This time, I’m at a loss for words. Because I certainly don’t know how to respond to that question. To be fair, I don’t know for sure the exact “how.” The last weekend I was with Teddy, he fucked me in every way possible. But I’m sure my little brother isn’t asking for the specifics of the conception.
“Well, we, um…”
Leo rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I got that part,thanks! I mean, how did you and Teddy…was this just a one-time thing, or are you together? How long? Does he know?”
“Leo, I just found out…at the same time asyouapparently. So,no,he doesn’t know yet. But no, this wasn’t just a one-time thing. We’ve been seeing each other for months.”
“Fuck. What about Gabri and Nikki? They are going to lose their goddamn minds when they find out that you’ve been hooking up with their goalie for months now.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t say anything! We’re going to tell everyone, I swear. We’re just waiting on the season to end so it doesn’t fuck the whole team up. And we haven’t just been hooking up. I lov—”
The horror on Leo’s face melts into something else, something soft. “You love him?”
I nod. “Yeah, I do. I love him.”
This is the first time I’ve said it out loud, and hearing it makes me smile. I love Teddy. I’ve loved him for a while. For the first time since seeing those tests, I’m excited about the results. This is why I stopped taking my pills in the first place. Because I love Teddy Williams. For some reason, he’s been adamant about getting me pregnant, and for a stranger reason, I’ve been okay with it. I definitely didn’t expect it to happen so fast, but I would be lying if I said I haven’t dreamed about it every night since our last time together.
“And he loves you too?”
I nod again, this time with fervor. Because I know without a shadow of a doubt that he loves me. He might not have said those three words to me yet, but I know. It’s the way he looks at me, the way he holds me, the way he makes me his priority each and every day.
“He’s really on board with telling our brothers about the two of you?”
“Yeah.” I chuckle. “He wanted to tell them a while ago, but I insisted we wait until the playoffs were over.”
“Damn, he really must love you. Those are some scary motherfuckers.”
“I know, right? Maybe if he knew exactly how dangerous they were, he would think twice about it all.”
“Nah, trust me. When a man really loves someone, no one in the world can come between them. No matter how scary or forbidden it is.” Leo wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in for a hug. “I’m so excited for you, Sis. God, you’re going to be the most amazing mama.”
“Thanks, Leo. You’re going to be thebestuncle. I know that Gabri and Nikki will love them, but you’re going to be their favorite.” When I pull back to see him, there are tears in his eyes.
“You really think so?”
“Absolutely. And one day, when you have babies of your own, you’re going to be the best dad in the whole world.”
“I hope so.” His eyes glaze over momentarily as he stares out my window before his attention snaps back to me. “Anyway. Holy shit…you’re having ababy!”
Leo spends the rest of the day rotting in my room with me, holding back my hair while I puke, getting me food, and trying to keep me hydrated. He rubs my feet and helps me set up a registry. I know that even if I didn’t have Teddy, Leo would take care of me during this pregnancy. Luckily, I have a man who already worships the ground I walk on. I can’t imagine how happy he’s going to be about the baby. I just have to figure out how to tell him.
Chapter 24
“This is adogfight, boys—there’s no other way to say it. We’re in the trenches, and only one of us is coming out alive. I know none of us wanted to come down to game seven, but there’s no other group in the world I’d rather have wearing the Rising Tide jerseys tonight. I’ll tell you this, too. Those fuckers on the other side hate your guts. They hate the fact that you play hockey in a warm, beautiful state instead of the miserable cold they live in. They hate the fact that your facilities are top-notch while they still practice in a renovated airline hangar. And they sure as fuck hate that the women where we live are damn beautiful. But they can hate all they want because we’re about to beat that ass on our home ice and send them back to the snow. Why?”
“Because you can’t escape the Rising Tide!”
The chorus of our war chant ends Coach’s speech as we head out into the final period of game seven. His speech struck me as a little cringy, but most of the guys seem to have responded well, and the energy as we skate onto the ice in the arena is at a fever pitch. It’s 3-2 in our favor, so if I can keep pucks out of my net for twenty more minutes, we can finally move on. Just gotta focus on my job asnet security.
Thinking of Ellie isn’t what I should be doing on the ice in an elimination game during the hunt for the Stanley Cup, but the less I see her, the more space she takes up in my mind. This series has been seven heavyweight bouts with one of our biggest rivals. Coach was right about that. My free time has been spent signing contracts for Mila and trusting Misha that I wasn’t being screwed over. After the third night in a row of falling asleep while reading an eighteen-page document about properties being transferred to my name, I gave up and signed.
Shit.Sharpshooter coming my way, stronger on the other side of the ice but coming with a head of steam. I zone in, focusing on the puck and ensuring I’m centered. He fakes a pass and takes a shot, but he wasn’t convincing, and I easily make the save. The crowd goes wild, and before I know it, we’re down to our last five minutes of play.
Finally, in desperation, they pull their goalie to have another shooter on the ice. Coming at me with everything they have, they make one more attempt to fool me, but their hips don’t lie, and I manage to save and redistribute the puck in a flash. Nikki races down the ice and scores on their empty net with one minute to go, all but sealing the deal.
As the air horn bellows in victory, my overriding emotion is relief, followed immediately by exhaustion. I’m happy to win, sure, but all this means is that we’re on to the next round. Two more if we’re lucky. If we win out, we have eight hard games between us and the Cup. If we get caught in another slugfest like this series…fuck.Fourteen more games.
Making my way into the locker room for a quick shower and change, I rack my brain, thinking of a way to steal even a moment with Ellie. We’ve video chatted and texted as much as possible, but without knowing our schedule beyond this game,it’s been hard to plan exactly when I’ll see her next. Hopefully, she can come over tonight or tomorrow because I feel like I’m on the verge of a breakdown without her.
