The Curve Ball - Samantha Lind Page 0,24
She’s a pretty chill baby, and I’m sure you’ll love her.”
“I already do. Send me some pictures,” Mom states.
“Of course,” I tell her before we end the call. I text her right away the picture that Riley snapped of Evie and me, as well as a couple of images that I have taken of her.
“You ready to pack up and head over to my brother’s?” Riley asks a few minutes later. I didn’t realize it was already that time.
“Yeah,” I tell her, standing up and handing Evie over as Riley stands next to me with her arms out and open, asking for her. She places her in the car seat and gets her all strapped in. She slings the diaper bag over her shoulder, and before she can pick Evie up, I slip my arm through the handle of the seat and carry it out to my car. I snap her car seat into the base on the first try and feel on top of the world. This dad shit is not so bad, after all.
“Your parents were so cute,” Riley says as we back out of the driveway.
“You might change your mind after they’ve been here for a few days,” I say on a laugh.
“They can’t be that bad, and you’ve met my parents before,” she says, giving me a pointed look.
I laugh at her facial expression. “Your parents aren’t that bad. But I guess we all feel that way about our parents. I just don’t have any clue what to expect out of mine, if I’m honest. I don’t think that they expected me ever to have kids of my own, or at least none anytime soon.”
“They never gave you a hard time about settling down and having kids?”
“Not really. My mom mentioned it a few times, but I shut that shit down pretty quickly. Now, look at me.” My eyes flick over to Riley and then up to the rearview mirror as I look at the car seat strapped in my back seat. I can see Evie in the reflection of a little mirror that hangs from the headrest that she faces.
“Sometimes, things happen for a reason. We might not know what that reason is, but life has a way of working things out,” Riley states.
“How do you always look at the positives?” I ask. Riley is a half-glass full type of person.
“Looking at the negatives all the time would make life suck. Take my life, for example. I grew up in the shadows of a brother that showed athletic abilities from a young age. There were rumblings of him being good enough to go pro before he even entered high school, and here I am, the girl that can’t even throw a ball ten feet. I did my best to be my own person and not be in his shadow, but that isn’t always easy when he’s the town's golden child. Everyone knew who he was, and that was hard sometimes. Once I went off to college, it wasn’t so bad since we didn’t go to the same place, nor was he around all the time by then. He was already in the pros and making a name for himself. When things went south with my job, I could have let it get me down, but instead, I pulled up my bootstraps and moved on to better things. I didn’t allow it to get me down too much, and I can’t say that I’m unhappy with everything that’s transpired since I moved here, and that’s all because of a bad situation that I left.”
“Wow,” is all I can think to say to her little speech. “I can’t say I’m sorry that you had to move here, either. I’d be lost without your help.”
“If I weren’t here, you’d have found someone else to help you.”
“Yeah, but not someone I know I can trust as much as I can with you,” I tell her honestly as I pull into Derek and Jillian’s driveway.
Eight
Riley
I get out of the car and grab Evie’s diaper bag while JJ works on unsnapping the car seat from the base. Before I make it up the stoop, the door flies open, and my niece, Penelope, is standing there in a princess dress and a huge smile on her face. “Auntie Ry!” she yells out, running and jumping into my arms.
“Hey, baby girl!” I say, swinging her into my arms. Her little legs wrap around my torso and her arms go around my neck as