by Kristen Echo
“Take your new ride for example,” he said to me. “She’s too young for you, old man. When she’s ready for a good time, I’d gladly take her for a spin.”
I could handle teasing about my relationship with Josephine, but Poulet crossed the line. “She’s mine. If you or anyone else lays a finger on her, I’ll break it off. Grow up, kid.”
Several of my teammates chimed in, razing Poulet for his comments. No one tolerated that crap on our team. After a few minutes, he apologized. The last thing I needed was a fight within my team while my position in the NHL wasn’t solid. As the guys swarmed him, I backed away.
Carter followed me to the door. “She’s a keeper.”
“I know it.”
I smiled and raced out to the tunnel. Seeing her waiting for me did something to my heart. It also made my cock rise. I grabbed her hand and kissed her soundly. I wished we had more time, but we only had a few minutes. Not even enough time for a quickie in the broom closet.
As her body molded to mine, I nibbled on her neck. She talked about her apartment and how she was no longer thrilled with the place. Her and my sister had started looking at alternative places. I didn’t ask questions because I was too busy tasting her salty skin and committing her scent to memory.
Long distance dating seemed fine months ago, but I was over it. I wanted her in my life full-time. A night here and there wasn’t enough. I didn’t want to say goodbye.
“If I send you a ticket to Vegas for next week, would that work?”
She glanced at her boots and shook her head. “I’ve got work and school. Presley and I made plans to check out a place closer to campus too.”
“It was just an idea.” I hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Her sweet scent filled the air. “When can I see you again?”
“I don’t know.” She buried her face against my chest. “We knew this wouldn’t be easy. But saying goodbye is getting harder. It’s too bad we didn’t live closer to each other.”
We hadn’t discussed our living arrangements and the miles keeping us apart. At some point, one of us, or both, would have to move. I ran my hand over her soft hair.
“You don’t like your apartment, right?”
“Well, I like it, but I’m not in a rush to go back.”
“Have you considered moving to Vegas?”
She tilted her chin up and her eyes found mine. They were wide and so green. “What? You want me to move in with you.”
“When this semester at school is over. I would never ask you to quit school, but yeah. I guess I am asking if you’d move in with me.”
“Presley is in Toronto.” She pushed against my chest, adding some inches between us. “I can’t leave my best friend.”
“You’d still see her and talk to her. It’s not like you’d have to stop being friends.”
A few of the guys wandered by. I nodded at my buddies as Josephine stepped out of my arms. Her reaction wasn’t what I’d expected.
“Aaron, this is a big step.” She paced the hallway, avoiding my eyes. “One minute, you’re bouncing from one woman to the next. Now, you’re eager to set roots. What’s going on?”
The overhead lights cast shadows along the concrete walls. I closed the distance, grabbed her hand and tugged her with me. This was the most privacy we’d get at the arena.
“It is a big deal,” I agreed. I hadn’t meant to blurt move in with me, but I wanted her with me. All the damn time. If I could move to Toronto to be with her, I would have in a heartbeat. No hesitation. “Our relationship is important to me. I like spending time with you. If we lived together, I wouldn’t miss you as much.”
“Are you asking because of the break-in next door, or because you want me to live with you?”
“You. Wait. There was a break-in.” Had I been so consumed by her, that I missed that tidbit? “When? Where?” I needed details.
“The night before I came out to visit you,” she answered. “Three masked men broke into the apartment building next to ours and robbed two suites before they took off. The video footage showed they were armed.”
“Did the cops catch them?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I didn’t mention it earlier because it slipped my mind until now. I assumed Presley called you. She was rattled.”
I rubbed her arms. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Her teeth grated over her bottom lip as she shrugged her shoulders. “Dallas saw it on the news and came over. He crashed on the couch. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to read more into it than—”
“Your ex slept over. How should I read it?”
I kept my voice calm even though I wanted to scream. I didn’t want to get worked up over nothing. Josephine cared about me. I trusted her, but not him.
“Dallas is a friend. Nothing more. He knows we’re together.” She cupped my cheeks. “I lov… um. I’m sorry for not telling you. But with him there, we felt safer.”
