“No!” He laughed as if his mom were crazy, and I slid my shoes off at the door, smirking a little as I made my way over to the sectional and plopped down.
“Well, you were,” Madelyn said, thumbing through her phone to find pics to prove it. Sebastian laid his head on her chest, pointing and laughing at each photo she showed him.
“Have fun?” Kyle asked me, and the way the jerk was grinning, I knew I looked as tired as I felt.
“That kid has more energy than a hundred Energizer bunnies.”
“Makes you feel old, doesn’t it?”
“Makes me feel like I need to get back on the field. Clearly, I’m out of shape if I can’t even chase a seven-year-old around the park for a few hours.” I nodded on a smile over at my best friend, the one who’d tried so hard not to be friends withanyof us when we were at North Boston University. It was crazy to see him as a devoted father now, considering what a little prick he’d been back then. “How’s she doing?”
“Sleeping soundly, ready to keep Mom and Dad up all night,” Kyle said, booping his daughter on the nose like that was so adorable.
“I’m hungry,” Sebastian proclaimed.
“Come on,” Madelyn said. “Mom will make you a grilled cheese.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Kyle scolded. “Your dad just made that skillet scramble. You can heat up leftovers.”
“That’s cute that you think Sebastian will eat something with mushrooms and green peppers.”
Sebastian wrinkled his nose on cue. “Ewwww, mushrooms!”
“Here, you take Raven and I’ll—”
“I’m fine,” Madelyn assured Kyle, pushing on his shoulder before he could stand. She leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek, and the argument was won.
It was just me and Kyle in the living room then — along with baby Raven still sleeping in his arms — and I crossed my ankle over a knee, smiling at him.
“How you hanging in there,Dad?”
Kyle grinned and shook his head. “Dad. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to that, but I love it.” He sighed, looking down at his daughter in his arms. “Is it cheesy as fuck to say this is the happiest I’ve ever been, that it feels like a missing piece of me snapped into place the second she was born?”
I wished I had some snarky comeback to tease him with. Our former teammate Leo Hernandez certainly would. Hell, even Clay Johnson would have a quip. But seeing Kyle all dopey in love just made me happy for him. I was glad he finally had someone he could be real with, someone who knew how much of a good guy he was, just like I did.
“I think it’s real,” I said, throat thick.
Our eyes met for just a brief moment of understanding, and then Kyle shook it off. “All right. Enough of that shit. When are we getting back to the gym?”
“Getting the dad bod already?”
“Bro, I’m not kidding — my wrist is on fire. I feel like I got banged up in a bad tackle. They call itmommy wrist.”
“Not just for moms, I see.”
“Hell no, it isn’t, and I feel like a fucking wuss because it’s kicking my ass right now. And my shoulders! Don’t get me started on that.”
Turned out I didn’t have to, because Kyle kept on, telling me all the things I didn’t know about how hard carrying a newborn around to try to soothe them was on the body.
The conversation drifted to baseball and hockey after that, the sports we watched now that we were in the offseason for football. We were watching highlights on the TV when Madelyn rejoined us after having Sebastian run up for a bath.
And at the same time, my phone buzzed in my pocket with a text I had not been expecting.
“Bad news?” Madelyn asked, taking Raven from Kyle to get set up for nursing. I averted my eyes to give her privacy while she got herself situated.
“Not bad,” I said, still reading over the text. “Just… interesting.”
“Do tell,” Madelyn pried.
