Page 67 of Curveball

Most of the comments were positive. People calling her beautiful, wishing us well, saying they were happy for me. But my chest tightened when I found the others.

The ones I knew Farrah would see. The ones that would drown out all the rest.

"Who cares? He grew up from flavor of the week to flavor of the month."

"She's okay. I've seen him with hotter women."

"Let's all hope she isn't a distraction. We don't need some random ruining our chances at the World Series when he's back."

Some people could fuck all the way off as far as I was concerned. I was used to the noise. Farrah wasn't. I blew out a frustrated breath.

When she inevitably saw these comments, would she brush them off? Or would I need to brace for the fallout… again?

By the time we pulled up outside my parents' house, it looked like everyone had already arrived. When we got out of the truck and unbuckled Hadley from her car seat, Hadley held her hands up at me. "Walk, carry."

I grinned, my heart a melted puddle at my feet. "Of course, Hads." I bent down, picked her up, and settled her onto my hip while taking Farrah's hand in mine.

When we entered my parents' living room, we were greeted by a standing ovation. Fuckers.

Yup. That's right. A standing fucking ovation.

I placed Hadley on her feet, and she scurried off towards her grandparents. "All right, all right. Very funny. Y'all are all assholes."

Farrah patted my chest and smirked. "Are you really surprised?"

Weston walked up to me and handed me a beer. "I had no part in this."

I glared at him. "Then why were you clapping?"

"Because I'm scared of the three As when they’re all together." He was referring to Addison, Ava, and Aria.

I tilted my head back and forth. "All right, you've got a point." I clinked my beer to his before taking a pull.

Eventually, we all settled around my parents’ massive dining table. Food was passed, wine was poured, and at least a million different conversations were happening all at the same time. It was pure chaos, and I loved every goddamn minute of it. I peeked over at Farrah, and she looked the happiest I'd seen her in a long time. She was chatting with my mom, jade eyes bright, a soft smile on her pretty face. Everything felt perfectly right—but I still couldn’t shake the dread simmering beneath the surface. Like I was just waiting for something to crack it wide open.

My retirement decision.

The recent photo comments on social media.

Would Farrah keep her word? Was she really ready for this life?

Pulling me from my internal turmoil, Farrah’s eyes found mine—as they always did—and I didn't think I'd ever had anyone look at me the way she did. I felt seen, wanted, loved. I had always felt powerful under her gaze. She gave me strength, and in that moment, I decided to show her the picture. Get out in front of it. Be there for her when she read the comments instead of waiting for her to discover them on her own and spiral.

This time, I was going to stand beside her—before the noise had a chance to get to her first.

Chapter 31

Farrah

Tonight was exactly what I’d needed.

To be surrounded by every single person I loved.

We arrived a little late to dinner, thanks to the personal spiral I’d had to drag myself through before getting into Walker’s truck. I’d been scrolling through social media and stumbled across a photo of Walker and me. The caption was harmless—and honestly, I wanted to frame the picture because of the way he was looking at me.

Swoon.

But then I made the mistake of scrolling.