28. Brooks
CHAPTER 28
brOOKS
T he look on Harlowe’s face gutted me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do when I left her apartment, so I sent Silas a text letting him know to meet me at my house to work out. I had a full gym in the basement with everything we needed so we could get our workout done without everyone around us.
I got home, changed, and was already down there when he popped through the door, using the key I’d recently had made for him to get in. Fine by me. I didn’t want to go upstairs to let him in, anyway.
“Why are we working out here?” he asked, setting his bag down and grabbing a bottle of water out of it.
“Why not?” I asked back. “We don’t have to be to the field until after lunch.
“Uh-huh.” He stood before the treadmill I was on. “And why aren’t your other brothers here? They don’t need workouts?”
I snorted. They did, but I also only wanted to talk to Silas.
“I wanted to talk to you, all right?”
“That’s what I thought.” He sat on the end of a weight bench but made no move to use the weights. “Harlowe?”
After nodding quickly, I turned the treadmill off and stepped down. I’d come back to it.
“So what’s going on? You tell her about your confrontation with Dad?”
“No.” I took a quick drink of my own water. “But Camden did.”
“Good. She knows you stood up for her.”
“Not good,” I countered. “I talked to her this morning. She doesn’t want this.”
His eyebrows shot up. “The baby.”
“Me.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Believe it.”
He eyed me for a moment, then said, “But you love her.”
“I do.” I blew out a breath as I dropped onto another seat near him. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? She thinks she’ll be trapped.”
He chuckled. “What?”
Laughing could’ve made him an asshole, but in this case, it didn’t. We had money. More than we should’ve, considering both what we’d inherited and what we were paid. It wasn’t necessarily fair that we got paid this much to play a game, but our careers were shorter than most people’s and were the owners supposed to get all of that? Fuck no.
But that money actually gave us a lot of fucking freedom. Freedom that Harlowe would have if she were with me. It wasn’t like I’d lord over my money and be stingy. What was mine would be hers. As much as it could be. The trust, I couldn’t add anyone to directly only in my will, but I made enough. Fuck, she could have her own account. I’d never ask her to sign a prenup if I ever convinced her to marry me so she could take it all with her for all I cared. Though Michigan didn’t have alimony unless you’d been married forever and one was a stay at home parent or something. Fuck. I’d give it to her.
“It’s her fucking parents. Her mom never worked and was just at her dad’s beck and call. It was kind of fucked up. The mom couldn’t do shit without the dad.”
“I don’t think that was about her dad, though,” he said. When I cocked my head to the side, he continued. “I don’t think Mrs. Chandler didn’t do anything because Mr. Chandler wouldn’t let her. I don’t think she has the confidence to do anything alone. We’ve all met them. Harlowe’s nothing like her.”
“No, she isn’t. That woman would do everything on her own if people let her. She never even asks for help.”
“Oh, fuck.” He snapped his fingers. “So Harlowe thinks that’s about money and is obsessed with making sure she has her own so she’ll never be trapped.”
“Exactly.”
“So tell her you’ll put a few million into an account for her that you don’t have access to.” He gave me a wide grin as if he’d just said the most brilliant thing in the world. “That way, she has her own money.”
I snorted. “Don’t think I wouldn’t, but she’d never go for it.”
“Then you need a plan, my friend. Some way to show her that she’ll always have security, even if you’re not around.”
“Right.” I sighed then grabbed a set of dumbbells. Might as well make use of this time.
“Oh, and you need to go see Mom and Dad.”
“Fuck that guy,” I said right away.
“I mean yeah, fuck him. But I’d bet after all that, Harlowe doesn’t want to cause problems. She always went out of her way to be helpful when she was around our house. Like she didn’t want to get in the way. I’d bet she’s thinking that she’s tearing the family apart when the rest of us know it’s our overbearing father.”
He was right. I had to go see them. If I could figure out how to make this right with Harlowe, they were going to need to be taken care of.
Over the next several days, we were busy as hell. There was a lot of planning that went into the playoffs, so we were at the field a lot watching tapes, especially once we knew who’d won the Wild Card game that affected us. Once we did, we could get really fucking specific.
Most people thought of baseball as just a game, but there was a lot of math involved in this game. A lot of figuring out the right combination of players. Obviously, my brothers and I would all be starting. Our manager wanted Cobb to start so that when we got to the ALCS and the World Series, he might pitch twice, given that they were both seven games. That would put him potentially in the position to pitch the most important games.
If we didn’t sweep.
