My entire body trembles with the cold and the warring emotions that grip me in a tight hold.
I’m going to see my baby for the first time next week, and I’m going to have to begin figuring out how I’m going to explain who their dad is and why he’s not in their life in a few years.
We won’t need him. Me and my little one will be okay. I’ll make sure of it.
That doesn’t mean it’s the way I want it to be, though.
I startle when a loud bang echoes through my apartment, and I drag my head from my knees and open my swollen eyes just in time to see my best friend come barreling into my bathroom.
“Bea,” she cries, ripping a towel from the rail, reaching to turn off the shower and helping me to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” I wail. “I’m so sorry.”
16
EVERETT
“After being ejected from the Stanley Cup Final game 7, which resulted in the LA Vipers losing their chance at the cup this season, Everett Donnelly continued ‘celebrating’ his achievements by getting into a drunken brawl outside a nightclub in the early hours of the morning, which saw him spend the rest of the night inside a police cell. No charges have been brought against the ice hockey player. But with the off-season now upon him, maybe he should use this time to really think about the opportunity this team has given him since his late-season trade earlier this year. Donnelly?—”
“Yeah, okay. I fucking get it,” I grunt, spreading my thighs wider, and I slump lower.
Hailee’s glare burns into me from across the desk.
She’s pissed. I get that.
But it doesn’t matter how she feels about this whole situation. I can assure her, I feel worse.
I fucked up last night.
I fucked up big time.
I let that asshole get to me, and I let the entire world see the worst side of me. And just when I should have gone home to lick my wounds, someone else got up in my face.
I don’t know why I’m surprised. It’s a pretty fitting way for my season to end.
I knew being traded to the Vipers was too good to be true.
I have no doubt our GM is already having the paperwork written up to ship me off somewhere else. There is no way they’d want me to stay after this.
I’m an embarrassment.
I just wish there was something I could have done about it. But when I get in that headspace, the only way to get out is to relieve it. And I’ve never found a better way than with my fists.
It’s not right. I know it’s not fucking right. But it’s all I’ve ever known.
“You look like shit,” Hailee points out, just in case I wasn’t aware.
When I saw her waiting at the station to pick me up, I almost volunteered to put myself back in a cell and lock the door.
Why couldn’t Parker have come?
Even my parents would have been preferable.
But Hailee?
I close my eyes and let my head hang back.
“Can I go home yet?”
