Page 69 of Base Block

“Thank you,” I answered. I was no longer behind the wheel of the rental because Callum and I had come to a compromise. He’d said I had to drive something that did better in the snow and I said ok, but I was going to make the payments. We had gone to Whitaker Automotive, one of the Woodsmen preferred providers where players got a discount, and he had handed over a down payment. It had been more than I’d saved so far and it made my monthly payment manageable, and that was that. Except I believed that he was going to pay off the whole loan soon, because he’d also said so.

“I don’t like having debt,” he’d explained when I’d argued against that. I had remembered what Heidi had said about the guy who had signed a contract with some team, gotten money, bought a bunch of stuff, and then been cut. It was always in the back of my mind that the football life was evanescent.

“I’m so glad you texted,” Victoria continued to tell me now. “The house is empty without Finley. I need to find a hobby that I’ll only do when he’s with his dad. Maybe drinking.”

I quickly looked over, but she was laughing like it was a joke. Good. “We’re going to pick up my friend Anara,” I said. “She’s a little direct, so…just know that she’s saying things from a good place and not to be mean.”

“Sure, I’m not thin-skinned.”

But it was lucky that I warned her because the first thing Anara said when they met was, “You’re so similar to a red panda!”

Victoria’s mouth fell open. “A fat bear?”

“No, red pandas aren’t real bears,” Anara answered. “Biologically, they’re distantly related to skunks.”

“Oh, great.”

I glanced between them. “Should we get going?” I suggested.

On the way to Roy’s, Anara explained that red pandas were a totally different species from the fat black and white ones, and also that they were really cute. “I meant that you have that beautiful coloring and such a pretty face,” she explained and after Victoria looked at the pictures, she was more inclined to agree.

“They actually look a lot like my son,” she said. She got out her phone and soon she and Anara were discussing how cute Finley was, too.

“I’m glad that we met,” Anara told her. “If Demitrious and I stay here in Michigan—”

“Wait a minute, are you leaving?” I demanded. “Did he get traded?”

“Rainey, we’re past the trade deadline,” she reminded me. “But you never know about next season. If we’re here, it will be great to know another mom,” she continued to Victoria.

“What?” I asked. “What do you mean by ‘another?’”

“Oh, I’m pregnant,” she said. “I wonder if I’ll get sick like Heidi.”

I almost ran off the road. “You—you and—what?”

“I am preg-nant,” she said slowly. “Ex-pec-ting. With chi-ld.”

“I think she understands the concept,” Victoria told her. “She’s surprised.”

“I am!” I chimed in. “Very! It feels like you were just talking about birth control methods and how serious you were about using them.”

“That was a few months ago,” Anara answered. “We were thinking about switching that up but then we decided that we wanted a family of our own instead. And here it is, in my uterus.”

“But Demitrious might have to go to a new team,” I said.

“There’s no perfect time to have a baby.”

“But we just ordered your wedding dress!”

“Will that be a problem? I guess it might be,” Anara mused.

I was in shock. “Both you and Heidi are pregnant,” I said, which led to Victoria asking about our other friend. The two of them discussed gestation, giving birth, and child-rearing, and I kept driving for quite a while before I even remembered to say congratulations. Then I asked, “Are you sure that you want to go to a bar tonight?”

“I won’t drink,” Anara answered. She asked Victoria about prenatal vitamins and I fell silent again.

Despite their awkward introduction, the two of them got along great in the car. They talked so much that they didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t really participating and was only answering direct questions. I seemed to be in a little bit of a haze because I had never thought of Anara being a parent. Not that I believed that she would do a bad job, or that I had any specific reservations. I didn’t! But the haze continued after we’d sat at a booth at Roy’s Tavern and placed our orders.

“A button-up shirt,” Victoria was saying as I refocused on them. “You want to have your boobs accessible at night if you’re going to breastfeed. I liked to be able to open it rather than pulling something up. I got really cozy PJs at my baby shower and I loved wearing them.”