“Thank you,” she says quietly.
“This is where you tell me how great I am.”
She chuckles. “And you’re pretty great too, Hornsby.”
“Eli, call me Eli. Do I have to keep telling you that?”
“Probably. I’m so used to calling you by your last name because of Pacey and all the guys, well . . . and fans. It’s out of habit.”
“I get it, but I don’t think I want my kid calling me Hornsby, you know?”
“He wouldn’t call you Eli, though, either. He’d call you Daddy. So, if anything, I should call you Daddy.”
She walked right into that one.
“That works for me. Call me Daddy all you want.”
She pauses. “I’m blaming that one on pregnancy brain.”
As I laugh out loud, I catch Pacey walking onto the bus wearing a scowl across his face. Pretty sure that scowl has a name, and its name is Eli Hornsby. He moves right past me and doesn’t even bother to acknowledge me. He sits in the very back where I know he spreads out and calls Winnie. If anyone can put him in a better mood, it’s her.
Turning my attention back to Penny, I ask, “Have you had many pregnancy brain moments?”
“No, I think they’ve been more like blonde moments, which I have from time to time. But I’m glad I can blame them on the baby now.”
“You’re a human incubator, so you might as well get as much from it as you can.”
“I guess so.” She yawns, and I look at the clock, realizing how late it must be for her.
“I should let you get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”
“Yeah, pretty tired. I’ve been waking up at four with nausea, so the fatigue is really kicking in.”
“Have you thrown up?” I ask, feeling guilty as shit that I’m not there.
“No, just nausea. It’s nothing compared to what some women go through. Blakely brought me some ginger ale to have in the morning, and that’s helped a lot.”
“I’m sorry I’m not there to help.”
“You don’t need to apologize. You have a job that requires you to be away. I get that, trust me. I’m just glad I have Blakely. And Winnie stopped by the office yesterday as well to see how I was. So I’m really okay.”
“You’ll let me know when you’re not? I feel like we broke through that awkward bubble tonight, so maybe we can move forward from here?”
“That would be nice, you know, as long as you don’t say weird things like I just ate an apple.”
“A low point in my life I wish we could move on from.”
She laughs. “As long as we’re friends, I’ll never let you live that down.”
“Calling us friends now, Penny?”
“Well, we’re on our way to being friends, but I think we can get there and kick this co-parenting thing in the ass.”
For some reason, that irks me.Co-parenting.The term makes me feel like we did something wrong. Like we weren’t able to work something out, so we’re settling for co-parenting. Not that it’s a bad thing. A few guys on the team are co-parenting with an ex, and they’re killing it. But with Penny, it just feels weird because we never even gave anything a shot. Then again, we both agreed to be friends, so I don’t know why that bugs me.
It just does.
“We will,” I say, not bothering to bring up my thoughts. I’m honestly not sure I’d be able to articulate them in a way for her to understand. Instead, I say, “Thanks for this phone call. I know you were probably dreading it, but it’s almost like we shook off the stink.”
