Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
S hae
Boon was used to attention. He’d walked these halls decades ago, every head turning to watch the king of the baseball field in our midst. He was the first of only two boys from Blueball to ever get picked up by a professional team, which made him basically a god around these parts.
I was the quintessential wallflower. The smart, nerdy girl watching Boon from the stands, pretending like she didn’t give a crap about some egotistical teen boy when really, just a look from him sent my heart aflutter.
It was a tale as old as time, the ending already written, which made our story all the more absurd.
The nerdy girl had defied all odds and snagged the baseball god.
Sure, it was years later, but I had half a mind to claim the victory for what it was.
When we had our meeting with Principal Joseph and let out our secret, it was a shock to the system to have everyone’s eyes on me. Suddenly I was getting just as much attention as Boon, and while he took it in stride, I stumbled. Repeatedly.
And yet Boon was there by my side the whole time, a hand at my back to steady me and a sweet kiss every morning before we walked into the school.
Not only had we announced my pregnancy, but Boon had decided PDA was fair game.
That had caused all kinds of rumors, each more ridiculous than the last. The one I hated the most was the one that resembled the truth.
Shae must have trapped him with a pregnancy…
As if that was the only way I could get a guy like Boon to be interested in me.
The truth hurt, of course, but I also knew how busybodies were, believing the worst because that made for more titillating gossip.
Maybe I had trapped him, not because I forced him to be involved, but because he felt obligated.
However, the more time he spent at my place, the more I was starting to believe he actually wanted to be there. I’d started to hope.
“Shae!” Boon shouted from the double doors across the school as I turned to lock up my classroom for the day.
His team had an important game tonight, and I knew I wouldn’t see him much except for out there on the field, yelling at and encouraging his players.
If they won tonight, they’d go to the district championships.
He jogged down the hallway, every bit the professional athlete with muscles flexing, stride graceful like a wild animal meant for running, and not even out of breath when he got to me. I panted putting my shoes on these days.
One hand immediately went to my belly and the other to cupping my cheek. He laid a kiss on me that had me forgetting a student leaving late for the day might see us.
“Hey, lovebug,” he whispered against my lips. I could feel the cocky smirk forming.
“Hey.” Yep, I was already breathless.
He pulled back, scanned my cheeks that had gone hotter, noticed the rapid rise and fall of my breasts, and wagged his eyebrows.
He was pleased with himself for getting me all hot and bothered.
I tried telling him it was just pregnancy hormones making me horny, but my body betrayed me every time he came near, and it just went to his big head.
“Got something for you.”
“Boon!” I whisper-shouted. Normally when he said something like that, his dick appeared shortly after and while this man could convince me to do a lot of dirty things, doing them here on school grounds was definitely off-limits.
He chuckled and kissed the tip of my nose, fogging up my glasses. “I love that your brain goes there.” He leaned back and pulled a jersey from where it had been hooked over the back of his shorts. “This is for you to wear tonight.”
I took it from his hand, seeing that it was a Blueball High baseball jersey. “Um, thanks? I was just planning to wear something blue and roomy.”
I’d started showing almost to the day we talked to Principal Joseph, the baby bump out in full force since then.
I gravitated toward my roomiest sweaters and finally gave in to some maternity pants when Gigi and Kinsley took me to the mall.
The elastic waists were so much more comfortable.
Heck, I might just continue to wear these after the baby was here.
Boon unfolded the jersey and held it up so I could see it. Ah. Now I understood. The back of the jersey had his old number with the Texas Outlaws emblazoned on it, along with Wolfe in bright white block letters.
I snatched it back and lifted an eyebrow. “Are you trying to claim me? Like some kind of caveman?”
His grin grew to showing off all his white teeth. “Yes.”
I rolled my eyes and went with his ridiculous move. “I’ll even make a poster that says I’m rooting for Big Dog. Since you like that term so much.”
His grin turned to a grimace. “Just…wear the shirt, okay?” He leaned back in and pulled me close, kissing me like he had all the time in the world when I knew his team was waiting for him.
