My stomach churns.
Because the timing is so cruel it almost feels like a joke.
Just when what we had was so good. So right.
I wipe my cheeks with shaking fingers, but the tears keep coming.
I stare at the test again.
Positive.
My throat closes.
“I didn’t plan this,” I whisper, like I’m practicing a defense for a trial that hasn’t started yet.
Bear whines again, pressing his head into my thigh.
I wrap my arms around him, clinging to his warm little body like an anchor while my thoughts spin in frantic circles.
27
JAKE
Something’s Off
Ican’t remember ever smiling this much.
And it happens in moments when I’m not even aware of it.
In the hallway at the training facility. In the locker room while I’m taping my stick. In the elevator when I catch my reflection and realize someone replaced my face with a less pissed-off version.
It’s always the same reason.
Talia.
The way she looks when she’s focused on a painting, her tongue caught between her teeth like she’s in a world I’m not allowed into. The way she says my name. The way she laughs at my deadpan sarcasm like I’m actually funny and not just an ass.
I know with absolute certainty that I’m in love with her.
Within just a few weeks she’s become the most important person in my life. If someone had told me a month ago that there would be a woman who brings me more happiness than I ever imagined… a woman I want to spend every day with… a woman I want to spend the rest of my life with…
I wouldn’t have believed them.
But now I can picture everything with Talia.
I pull my phone out while I’m still walking and check the time.
I have a small surprise planned for tonight, and I can’t wait to tell her.
The last few days I’ve been carrying my secret around like a puck in my pocket.
She’s started working on a new painting, and it’s just as incredible as the last one.
She’s notpretty good.
She’s talented.
The kind of talented that makes you stop breathing for a second because you didn’t expect something that honest to exist in real life.
