Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“There are nurses,” Carter says.
Leo ignores him. “We want a seven to ten APGAR score. Seven to ten. Manifest that, boys.”
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” I ask.
“We don’t know. It’ll be a surprise.”
I can feel his excitement over becoming a dad. I was close with some teammates in Sweden who were fathers, but I hadn’t met anyone I’d consider having kids with.
It’s different with Blair. We haven’t been seeing each other long, but I’m imagining myself on the way to the birth of a child we’re having, and it feels amazing.
Her sons don’t have their dad around, and that’s his loss. I can see myself quickly thinking of them as my own, and if Blair and I never had more kids, that would be okay.
“Oh shit, there it is!” Leo cries when the hospital sign comes into view. “I’ve got smelling salts in the hospital bag. Let’s do this.”
“Suki beat us there,” Carter says. “She’s going up to the room now.”
“Don’t feel like you have to come in, guys. I know you’d just be sitting in the waiting room forever.”
“Of course we’re coming in,” Carter says.
“That okay?” Leo asks me.
“Hell yeah, it’s okay. I’d be honored to wait. I can go pick up anything you guys need.”
Leo snort-laughs. “I should tell Mara you’re bringing me a rack of ribs later. Just to see what she says.”
“You should not,” Carter says. “That’s one woman I would not fuck with while she’s in labor.”
I pull up under the portico at the emergency department entrance. Leo and Carter get out, Leo saying, “Thanks, Magnus.”
“Meet me in the OB waiting room,” Carter says.
“Will do.”
I park and turn off my engine, then call Art back.
“Hey, I’ve got good news,” he says in answer.
“Great, let’s hear it.”
“Seattle is asking for a firm verbal commitment. Their GM, Tammy, said you’re at the core of their vision for the next several years. We can get them up on the signing bonus.”
Six weeks ago, this would have been incredible news. The money from the contract Seattle is proposing, managed well, will more than care for Elin and my mom while also setting me up well for life. Money will never be an issue.
But Seattle is incredibly far away from Cleveland. I don’t doubt Blair and I’d never cheat on her, but three years is a very long time. That’s three years I’d hardly see Blair, Coop, and Eli outside of my offseason.
I don’t want to be another man who disappoints them. Blair is an adult, so she understands what a temporary long-distance relationship would mean and why we’d be doing it. But five- and seven-year-old boys wouldn’t.
“Cleveland could still offer,” I say.
Art pauses. “Yeah, but this is a bird in the hand. First line. They want to build around you.”
“It’s not a bird in the hand, though. They can’t sign me yet.”
“I trust Tammy’s verbal commitment.”
I’m a man of my word, and if I make a verbal commitment to sign with a team, I’ll honor it. If I agree to go to Seattle and Cleveland offers, I’ll have to turn Cleveland down.
I’m torn. There’s more at stake than there was before.
“I can’t commit yet,” I say.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay. When do you want to revisit it? If we haven’t heard from Cleveland in a couple weeks, can we talk about this again?”
“Yeah. I’m not saying no to Seattle. I’m just saying I’m not ready to commit yet.”
“They might shop around for someone who is.”
“I understand. I have to go, Art.”
“Okay. Talk soon, kid.”
19
Blair
* * *
My personal and professional lives are intersecting for the first time. I’m on shift on the OB floor, in a room with Mara and Leo.
“It happens all the time,” I assure Mara. “You were right to come in.”
She and Leo are leaving alone after finding out she was in false labor. They’re both disappointed, understandably.
“At thirty-eight weeks, you don’t have many full nights of sleep in your near future,” Kari, the nurse I’m working with today, says. “Go home, put your feet up, and watch a show. Sleep. Enjoy it while you can.”
“I’m so done with working like this,” Mara says.
“Babe, you don’t have—”
She cuts her husband off. “I know, but I want to work. I like my job. I just don’t like it when I have to waddle in and out of courtrooms.”
“I’m gonna be honest. I’ll kind of miss the waddling,” he says. “You’re like a mama duckling.”
She sighs softly, meeting my eyes. “Will you go tell our crew in the waiting room that it was a false alarm?”
“Of course.”
I walk down to the waiting room, surprised by the size of the group gathered there. Suki and Carter, Bash and Lainey, Lucien and Talia, Jules and Noel, Magnus, Isaac, and several other men I don’t know are all looking at me expectantly. One of the men is holding a bunch of yellow balloons.