Wyatt hops to his feet and walks over. “You’ve always been the slowest out of the three of us. Yet, you managed to get the girl.” He huffs out a frustrated breath. “I know what it’s like to watch someone you love look at someone else. I lived it. I know what it feels like to not be able to say what you’re thinking, because you know when you do, life will change.” He snaps his fingers. “Just like that. You want to play games with her? She’ll find another player. There are plenty in the lineup.”

He walks out of the door of his own house, and Trent shakes his head. “He’s been in love with Presley since the first time he laid eyes on her, but she found you first. I don’t know what you’re expecting from him. He’s kept away because he’d never get between you two, but I’m not sure that if you walk away, he will anymore.”

“He’d be dead to me.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s mine.”

“Right now she is.” Trent rests his hand on my shoulder. “But not if you let her go.”

I lean back in the chair as Trent leaves the house. I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s been almost twenty-four hours since I saw her. She’s consumed every moment of my thoughts since I left her. Then I think about Logan and Cayden. How broken those boys were over the truth. How broken I am over the truth.

Did she do it because she wanted to hurt anyone? No. I’m fully aware of why she kept it from me. It doesn’t hurt any less though.

I sit there, thinking back on how we’d dreamed of having a baby. So many nights we spent talking about our life and how it would be.

“Two boys and a girl.” Presley looks over with stars in her eyes.

“I want all girls,” I tell her, and she rolls back over with a smile.

“You would, Zachary Hennington. You would.”

I’d give her whatever she wanted as long as she doesn’t quit smiling like that. I’m a lucky bastard.

“How about we compromise?” I ask her.

She looks over as she contemplates. “What kind of compromise?”

The thing about her is that she knows me well enough to know that I’d cave to her. But she lets me have this for a little while. Not as if I have any control over it anyway.

“Two boys and two girls.”

“Four babies?”

“Why not? I have two brothers and you have one. It would be better if we have an even number.” Which is true. Wyatt is always the one that Trent and I team up against. Last night we almost got beat with the spoon because we hung him on the flag pole. Land of the free is what we told Daddy. He laughed, but Mama was yelling about boys and her hair.

Presley tilts her head and looks at the sky. “I don’t know. I mean, that’s a lot of names. We only have two picked out.”

She’s crazy, but I love her. “We know the first girl will be Sadie and the first boy is Colton.”

“Right, but that was a month of fighting—”

“And making up,” I remind her.

“Which was fun.” She smirks. “But. Two more names would be a lot more fightin’.”

I love when her accent grows strong. Presley is a siren. I can hear her call no matter where I am. On the field I go into a tunnel. Focusing only on the batter, the ball, the runners. I hone in and live in that moment. Unless she speaks. I don’t know what it is, but she’ll break my trance with one word. And if she’s upset, her accent goes deep, and it’s all I hear.

“And a lot more making up.”

“If I forgive you.” She cocks her head.

“You always do,” I remind her.

Presley groans. “Stop being so damn cute.”

“What about . . . Noah and Holly?” I offer.

She rolls her eyes. “Those are the same names you always say!”

“What are yours?”

I already know what she’ll pick. “Sydney and Dawson.”

“Like that damn show you watch?” Hell no. “I’m not naming my son after some guy on a creek.”

“You live on a creek!” She scoffs and crosses her arm. “And I like his name. It’s Pacey that I like-like.”

I swear she knows what to say to get me jealous. Of course she likes some damn TV star. She forces me to sit through an hour of that crap show every week. I swear. Then we go onto another show right after it. She, Grace, and Emily have a weekly date, but somehow I get drug into it.

“We’re not naming my boy either of those.” I stand firm.

“Fine.”

“How about Babe for a boy and Penelope for a girl?”

Presley stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I’m going to pretend that you’re kidding about Babe. Naming him after a famous ball player won’t make him one. And Babe is what we named the potbellied pig we just got. So, no.”

“All right, you pick a girl’s name and I’ll pick the boy. Whatever the next name is, we go with.”

“Okay, for a girl I pick Violet.”

I could handle that.

“For the boy, I pick Logan.”

She smiles. “I like that. Colton, Sadie, Logan, and Violet Townsend-Hennington.”

“What?” I damn near lose my mind. “What the hell makes you think you’re not taking my last name? What the hell is that two last name crap?”

Presley rolls on her back, looking at me with a grin. “A woman has every right to hyphenate.”

“I’ll show you hyphenate.” I drop down and kiss her breathless. She squirms beneath me and I fight ripping her clothes off right here in the middle of the outfield. This girl has no idea what she does to me.

I grip my phone in my hand, squeezing until my fingers turn white. I need to make a choice. Is this worth living the rest of my life without her?

“Go home and shower,” Wyatt says, throwing the door open after he’s cooled off. “Then find your balls and get your head out of your ass, possibly in that order. Because I promise you this.” He steps forward. “If you don’t go after her, I will, and I’m not going to play fair this time. I’m going to show her why I am the better brother, and why she should’ve been with me the whole time.”

My anger rises and I go toe to toe with him. “You listen to me,” I say pointedly. “I haven’t let her go, so don’t make me lay you out. Keep your damn hands off her.”