Page 59

Kelsey

Y es, I had just spent the entire day with Sam’s mother and sister in a hospital waiting room, but the focus up until now was on Sam Sr. and his recovery plan.

Once he had agreed to go to rehab, the mood change was palpable.

I couldn’t imagine watching my father get lost to this disease.

He’d been known to enjoy a few too many beers over the years, but he’d never been drunk enough to fall out of a window.

So much of Sam’s personality had developed because of his experiences as a child of an alcoholic.

I loved how observant he was to Crew’s and my needs, but damn if it didn’t break my heart knowing why he did it.

We all have scars; you don’t expect to see scars this deep in a man so kind and successful.

With the All-Star break, the next week was supposed to be a travel week to Texas to visit Josie and then to the game on Thursday night.

Immediately following that, we’d be heading to Colorado.

The travel was ramping up with several West Coast series in the next month.

Being so far away from his father weighed on Sam, but between his mother, sister, and Gramps, they would find a way to have someone available.

The treatment facility did not allow visitors for the first four weeks, but there were still medical risks when someone detoxed from alcohol.

When we got to the restaurant, the host told us that the rest of our party had already been seated. She offered a high chair for Crew, but he still wasn’t ready for one. He was a lap guy still.

“Shit, I should have brought his car seat in case he falls asleep.”

“I can hold him if he sleeps,” Sam said. Since we’d returned from the hospital, Sam had been holding Crew as much as possible. And Crew seemed to understand that Sam needed that comfort.

Josie and Veronica stood to greet us, embracing me first and then Sam and Crew.

“Oh my God, who is this guy,” Josie gushed as she and Veronica fought over who would hold Crew first. He went willingly and had a fistful of Veronica’s hair before I could stop him. Both women had taken over holding and entertaining him, and neither hesitated to welcome us into their family fold.

After we sat down, the waitress took our drink orders, and Sam immediately ordered an appetizer.

We’d all eaten minimally at the hospital and were starving.

Sam and Josie were a perfect combination of their parents.

Veronica’s beauty was striking, and her modeling career had continued well into her late thirties and early forties.

Josie had just started making a name for herself.

I had expected to be intimidated by them, but they were incredibly down to earth. Neither of them noticed the apprising looks of the other restaurant customers, and they certainly did nothing to try to increase the attention that was on us.

“Mrs. Drummond?” I asked hesitantly.

“Call me Ronnie, but that’s not my last name. I went back to DeLuca after the divorce.”

“I was going to ask where you were from. You don’t have an accent, but I hear something here and there.”

“That’s my Northern Minnesota accent. I moved to the East Coast when I was twenty-one with a fresh modeling contract and no street smarts. I could hunt moose, bears, and deer, but I was prey for the men in the city.”

“And then she met my father, Game 7 after he pitched a shutout to win the World Series. Sam came along nine months later-ish.” Josie filled in the gaps.

I did some mental calculations to determine that Sam’s birthday was coming up sometime in August. “Wait, when is your birthday?” I asked.

“August 19 th .”

“That’s why your number is nineteen. Sorry, we jumped into things and skipped the normal birthday, astrological sign discussions.” I explained to his mother and sister with an embarrassed laugh.

“And you never googled him?” Josie asked.

“Most days, I barely have time to shower, so no, I didn’t run a search. I relied on my big sister to scour the internet and find the red flags for me.”

“Hopefully, you asked Kylie and not Kendra,” Sam said.

“Wait, three girls with K names?” Veronica asked. “This is like a sign from the universe.”

“My dad is a huge baseball fan and always wanted a son. He struck out the side with me. But as much as he wanted a son, he was the best ‘girl dad.’ He wore nail polish, dressed up however we asked, and was always there for us. At this point, it’s a joke because there is not an ounce of disappointment in his family,” I explained.

“Jake insists he wants a house full of little girls, and I used to agree. But being around this guy makes me change my mind a bit.”

“Well, that’s the thing, you don’t get to pick. We all thought Crew would be a girl based on the number of girls in our family. It was a shock when he was born. My dad cried like a baby.”

“Is Crew’s father in the picture?” Josie asked.

I looked to Sam, hesitating before explaining that I hadn’t known Crew’s father, and he wasn’t in the picture because he didn’t know he existed.

“We’re planning to find him, though,” Sam said, squeezing my knee as a reassurance. The spike of adrenaline made my chest squeeze in rebellion.

“Oh wow,” Josie said as she and Veronica studied the two of us. The silence at the table was almost deafening.

“Here my sister is, scouring Google for Sam’s red flags, and he’s ignoring all of mine,” I said nervously.

“Oh! No, I wasn’t saying wow because of that. Please don’t think I’m judging you,” Josie continued nervously. “I’ve been terrified to become a mother, and I have plenty of support. I can’t imagine doing it alone.”

“Sam has never introduced us to anyone he’s dated; if you genuinely had all these red flags, he would have weeded you out. He doesn’t let people in easily,” Veronica said.

“She also neglected to tell you that I was a drunk asshole the first time we met. But I’m not with Kelsey despite her being a mother, but because of who she is as a mother.”

Sam and I made eye contact, and my chest squeezed again, this time not because of the adrenaline of anxiety but with love. I trusted him to move forward with finding Crew’s father and that we could face things together.

Once our meals arrived, the conversation lightened, and Josie and Veronica shared as many embarrassing Sam stories as possible.

Crew had eventually fallen asleep on Sam’s chest, and both his mother and sister took photos on their phones.

Josie shared the pictures on her Instagram with the hashtag #myguysarecuterthanyours, tagging Sam and me in the post.

She had asked my permission first, but I wasn’t prepared for the flood of new follow requests.

Luckily, my Instagram page was private; I didn’t want all my photos of my solo pregnancy and birth with Crew to become a discussion topic.

I accepted Josie’s request and looked forward to growing a relationship with her.

My hesitation was erased when I recognized how alike she and Sam were.

His mother may have raised them with luxury, but she’d given them a strong sense of family, and fuck, they were good to their core.

We ended the night with Veronica and Josie deciding to drive Sam Sr. to Vermont the following day. Sam had purchased a new car, which would be ready in New Jersey for us to drive back to Boston. Initially, he offered Crew and I to fly home alone, but I wasn’t prepared to leave him.

“Why do you need a new car?” I asked as we walked back through the lobby towards the elevator on our way back to our room.

“Have you seen my car with a car seat in the back? This one will be much more comfortable when we all go out together.”

“We can use my Honda,” I said, self-conscious about my vehicle compared to his. I’d since looked up the stats for his two-door Bentley and wished I could forget that people spent that much money on cars. Yeah, I couldn’t expect Sam to be comfortable in my Honda.

“Hey,” he said, shuffling sleeping Crew in his arms as he tucked me into his side, “this isn’t a competition. I think you might have fun driving the car, too.”

“I’m not going to drive your car.”

“I think you should hold off until you see it,” he winked.