I forgot to ask you! Can you take a video of Phyllis and Kitty when they come in today? Especially if they’re extra spicy. A few of the guys don’t believe they exist.
You’re talking to your teammates about Phyllis and Kitty?
Of course! And you and the bakery and Josie and the rest of the workers. I’m telling them everything.
Why?
Because I love you. And the bakery is part of you. And I want everyone to know about it.
I think I’d be crying now even if I wasn’t overly hormonal.
How did I get so lucky? How did I go from a man who practically hid me away from the world to a man who’s shouting about me from the rooftops?
I love you. So much.
Not nearly as much as I love you.
“How was practice?”
The moan Maddox lets out could be confused for another kind of moan if I didn’t know what he went through today. Add in the wince on his face and I can tell it was a rough day. “It’s days like this when I question why I chose this career.”
“Because you love the game?”
“Yeah… there’s that.”
I laugh as I sit back against the headboard of our bed, ready to shut my eyes the second Maddox and I hang up from our nightly FaceTime. He’s been at camp now for almost two weeks, and this part of the night is always my favorite. After their nightly position meetings and dinner, Maddox heads back to his room so we can have a few minutes of phone time, just the two of us. Even though the call usually comes around eight, I’m always a few minutes from falling asleep, my body tired from the day and carrying around a baby that’s somehow on the weight track to be a lineman rather than a safety like his dad. “But you said it wasn’t full contact, right?”
“It’s not, but that first day a player hits you, even in the controlled setting we’re in, it always reminds your body of what it hasn’t been feeling for the past six months, and what you’re about to feel for the next six.”
“I can’t imagine,” I say as the baby decides to kick me with his full weight. “Then again, I feel like I was tackled from the inside by your son, so maybe I can.”
“Just like his daddy.”
I shake my head with a smile. “Do you know one thing we haven’t done yet? Or maybe you have and you haven’t shared the notebook with me yet?”
A terrified look comes across his face. “What did I forget?”
“You didn’t forget anything,” I say, trying to reassure him. “I was thinking that we’ve never talked about names.”
He lets out a breath, but he’s still slowly blinking. “Are you trying to remember if you have a spare notebook to start jotting down names in?”
My observation takes him back a bit. “How did you know?”
I shrug. “You’re not the only one who notices things Gallagher.”
Maddox is the king of noticing the little things. And not just noticing, but then acting on it. He never asked what my favorite soda was. He’s never asks what my current cravings are, yet I’m always supplied with whatever it is. So getting a chance to do this for him, to show him a little of what I feel every time he does it, hits me square in the heart.
“I did have a spare, but then I used it today. And you know I can’t mix football notebooks and baby notebooks.”
“Of course you can’t,” I say. “But did you find the one that’s in the front of your suitcase?”
This takes him aback. “The front of my suitcase?”
I smile as I slide down into my bed, needing to take the pressure off my lower back. “Go check.”
He carries the phone with him as he walks across his room. I hear him open the zipper and I’m so glad he kept the phone to his face, because his reaction is priceless.
His face is lit up like a kid on Christmas Day. His eyes are wide and his jaw is dropped.
