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“Yeah.” Lux scoffed a laugh. “Makes you think, though. You’re having a kid, who do you want them to look up to as they’re getting older? I was obsessed with Derek Jeter, but who will it be for our kids?”

“Tanner’s is going to look up to me,” announced Parker, pumping a fist into his chest.

“There’s no way he’ll look up to you more than me,” shot back Ace.

Reaching over, I took the book back. “You’ll all be godfathers, you can fight it out then.”

I was too busy flicking through the story to notice the boys had gone quiet. We were also about to take off, and the revving of the engines cut through the silence. It was only when I turned from peering out of the window that I noticed them all staring at me.

“What?”

“You’re asking us to be godfathers?” said Parker eventually, his voice cracking.

“Yeah, of course. Why? I thought you knew.”

Unbuckling his belt, he jumped out of his seat, except the plane was still ascending steeply and therefore toppled forward with a grunt.

“Dude, what are you doing?” I groaned, pushing him off me.

“Hugging you,” he replied, wrapping his arms around me. “We won’t let you down. We promise. We’ll be the best godfathers.”

“King, get back in your seat,” yelled a voice from midway down the plane .

“Sorry,” Parker yelled back, but did as he was told and stayed there until we leveled out, and the stewards began walking around with snacks and drinks.

“So are you and Millie together together now?” asked Ace. “You seem good.”

I tossed a couple of cashews in my mouth. “We’re taking things very slowly,” I replied, because slowly is what we agreed.

“Didn’t she sleep over though?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Is that slow?”

“She’s already pregnant. It’s not like we’re starting at the first date,” I replied. “But to be honest, I don’t know. I’m going with whatever it takes not to freak her out. I think slow means we’re not getting married tomorrow.”

That’s what I assumed it meant. Even though I would marry her tomorrow. She already knew I loved her, she knew I was in it forever. Therefore slow was whatever she wanted it to mean. I didn’t care, as long as we were together.

Lux reached over and patted my knee. “Happy for you, man, you’ve got everything you wanted. The girl of your dreams.”

“We all did,” Parker added, ripping open his bag of nuts. “Since we moved into the apartment, we all got the girls of our dreams.”

There was a moment of silence as we all sat back and thought about it.

It was true, we weren’t the same twenty-three-year-olds who’d moved into that place.

We’d grown up, we’d matured, and we’d found a meaning to our lives outside of baseball.

And hopefully I could speak for all of us if I said we’d found our futures.

“Um”—Ace scratched through his beard, his eyes darting between the three of us with a slightly nervous appearance—“while we’re on the subject of our dream girls, I have news.”

Lux put down his phone, Parker put down the bag of nuts, I put down my book.

“I’m… um …I’m going to ask Payton to marry me.”

For the second time, Parker unbuckled and launched himself into someone else’s seat, wrapping his arms around Ace. “Buddy, that’s amazing news. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, man.” Ace nodded, taking a deep breath, almost like he’d been worried about telling us. “ But it also means I’m moving out. Payton and I have been talking about getting a place together, and this seemed like the perfect time. Our lease is up soon?—”

Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I nodded. Ace getting engaged, me due to become a father—so much had changed in the past couple of years. The apartment was never a forever home, but it was hard facing the idea that we were moving onto the next stages of our lives. Even if was for awesome reasons.

“You guys can decide what you want to do with my room, but I figured with the baby coming along you might have other plans too.” His eyes flicked to me.

“Maybe we should talk about it now and think about what to do,” Parker said, dropping back into his seat. “Scout and I have had a couple of conversations about moving in together. Her roommate is never around, so we’ve been on our own there a lot, and we like it. ”

I glanced over at Lux. “What do you think?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged. “Radley’s still in school, and we aren’t making any big decisions until she’s finished. Now she’s across the hallway, it’s almost like we live together anyway, and the Secret Service is comfortable with it because it’s secure. We’ll stay until she graduates.”

“Where Radley goes, Millie goes. And I have no interest in being any further than across the hallway from her and the baby. Even that’s too far for my liking. And Millie will start back at school next year, so we’ll be in the same boat.”

“So you’re staying?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m staying. We can take the place just the two of us.”

Lux lifted his bottle of water and knocked it against mine. “Okay, roomie. You got it.”

My eyes flicked between Parker and Ace. “You best not be strangers.”

“Hey, who’s ass am I going to kick on Call of Duty ?” Parker shot back. “Plus, I have my godchild to visit.”

“You know this means I’ll be the favorite, right?” Grinned Lux. “I’ll have daily visits with the baby, plus Radley will be godmother. We’re a shoo-in.”

Ace chuckled as Parker’s face dropped, and I could almost see second thoughts flashing through his mind.

“No one will be favorite.”

Lux raised his hands. “Someone will be.”

“Dude, you’re going to make Parker cry,” I added, before Lux could continue down the path of winding up Parker, no matter how amusing it was.

Thankfully, or perhaps not, Boomer Jones was making his way down the aisle to us, distracting Parker enough to forget about who was going to be the favorite godfather.

“Hey, Boom, how’s it going?” Ace nodded to him.

“Can’t complain. Pumped about this series. We’re gonna nail it. I can almost taste this victory, ya know.”

All four of us replied in agreement. There wasn’t a single person on this plane—from players to personnel—who couldn’t also taste the win. Losing wasn’t an option.

Then came the real reason why Boomer was paying us a visit.

“Hey, Simpson, caught your sister on SNL last night. She was wicked funny. She seeing anyone or what?”

It had been a while since someone had asked me if Holiday was single, mostly because all the guys knew that I’d never discuss it.

But every so often, usually coinciding with Holiday’s presence being bumped up from press junkets, or being named as the face of Chanel or Gucci or whatever , I’d get asked again.

My answer never changed. Lux, Parker, and Ace all looked on in amusement as I shot down one more of Holiday’s admirers.

“She’s not available, Jones.”

“Damn, no surprise though. Your sister is fine .” He turned to walk back to his seat, only to ask another equally annoying question. “Hey, can you give her my number anyway, just in case she suddenly becomes single?”

“Nope.”

“Harsh,” he snapped, but decided against pushing the matter after a voice blared out over the intercom.

“Ten minutes to landing. Please return to your seats. ”

“I didn’t know Holiday was dating someone,” said Parker, once Boomer was out of earshot.

“She’s not, but she’s also not going to be dating Boomer Jones,” I replied, knocking my fist to Parker’s as he held his up and let out a chuckle.

Fastening my seat belt as the plane began its descent, I glanced out of the window.

D.C. was laid out in the distance—Washington Monument, the White House, the Potomac snaking through the center.

I’d never given D.C. much thought before, but now with Millie’s family here, it was more of a focus.

Tomorrow I’d meet her mom for the first time, and I needed to give a good impression because I doubted her two dipshit brothers had done me any favors.

After we landed, we’d make our way straight to the hotel to get acclimated—use the gym, unwind, get our heads in the game before tomorrow. And tomorrow we would report to the Nats stadium at lunchtime, which gave me a couple of free hours in the morning.

The second we’d found out where this series would take place, a plan hatched in my brain.

A couple of hours was all I needed.