The oracles in my pants are definitely sweating now. “I will.”
“Will you?”
“I will.”
He smirks.
If anyone on this team knows whatreallyhelps my game, it’ll be Darren. I knew him before he met Tanesha. Watched him fall in love, fight it, give in, and now they have the cutest toddler on the entire damn planet.
I can say that because my brother’s baby is new enough that he still looks like a creepy alien. And not only in pictures. In person too.
Which I didnotsay to his wife when I saw them in the hospital last week, for the record.
Point is, loyalty’s gonna be a lot harder when both Darren’s kid and my nephew are in preschool. Preschool is when they get seriously cute.
“Who is she?” Darren asks quietly.
I snort.
He smirks harder.
A few of the other guys lean in.
“Holy shit, did Cooper fall for someone?” one of them whispers.
“Management’s aging up Baby Ash,” I announce.
Tattling about what’s going on with the Fireballs’ new mascot gets them. We areallsuckers for the baby dragon who took over for Fiery, the grizzled old veteran mascot, after the team’s new owners tortured the fans with horrible alternative mascot choices all season last year.
And the entire locker room is obsessed with the fan fiction about Fiery’s love story.
Which is excellent. I love team spirit.
“What?”
“No!”
“She’s perfect as she is!”
“Are they gonna changeGo, Ash, Gotoo? I’m not forking over another fifteen bucks for a new card game to—fuck.Dammit. Of course I am, and they know it.”
“I sent the baby plushies to all my nieces and nephews! They can’t change her! Not yet!”
“Saw the costume myself,” I tell them. “She has pigtails, and she’s a full foot taller.”
“We’re stealing it,” Brooks announces.
“You’renot stealing it,” Francisco retorts. “You and Mackenzie would do some freaky sex thing with it.”
“We would not.”
With everyone giving Brooks the dubious eyeball, pressure’s off me.
Except I still don’t know where I’m taking Waverly. Or what we’re doing.
Besides talking.
We can talk and also have a lot of fun. And definitely good food.
