The locker room is all noise and laughter and thudding footsteps on wet tile. Jake’s shirtless, chirping everyone. Viktor’s giving one-word answers in a corner while the trainers try to stretch out his hip, and Chase is standing on a bench giving a speech about his assist, which no one asked for.
“Most selfless play of the night,” he declares.
“You deflected it off yourskate,” Logan calls. “While trying to get off the ice.”
“I was creating confusion.”
“Youwere confused,” Eli mutters, unlacing his skates.
“Boys,” I say, shaking my head as I peel off my gear, sweat-slick and buzzing with the win. “Good fucking game.”
Jake raises a fist. “Three and oh, baby. Home opener’s gonna slap.”
Chase whistles. “Someone get Hutch a crown. Brick wall, back-to-back-to-back.”
I grunt and drop onto the bench, reaching for my phone to check the time, to see how late it is back home, and whether she’ll still be awake.
My thumb stills. Three missed calls. Two texts from Carina.
Havoc:Call me when you can
Havoc:Please.
That second message lands wrong—it’s too short and bare, even for her. Everything drops out of me, and the sound of the room fades as my pulse spikes.
She never calls during games. Never. We agreed on that early—no distractions unless it’s urgent, same for her when she’s in surgery. Andpleaseisn’t her word, not like this.
My mind is already running through a fast and brutal list of nightmares. Pain and bleeding, contractions that won’t stop. Something is wrong with the baby.
The room tilts, and I’m already on my feet, half my gear still on, dialing as I shove past Chase without answering whatever he’s saying now.
She picks up on the first ring.
“Reid.”
“Carina?” My voice comes out tight, sharp around the edges. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Is it the baby?”
There’s a pause, just long enough for my stomach to drop through the floor.
Then she exhales, shakily.
“It’s Harry,” she says through a broken whisper.
Not the baby, not her, but a name I carry in my bones all the same.
My glove falls to the floor.
And suddenly, the rest of the world doesn’t make a sound.
Chapter thirty-two
You already know she’s the love of my life
Reid
By the time I get to the hospital, it’s late enough that the parking lot is half-empty, and early enough that the sunrise hasn’t touched the edges of the sky.
I’m not sure how I got here.
