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five

Lane

Lane

SOS

Ari

Please, someone help me

Lane

Do not sing Rihanna to me right now

I’m freaking out

Josh

Why are you freaking out?

Ari

Ooh, is this about Liv?!

Knox

Who the fuck is Liv?

Cole

Why am I even on this chat?

I’m on my fucking honeymoon right now

Ari

Rory can handle a few minutes away from you, can’t she?

Cole

Sure, we just got back to our room and planned on doing something that didn’t involve me talking to my friends, but she won’t mind

Josh

Ari has clearly never been married

Ari

Never will be either

Knox

Is there a point to all of this?

Lane

The point is that I’m freaking out, and I need you guys to come over later

Cole

I’m in fucking Aruba, man

Lane

Then support me from afar

Cole

My wife is actually telling me to just turn off my phone

Lane

You can take her to bed shortly

Cole

I’m in bed with her now

As soon as you guys stop blowing up my phone, I can do something about it

In fact…

*Cole has removed himself from the chat*

*Ari has added Cole to the chat*

Ari

Not so fast, fucker

Cole

Turning my phone off then

Figure this shit out without me

Knox

Fucking Christ

We’re not getting anywhere with this

We’ll be over later, Lane

The guys got here about an hour ago, but since Sage was still awake, I haven’t said what’s going on.

Now that I have her in bed, the guys are staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell them why they’re here.

Ari is the first to speak, either tired of waiting for me or ready to just give me shit. Knowing him, it’s the latter.

“So, how’s Liv?” he smirks.

“Again, who the fuck is Liv?” Knox grumbles.

“I would also like to know,” Josh says.

I sigh and sink into my sofa. “Liv is a woman I met yesterday when Ari and I were at Urban Grind.”

Ari laughs. “Met is one way of saying you were flirting with each other.”

Josh perks up. “You actually flirted with someone yesterday?”

Knox chimes in. “When was the last time you flirted with someone?”

I want to be irritated, but Josh and Knox have been there for me for years. Those two and Cole are the ones who supported me when I found out I was going to be a dad.

We all play on the Stars together with Ari. Josh is our third baseman, Cole is a killer shortstop, Ari plays first base, and Knox is the best starting pitcher in the entire league.

It’s really nice to be able to play the game you love with your closest friends. We even won the World Series together last year.

Well, not Ari. He still played for the Thunderbirds, who, ironically, are the team we beat to bring home the pennant.

He’s still a little salty over that.

“Yes,” I finally reply. “I flirted with Liv when I met her yesterday. She approached me first and seemed to have no idea who Ari and I were.”

“She was also completely shy and awkward,” Ari chuckles.

“I thought it was adorable,” I smile softly.

“Okay,” Josh says. “We know who Liv is now. What does this have to do with why we’re here?”

“Because I ran into Liv again today.”

Ari lights up. “Did you finally tell her your name, you cocky bastard?”

That pulls a laugh out of me. “Yes, I did. But she kind of already had it.”

“What does that mean?” Knox asks.

“It means that she knew the name Lane Brooks not as the guy from the coffee shop but as the father of Sage.”

“You’re being confusing and vague,” Josh chides.

I lean back against the sofa and look at the ceiling. “Liv that I met yesterday is Olive , my daughter’s fucking ballet teacher.”

“No shit!” Ari yells. “Small world.”

“Seems like you’re going to be seeing Liv a lot,” Knox adds.

“Yeah,” I sigh. “But I also learned that she’s fucking twenty-three.”

“Ooh, age gap!”

“You need to just form a book club with the girls, Ari, because you read as many romance books as they do.” He just shrugs. “I’m almost a decade older than her. What the hell can I do about that?”

“It’s okay if you’re older,” Josh says. “She’s an adult.”

“Plus,” Ari adds with a smirk, “she’s Sage’s future mom.”

Knox barks out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s the cocky bastard I remember.”

I ignore him. “I can’t be with somebody that much younger than me.”

“Wait, are you actually trying to be with someone?” Josh asks incredulously. “You’re a one-night stand kinda guy.”

“That was before I had a kid,” I reply. “I really just want Sage to have a full family, a dad and a mom. And something about Liv yesterday just completely captivated me. I’ve never been so entranced by someone before.”

“Then don’t worry about the age difference,” Knox shrugs. “Like Josh said, she’s an adult. She might be Sage’s ballet teacher, but you’re not in a position of power over her. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with seeing her.”

I can’t help but chuckle. “Harlow did a number on you, man.”

You’d never know now, but Knox used to be the grumpiest asshole. The media literally called him Fort Knox.

Then, to get an endorsement deal with Axis Athletic Co., he needed to have a fake girlfriend to improve his image. And who was this fake girlfriend, you ask? None other than Harlow Pierce, Cole’s damn sister.

Harlow runs a blog about the team— Starred and Fast —so she got increased traffic while everyone softened to Knox. And since Cole isn’t overbearing, he didn’t care at all and was probably one of their biggest supporters when that fake relationship turned real.

“Why do we always have to blame my girlfriend for me being a nice guy now?”

Josh laughs. “Because you were a fucking dick before you started dating her. She’s the only reason you smile now.”

Knox rolls his eyes but still can’t wipe the smile off his face, thinking about the woman he loves.

“Okay, back to me,” I say. “What the hell do I do?”

“Don’t ask me for advice,” Ari laughs. “When Cole was trying to resist Rory, I told him to fuck her. Probably not the guy you want to go to.”

“I think you should just take a chance,” Josh says. “Yes, you’re older, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t work. My dad is ten years older than my mom. It’s completely possible to have a normal relationship even with that age gap.”

“But take it slow,” Knox adds. “You’ve been out of the game for a bit, so you don’t need to rush into anything. Just get to know her. See how Sage likes her.”

“Sage loves her,” I smile. “The whole way to her lesson this morning, she talked about how excited she was for Daddy to meet ‘Owive.’ And after watching them at practice, Olive seems to really like her, too.”

“Then give it a shot,” Ari encourages. “Maybe this is something that’s meant to be.”

I wonder if the guys are right.

My stomach dropped when Olive told me how young she is, but the guys were right; she is an adult.

She might be younger, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Sage clearly loves her, and she also seems to like Sage.

That’s the biggest hurdle to me finding a partner. Sage and I are a package deal, so anybody I find needs to love her, too.

So, the first hurdle has already been cleared.

Maybe I should just see where this goes…