Chapter 16
Emmett
“That’s my new favorite one,” Travis declares, spoon pointed in the direction of the lemon mousse Miller prepared.
Although, I know that dessert is not as simple as a mousse. I know it has some fancy name I won’t be able to pronounce.
“I think the chocolate still wins.” Isaiah takes another bite of each dessert just to be sure.
“Well, good news for both of you.” My daughter throws her dish towel over her shoulder. “They’re both getting added to the menu.”
“This is the best side gig anyone could ask for,” Cody says, mouth full as he speaks. He then proceeds to steal the lemon mousse from Travis, finishing the rest before anyone could have a chance to sample it again.
“Dad, which is your favorite?”
I can’t tear my eyes away from my first baseman as he inhales the dessert, not giving himself time to even take a breath.
“I don’t know.” I grimace, watching him. “Kind of lost my appetite.”
“Sorry, Coach.” Cody finishes the last bite before taking a deep inhale, sitting back in the stool at my daughter’s kitchen island to stretch his stomach. “She’s too good at this.”
That she is.
Miller has always been an excellent baker, something she took up when she was just a kid because I was, admittedly, pretty terrible in the kitchen.
Thankfully, my shortcomings caused her to experiment and find her passion, and after years of traveling the country to create Michelin-star dessert programs, she’s now got her own patisserie right here in Chicago.
Every so often, when she’s looking to create new menu items, she has us over for a taste test. Sometimes it’s just me and the Rhodes brothers. Other times Cody and Trav join in. And when she’s experimenting for a full menu revamp, the entire team piles into their home to sample each item.
Baking for her loved ones is what helped her find her passion again after a bit of burnout, and years later, it’s still a part of her process.
“But, Dad, if you had to choose one,” Miller begins again, “which one was your favorite?”
“Millie, you know I can’t choose. I think they’re both excellent. People will be lining up for them.”
She offers me a grateful smile, and I watch the moment she catches herself.
At times, I still find her looking for my approval. Whether it be in small things like a dessert preference, or bigger things, like which wedding dress she should choose.
She’s better about it now, but there were a lot of years that Miller lived her life as if she were in debt to me. As if me leaving my career and becoming her dad required her to prove that she would be successful in return.
Miller just being Miller is all I could’ve asked of her, and up until she met Max, I don’t think she ever really believed that was enough. But she’s a mom now. It’s good to see her understand how I feel about her because she loves Max in the same way.
Speaking of my favorite three-year-old, little Max comes waddling into the kitchen, pajamas on and hair still damp from his bath. He holds his hands up for me to pick him up off the ground.
“Hi, Bug,” I say, sitting him on my lap at the kitchen island. “Cool PJs.”
“They’re doggies.” He points at a golden retriever then to a black lab.
“I see that.”
“Five minutes, Maxie,” Kai says, strolling back into the kitchen. He eyes the empty glass jars and dirty spoons before shifting his attention to Cody. “Seriously, man?”
“What?” His voice is as innocent as he can muster. “I’m sorry. But you weren’t here.”
“I was giving my kid a bath. You’re in my house and you couldn’t have saved me a bite of the dessert my fiancée made?”
Cody pauses, thinking it over. “No.”
Miller chuckles. “I made an extra of each for you. They’re in the fridge when you’re ready. The other two are for Kennedy. She’s on her way.”
“I mean . . .” Isaiah lifts a brow, cheeky smile on his lips as he speaks to his future sister-in-law. “Ken and I are married, so technically, what’s hers is mine, right? Because I could for sure go for another round if you want to pull those out of the fridge.”
“Why are you like this?” Kai asks his brother before turning to Miller and bending to kiss her. “Thanks, Mills.”
I cover Max’s eyes, but he just giggles as he attempts to pull my hand away. “Save it for the wedding.”
Miller gets that look on her face, the one where her lack of a filter won out and she’s about to say something I don’t want to hear.
“Sorry to break it to you, Dad, but we didn’t really save anything for the wedding.”
“C’mon,” I groan. “There are some things a father doesn’t need to hear about.”
She shrugs. “Now you know how I feel when I have to listen to all my friends refer to you as my ‘hot dad.’ Or when all the guys on the team talk about you and Reese needing to . . . release some tension.”
My attention shoots to my three players, and not a single one of them tries to deny it. In fact, Cody is too busy licking the glass jar clean like a goddamn dog.