He was there for her when I wasn’t. She leaned on him. I hated that I couldn’t be there to protect her or my sister. There would be more times like this. My career required lots of travel. Even when we lived together, there would be times when she was alone.
“Thank you for telling me. I’m glad you have friends you can rely on.”
“I’m glad I have you,” she said, sliding her body against mine.
I pressed my lips to hers. Softly. Reverently.
“We can table the living together conversation for another time. In the meantime, I’ll pay for you both to move to a better place.”
The building they lived in had video security, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted full-time security. Guarded access around-the-clock. The women I loved deserved to feel safe in their homes. I tugged on the ends of my hair, hating I wasn’t there for them.
“Aaron, you don’t have to do that.”
“But I will,” I said. “I love you. Your safety matters to me. You matter to me.”
Her green eyes sparkled as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Say that again.”
“Your safety is important to me. Until you’re ready to live with me, at least find a place where I can have peace of mind when we’re not together.”
“Before that?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” She claimed my lips and my heart. When she released me, I was drunk on her taste. “I’m happy I came to see you.”
I smiled. “Let’s not wait an entire month before we see each other again.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “It can’t be that long?”
I brushed her hair behind her ears. “A little over, actually. Valentine’s day is less than two weeks away. I have a home game that night.”
She shifted and inhaled a deep breath. Her eyes avoided mine as though she was doing mental calculations. She was most likely thinking of her schedule for the holiday.
“If you can’t come out then, we’ll pick another time. Another location,” I offered.
“We’ll figure it out,” she whispered. The pulse in her neck beat erratically. Something was off. She hugged me tight.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, denying anything was the matter.
“Talk to me, my love.”
“My love,” she repeated as she met my gaze. “You might need to pinch me. This feels like a dream.”
“A dream come true.”
I loved her to pieces. She was my future. I had teased her about marriage early in our relationship, but I was no longer laughing. Maybe I had always known she was the one.
As I stared into her green eyes, I knew my next move. Hell, I’d have done it right then and there, but I didn’t have a ring.
Next time.
Chapter 7
Josie
Airports sell everything, including pregnancy tests. I bought three different tests and marched into the closest bathroom. I was methodical, followed the instructions, and waited. In the end, they provided the same result.
Pregn
ant.
Sitting in a stall with my panties around my knees, I tried to catch my breath and not hyperventilate. It was possible the two lines, plus sign, and the word pregnant could have been wrong. False positives weren’t that uncommon. As I buried my head in my hands, I knew the results were accurate. I was pregnant. A new life was growing inside me.
My heart constricted as a plethora of emotions bombarded me. I had always dreamed of having a family, but I didn’t want to have a baby alone. I needed my best friend and her brother. After his ex-girlfriend used a fake pregnancy as a weapon, I didn’t know how Aaron would react. Part of me worried he would not take this news well. Our baby wasn’t a ploy to trap him. I trusted his love for me, but I couldn’t fully dismiss those fears. After so many rejections in my life, it became expected.
I barely had a moment to process the news when they announced my flight. I made my way to the departing gate with my phone clutched in my hand. Aaron needed to know, but I had no idea how to tell him. A mix of happiness and dread coursed through my veins. It was a good thing I had time to think about it on my flight.
Two weeks later, I still hadn’t told him. Shortly after I arrive home, a doctor ran blood work and another urine test. The results confirmed that Aaron Drakos had forever changed my life. We were going to have a baby.
“You are going to be a father,” I whispered as I placed my hands over my belly and stared at myself in the mirror. My body looked the same, but soon the middle section would expand and get even bigger.
I had been rehearsing different ways to tell him. In case words escaped me, I had a t-shirt printed with the word Daddy on the front. I planned to tell him tonight before the evening game.
“And soon, I’ll tell this to your face,” I mumbled, turning away from the mirror that hung on the back of my new bedroom door.
As promised, Aaron had moved Presley and I into a new place. Days after our last visit, he’d bought a three-bedroom condo with a doorman and twenty-four-seven security. It was a modern building with an indoor swimming pool, fitness center, and underground parking. For the first time in ages, I didn’t triple lock our door.
