I put my bag in my locker and pulled out the small picture from my back pocket, positioning it just inside the small shelf. My chest ached as I looked at it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined posting a pic of an ultrasound in my locker and feeling fucking awesome about it, but I couldn’t be prouder. I had helped create the little bug in the picture, and I was determined going to be the best damn father to him or her.
“Dude! What the hell is happening in your life?”
Grinning, I turned to Terrence, seeing the look of amusement and shock as he looked up at the picture. “I’m gonna be a daddy.”
“That’s, um, that’s great,” he said slowly, eyeing me. “Right?”
“Fuck, yeah!” I replied, that warm feeling wrapping around my body once more. I wasn’t going to regret this part of my life. Every day with Lucia made me realize how petty my life had gotten, and how close I had been to throwing away something that most athletes dream about. I’d been lucky to have someone who cared that I was screwing up and helped me get back on the right track.
“With Lucia?” Terrence asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I nodded and he slapped me on the back, a grin on his face. “Dude! I can’t believe you were actually able to reel her in and get her knocked up!”
“Well, I have to thank you for that, I guess,” I responded, pulling my pads over my shoulders and adjusting them. “After all, you were the one with that stupid book.”
Terrence looked at me, then busted out laughing, holding his gut with his forearm. “The playbook? It was a complete fake. We do it to all the new guys, and most of them find out real quick that the names in there are not even real. Even the phone numbers are pure fabrication.”
Puzzled, I crossed my arms over my chest. “You mean it’s all fake? But Lucia’s name was in there.”
Terrence had the grace to look slightly embarrassed, the laughter dying down. “Yeah, well, you were the only one to find that out. Not that the things written in there were true, but we were just testing the new guys to see if any would bite. You were the first one.”
I thought about how I had seen her as a challenge at first, a way to prove myself to everyone else. Instead she helped me see that I didn’t need anyone else’s approval but my own. “You know what?” I finally said, slapping Terrence on the back this time. “I think you did me a favor.”
“You aren’t pissed?” he asked, surprised. I shook my head and pointed to the ultrasound, my reason for living now. “How could I be pissed when I have that to look forward to?”
Terrence shook his head in return, a genuine smile on his face now. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess you have me to thank for your happy little life now.”
“True. You might want to make it up to Lucia somehow, though.”
“Shit, she knows?”
“Of course.”
“Mmm, consider it done. We’ll do something special.”
I laughed and threw my towel at him. “Come on. Let’s go kick some second-string ass.”
“Hey, do you still have the book?” he asked as we walked toward the locker room exit, filing out for another day of hard practicing.
“I think it ended up on the owner’s desk,” I said casually. Terrence almost tripped over his own feet, his eyes widening in horror. “Are you serious?” he whispered. “Please, God, don’t tell me you are serious.”
I grinned then, walking ahead of him. “I can’t confirm or deny that statement. Maybe you should ask Lucia what she did with it.” Terrence swore under his breath, and I broke out into a whistle as I hit the field.