I talked to Harlowe every day. Mostly by text, but I’d call and we’d chat for a few minutes. It wasn’t the same, but that was all right. I had a plan to convince her that she could be with me and have the independence she felt like she needed. That’s what this was all about. It was too much right now not that she didn’t want to be with me ever.
She probably thought she was doing me a favor by backing off right now given the playoffs and the fact that she didn’t even want to tell me any of this until the season ended.
After all, a good part of the year, I wasn’t even around.
When leaving the field a few days before the first playoff game, which was here in Kalamazoo since we’d had the best record in the regular season, I hurried across the street to Cleats & Kegs to see if she was working.
She came out of the kitchen in a hurry with three plates, one in each hand and one teetering on her arm.
Fuck, I wanted her to stop doing that. Eventually, things were going to be too heavy for her, given the baby. But now wasn’t the best time to tell her that.
“You got a minute?” I asked when she hurried by.
Her eyes widened, but at least she gave me a small grin. “Sure.” She stopped Luz and asked, “Could you get table twelve?”
Luz eyed me up and then down while I kept my focus on Harlowe. I could still see it, though, and thought about what I’d been told about her asking if I was seeing anyone. Or something like that.
“Sure,” Luz finally said.
“What’s up?” Harlowe asked, but she didn’t step forward.
“Nothing,” I told her. “Just wanted to see you. Want to check in.” I had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her stomach. It wouldn’t have been appropriate here in the middle of the restaurant.
“I’m good. I’d call if I weren’t.”
“Would you?”
She sighed and finally moved closer. “I would. I’m carrying your baby. You should know if I’m not all right, but I’m OK.” She didn’t sound it, but I wasn’t going to push it. Not today, anyway. “Listen.” She leaned in so I’d be the only one to hear her. The place was busy, but not crazy busy. I could only imagine what I’d be like during the playoffs. “We never should’ve kept having sex.” I wholeheartedly disagreed but waited for her to continue. “Everything was moving so fast and… feelings got in the way.”
“Feelings were already there,” I told her and it didn’t matter if she was referring to hers or mine. On both sides, it was there.
She bit on the corner of her mouth. “There are a lot of reasons I hit the brakes, Brooks.”
“Perfect. Can you list them?” Though I thought I knew exactly what she was going to say, I still wanted to hear it so I’d know that I had an answer for every single one of them.
“Well, first, I don’t only want to be wanted because I’m carrying your baby.”
“You know that’s not true, but I can prove that to you,” I countered. “What else?”
“My life is in chaos right now outside of accidentally getting pregnant. The restaurant… I went on an interview yesterday. Their starting pay is two-thirds of what I make here. I don’t want to go backward.”
“Got it. Life is in chaos.” That, I was in the process of attempting to calm. “Next?”
She blew out a slow breath. “I don’t want to come between you and your family.”
I snorted at that. There were so many other issues that caused a problem there. “Funny. I don’t want my family to come between us.” I slapped my hands on the bar top and stood. “I have to go,” I told her, though leaving was the last thing I wanted to do.
At least now that I knew what brought her to this point, I could fix them. Just like Silas had said I needed to. It didn’t matter if he had actually said that or not—it was what he’d meant.
After leaving Cleats & Kegs, I went to my parents’ house. Camden was in the living room when I came in, but after greeting her, I went to find my parents. They were both in my mother’s home office. Mom was behind her big, light-wood desk and Dad was sitting casually in a chair across from that.
I didn’t give a fuck what they were talking about when I walked in. “You got a minute?” I asked, giving Dad a glare, daring him to say no or anything else that I didn’t like.
“Of course we do,” Mom said. “Do you want to go sit somewhere more comfortable?”
“No. Here’s fine. Why be comfortable when we’re about to get really uncomfortable ?”
“Look.” Dad held his hand up. “If you’re here looking for an argument, just leave.”
“Conrad,” Mom snapped. “Go head, Brooks. What brings you here?”
“I think you know,” I said. “We need to settle what happened.”
“It’s settled,” Dad told me.
“It’s really not. Because I have a woman out there who I love and is having my baby and who thinks she’ll come between us. I tried telling her there wasn’t much to come between, but here we are. She has a shitty family, so she doesn’t want to cause that for anyone else.”
I waited, hoping Dad would say something, but when he didn’t, Mom cleared her throat.
“All right,” he finally said. “I was wrong. I reacted, all right? I shouldn’t have said those things about Harlowe. She’s always been a nice girl. I’m just concerned for all of you that you’re going to get wrapped up in something you can’t undo.”
“Too late,” I told him. “She’s pregnant. We’re having a kid. No undoing that.”
