Chapter 37
brADY
I thought I knew what tired felt like. Working night shifts, coming home and dealing with the twins, stealing a few hours of sleep while they were at school, only to do it all over again.
That was nothing.
Little Miss Ivy is not quite a month old, but she’s decided sleep is for the weak. At least, sleeping at night. During the day? Sure, let’s nap whenever we want.
That was fine for the first couple of weeks, but then Sage and I decided at least one of us needed to be functioning on a somewhat normal schedule.
Which means I stay up with Ivy after her 9 pm feed and Sage goes to bed.
I give Ivy a bottle around midnight, and then carefully sneak her into the bassinet beside Sage before going to the spare room to get some sleep myself.
That doesn’t mean I don’t hear them when Sage is up with her around two or three in the morning, but I try to fall back asleep as quickly as I can before we’re all up around five. It’s not perfect, but it works, and most importantly, it has meant that Sage has been able to recover from childbirth.
But while the baseball season is, unfortunately, over, the team has decided to keep things going for an extra couple of months of training, shortening the offseason. The hope is that we come back next year better than ever.
My bank account appreciates the extended pay, but my energy level would rather be anywhere but headed in for my first workout with the team since Ivy was born.
I yawn, again, and take a long sip from the big travel mug of coffee, my second already today. Yeah, I thought I knew what tired was. Turns out, newborn baby tired is a whole different ball game.
Pun intended.
I push open the door to the locker room and am met with a wall of cheers.
“Hey, it’s Daddy Dixie!”
“Look who survived his first month of parenting.”
“How’s the diaper league treating you? Has she peed on you yet?”
“You brought pictures, right?” That last one comes from Cal, who makes grabby hands at me for my phone. “Of Ivy, not your ugly face, old man.”
“Shut up, you moron, I’m younger than you are,” I say, laughing, as I drop my bag in my cubby.
He shrugs unrepentantly. “Yeah, but having a kid automatically ages you, like, ten years. So really, I’m the younger one.”
I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”
The door opens again, and Rafe and Levi walk in. Rafe walks straight up to me and holds his hand out. “Hey Dix, I think you dropped this,” he says with a straight face.
I look down at his hand and the pale pink pacifier he’s holding out.
“Oh, come on,” I say as the whole team loses it with laughter. I shake my head but manage to catch the pacifier Rafe tosses my way.
“Remind me why I came back? I don’t get this kind of shit at home, it’s all baby snuggles and smiles there.”
“You missed us, admit it,” Griff calls out from across the room.
I hold my finger and thumb up, barely any space between them.
“About this much, Griff.” It’s a lie. As much as I’ve loved every second at home with Sage and Ivy, I have missed the guys.
They were busy finishing the season without me, so I haven’t seen them in weeks.
And the camaraderie, the friendship…yeah. I was missing it.
Not that I’ll admit it to any of them.
“Alright gentlemen, we’re taking it easy today so that Dixie can keep up. I want everyone out on the field in five, starting with two laps around.” Rafe claps his hands together and looks at me. “Oh, and for some added incentive, everyone has to do ten push-ups every time Dixie yawns.”
Of course, he says that as I’m mid-yawn. “Sorry, guys,” I say ruefully. “I can’t help it.”
“Don’t make me spike the electrolytes with caffeine,” Foxxy grumbles as he elbows me, walking to the door that leads to the dugout. “My arms are still sore from the gym yesterday. I’ll kill you if we do more than fifty.”
“Five yawns. Got it.” I give him a mock salute as we all follow him out onto the field.
Unfortunately, I can’t stick to that. And when practice ends two hours later, my arms are on fire from the ninety push-ups we’ve had to do.
“Seriously, Dix. You’re dead to me,” Foxxy mutters under his breath. “Dead.”
“Sorry.” I groan as we make our way back to the dugout where Rafe is waiting.
“Alright, not bad, boys. Some of you were dragging,” he stares pointedly at me, his lips twitching. “But the rest of you did fine. Let’s hit the locker room to review the training plan for this month.”
I shuffle behind some of my teammates, already looking ahead to going home and crashing. I guess I can blame my exhaustion for my utter lack of awareness of my surroundings, because when the guys all yell “Surprise,” I’m so shocked, I actually jump back.
“What the fuck?”
The locker room has been transformed. It’s now covered in pink and silver streamers and decorations that say “It’s a Girl!” There’s a giant stuffed bear and what looks like a cake made out of diapers on a table at one end, and a pile of wrapped gifts next to it.
“We thought we had a few more weeks to plan this, so there’s not as many games as we wanted,” Cal says casually, coming to stand beside me. “And you can thank Isla and Juniper for the decorations. I wanted to do it all baseball-themed, but they said it needed to be girly.”
“My girl will play baseball,” I reply automatically before turning to look at everyone. “I’m not sure what this is, but thanks?”
“It’s a baby shower, dumbass,” someone calls out from the back of the room.
“Isn’t that meant to be for the mom?”
“Nah, why should she get all the fun? We even have games.” Cal grins.
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
He leads me over to another table, this one with rows of folded-up diapers and baby bottles full of different coloured liquids.
“We’re gonna guess what’s in the dirty diaper and have a bottle chug race.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just melted chocolate bars and Gatorade,” Foxxy says, coming over to join us.
“Yeah, no real shit here,” Griff adds. “And I’m gonna smoke all of you in the bottle chug.”
“It’s on,” I say, holding out my fist for him to bump.
Someone starts some music, and we spend the next hour playing stupid games. Griff does, in fact, beat everyone at chugging Gatorade from a fucking baby bottle, which leads into endless rounds of teasing about exactly how he got so good at sucking from a nipple.
But then Rafe steps up with a small package in his hand. “Listen, we’ve got to wrap this up and let you get home to your family. But there’s one present we wanted you to open now. It’s from all of us.”
I take the soft gift and unwrap it to reveal the smallest Cedar Creek Thunder jersey I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely not something we sell in the fan store, I know that much because I looked for one months ago. Turning it over, I see my number on the back and the word “DADDY” above it.
“Guys.” My emotions catch me off guard. I know my family is waiting for me back home, but as I look around the room full of baseball players holding baby bottles full of Gatorade, it hits me. I’ve got another family right here.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice cracking. “I don’t know what to say except that. This has been a crazy year for me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t want to play with any other group of guys. So, yeah. Thanks.”
“Don’t start crying, Dix, nothing worse than a room full of men crying,” Foxxy gripes before pulling me in for a hug. “We’re happy for you, man.”
“Group hug!” Cal shouts, grabbing Griff’s arm and surrounding me and Foxxy. The rest of the guys join in, and despite being almost smothered, I’ve also never felt so much love from a group of guys. Teammates that have become close friends.
It doesn’t get better than this.