“What’s going on with you and Hunter Montgomery?” Emma asked.
“What? Nothing. We’re just friends is all. There is nothing going on at all. He is taken, and so am I,” Meadow said very quickly.
“Sounds like someone is in denial,” Penelope whispered to Emma and me, and we all giggled.
“Shut up, guys. A girl can have a hot best friend.”
“A girl who is not into her friend would not call him hot,” Emma said with a laugh.
“So, anyway, how is Dom taking Ty getting called up again?” Meadow asked.
“Nice way to change the subject,” Pen snickered.
I took pity on Meadow and said, “He said he’s fine with it. I talked to him this morning, and he’s actually talking to a few agencies now about going the sports agent route. Ty already said he’d be his first client.”
“I’m glad he has a fallback,” Emma said. “I was so sure he’d make the majors someday. At least, he did make it to Triple-A once or twice.”
“And his knowledge of baseball and playing will really help him be a great agent,” Meadow said.
We found our seats near the home team dugout, and I texted Tyler to let him know we were here. He must have had his phone with him in the dugout because a minute later his head stuck out of the dugout, and he looked around. He gave me the biggest smile when he saw us. He jogged over to where we were sitting, and I met him at the half-wall that separated us.
“Damn, you are the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen! You’re glowing!” Tyler said as he wrapped me in a huge hug.
“I’m waddling everywhere now, but I’m so happy to see you again!”
Tyler smiled down at me and then leaned down to take my lips with his. The kiss was full of passion and longing. It had been five very long weeks since I had kissed or hugged this man. We could hear cheers and whistles around us, but we kept on kissing. After coming back up for air, he leaned his forehead on mine, and his hands rubbed my belly. He bent down farther and kissed the top of my belly.
“Hi, babies! Be good to your mommy and stay in there at least one more month. Daddy wants to be there when you’re born!”
I felt them moving around like crazy and loved how they already knew their dad’s voice. “They want to wait for you to be there, too,” I said. I noticed his jersey, and a frown formed on my face. “Hey, why aren’t you number 7?”
“It’s already being used by their shortstop,” Ty said with a shrug. “Number 17 is their left fielder's number, so I figured number 27 would be the next best number.”
“Well, when you make it to the Coyotes, is someone else using number 7?” I asked.
“Number 7 is actually a retired number for the Coyotes,” a fan sitting near us answered.
“So you can’t be number 7 on the Coyotes?” I asked, not sure why it mattered so much to me, but I loved him being number 7.
“Come here, baby!” Tyler said and pulled me in for a tight hug. “I don’t care what number I am if I make it to the majors. Maybe 27 will be my lucky number.”
I nodded and realized if he didn’t care, why should I?
Ty waved at my friends and thanked them for bringing me. “I feel bad all of you drove all this way just for a game. I really wish I could spend the night with you tonight or even have dinner, but we have an away game tomorrow. We have to leave right after the game.”
I nodded and knew this ahead of time. “I know. I’m just glad to see you now.”
“Stone! Let’s go!” one of his new coaches yelled. “Batting practice!”
“I’ll see you for a bit after the game,” Ty said and leaned down for one more quick kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you!” I said and watched as he jogged off to take batting practice.
Tyler was not a starter, and I was sad I didn’t get to see him play much, but I understood he had just been called up. In the fifth inning, Tyler pinch hit, and he got a single. You would have thought he hit a homerun with how excited our little group was. The manager decided to keep him in the game, and I was happy to see him behind home plate. He was doing an awesome job behind the plate, and I had to grin when I saw the guy on first base begin to take a step off the bag.
“Here we go,” I said, and all the girls looked at me. I pointed at the player standing off the bag. He was leaning towards second base and watching the pitcher, not the catcher. “Ty’s gonna throw him out. It’s his favorite thing to do.”
As soon as the pitch was thrown, the opponent began to run towards second. Like clockwork, Ty caught the pitch, immediately stood up, and threw the ball directly towards second base. It wasn’t as smooth as when Hunter would catch it on the Lightning since they worked so well together, but the shortstop on the Storm caught it, and the would-be base stealer was called out at second.
