“Should we look up his jump roping videos and see if she’s liked anything recently?” Ivory asks.
“I’ve half a mind to leak his account for his comments earlier,” I smart.
Gabby rolls her eyes. “Oh come on, you guys live to taunt each other.”
Our familiar banter has me breathing easier but I’m still keeping one more secret from them, and after all that’s happened with Gabby, I don’t want to hide it. “There’s something else I need to tell you.” I wring my hands together in my lap, hesitant to reveal this part of me, despite knowing they’ll accept me regardless.
“Okay . . .” They say at the same time, sharing another glance.
“The pregnancy comment hit a little too close to home. My endometriosis has gotten a lot worse this year. I’ve actually been seeing a specialist in Nashville, but there aren’t very many options. I could have a clean up surgery, but Grant and I are going to talk to my doctor about a hysterectomy.” Saying it out loud for the first time is hard but I’m surprised to find how right it feels.
“Oh Taylor, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry.” Gabby softens against me, wrapping her arm around my midsection.
Ivory mimics the position and I’m surrounded by my best friends. “This is a lot to take in. I hate that you’ve been dealingwith it all these years by yourself. Can we agree now that there won’t be any more secrets?” Ivory begs.
“That’s all, I promise,” I agree.
“You know all of mine now,” Gabby confirms.
“Ivey, Taytie-Tot, Gabberella, I’m starvingggggg. Are you done making up yet?” Miller shouts from outside before poking his head in the kitchen. “If you’re making out though, I want in.”
“It’s like he wants someone to punch him.”
“I heard that Bake a Cake.”
“You were meant to!” I yell back.
Ivory extracts herself from our huddle and stands from the couch to pull us up. “Let’s get out there before all my food is inedible or we actually miss Miller eating a fist for lunch instead.”
By the time we make it back outside, we’re laughing and I feel lighter than I have in a long time.
As soon as the girls go inside to talk, I turn to Miller and Preston. “You both need to apologize to Taylor when she comes back outside. Implying we were married because she’s pregnant or having a child was a really insensitive thing to say.”
Preston frowns and says, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know you didn’t, and I’m not trying to make you out to be an asshole, but how would you feel if you found out that she couldn’t have kids, but that she really wanted them?”
Taylor hasn’t said she wants kids but they don’t need to know that. In our situation, I was the one who talked about creating a family when we got married. It’s also not my place to share her health issues with them unless she wants them to know about it.
“I’d feel really fucking shitty for rubbing that in her face,” he sighs.
“Exactly, so an apology would be nice.”
“My mom struggled with infertility issues for years,” Chase says. “People would ask her all the time when she was having another kid because it was just me, and it hurt to see how discouraged she would get every time because I know she would have been happy to have another baby.”
Miller grimaces as if mentally kicking himself. “If Gabby hadn’t slapped me earlier, my mom and Mama Fields definitely would have.”
“Yeah, they would’ve smacked both of you for being so stupid,” Mike speaks up.
Sensing it’s time for a subject change, Preston clears his throat and says, “So you and Taylor, huh?”
I lean back in the chair and nod my head, unsure where he’s going to take this. “Me and Taylor.”
“How longhasthis been going on?” Preston asks, repeating the question Ivory asked a few minutes ago.
“Which time?” I cross my arms with a smirk. Taylor’s inside telling the girls everything and I’ve never wanted to hide our connection, so I’m an open book with these guys. Plus, if I weren’t actually in the inner circle before, I’m for sure in it now that everyone knows we’re together.
Miller interrupts. “Wait, I wanna know how Coach knew. How long haveyouknown?”
