I laugh as Hardy sings his way through my front door and across the living room.
“They’re almost ready,” I say as he gets to the kitchen counter.
“Ooh, yarn. Starting a new project?”
I spin around to where skeins of yarn are splayed out on the island.
“Yeah. I found a blanket pattern, and I thought I’d make a few for the new apartment. Pick a few colors—not team colors. I’ll make one of those for the living room.”
He looks through the colors as I take the pan with the fish in it off the burner and get out the rest of the ingredients. As I close the refrigerator, I glance at the counter and see Hardy has picked out graphite, bronze, maroon, and deep purple yarns. Not surprising. Those are colors he usually favors, which is why I have them. I love the maroon as well, but the rest were for him.
I get to making the tacos, adding the fish, lettuce, and mango-habanero salsa.
“How did the kids take the news?”
I look over my shoulder at the plants as Hardy approaches them.
“Greta was giving me the cold shoulder, but she’ll get over it when she sees the light at the new place.”
Hardy gently touches my Pothos. “Baby girl, why do you have to be like that? Daddy’s doing the best he can, and I promise this new place will be even better.”
I look back at the counter, smiling to myself.
Hallie asked if I was happy.
I can get lost in my own head, be too introspective, and lean into being maudlin, but as a whole, my heart is happy. And when I think about living with Hardy, all I see is more moments like this. Maybe it’s for all the wrong reasons, and I’ll end up hurting in the long run, but this is my happy place. My plants, a sense of home, good food, and my best friend. How could I not be happy to have even more of this?
CHAPTER FIVE
HARDY
Regular Season Week 11
“Oh my gosh,this place is beautiful,” Frannie gushes, spinning around the living room. “And I love that we’re semi-neighbors.”
Frannie lives upstate in a little town called Ida—where Hallie recently moved as well—though she grew up here in the city. She moved to Ida a couple of years before she met Mark, then they randomly met on a plane, and they bonded over both having ties to that small town. It’s where she prefers to be, but while the season is on, Frannie comes down here every weekend we have a home game. This weekend she’s also traveling down south with us for our away game.
With Hallie in Ida now, and Justin and Jade living a couple of towns over from them, Mark spends most of the offseason there, and Brian has been looking for an offseason home out in the country there as well.
All he really wants is peace, quiet, space, and gardens.
“That means dinner together when you’re in town,” Brian says.
Mark squints, then nods. “Sure. Maybe one of the nights.”
I suppress a chuckle. I don’t blame him for wanting to have his girl all to himself.
“Did you want to stay for dinner tonight?” I ask, mostly teasing them. She only got here an hour ago, and I’m sure they’re desperate to get upstairs and ditch their clothes.
Mark and Frannie look at each other. “Oh, well… we wouldn’t want to intrude on your first night in your apartment,” Frannie says.
“And we have dinner plans.” Mark clears his throat. “Which we should get to.”
“Right. Those.” But the tops of Frannie’s cheeks turn pink.
I look at Brian out of the corner of my eye and see him holding back laughter too.
“It’s all good. We won’t keep you. Besides, I need to feed him before he gets hangry.” Brian throws his thumb in my direction.
