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“I’ll let you get back to your PT.” With a smile and nod in Kasey’s direction, Trent smiled at me, and I could see some of the worry leave his eyes. Poor bastard. He wasn’t going to be very happy when I announced my retirement.
As Trent left, Nick walked in. “What was that all about?”
I shook my head. “Just Trent worrying.”
Nick glanced at the doorway where Trent had walked through, then back to me. “You about done?”
“We’re finished.”
I smiled at Kasey. “I’ll be heading out of town, so if you have any printouts you can give me to work on.”
With a knowing look, she turned on her heels and walked to her computer.
“Did you tell him you’re leaving town for a bit?” Nick asked.
“Even better. He suggested I go on a vacation, so I mentioned Montana. Told him I was going to get a second opinion, which I am. I already have an appointment set with a doctor in Missoula. He’s supposed to be one of the best shoulder doctors in Montana. They call him the shoulder guru. If anyone will shoot it to me straight, it will be him.”
Nick drew in a breath and let it out. “Probably for the best to get someone to look at it who doesn’t have an investment in your health.”
I laughed. “Totally.”
“Here you go, Bryson. We’ve done all these before, and the step-by-step instructions are on the handout.”
Taking a quick glance at the exercises, I nodded.
“Here are a few exercise bands you can work with. Start with the yellow, then work up to red, blue, green.”
I took the bands from her and put them in my bag. “Thanks, Kasey. I’ll call the office when I get back into town.”
She grinned, then reached for her stomach and gasped. “Wow, the baby really kicked hard that time.”
My eyes drifted to her swollen belly. She squealed, then grabbed my hand and Nick’s and plastered them on her stomach. Nick’s eyes went wide, but I was positive it wasn’t from the feel of the kick. He went to pull his hand away, but then the baby did some kind of move.
“Can you feel him?” she asked with a wide smile.
“Jesus!” Nick said with a laugh. “Is he fighting with another baby in there? Like an MMA match or something?”
Kasey sighed. “No, just my ribs, kidneys, and Lord knows what else.”
I felt the baby again before I removed my hand. A strange feeling washed over me. Something I had never felt before. I shook my head and let out a disbelieving laugh.
“What is it?” Kasey asked.
I looked at her, then Nick, and said, “Nothing. It’s just, the miracle of babies, I guess.”
Kasey gave me a smile that secretly said she knew exactly what I was feeling because she had once experienced it herself. A longing. A void. A missing piece. Nick wore the same expression. He frowned, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had thought about asking Loren to take the next step.
When he saw me watching him, he snapped out of his wondering expression.
“Shoot, for a second, I thought you were going to say you wanted one!” Nick said as he hit the side of my arm and turned to walk out.
Kasey winked, then greeted Lewis Hanover, our third baseman, as he walked in for his PT appointment.
Nick and I drove back to our place in silence. Once we got inside, I tossed my bag on the floor and opened the fridge for a water. Nick cleared his throat, and I turned to look at him. He wore a worried look on his face.
“Are you sure about this plan of yours?”
I took a long pull from the cold water, then set it down on the island. “I’m sure. You haven’t said anything to Loren, have you?”
With a shake of his head, he replied, “No. But the little bit I know of Rose, I’m not so sure she’ll see this as a good thing, Bryson.”
“Me building a house?”
“You building a house, using the firm she works for to design the house, and specifically asking for her to design it.”
I grinned. “And that’s where we differ, my friend. I think it’s kind of romantic.”
He stared at me. “Romantic would be whisking her away to Italy or taking her on a carriage ride through Central Park. Not showing up at her work and saying you just bought two-hundred acres of land fifteen minutes from where she lives, you plan on building a house, oh, and by the way, you can design it, all because you felt something spectacular the one night you spent together.”
“Okay, so when you put it that way, it does sound a bit creepy.”
“A bit?”
“Bro, she left me no choice.”
Nick laughed. “Dude, you know where she lives. Just go ask her to dinner, for fuck’s sake.”
