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“Sorry, Niall. I gotta go. Text you later.”
The Team’s Advice
Niall
“So how’s your baby mama?” Fuller asked when I stepped back into the locker room.
“No,” I told him sternly and without needing to explain further, Fuller held up his hands in apology.
“But how is she?” Kean asked. “She sounded pretty upset.”
“Apparently Freddie called her boss as some sort of background check.” I ran my hand over my face.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Taylor said. “I thought he’d be chill and just prep a press release or some shit.”
“It’s not your fault. I thought the same thing.”
“Is that what’s furrowing your brow though? ’Cause that was a decently long phone call. I imagine you could’ve explained everything and then some,” Brooker said.
“I …” I rubbed at my face harder, like that would clear my head and help me understand what was going through Leah’s head. It didn’t work, of course. “I don’t know. I guess I overwhelmed her, but I don’t know how. I was just telling her about everything I read up on and the stuff that might make the pregnancy easier and she hung up on me.”
A few of the guys shared confused looks, but it was Jimenez who came up and clapped my shoulder. “Some people just want someone to listen to their problems, not solve them. And you’re definitely the solve them type.”
“But I brought up the problems.”
“Oh.” Jimenez pulled away. “Ignore me then.”
“Maybe she had to go piss?” Gallagher offered. “All her guts are getting rearranged for the baby, right? The need to go might’ve hit her suddenly and she was too awkward to say it.”
“Maybe.” It was a pretty reasonable possibility, which was surprising coming from Gallagher, but still … something felt off.
“Give her an hour, then text her,” Carter suggested and Kean grunted in agreement.
“Jimenez, does that seem right?” I asked. The vast majority of our team was single. Ricci and Kean had partners, but Jimenez was the only married man. And him and Rosa were high school sweethearts, so if I took anyone’s advice, it would be his.
“Shit, man. I dunno if I can help you. When to check in and when to leave somebody alone is something you can only pick up on after you’ve known them for a while. It’s kinda shitty to say, but you might need to power through a lot of awkwardness before you figure it out.”
I wanted to argue that I knew Leah better than he thought, that the one night we spent together was bigger, but I knew that was just wishful thinking. We didn’t have a relationship, platonic or otherwise, intentionally. But with a kid coming, we needed to figure out how to get past our relationship avoidance to make this work. We needed to know each other, know each other well enough to know when the other was doing good, was bothered, just needed space, all of it.
“You’re right.” I sighed. “I’ll give her some time and try again tonight.”
Me: Are we good?
That probably wasn’t the best way to start this text exchange, but it was the thing I needed to know most. Once I left the stadium and wasn’t surrounded by people to care for and things to do, the anxiety started gnawing at me and I didn’t even drive home before texting her, just sat in the car, staring at my phone.
Leah: What makes you ask that?
I began typing a reply, when another message popped up.
Leah: I’m kidding
Leah: I got overwhelmed and hung up on you, I’m sorry
Leah: I’m a lone wolf kind of girl, so when people get all care-y, I dip
Me: Okay … but caring for our kid also means caring for you. To a certain extent at least
Leah: Yeah, I know. I’ll work on it