“You guys can’t say that kind of stuff.”
“Well, sorry that it’s true.” Travis shrugs, no apology in his tone.
“That’s how rumors start, and Reese has too many eyes on her right now for that kind of talk.”
“No one is saying that you guys have,” Isaiah explains. “Just that you should.”
“You of all people should know how hard it is for a woman to succeed in this business,” I tell him, reminding him of his wife.
“The last thing Reese needs is her players talking about her having some sort of inappropriate relationship with the field manager. You guys have to understand that she, more than any other team owner in the league, has to keep things professional.”
“No, we get it,” Cody says. “It just seems like you’re trying awfully hard to remind yourself of that too.”
The boys all laugh.
“All right, well you can all go fu—” Looking down at my lap, I find Max’s big blue eyes staring up at me. “Find something else to talk about.”
“Nice save, Grandpa,” Kai taunts, nodding toward his brother. “What I want to know is what the hell was up with Harrison going after you today?”
“I don’t know,” Isaiah exhales. “That guy is a cancer. Just look at how many teams he’s played for over the course of his career.
I doubt it’s a coincidence that he’s always moving around.
Not that it matters. With how hard Arthur and Scott worked to get him last year, it’s not like Reese is going to get rid of him now. ”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I mutter under my breath.
All eyes shoot to me.
“What do you know?” Isaiah asks.
Even though Isaiah is practically family, he’s still a player and I can’t have the team knowing about the inner workings of trades and pickups before they happen.
We don’t need rumors circulating the locker room, and I don’t need Reese getting heat for a decision before she’s even officially made it.
So, I look for a different answer that’s equally as true. “Well, the optics aren’t great when a field manager and a player get into it mid-game, now are they? But I’m only guaranteed to be here until the end of the season. So, who knows, maybe I’ll be the one to go.”
“Yeah, Dad.” Miller leans her elbows on the kitchen island opposite me. “I’ve never seen you get in a player’s face like that.”
“He deserved it.”
“I can’t imagine the boss was too stoked about that,” Travis cuts in.
“I wouldn’t know how she feels about it. I didn’t see her post-game.”
“By the way, I really like Reese,” Cody states, his typical happy-go-lucky demeanor switching up the mood. “I think she’s doing a good job.”
That earns my attention. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. And I mean more than just running the team. Did you know that next week is my thousandth game with the Warriors? I didn’t even know that was a thing, but she’s flying my parents out here for the game. I thought that was so cool of her.”
You’d think after everything Reese told me at that minor league game about her love for her family’s team that this wouldn’t shock me, but still, it does. She loves to preach that baseball is only a business, so it’s always a little surprising when she proves herself wrong.
I nod in agreement. “That is really cool of her. I’m glad your parents will be there.”
He smiles. “Me too. My mom is excited.”
“Reese hooked up my family too,” Travis cuts in.
“You know when we were in Detroit last week and my mom and aunt came to game two of that series? Well, Reese found out they were going and bought them seats directly behind home plate.” He chuckles to himself.
“I could hear those two yelling behind me the whole freaking game.”
“Reese wasn’t even on that road trip,” I remind him, a bit of disbelief laced in my tone.
“Exactly.”
Before I can wrap my head around this new information, Kennedy comes in through the front door.
“Sorry I’m late,” she says, immediately finding Isaiah. “I got stuck at work longer than I planned. It felt like everyone came in for treatment today. Well, except for you three.”
“It was a dessert day,” Cody explains as if that explains anything at all.
Isaiah wraps an arm around his wife, pressing a kiss to the top of her hair. “I made sure we saved one of each of the desserts for you. Other people wanted to eat them, but I said no way. Those are for my wife, and if she wants to share when she gets here, that’ll be her decision.”
Max giggles in my lap, already picking up in his three short years that his uncle is the comedian of the family.
Kennedy cocks her head to the side. “Why do I have a feeling that none of that happened?”
Miller rolls her eyes. “Nice try, Rhodes.”
I don’t hear what else is said, instead distracted with my phone that’s buzzing and the name that’s scrolling along the top.
Hesitating, I stare at the incoming call before I stand with Max tucked under one arm. “Sorry, Bug. I have to take this.”
Setting him on his feet, he instantly climbs onto his uncle’s back instead.
“Everything okay?” Kai asks.
I hold up my phone to show him the screen as I start down the hall. “Nate’s calling.”