“I know.” Though he didn’t sound happy about it. “I’ve just wanted you all on the right track.”
“We’re all fine ,” I said with some oomph behind it. Most parents would love to have all of their kids at the top of whatever their field was. That still wasn’t good enough for our dad.
“Yeah. OK. I was wrong.”
“I’m not the one who needs to hear that.” When I glanced at Mom she gave me a nod of encouragement, not that I needed it. “The very next time you’re in the same air space as Harlowe, you need to apologize to her.” As much as I knew that’d pain him, it was what was needed. “Make her feel like part of the family.” I cringed. “Make her feel like a welcomed guest you’re excited to see, actually.” Those, he wasn’t hard on. “Because I swear, Dad, if one more derogatory word comes out of your mouth about her, you and I will never be able to be friendly again.” Not that we were now, but I wanted to make it clear that I didn’t give a fuck if he was my father. I’d kick his ass.
Hell, it was only the guys who’d kept me from doing it last time.
Dad’s jaw tensed before he said, “I will.” Damn, I’d been expecting more of a fight.
“Good.” I stepped back from where I was and walked toward the door.
“Go win us a championship,” Mom called out once I’d made it to the hallway, though I stopped short because Camden was there leaning against the wall with a sheepish look on her face.
“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I needed to know what happened.”
“I don’t care. Just don’t tell Harlowe. I don’t want her getting her hopes up over that fucker possibly apologizing.”
Camden fell in step with me as I headed to the front door. “Do you think he’ll actually do it?”
“Fucking better.”
“Hey.” She grabbed my arm to keep me from leaving just then. “When you said you wouldn’t be friendly anymore, did that mean you’d kick his ass?”
“Yup. Good night, Camden.”
Her giggle followed me out to my car.
The team was busy as hell because of the playoffs. We played two games here in Kalamazoo and won, then we were off to Minnesota for the next two. As much as I wanted to ask Harlowe to come, I didn’t think she would, so I was biding my time and focusing like she wanted me to. This was the best of five series and after our first win in Minnesota, it was over. We’d swept them and every single one of us was on our game.
That also meant we got a few extra days to prepare for the next playoff—a much harder best-of-seven series against Chicago, a team that had been doing exactly what we had.
Again, we were starting at home and this time, I wasn’t going to shy away from asking Harlowe to be there. It was dumb, but since she was carrying my kid, I wanted that kid to be in the stands.
“Hello?” she answered. I fucking hated how apprehensive she sounded when she answered my calls.
“Hey, what’re you doing tomorrow night?” I asked.
“I don’t have plans. Why?”
“Will you come to the game?”
“Oh… I don’t know, Brooks.”
“Please come to the game, Harlowe. I’m fixing all of this, but right now, I need to focus on my job and having you there will help me do that.
She sighed. “I know you have to focus on your job, Brooks. Baseball comes first. I grew up around you all, remember?”
Oh, I fucking remembered. “No. Baseball comes first, sometimes. Right now, it has to or I’ll let the team down. But I’d like you to be there. The first two games are here at home. Next three are away. If we don’t sweep, they we’ll be home again.”
She groaned into the phone, a sound that shot right to my dick when it shouldn’t have. “Did you just mansplain how the playoffs work to me? I just said that I grew up with all of you.”
I chuckled. If she was giving me a hard time, then things were getting back to normal at least a little. “I didn’t mean to, but yeah. That’s what I was doing.”
“I should say no just for that.”
I shook my head, though she wouldn’t see it. “Please don’t.”
“We aren’t together right now, Brooks,” she said more seriously. “Not really. You don’t have to ask me to the games.”
“Fuck that,” I said without regret. “We’ve been together from the moment you told me you’re pregnant, as far as I’m concerned. If I would’ve had my way, we would’ve been together before that. I don’t want to argue about that right now because I feel an argument forming over the phone. Just tell me you’ll come. I’d like my kid to be there.”
She snorted. “I don’t even know if this kid has eyes or ears yet.”
“I don’t care. It’s important to me. Please.”
There was a moment’s pause, which had me seriously thinking she was going to tell me to go fuck myself, but then she said, “All right. I’ll be there.”
I pumped my fist in the air but kept my excitement quiet so as to not spook her. After I gave her the details, we ended the call.
As luck would have it right then, I got a text from my lawyer telling me that everything was taken care of and what else needed to happen for me to do what I wanted to do. No problem. I’d take care of that after I told Harlowe what I’d done.
It could go either way. She could get really pissed at me or she’d cry happy tears. That remained to be seen.
First, baseball, the playoffs, and getting my woman’s ass in the stands.