“I…” Tate swallows.
“I’m moving to Los Angeles with my son and Tate has been kind enough to let me crash here while I sort out my life,” I blurt out.
Crew looks at me, then his eyes drift to Dylan and slowly up to Tate. I know from the small smirk on his face, that he doesn't believe me. Not totally. He has working eyeballs. He can see Dylan is Tate's mini-me. I feel Tate's hand, his palm smooth and gentle against the small of my back. He looks right at Crew. "This is my son, Dylan. Mallory is his nanny and she brought him here a couple weeks ago, after his mother, her best friend Diana, died."
Crew's face loses all color. His mouth, which seems to be set in a perma-smirk, falls flat. He looks at Dylan again then at me and then at Tate. "What can I do to help?"
Not at all what I expected from this burly hockey player but I’ve been shocked non-stop today. Tate sighs. “Dude, I will take anything you got. Like a lead on a decent realtor. We have to move. ASAP. This place is too small and not baby-friendly.”
“Okay.” Crew nods and walks right up to the dining room table. “You can move into mine. I’ll move into this one. At least until after playoffs.”
“What?” Tate and I say in unison.
"I have a three-bedroom house with a decent, private garden on the canal remember?" Crew says, looking at Tate. "I don't need all that space and I never even wanted the house. It would be perfect for you guys, at least for now. And I can easily live here. Especially if that hot reporter girl is still a few doors down."
“She is,” I remark.
Crew lifts his eyebrows in an uh-oh moment. Tate chuckles uncomfortably. “Crew, are you sure?”
"Yeah dude, no worries." He looks at me. "You'll love it, Mallory. It's not a bachelor pad like this place."
I don’t ask why a hot single hockey player has a non-bachelor pad. I just nod and thank him and when Dylan is done eating I scoop him up. Tate touches his cheek and Dylan grins, which we both know is progress so we high-five. “See, no hate. He was just hangry.”
Tate looks so relieved it’s adorable. “I’m gonna go back out and get food. I didn’t get a chance to pick it up. I just wanted to get him home so he would stop freaking out.”
“You don’t have to, I can whip up something,” I reply.
“Are you sure?” He looks sheepish.
“Yeah. No worries.” I nod. “Why don’t you and Crew go chat on the patio and I’ll get cooking. Dyllie Bear will be fine playing with his blocks.”
“Or I could take him onto the patio,” Tate suggests. “He likes his jumpy thing out there.”
I immediately hand Dylan over to him and thankfully the kid doesn’t complain. Seeing Tate with his boy on his hip makes my ovaries dance a jig. He grins down at his son. “Let’s go have our first boys night, Dylan.”
He walks into the kitchen, Crew behind him, and grabs two beers out of the fridge before exiting through the sliding doors onto the back patio. I close the door behind them to give them privacy.
I can't believe he told his teammate the truth. Next, he'll tell his parents and then his team, and eventually this will be out in the open. And then… he won't need me anymore. But… maybe he'll still want me.
Chapter16
Tate
Crew is staring at me like I’m an alien with seven heads who just explained my people copulate by bumping armpits. His hazel eyes are wide. His mouth open. His skin, hell even his tattoos, have paled.
“I know. This is a lot,” I tell him as I glance at Dylan who is jumping in his swing thing and grinning a slobbery grin. “I am still reeling too most days.”
“I just don’t know why you didn’t tell me right away,” Crew replies and furrows his brow. “I could have helped you.”
“How? You know less about babies than I do.”
Crew blinks and then laughs. “Yeah. Okay. But I could have been supportive. I mean, this is… it’s crazy. And you need someone to talk to, I’m sure.”
“I have Mal,” I say and a very inappropriate image of her with her dress up to her tits and her pussy inches from my mouth flashes through my brain. “She’s been amazing.”
Crew stares at me. I don’t even bother to act innocent because he knows me too well to believe that bullshit. He grins slowly, but it’s reluctant and cautious. “She looks like she would be amazing. But didn’t you say she’s your ex’s best friend? And she’s your baby’s nanny? I’m no expert but that seems like adding problems to an already complicated situation.”
I don't like the points Crew is making but that doesn't make them inaccurate. Well, mostly. I sip my beer. It's light beer because of our impending playoff run. "First of all Diana could never be classified as an ex. She was a bed buddy. Friends with benefits. We were both on the exact same page with that. And the fact that she never told me about Dylan means she wasn't interested in even co-parenting with me let alone dating me. And Mallory's not a complication, she's a lifesaver. She's not just his nanny but his legal guardian until I can get all the paperwork to get my name on his birth certificate."
