“Hey, you,” she says, bumping her shoulder against mine.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, my eyes tracking down to her barely-there baby bump.
She gives me a small shrug. “Eh… I’m better than I was a month ago. I finally feel like I have enough energy to do something other than lying on the couch all day.”
“You’re out of the first trimester now, so it should be better for a while,” I tell her, not wanting to sugarcoat the end of pregnancy.
I remember how miserable I was at the end with Mav. I would gladly do it all again, but damn, that was rough.
“At least you have three men to take care of you night and day,” I add.
“They don’t ever leave me the hell alone,” she groans. “They think I’m going to spontaneously combust or something.”
I can imagine it one thousand percent. Cole was like that with me when I was pregnant with Mav, and he wasn’t even in love with me.
“I think they’re also a little scared of me right now, with my roller coaster of emotions.”
“Good. They should be a little scared of you. Us women should always keep the men in our lives on their toes,” I say.
Sienna, Avery, and Hadley all look up at me from the row below.
“Are you saying this because you have a man you are currently keeping on his toes?” Avery asks with a wicked smirk.
“Or multiple men,” Hadley adds in. “That’s actually more of the norm with this friend group.”
“Umm… no. The only man in my life is that cute one in the dugout, currently reading a book about snakes.”
“Is Theo reading in there again?” Riley asks, jokingly.
The humor drops from my voice. “No. There’s no man.”
Sienna gently squeezes my knee. “Do you want there to be?”
My head tilts to the side. “I mean, sure, but I’m okay with the way my life is. As long as I have Mav, it will be okay.”
As I say it, I’m reminded of how lonely it can get those weeks Mav is with Cole and his family. I often find myself picking up extra shifts just to avoid being home alone.
Some me time is a good thing, but too much of it hurts.
An uncomfortable feeling starts creeping through my veins. I really don’t want to talk about this with the women who are in very committed relationships with their groups of men.
It isn’t that they wouldn’t be supportive. I know they would be. I just don’t like talking about it with anyone.
Other than Kane…
That one night, I allowed myself to open up to a complete stranger.
I still don’t really understand why I did it, but he mirrored my feelings. I mean, he was at the bar in the first place because he was missing his son so much.
I hope wherever he is, he’s happy and has found a way to make peace with the times he’s apart from his son.
A loud crack of a bat making contact with a ball draws my attention back to the field.
Hadley and Sienna scream loudly as the team their guys are on scores a run. Avery and Riley groan in unison, since their men are on the opposing side.
Mav wanders over with his chapter book dangling from his fingers. He wiggles himself in between Riley and me until we make enough room for him.
“Hey, bud,” Riley says, pulling him into a hug. He rests his head on her shoulder, hugging her back.
