I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t stop the small smile. “Yeah, I do.”
“How’s everything going out there with spring training?”
“Good, I think.”
I didn’t tell her that I hadn’t heard from him since yesterday morning. Not since his customary good morning text.
That wasn’t like him. Bennett was the king of check-ins. Spring training was intense, sure, but so far, we had made a point of keeping in touch and carving out time when we could. One day of quiet could’ve been chalked up to postgame fatigue, but two?
My stomach twisted a little.
“All done. Take your time sitting up so you don’t get dizzy.”
I eased upright, blinking as the room came back into focus. My skin felt tight but refreshed. “Wow, that was amazing. Thank you,enchantress.”
Parker beamed, genuine pride lighting her up. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
She started packing up her supplies, humming along to the music. We both turned when my phone buzzed across the coffee table. Once. Twice. Then a third time in quick succession, vibrating hard enough to skitter an inch toward the edge.
“Somebody’s popular today.”
I reached for it, hoping for an end to my butterflies. Hoping it was Bennett finally surfacing from whatever black hole of drills and team meetings had swallowed him for the last thirty-six hours. Hoping the screen would light up with his name and one of those sweet messages he sent when he was thinking of me. Or even just a photo of his cleats in the dirt with a caption like “I’m alive.”
But it wasn’t him.
Instead, the screen lit up with notifications from the Bitchcraft group chat. The first was a photo of Clarke in head-to-toe red-and-white Roasters’ gear. Dani stood beside her in black, flipping off the camera with a sleeping baby strapped to her chest.
Clarke
Will somebody please talk Dani out of wearing all black in this heat? I’m worried she’s going to get heat stroke.
June
Not it.
Jo
Me neither.
Dani
I told you, it’s not my clothes. It’s the adorable, twenty-pound meatloaf strapped to my chest.
Nessa
Now, now. Don’t let Coach Daddy hear you talk about Baby B that way.
Dani
You’re right. She’s a VEGAN, adorable, twenty-pound meatloaf. Though, is she really vegan if all she eats is breast milk?
I smiled at my phone. Coach Ward was a vegan, and we all knew that if he had it his way, their daughter would be, too.
Clarke
BTW, Belles. Your man was showing up all the guysduring warm-ups.
My stomach lurched when I clicked on the attached video clip of Bennett doing push-ups with a medicine ball.
