNEW someone managed to get a video

BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

do I even want to know what happened in Cabo?

and of course we will all be there early, right guys?

O’CONNOR

I’ll be there Ashford!

MITCHEL

only cause Cap asked so nicely

ELLINGTON

Matteo and I will be there

VALENTI

we will?

ELLINGTON

yes idiot

BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

is there a reason Irving is suddenly silent after the mention of Cabo?

IRVING

I’m just biting my tongue so I can stay on Kieran’s good side

KIERAN

good boy ;)

Biting my fist to stop myself from laughing, I shake my head. These guys are fucking hilarious. Every time I’m feeling low, all I have to do is open up the group chat and suddenly the heaviness in my chest isn’t there any longer.

Grayson was right, they are my and Emmy’s family.

Sliding one earbud in, I pull up the audiobook that was highly recommended on numerous parenting threads online.

I should be asleep in my new bed but, truth be told, even with the child monitors I set up, every time I walk down that hall and away from Emmy’s room, it’s like a hand reaches out and grips my heart, filling it with dread. I know it’s irrational—this house has a security system and my bedroom is right next door—and yet I am utterlyterrifiedto leave her.

This can’t go on for long, it’ll become unhealthy. But I think while I wrap my mind around the fact that the little human sleeping peacefully in her new princess bed is entirely my responsibility to keep safe, I’ll allow myself some grace and sleep in the recliner chair.

Hitting play on the audiobook, I flick out of the app, the sweet voice of the female narrator filling my right eardrum as I open up my notes and get ready for another night of research.

Because I refuse to fail Emmy.

Grayson cuts his eyes down to my knee bouncing up and down furiously in his passenger seat as we make our way to the arena. Thank God we have a home game tonight; I don’t think I’d be able to physically leave Emmy for a day, let alone get on a flight to a different state.

“You good?” Grayson asks suddenly.

“Clearly not, fucker.”