“Actually, it’s hilarious,” Sloane says, grinning wickedly. “Shocking, for sure, but hilarious nonetheless. You swore you’d never touch a hockey player. Especially that specific hockey player. And I have the receipts if you try to deny it.”
“I know,” I mutter. “Trust me, I do. It started out as a one-time thing—a lapse in judgment—and then…” I shrug, shoulders jerking. “I don’t know. Suddenly we were hooking up, and I couldn’t stop. It was just too damn good.”
Sloane’s lips twitch. “So, the Big O really knows how to give the big O.”
I jab a finger at my belly. “All I’ll say is if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“The Big O will get you every time,” she says, trying to hold a straight face and failing miserably.
Their easy conversation fills the bakery. And for a second, the tension filling my muscles dissolves enough for me to smile.
It feels good.
Almost normal.
Their laughter fades gradually, leaving a rich warmth in its wake. Beneath all the teasing, there’s love. Steady, protective, and familiar. It’s the kind of safety I didn’t realize I was desperate for until this very minute.
“So, what happens now?” Lilah asks, her tone gentle.
I watch the steam curl from my untouched tea, as if the answer will rise with it if I stare hard enough. “I don’t know. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a solid game plan. I’m terrified of losing everything I’ve worked for. My independence, my reputation, the career that finally feels like mine.”
The table falls silent as my confession hangs in the air like a struck chord.
“Does Oliver know?” Callie asks.
I nod. “Yeah, he’s aware of the situation.”
Her brows shoot up. “What was his reaction?”
“I swear to God, if he freaked out or asked for a paternity test, I will find him and punch him in the face,” Sloane growls, her good humor vanishing in the blink of an eye.
My lips tremble because I know she isn’t bluffing. “Not at all. When I told him, he said I was moving in with him so he could take care of me.” My hand drifts to my belly. “Of us.”
A quiet smile spreads across Lilah’s face, the kind she’s worn ever since finding out about her own pregnancy. “Aww, the Big O actually wants to be a Big D.”
Sloane snorts and her shoulders shake. “That is so bad. But I love it.”
“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” I ask with a groan.
All three grin.
“Nope,” Sloane says, popping the P like she’s sealing the deal. “There’s way too much mileage in that one.”
Callie reaches across the table and wraps her hand around mine. Her touch is warm and steady. “I know this isn’t what you pictured for your future, and Oliver isn’t the man you pictured it with, but maybe that’s okay. Sometimes the best things happen when we least expect them, with the people we least expect them with. I think Lilah and I are proof of that.”
A lump forms in my throat as emotion swells too fast to swallow down. “The jury’s still out on that one. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Lilah lays her hand over mine, the curve of her lips turning into something tender. “Now we get to go through this together. And selfishly, I’m grateful for that.”
“Me too,” I say, actually meaning it.
Sloane lifts her mug in a mock toast. “To unplanned pregnancies and hockey players who live up to the Big O name.”
Laughter bursts around the table, shaking loose the tension that’s been knotted up inside me for days. Somewhere beneath it, though, a small part of me recognizes that my secret won’t stay contained forever. The Railers live under a microscope, and sooner or later, someone’s going to notice what I’ve been trying so hard to hide.
But for the moment, I let it go. The tension between my shoulders finally eases, and my lungs expand fully for the first time in days.
I can still hear Oliver’s steady and infuriatingly sincere voice in the back of my mind.