I pushed him off me before I dragged him into my classroom and broke my own rule. “Go! I’ll be there in about an hour, okay? Lydia and I are getting an early dinner, then we’ll be here for the game.”
He stepped back and then lunged in again to steal one last kiss. We were both laughing when he broke away and sprinted down the hallway. I shook my head and watched him go. Lydia’s low drawl behind me had me jolting.
“That is too adorable for words.” Then she made a retching noise.
“Shut it, woman. Be happy for me.”
She slid her arm into mine and we began to walk down the hallway arm in arm. “Oh, I am. Just jealous as hell.”
I looked over at my best friend. We’d talked for hours about what we wanted in a man and how while we were okay being single, we both wanted a partner in life. “You’ll find him, Lyd. He’s out there.”
She snorted. “Come on. Let’s go feed that baby so you can drool over your man tonight.”
Sounded like a good plan to me.
“The girls are all here.”
Lydia hung up her phone after whispering so quickly I couldn’t hear half of what she said.
She’d been odd all evening, talking so much I wondered if she’d had an afternoon coffee when she’d been expressly forbidden from having caffeine after ten in the morning.
Then she’d gone silent and stared off into space.
We trudged across the gravel parking lot, having parked in the overflow lot on the opposite side of the campus from the baseball field because Lydia’s stomach had started hurting and she spent fifteen minutes in Tequila Mockingbird’s bathroom blowing the place up.
I couldn’t even check on her because I knew my weak stomach still couldn’t handle any crazy smells.
I knew her ordering the extra-hot salsa with her empanada was not a smart move, but you couldn’t stop Lydia once she had her heart set on something.
A van with a news station logo on it was parked outside the ticket counter.
They’d been here frequently the last few months, all atwitter about the story of a professional baseball player coming back home to coach his local team to a possible state title.
I was happy Boon was getting the attention.
He put his heart into this team, all while dropping everything to take care of me and the baby when we needed him.
The crowd was already noisy, the teams on the field doing their final warmups before one of the girls from our choir sang the national anthem.
The smell of popcorn and hot dogs from our concession stands made me excited for summer to arrive even if it brought temps that would make me a sweaty pregnant mess.
Lydia and I stepped into the fenced-off area, searching the stands for our HAGS girls.
They were waving like idiots, so we spotted them easily.
Lydia didn’t let go of my arm, making sure I got up the bleachers and to the seats they’d saved for us without incident.
“Look at your adorable shirt!” Hattie made me twist so she could see the back. “His name and number??”
“Damn! He’s claimed you, woman,” Fifi said on a cackle.
“I think it’s super sweet,” Rosemary said.
There was a screeching noise, the kind that comes from a microphone turning on. All heads turned to the field where the players were running off to their respective dugouts.
“If I could have your attention, folks!”
I’d recognize Boon’s voice anywhere. It echoed across the field from the large speakers set up all around the fence line.
The man himself walked out onto the field to stand on the pitcher’s mound, looking hot as hell in his own blue-and-white uniform that matched his team.
I’d never seen him play professionally, and now I regretted never making that happen.
Baseball pants were a horny pregnant woman’s dream.
The whole Blueball team ran onto the infield, making a human wall behind Boon, hands clasped in front of them. They reached almost from third base to first.
“What’s going on?” Hattie whispered, echoing the sentiment of many around us. This was not the usual order of things. Announcing the players happened after the national anthem, not before.
“Not sure,” I whispered back, gaze glued to Boon.
“I hate to take up too much of your time when we have an incredible game to enjoy tonight, so I’ll make this quick. An injustice was done twenty-one years ago, and I can’t rest until things are made right.”
His handsome face twisted into that cocky grin I see so often, his outstretched hand sweeping across the stands and stopping right where I was sitting.
He pointed directly at me, and I could feel the stares of people around us.
My eyes had gone round with alarm and my morning sickness was back with a vengeance.
There was a whooshing noise in my ears that almost drowned out the rest of what he was saying, which turned out to be fine, because his players all spun around to give the crowd their backs.