She looks around me, and I turn just my upper body, keeping my lower half in line with hers. We see the boys running the bases, not caring about what we are doing one bit.
She places her hand on my chest. “It’s okay. I appreciate you caring though. We’ll figure out how this works from here.”
“Uncky, come run with us,” Tyler yells.
A silly grin covers my face as I look at him, then at Christy. “I’ll be right back.”
I take off after the little guys running the bases, chasing them down, yelling, “Don’t let me catch you!”
Of course, I’m able to catch them with ease, and I pick them up, Liam first, then Nolan. Realizing I don’t have enough hands when I get to Tyler, I lean down and hold all three of them as one for a brief second, then put them down, not wanting to strain my back any more than I already have.
“We’re free! Keep running,” Liam yells, making me laugh.
“Uncky needs a break. You guys have fun.” I wave to them and head back to where my family and Christy are standing.
The other players with children all hang out, watching the kids play, while the rest of the players are, I’m sure, getting changed and heading out for the night.
“Did you guys get settled in at the place?” I ask Samantha.
“Yep. We’re good to go. The home is so cute. Thanks for setting that up for us,” she replies.
I shrug. “I did nothing but told the woman who handles all of the travel to find you an Airbnb.”
She slaps my arm playfully. “Gee, thanks for all the effort.”
I hold up my hands with a chuckle. “Hey, it’s her job. Why should I try to figure it out on my own when she does it all the time? She already knows of the best spots.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Samantha turns to Christy. “What about you? Are you far from here?”
Christy shakes her head. “No, not really. Maybe fifteen minutes to get across town since, hopefully, we will have missed the crowd to get out of here.” She checks her watch. “On that note though, I should probably get going and get Nolan to bed. It is a school night after all.”
“Are you coming to tomorrow’s game?” Samantha asks.
“Oh, no.” She shakes her head. “Just this one.”
“You’re welcome to come.” I speak up. “Getting you tickets is no problem.”
“We’re actually sitting in the stands since it’s a day game. You should come.”
She shakes her head some more, this time also holding her hand up to wave. “I can’t. Thanks though. I have clients, and Nolan has school.”
I reach out and take her fingers in mine. “We’ll have plenty of home games for you guys to come watch.”
She grins at me, and I love the way her smile makes my chest hurt in the best way possible.
“Come on. I’ll help you round up Nolan.” I nudge her toward the field, then let go of her hand to not make anything obvious to Nolan.
“Grab mine too,” Samantha yells out. “It’s always easier to get them when everyone is leaving.”
“On it!” I yell over my shoulder to her.
“I hope Samantha didn’t talk your ear off the entire time,” I say with a smirk, hoping she knows I’m only half kidding.
“She was fun. We had a great time. Thank you again for inviting us.”
“I’m glad you guys were able to come.”
“They even came to the suite to interview your family for your first major league game, so that was cool.”
