"Right, but how do you know?" I ask as I pull a string cheese from his fridge.
My teammates have the best snacks. My favorites are Felix's and Crosby's. Bryson now stocks really good yogurt and Emmett can be counted on for a full serving of vegetables with ranch or hummus which a growing boy needs every now and then. Aiden is too healthy but Harper has a secret salty snack stash she shares with me.
"I just do." He shrugs. Crosby snaps his finger and points at me like he’s just come up with something brilliant. "It’s like how I felt when I first held Stella."
That puppy yoga class was the last time Crosby could give me his full attention. I don’t hold it against Stella but a more juvenile part of me could. I mean, I’ve been hiding my hook up with Rhys Reid since I got back from Scotland and none of these dummies have noticed. I have managed to keepmoving with my life. Why is it that my teammates become immediately obsessed?
"You’re comparing the woman pregnant with your baby to your dog?" I wince. I might not know much about relationships and yet I do know enough to know he shouldn’t do that.
"No." He defends weakly. "I dunno, it just felt the same somehow."
I decide to throw him a bone. Ha, like a dog.
"What does it feel like?" I ask as I hold a string of cheese above Stella's nose. She sniffs her "please" so I drop it and she flaps her tongue around as she chomps for it out of the air.
"It's, like, warm, and solid. Powerful but also, like, so calm." Crosby says dreamily as he describes his feelings of love for Laila. "The world around me kind of just stopped."
My knee jerk response is not a good one. I don’t think he’d appreciate me telling him it sounds like he’s describing sliding into a coma. I give my brain a second to come up with a better comparison.
Nothing.
Time to just turn this back on him and see if he can come up with his own solution.
"So what are you going to do about it?" I can see him spinning out so I relate this to the only other thing in this world he really loves. "You can't just bring her home like you did for Stell-Bell here."
"Why not?"
I want to yell "BECAUSE SHE'S NOT A PUPPY UP FOR ADOPTION, SHE'S A WOMAN!"
Instead I ball the rest of the string cheese into my mouth and turn the question back on him again. "Dwid vou awrsk wer t morve in wit vou?"
"Sort of."
I finish chewing as I tilt my head to the side in question. He waves me off not wanting to get into how he managed to "sort of" ask Laila to move in with him.
I swallow and bring up another potential wrinkle. "What about the T.V. show?"
Crosby both deflates and straightens at the mention of the reality TV cameras following him this year. "I dunno, what about it?"
"You probably need to decide if she's going to be a part of it or not." I shrug. "They're going to be filming you for the next year."
He squares his wide shoulders at me. Honestly, I'm glad he's my linemate right now because if I was an enemy forward crashing the net, I'd be scared shitless.
"They won't film her." He practically growls.
"Well, if she moves in they're gonna see her, and they got footage of her at the gala." I point out, trying to be helpful. "But you could probably pull it off if we work hard enough. Okay, next question, what are you going to do about the team?"
"Why does the team need to know?"
"Social media and shit, for one."
My mind starts to spin a little thinking about the social media shit storm that could rain down on us if my hookup with Rhys Reid became known. And, this friends-with-benefits situation too. No one can know. Good thing we wore disguises around town on Yes Day. My outfit is hanging proudly in my closet.
"Why would social media care about me having a baby with Laila?" Crosby asks.
Oh sweet, innocent Crocs. The fact he has ignored social media for his entire career is showing. "If having a baby with Laila is going to be shared on a reality show or online, the team should be ready. The spotlight is on you man, and she can't stay in the shadows forever."
I watch him grapple with this reality. I feel bad for him, I do. The poor man has been so off course and I’m worried he's one late night online purchase away from clipping his cell phone to his belt.
