Chapter 22 #2
She made a face. “That’s the problem. I’m not sure I know how to control my emotions in the cold.”
I grinned.
The whistle sounded, and we both turned our attention back to the field.
“What are they doing first?”
“Timed mile,” I answered.
“Nettie will smoke them,” Magnolia guessed.
I shrugged. “She’s seven months pregnant so…maybe not.”
Magnolia whipped her head toward me. “She’s what?”
“Seven months,” I repeated. “She still runs. A lot. But I doubt she wins this.”
“We’ll see,” Magnolia admitted. “Even pregnant—which she doesn’t look like she is at all—she’s going to be faster than most of them. If not all.”
They all lined up at the start line and were off.
Nettie didn’t try to come out in front.
She stayed about the middle of the pack for the first two laps.
I looked down at my watch and shook my head.
As of right now, she was running about a five-forty-five-mile pace.
Not her fastest, but definitely not her slowest, either.
“In high school,” I mused as she rounded the second curve of her third lap, “she used to get roped into running track. She absolutely hated it. Said the feeling before a race was the absolute worst. I used to run with her to pace her, but eventually, even I couldn’t keep up with her. She’s damn quick.”
“I can’t believe she’s running that fast seven months pregnant,” Magnolia grumbled. “When I was pregnant, I could barely breathe. I ballooned up quick, and everyone thought that I was having twins.”
“She still has abs.” I chuckled. “I kind of wish she was big and fat with my baby.”
“She’s yours then?”
Nettie and the captain were neck and neck now, first and second place.
It could go to either one of them.
“She’s mine,” I confirmed. “We got married a couple of weeks ago. But we’ve been each other’s since the moment we met when I was fifteen and she was fourteen.”
“I had that once,” she murmured. “Would kill to have it back.”
I looked over at her. “This one’s dad?”
“Yeah.” She paused. “And I wouldn’t kill to have him back, per se. But that feeling of being someone’s person.”
I was quiet for a long time before I said, “Maybe you’ll find that here.”
The captain and Nettie crossed the finish line at the same time, both of them laughing.
Nettie lifted her shirt to wipe some sweat off her brow, and I devoured her.
Pregnant with abs.
Jesus, this woman was a miracle.
“Can you watch her while I go introduce myself?” the woman asked hopefully.
I raised a brow at her. “Of course.”
“She’s not good with people, but she’s been sitting next to you for a while, and I think that she’ll be okay,” she admitted.
I nodded once. “Go ahead. If she screams bloody murder, I’ll bring her down to you.”
Magnolia laughed and started down the steps of the stadium.
The little girl watched her go, then looked at me with an accusation on her face. “Hey, it wasn’t my choice to leave you here.”
The little girl gripped the soccer ball again, softly murmuring to herself.
I kept an eye on the youngin next to me, but also kept an eye on the field as the two newcomers drew the old teammates together.
They all talked animatedly, and that was the first moment that I realized that the team would be okay.
They’d make it.
It’d be a rough road at first, but with the two veterans and Eddy, they’d be playing like a team in no time.
I watched the team captain place her hand on Nettie’s belly. Nettle placed her hand on top of hers and pressed down.
My smile grew.
Forty-five minutes later, the little one next to me got tired of my company and got up.
I picked her up, because she looked like she might very well topple all the way down the stairs if I let her go on her own, and she glared at me.
“I’ll help you down, then put you down,” I told her, assuring her that I wasn’t up to no-good.
She dismissed me and looked for her mother.
Nettie saw me coming first, and her entire face melted into softness.
She elbowed Magnolia slightly, and Magnolia darted over. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stay gone that long. You’re good with her.”
“I think it was the quietness.” I shrugged.
“Iris, can you say thank you?” Magnolia asked her daughter.
She said “thank you” in sign language.
I repeated it back to her.
“You know sign language?”
“I know enough to get me by.” I gestured toward Beau. “He knows it well. His brother and his dad are deaf.”
“I’m learning slowly,” she placed Iris down on the ground and the little girl dropped her soccer ball and started to dribble it straight toward Beau. Beau who was watching the ladies in front of him with a hard eye. “Thanks again.”
She left with Iris, following behind her slow dribble.
Nettie came up to me then. “I see you made a friend.”
“I wouldn’t say friends, exactly,” I teased. “She more tolerated me.”
“She’s adorable,” she mused.
“Very,” I agreed. “I can’t wait to hold our own girl.”
Nettie leaned on the iron railing separating us. “Do you think this is going to work out?”
I looked around.
For so many years, I’d been desperate to get Nettie here to play for the Cowgirls. Now that the time was here, I felt like I was getting all my prayers answered. I had my girl. A baby on the way. My wife’s job was here. My mom was mostly out of the picture. My life seemed to be working out.
That was one of the last happy moments that I had for a while.
I wish I would’ve soaked it in a little bit longer.