Max will like those.
“Fine.” She stands from her seat, taking her chai with her, that sweet scent of dessert wafting from her again before she turns to me. “But so you know, I’m doing this as a favor. So, try to be less of a dick about it, yeah? See you later, Baby Daddy.” She stops at the door, her hand on the knob as she cocks her head in contemplation. “Or should I say, Baseball Daddy? Oh yeah. Much better. Baseball Daddy, it is!”
She leaves us alone with that.
I shake my head in disbelief. “Your daughter is unhinged.”
“She’s the best, right?” Monty’s chest rumbles at my annoyance.
“You can’t be serious about this. There’s no way she’s the right person to take care of Max.”
He leans back in his chair, tattooed hands crossed over his stomach. “I’m not just saying this because I’m biased, but you’d be lucky to have her. She might be my wild child and not know what the hell a filter is, but when it comes to work, she’s the most driven person I know. She will do everything for your boy.”
I toss my head back. “Come on, man. Let’s be serious about this.”
“I am being serious. Trust me on this, Kai. I know my daughter. If for some reason, she ever gives you a valid reason to fire her, I’ll even offer to be the one to do it. That’s how much faith I have in this situation.”
Staying silent, I eye him, searching for any sign of bullshit.
I might not know Miller, might not trust her, but I do trust Monty with both my life and my kid’s. And I know he’d never put Max at risk, even if this situation benefits him.
I can’t believe I’m even considering letting him talk me into this, but I owe him. “She gets one strike,” I say, holding a single finger to reiterate.
“Baseball puns, Ace? You’re better than that.”
“Shut up.”
He puts his hand out to shake mine. “One strike, and she’s outta here!”
“Okay, way too far.”
I put my palm in his, but before I can pull away, he tightens his grip, willing my eye contact.
“I’m gonna give you a word of advice, son. Knowing her, she’ll make sure you have the time of your life this summer, both you and Max, but don’t even think about getting attached to her.”
My brows cinch in confusion. “Did you not see that interaction?” I free my hand, gesturing towards the door Miller left through.
“I did, and I’m telling you this, not as her dad but as your friend. She will leave when the summer is over. I love my daughter to death, but she’s a runner and the last thing she wants is to get caught.”
Monty should know me well enough by now that the last thing I want is for her to stay. In fact, if it weren’t for Max growing up far too quickly, I’d be wishing the summer away already.
“Trust me, Monty. You have nothing to worry about.”
He hums, unconvinced.
Standing, I tuck my chair into the opposite side of his desk. “See you at the field.”
I’m almost out the door when he stops me.
“And Ace,” he calls out. “Keep your dick in your pants. We all know how fucking fertile you are, and I’m too young and too goddamn attractive for someone to be calling me Grandpa.”
“Jesus Christ,” I huff, leaving his room.
Chapter 4
Kai
Max makes a jumbled sound that I’ve come to know as meaning “snack” as he points towards the kitchen in my hotel room.
I adjust him on my hip. “You want a pouch?”
He points to the kitchen again.
“Can you say pouch?” I prompt, but he just keeps pointing in that direction.
I grab his favorite flavor of pureed fruit, undoing the top and letting him feed himself as I carry him around my room, tidying up before Miller comes over to watch him for the first time.
“Is that good, Bug?”
He smacks his tiny lips together.
He still only has a handful of words in his vocabulary, but it’s wild when I get to hear them. It’s even wild to watch him feed himself though he’s been doing it for months. It might sound pathetic, but the small changes I see in him as he learns and grows are the most exciting moments of my everyday life.
And right on cue, I have to push away the lingering disappointment and questions, wondering what moments I missed for those first six months of his life when I didn’t even know he existed.
I should probably put him down. Let him chill in his highchair or something but I’m always a needy little fucker on game days. I hate knowing I’m leaving him behind for the rest of the day. I miss dinner with him, and bedtime. So yeah, I’m a bit helicopter-y on afternoons I have to go to the field.
A knock sounds at the door and I find myself checking out my room, making sure it looks okay before answering it for my coach’s daughter. Except when I open the door, it’s not Miller waiting for me on the other side. It’s my brother.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as he barrels inside.
“Heard the new nanny is hot.” He looks around my hotel room, for her I guess. “And a woman, thank fuck.”
“Don’t curse in front of my kid.”
Who am I kidding? Max is being raised by a baseball team. He’s heard worse already.
“Sorry, Maxie,” Isaiah says. “Thank frick. Better, Dad?”
I roll my eyes.
“So where is she?”
“How do you even know about her or that she’s hot?”
“So, she is hot? I didn’t actually know that. I was manifesting.”
Isaiah takes a seat at the small kitchen nook, his feet up on the stool next to the one he’s sitting on. I tend to get the biggest rooms on the road because I have another person living with me, and all of Max’s stuff eats at any available space I have. Additionally, there’s always an adjoining room connected to mine for Max’s nanny to stay. Now that Troy’s gone, it’s empty, but Miller will stay in there while I’m at the game tonight.
“She’s not not hot.”
“Oh my God,” my brother says, accusatorially. “You’re gonna bang the new nanny, aren’t you? So cliché, my guy.”
“No, I’m not. And neither are you because not only is she Max’s new nanny, but she’s also Monty’s daughter.”
Every muscle in Isaiah’s body freezes. “You’re kidding me. Monty has a hot daughter? How old is she?”
“Twenty-five.”
“And she’s good with kids?”
“Doubtful. She’s like a goddamn hurricane, but Monty’s adamant about me hiring her, so I don’t really have a choice.” Isaiah nods in understanding. “How the hell do you know about her? I’ve only just met her.”
“The team’s group chat is going off.” He holds up his phone and I adjust my glasses to look at it. “You should take it off mute every once in a while.”
Travis: Heard Max’s new nanny is a woman. Fucking finally, Ace.
Cody: Troy was cute, but his replacement is cuter. I think I saw her in the hallway earlier. I wouldn’t mind her being my nanny. Feed me. Tuck me into bed. Take my temperature too.
Isaiah: She’s not a nurse, you idiot.
Cody: I call dibs on her being my seatmate on the plane.
Travis: What the hell? That’s my seat.
Cody: Wait until you see her. You’ll understand.
Isaiah: You can have the plane seat. I call dibs on everything else.
An odd sense of annoyance rattles through me because this is Monty’s kid and Max’s new caretaker. She’s not here for them. They’re acting like a pack of starved dogs going after a single bone when, in reality, they have a buffet in every city we visit.
I would know. I used to have a buffet too.
“Okay.” I usher him off the stool. “You need to leave before she gets here.”
“No way. At least one of the Rhodeses needs to make a good impression and you’re too stressed and grumpy lately to do it.”
“If there’s one Rhodes I can count on making a good impression, it sure as hell isn’t going to be you. Max will do it.” My brows cinch. “And I’m not grumpy, you dick.”