With the grief overwhelming, it was a freaking miracle I managed to make it home without having a mental breakdown.
And because life apparently loved to kick me while I was down, Hilda was waiting at our front door to do her first official check-in.
Chapter 16
Levi
Settlingintotheextra-widewindow seat on the team plane, I’d barely slipped on my noise-canceling headphones when someone plopped down beside me, nudging my shoulder.
I inwardly groaned. I’d planned to use the hour-and-a-half flight to Phoenix to dive into the limb loss podcast that Maisie’s physical therapist recommended, but that would be impossible with a needy seatmate.
When I saw that it was my captain who’d joined me, I swallowed down my annoyance. He had been nothing but understanding when I’d all but tricked him into serving as a witness at my wedding, while simultaneously making him an accessory in our deception of the courts.
“What’s up?” I tugged on my headphones so that they rested around my neck.
Cole tracked the move. “Sorry, I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re listening to in a minute. But I just wanted to check in on you, see how things were going at home.”
“There’s a steep learning curve, but we’re figuring it out.”
He chuckled. “You sure jumped in with both feet, didn’t you? Went from bachelor to married with two kids like that.” The sharp snap of his fingers sounded.
“Damn, Nixon.” Jagger’s head popped up from the seat behind us. “You pick up a single mom? I mean, it makes sense. You’re kinda old, so all the hot chicks your age were scooped up a long time ago, but that shit’s messy.” He shuddered. “Baby-daddy drama is no fucking joke.”
Cole raised an eyebrow at the defenseman. “What do you know about baby-daddy drama?”
Our young teammate cringed. “I may or may not have picked up a woman at the club last year who was fresh off a divorce and looking for a good time. She didn’t realize it, but her psycho ex had put a tracker on her phone. Dude started beating down my front door when we were mid-fuck, pissed as hell that she’d dumped the kids on him so she could get laid. Never lost a boner faster in my life.”
Crew snorted from across the aisle. “That’s fucked up and hilarious at the same time.”
Jagger held his hands up. “Look, all I’m saying is you gotta have your head on a swivel if you’re stepping in as daddy to some other guy’s kids, Levi.”
I bit back a smile. “Noted.”
“Guess it’s a good thing you didn’t marry a single mom,” Cole teased.
“Wait.” Jagger frowned. “I thought I heard you say something about two kids?”
“She’s got custody of her younger brother,” I explained.
Using his fingers to count, he said, “Okay, that’s one.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and tapped the side button, and the lock screen lit up with a picture ofMaisie in the aqua dress she wore on my wedding day. “The second is my daughter. Just found out about her two weeks ago.”
His green eyes grew large, and his mouth dropped open. “No shit.”
I hummed. “Yeah, came as a shock to me too.”
“What’s this I hear about a kid coming out of the woodwork?” Coach loomed over us from the aisle, brows drawn down.
Turning my phone in his direction, I beamed with pride as I announced, “This is my girl, Maisie.”
Instead of him offering his congratulations, the grooves in Davenport’s forehead only grew deeper. “You get a DNA test?”
“Yeah, just waiting on the results.”
He grunted. “Good. You can never be too careful.”
I waved off his concern. “Don’t really need it, though. She’s the spitting image of my sister when she was that age.”
