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Molly just shook her head no. “It’s been four months, Jane. Four months! The only reason I know he’s alive is because Connor will occasionally text me to let me know that Luke contacted him.”

Jane wrapped her arms around Molly and gave her a tight hug. “Connor still doesn’t know where he is?”

“No.” Molly shook her head as she released herself from Jane’s embrace and walked over to the couch. Winnie giggled in her room as princess music from her toys played in the background. “I don’t know what to do, Jane. Every day he doesn’t contact me, a little piece of my heart turns black.”

“I wish there was something I could do.”

“Me too.”

Molly thought back to the day Luke came home and showed up on her doorstep, living and breathing, as if she hadn’t buried him, said goodbye to him and finally released some of the pain she had carried around from losing him. The look on his face when he saw Austin in their apartment, of hearing he had a child, never left her mind. He was damaged, angry, shocked and hurt. He couldn’t believe that she would move on. She’d convinced herself that she was doing the right thing by moving on…like everyone told her to, but the minute she saw the look of betrayal in Luke’s eyes, she knew she should have waited; she knew she should have never tried things with Austin. She was a fool.
 

“Have you thought about talking to Jim and Marcia, Luke’s parents? They might know where he is.”

Molly shook her head. “They don’t, I’ve tried. They’re just as concerned as I am. Something happened to him when he was out there being held captive for so long. He changed…and when he came back, he wasn’t greeted with open arms. Instead, he saw his fiancé with another guy and learned about a daughter he had no clue about. I don’t blame him for leaving.”

“No, you can’t say that,” Jane said, while placing a warm hand on Molly’s arm. “You thought he was dead. You had a funeral for him; he’d been gone for two years, Molly. You were not expected to wait around for a man that was supposed to be dead. You did the right thing, you moved on…”

“Moving on was not the right thing,” Molly said as a sob escaped her mouth. “It wasn’t the fucking right thing to do. If it was, then why the fuck did the man I love look at me with pure hatred and take off without a word, leaving me to raise our child by myself all over again? He doesn’t even know her,” Molly exclaimed. “He doesn’t even know his own daughter…”

At that moment, Winnie came stumbling into the living room with a sand bucket on her head and her arms sticking out Frankenstein-style while bumping into every object in her way and giggling.
 

Molly wiped a tear as she looked down at her daughter…her daughter that she at first had a hard time accepting, connecting with and, with great shame, loving. But now that Molly had cleaned herself up, stopped drinking and was actually making something of herself, she couldn’t imagine a day without little Winnie.
 

Molly lifter her daughter up, took off the bucket that made her curls sick straight up because of the static, and kissed her on the cheek.
 

“How could he not want to get to know this little hellion?” Molly asked as she squeezed her daughter.
 

“I have no clue,” Jane shook her head. “Just hang in there, sweetie. Something is bound to change. He can’t stay away forever.”

Molly wanted to believe Jane. She wanted to fall for the positive hope that she was handing out, but deep down, Molly knew Jane was wrong. She hadn’t seen the way Luke looked at Molly right before he slammed the door on their relationship. She didn’t hear the hateful phone calls when she first tried to get in touch with him and she didn’t see the cold, hard freeze-out that Luke had now been giving Molly for the past four months. No one had a clue what Molly was actually going through and the sad thing was, Molly didn’t think it was ever going to change.
 

Chapter Two

**Parker**

The locker room was silent as Parker gathered his pile of shoes from the bottom cabinet of his locker. He was a bit of a shoe slut, now that he had some money to spend, and the guys on the team didn’t let him live down the fact that he had more shoes in his locker than they had baseballs in the stadium. That was a little farfetched, but he couldn’t lie, he had a shit-ton of shoes.
 

“Damn, where did all these come from?” Parker muttered to himself, as he started stuffing his Braves duffel bag with shoes to take back to his high-rise apartment.
 

The transition from college to the minors to the majors was huge. Baseball was the same, which he was grateful for. It was his one solace in life…being out on the field, feeling the dirt under his feet, the smell of freshly-cut grass and the boos and cheers from the crowd. It was where he felt at home. Off of the field, he felt lost. There were constant functions…fundraisers, appearances, interviews and much more that he had to go to, which were tiring at times, especially when he was playing ball almost every single day.
 

Now that the season was over, he was going to take a much-needed break from the field, the public, and the extremely adoring fans in Atlanta. He couldn’t be more grateful for the warm welcome he’d received, especially since fans could easily eat you alive as a rookie, but a part of him wished he could fly under the radar. He wished that he could just play ball and side-step the rest of the drama and flair that came with being the starting short stop for the Atlanta Braves.
 

“Hey, Kirby, didn’t know you were going to be in here,” Brady Matthews, starting first baseman said, as he walked into the locker room.
 

Once Parker started eating up every single ground ball that was hit in his vicinity of the field, he was awarded the name “Kirby,” as in the vacuum brand. The boys couldn’t have picked a better vacuum brand…no they had to go with the geekiest name they could think of. Not only did the boys call him Kirby, but so did the rest of the organization, the announcers and, of course, the fans. T-shirts were sold outside the stadium with his head mounted on a vacuum with the name Kirby plastered across the chest and his number, 24. It was a ridiculous shirt, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have one himself.
 

“Hey, Matthews. Just cleaning out some of my shoes.”

“It’s about time. I swear to God you have more shoes than my wife and she takes up half of the closet with her come-fuck-me heels.” The way Brady talked about his wife, Jane, made Parker instantly jealous. Brady was always saying how hot she was, what an amazing woman she was, and how she was hornier than hell, now that she was pregnant. Lucky shit. Parker wanted a girl, a family, someone to spend his life with and, at the rate he was going, he was going to be retiring at forty, some washed-up baseball player with no prospects and a huge house all to his lonesome self.
 

