Epilogue
Owen Bliss
“Come on,Jacob. You’ve got this, son.” Last inning. Two outs. Strike out this batter and the championship will be yours.
“Time out.” Coach Webb goes out to the mound and places his hand on Jacob’s shoulder as he speaks. Good call on Webb’s part. Now is the time to talk down my boy’s nerves.
I’ve coached Jacob since he was four. Since the day I found out he existed. My dad and I have taught him everything we know about baseball and it’s paying off. He’s first-string pitcher at Tennessee, just like his old man. Three scouts are in the stands watching him right now. If he takes this championship, he’ll get major offers before the week is out.
“Look at those girls lining the fence, Bliss.” Ash’s voice is filled with disgust. “All of them, showing off their boobs in tight tank tops, trying to get Jacob to look at them.”
She’s not wrong. They used to do the same thing to me. Time marches on but some things never change.
“He doesn’t care about those girls, honey. Our boy is smarter than that. He knows what’s on the line so his head is in the game.” Another way he’s like his dad. I never cared about those girls lined up along the fence trying to catch my attention. There was only one girl I cared about and she never stood at the fence trying to distract me while I played ball.
“He’ll care about those girls tonight when they’re ready to put out.”
Our son is a good-looking boy. I have no doubt plenty of girls will be ready to throw some pussy on him. “Can’t argue that but we raised him right, Ash baby. All we can do is hope he makes good decisions.”
“He’s still so young. I don’t want him to ruin his future because the wrong girl spreads her legs for him.”
I lean over to whisper in my wife’s ear so Wesley, Graham, and Scarlet can’t hear me. “If you’ll think back to when we were his age, you’ll recall that you spread your legs for me and he’s the result of that. He didn’t ruin anything for us. And it turned out you were the right girl.”
I nip her earlobe and growl. “And I plan on you spreading your legs for me again as soon as we get home so I can eat your pussy and then fuck you senseless.”
She looks at the kids and then back at me. “Not if I suck you off and fuck you senseless first.”
Hell, yeah. “I’ll take that.”
The coach leaves the mound and Jacob takes his place. He slightly twists his cap to the left and then back to the center. Curveball. Good choice. This batter can’t hit a curveball for shit.
I elbow my next oldest. “Did you see what your brother just did, Wes?”
“Curveball.”
“That’s right, son.”
Wesley is our seventeen-year-old. He came nine months after my shoulder surgery. I’m pretty sure he was conceived in the bathroom of my recovery room at the surgery center. That’s right. Ashlyn got pregnant the first time we fucked and then the second time as well. The woman is fertile. Guess I am too.
Graham arrived two years after Wesley. Three brawny boys. Three baseball players. We thought we were done with babies until sweet Scarlet snuck her way into our lives a few years after Graham was born. Total surprise, but so very welcome. She’s Daddy’s girl. I can’t imagine my life without my daughter.
Four kids going in four different directions. Our hands are full. And so are our hearts.
“Striiike,” the ump calls out.
Fuck, yeah. “This is it, baby. Two more of those and our boy can choose where he wants to go play.”
Ash reaches for my leg. “I feel like I may throw up.”
“It’s OK, baby. He’s going to do it.”
“No. I feel like I’m really going to throw up. I’m hot. Fan me with something.”
I grab the program book and flap it back and forth over her face. There’s only one reason Ashlyn suddenly gets sick like this. There’s no mistaking it. I saw it with our last three kids and she said it was the same with Jacob. “You’re pregnant?” I whisper.
“Striiike,” the ump calls out a second time. Shit, I missed it.
I fan harder. “Say it.”