“This,” Rachel had said.

As if that explained it all.

Over time, it did.

For many of the wives and girlfriends, being a baseball wife was their profession. For some, that was simply because balancing the demands of their husbands’ careers with the demands of raising children was more than a full-time job.

But for others, this was their identity. As if they’d been groomed for it like the debutantes of old. They flaunted their relationships with their rich, handsome men as if it were the natural order of things that all the beautiful people were destined for each other.

And then there was Thea. The outsider who barely understood the rules of the game, who had married a baseball player because she got pregnant, who’d joined their exclusive club without having to put in any of the work that the rest of them did. She didn’t have to slug it out for years when he was a prospect or during the long, impoverished minor league years.

And Rachel hated her for it.

Thea used to pretend she didn’t care, but in reality, she did. Being an outsider was a lonely place to be.

But soon she’d be free of their animosity, and it was that thought that allowed her to focus on helping Nessa without straining to hear what was being said behind her back.

Finally, the food was ready. Nessa yelled out back for the boys to bring in the fried turkey, and Thea offered to help set everything out.

After Thea and Gavin fixed the girls’ plates and got them settled at the kids’ table, they joined the rest of the grown-ups in the dining room. Thea sat next to Nessa, because she desperately needed an ally. Unfortunately, she was right across from Rachel.

Twenty minutes into dinner, Del stood at the end of the long table. “Everyone shut up.”

Conversations quieted as everyone focused on Del, who held a beer in one hand and his wife’s fingers in the other.

“Nessa and I want to thank you all for being here today to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Some of you we love to have. Some of you we just put up with.”

Everyone laughed, but Thea suspected there was a lot of truth in his words. Thea smiled at Rachel, who smiled back. Thea could’ve sworn blood dripped from one corner of Rachel’s mouth.

“So I could stand here and do a long speech about being thankful and all that shit, but I don’t feel like it,” Del said. “Because Nessa and I have something to announce. Something we’ve been keeping quiet for a couple of months now.”

Nessa jumped up, her arms spread wide. “I’m pregnant!”

There was a happy pause and then a chaotic eruption of applause and congratulations and all the other things that normally greet a pregnancy announcement. Gavin stood and reached over to shake Del’s hand. “That’s awesome, Del. Congratulations.”

A few minutes later, Nessa sat back down, and Thea pulled her in for a hug. “I’m so happy for you guys.”

Nessa laughed weakly. “I’ve been dying to tell you, but we’ve had two miscarriages, and we just wanted to be sure.”

Thea grabbed Nessa’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“I guess I also didn’t want to upset you, because I didn’t know what was going on with you and Gavin. It felt wrong to throw our good news in your face when you guys were having trouble.”

Somehow, that felt worse—knowing that someone withheld good news out of fear that Thea couldn’t handle it. It was even worse, though, when she looked up and realized Rachel had heard every word.

Rachel pounced immediately. “Thea, what about you and Gavin? Are we going to hear any good news anytime soon now that you two have patched things up?”

“Not unless you’re talking about me finishing my bachelor’s degree.” She smiled.

“Oh, you never finished college?”

“Not yet.”

“And why’s that?”

Jake slung an arm over the back of Rachel’s chair. His fingers appeared to dig a little too tightly into her shoulder.

“Well, Rachel, as I’m sure you know, I had to quit college because I got pregnant.”

“Oh, that’s right. I knew that. You guys hadn’t been dating very long, right? And didn’t Gavin get called up to the Majors right after that? What amazing timing for you.”

Thea felt the pressure of Gavin’s hand on her knee under the table.

“Thank you for that accurate recitation of the timeline of our relationship, Rachel. Can we hire you to write our Wikipedia page?”

Gavin’s fingers dug into her knee as Rachel’s mouth dropped open again.

“Remind me where you went to college, Rachel,” Thea said.

Tension soaked the air as half the table hung on their every word while the other half ate as if it were their last meal.

“I was a pre-law major at Ole Miss.”

“You didn’t go to law school?”

Rachel turned a luminous smile at her husband. “I did not. I happily gave it up for Jake’s career.”

Jake pretended to be fascinated by the stuffing on his plate.