“How is Jane?” Parker asked, knowing Brady was about to spout out a novel on how amazingly beautiful his wife was.
 

“Amazing!” Parker rolled his eyes as he geared up for a good ten minutes of Jane time. “The baby is relentless with her ribs lately. I think she has a bit of her Aunt Molly’s spunk in her which, God save us all, because that bitch is a fucking hot mess most of the time, but that’s why we love her.” Brady shook his head and continued, “Did you know that the baby is the size of a banana right now? A banana…damn it’s so weird to imagine my fucking grade A swimmers created such a beautiful thing.”

“Grade A?” Parker quirked an eyebrow.
 

“Hell yeah, it didn’t take us very long to get pregnant and it’s because my men are fucking titans.” Brady squeezed his balls and then leaned into his locker to grab his bat.
 

Parker nodded at Brady’s bat and asked, “You doing some BP? You know the season is over, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about practicing, fine tuning everything. Don’t you think you should be doing the same…Kirby?”

Parker flipped him off and said, “I hit enough singles and homeruns throughout the season to take a break.”

Brady threw his head back and laughed. “Man, awfully full of yourself for being a rookie.”

“No longer a rookie, so you fuckers can take back the pink backpack you so gracefully gave me and the light pink panties I had to wear with my white baseball pants.”

Brady barked out in laughter and sat down at his locker. “That was, by far, the best fucking initiation…and it wasn’t even planned. Who knew you were a lady and loved wearing tight-as-fuck baseball pants? The picture of the camera zooming in on your pink-clad ass is still the screen saver of all the computers in here.”

Parker just shook his head as he zipped up his duffel bag. “Well, you all can fuck yourselves,” he said jokingly.

“You want to hit some with me?” Brady asked. Parked never got over the fact that the captain of the team, the one and only Brady Matthews, treated Parker as if they were longtime friends. The man was impossible to hate and it was moments like this, when he could joke around with the guy, talk about real things and then go eat up some baseballs that Parker saw how lucky he really was. Fuck, Parker was man-crushing on Brady.

“I wish. I have a plane to catch.”

“Yeah, where you headed?”

“Back home, San Diego. I’m going to spend some time at my friend’s beach house and just relax…away from all the crazy chaos my life has been.”

Brady walked over and clasped Parker on the shoulder. “It only gets worse,” he laughed. “Have a good time, you deserve it.”

“Thanks man.”

Parker started to walk away when Brady called out to him, “Oh and Kirby, don’t forget to send my wife a baby shower gift. We expect something really nice from our favorite rookie.”

Shaking his head and laughing, Parker just nodded and walked out of the locker room before Brady could start talking about Jane again. In a few hours, Parker would be enjoying the warm sun on his bare chest as he listened to the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing onto the beach. He was going to get his solace, his little piece of heaven, and he was going to get to see his two best friends, Jake and Lexi.
 

**Brady**

The crack of the bat when he made contact with the ball was a sound that would be forever ingrained in his head. Even though the Braves’ season was over and most of the guys were resting or going on vacations, he still visited the stadium for batting practice or a good workout. He believed in taking a break, but also keeping in shape. He never wanted to come back from break a different player. His fans expected a lot from him and he always swore to at least try to live up to their expectations. There was only one thing that could get in the way of that, and that was Jane and their soon-to-be baby girl.
 

Brady drilled a ball right back up the center as he thought about how, in a few short months, his life was going to change dramatically. Jane had Lucy and Patty, her employees, taking over all the logistics of JB Events so Jane could take some time off and raise their child. It was her dream to have a baby and be a stay-at-home mom and Brady would do anything to make that happen.
 

Crack.

The ball bounced off his bat with lightning speed to the right center of the cage, letting Brady know he could have probably stretched that ball into a double if he was on a field.
 

The pitching machine rotated another ball through as Brady drew his foot up and drove his hands through the hitting zone. He made contact with the ball and sent his hands around his back as he watched the ball skim right past the pitching machine.
 

Fuck, he was on fire.
 

He swung his bat over the plate as he waited for another ball to be thrown when his phone started ringing Jane’s special ring tone. Not even thinking twice, Brady dropped his bat and went over to the bench where his phone and PowerAde were resting.
 

“Hello?” Brady said, almost in a panic, because she never bothered him while he was in the cages unless it was an emergency. “Jane, is everything alright?”

“Hey, handsome,” she said with a light tone, making Brady expel all his pent-up breath.
 

“Jane, is everything okay?”

“Of course, why?”

“Because you’re calling me while I’m in the cages…”

“Oh, shoot, I forgot that’s what you were doing. Damn pregnancy brain. I’m sorry, I’ll let you go.”

“Nah, it’s alright, sweet thing. I need a break. What’s going on?”

“Well…” she was silent on the other end of the line and Brady was about to ask her what was wrong once again when she continued to talk, “I was thinking that maybe you could come home soon.”

“Yeah, why is that? Do you need help with something? Don’t lift anything, I know once you get your mind set on something, you have to get it done right away, but please, don’t lift anything. I’ll do it right when I get home.”

“I don’t need anything lifted.”

“Oh, then what is it?”

“Well, you see, I went to the salon earlier today and had a little hair removal treatment and now that everything is bare, I can feel every single swipe of my silk thong against my skin and…fuck, Brady I am so horny right now, I need you.”