“But surely you still wish to be a lawyer, don’t you?” Thea prodded, because the impulsive side of her was operating her voice like a puppet.

Gavin’s hand tightened on Thea’s knee. She shoved it away.

Rachel preened prettily before answering. “No, I don’t,” she said. “We all make sacrifices to support our husbands. Most of us don’t mind.”

Rage colored her vision red. Rachel had no fucking idea how much Thea had sacrificed for Gavin’s career. She was just about to tell her when Soledad Feliciano, Yan’s wife, broke the tension.

“So, Thea,” she said in the kind of nervous tone one might use with a rabid dog, “with your art background, you might be able to help us with some design ideas for the new logo for our charity softball game.”

The softball game was another WAGs tradition. Every summer, some of the Legends’ wives and girlfriends competed in a game against the wives and girlfriends of the Nashville hockey team to raise money for school supplies for needy children. For years, the game had been called WAGs vs. HAGs, because, you know, there’s an “h” in hockey. Ha-ha, so funny. It was astonishing how few people failed to see the problem with it, but maybe someone had finally convinced them that they needed a new name.

“I didn’t know we were getting a new logo,” Thea said.

“It was decided at our last meeting.” Rachel smiled.

The one Thea hadn’t been invited to.

“I’d be happy to,” Thea finally said, “if we can also get rid of the term WAGs.”

Rachel sputtered into her wineglass. A fork fell against a plate, and someone at the table uttered a blasphemy.

“Why on earth would we do that?” Rachel asked, wiping a splatter of wine from her cleavage.

“Come on,” Thea said. “Wives and girlfriends? It’s so limiting. What if a woman makes it to the Majors someday? What would her boyfriend be called?”

“Since I highly doubt there are any female players who are anywhere near good enough for that, I don’t think that’s something we need to worry about,” Rachel said.

“Fine, then what about a gay player? The term WAGs is completely heteronormative. Don’t we want something more inclusive?”

“What exactly do you suggest?” Rachel asked.

“How about spouses and partners?”

Rachel paused for a moment and then said, “That would make us SAPs.”

“You’re right. It sure would.” Thea stood and picked up her plate. “I think I’ll check on the kids. Anyone need anything?”

Thea walked out of the silent dining room and around the corner. It wasn’t long before Gavin appeared. “What the hell was that?” he asked.

“That,” Thea said, setting down her plate, “was the kind of bullshit I’ve had to put up with from Rachel and her friends the entire time we’ve been married. I just decided to stand up to her for a change.”

“She always treats you like that?”

Thea snorted. “Um, yeah. From day one.”

His eyes pinched at the corners. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you know?”

Gavin shook his head, opened his mouth to say something, and then apparently thought better of it. He swallowed instead.

“Don’t worry about it,” Thea snapped. “It won’t be a problem much longer, anyway.”

She spun on her heels and left him standing there. And she spent the rest of the day with the kids, carefully avoiding his every attempt to get her alone.

Ava started complaining about a stomachache around six o’clock, so Gavin made their excuses. Nessa dished up some leftovers into a tower of plastic containers and carried them out to the car while Gavin got the girls ready to leave.

“It will get better,” Nessa said quietly, loading containers in the back of the car.

Thea sighed. “Thanks, but I don’t think Rachel is ever going to like me.”

“I’m talking about you and Gavin.”

Thea looked up.

“Give it a chance to get better, Thea,” Nessa said.

The front door opened, and Gavin walked out carrying Ava. Amelia scampered ahead of them. Nessa squeezed Thea’s arm and lowered her voice. “Call me anytime.”

Thea shut the door to the trunk as Nessa walked up the sidewalk. She paused to kiss the girls goodbye and give a one-armed hug to Gavin. Thea opened the door to Ava’s side and took her from Gavin without meeting his eyes.

“I’ll buckle Amelia in,” he said.

The drive home was as silent as the trip there. Gavin clenched the steering wheel. Thea stared out her window, watching other families in other cars. Smiling, laughing families. Did those husbands and wives start their holiday arguing about masturbation? The thought brought an absurd burst of hysterical laughter from her mouth, which quickly became a frustrated sigh. She felt more than saw Gavin’s head turn in her direction, but she kept her eyes locked on the passing scenery. The lifeless, gray sky matched her mood.