He was too good to me. With each passing day, I fell more in love with our child and with Aaron. He didn’t know yet, but I hoped he’d be as thrilled as I was about our tiny bundle. This wasn’t the kind of news I could share over the phone. I glanced out the window as the moon shrouded the building next door with a soft glow. The park across the street was still bathed in darkness and shadows. My flight left at the crack of dawn. I should have gone to him sooner but telling him on Valentine’s day seemed like a good choice.
Sure, there were times in the past two weeks when I could have told him. Plenty. Like during our last conversation, when he asked me outright if I was hiding something from him. I filled the silence with I love you. I chickened out. He deserved to know. Keeping our accidental pregnancy a secret was killing me.
My door flung open and Presley raced in, stumbling on one of the large moving boxes scattered across the floor. I hadn’t unpacked yet. Her eyes were red, her brows furrowed, and her cheeks wet. Something was wrong.
She grabbed my hands. “Have you talked to him? Does he know?”
An anxious bubble formed in my chest. Maybe she figured it out. I’d been careful not to tip her off before I had the chance to tell Aaron about the baby. He deserved to know first.
“About what?”
“Oh God,” she dropped on my bed like a sack of potatoes and buried her face in her hands. “I can’t even say it.”
“You’re scaring me.” I sat next to her after I glanced at my alarm clock. The limo would be arriving any minute. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s good you’re flying there right away. He’ll need you. I’ll catch the next flight or maybe this one. I don’t know what to do.”
“Talk to me,” I pulled her hands away as a stream of tears covered her beautiful face.
“There was a car accident,” she sobbed. “Jeremiah and Latisha are in the hospital. It’s bad.”
My stomach flipped, and my heart stopped beating. “Was Aaron with them?”
I couldn’t lose him. I needed his love. Our baby needed him.
“No.”
“How do you know this?”
“I heard your alarm earlier and couldn’t get back to sleep. Scrolling on my phone… I… it’s all over the news,” she whispered.
Her voice was laced with sorrow and pain. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and hugged her. We cried together. The Carter’s were an amazing couple. So young and in love. They had to pull through.
“Let’s pray for them.”
“What if they die? What if I never see them again? What if—”
“Shhh. Let’s think positive thoughts,” I said as I rubbed her back.
“Life isn’t fair!”
“No… it’s not,” I agreed. “What about their kids?” I was barely able to get the question out.
Their eldest was about the same age I had been when my parents died. So little. A sense of helplessness washed over me. My heart was being ripped to shreds, almost as painful as losing my parents. Only I wasn’t a little girl with no one to turn to. I had Aaron and Presley.
“They are okay. At home with the nanny,” she explained. “The news says Latisha and Jeremiah were on their way home after a late night out when their car collided with a truck.”
She sobbed again as my phone buzzed in my pocket. My ride was here. I froze. I couldn’t leave Presley in her condition, but Aaron was expecting me. He would need me too. I hugged her tighter.
“Go,” she whispered.
“I won’t leave you like this. Go pack a bag and I’ll book you a ticket on my flight.”
“Thank you.” She stood and walked towards the door. “My brother is lucky to have you. We both are.”
“I’m the lucky one.”
“Sorry I’ve been so distant. It took a little adjusting, but I’m good with you and my brother.”
Using my sleeve, I wiped my face. It was a good thing I rarely wore makeup. “I love you. Now hurry. We have a plane to catch.”
After getting Presley a ticket, I called Aaron. It went to voicemail. I left a message and headed for the airport. He never called me back. I sent several texts and stared at my phone as we boarded.
We chased the sun and arrived safely before it rose across the desert. A tailwind brought us in almost thirty minutes ahead of schedule. I expected to see him at the baggage carrousel, but he wasn’t there. There were no messages on my phone. I called again, but he didn’t answer. Presley and I went directly to the hospital.
The press hadn’t released any updates. As soon as we entered the packed waiting area, I spotted him. Amidst a sea of enormous hockey players, Aaron stood out. His big frame had squeezed into in a tiny metal chair. His hair was a wild mess, sticking in all directions as he talked to the guy next to him.
Presley went to the nurse station to get an update as I raced towards my boyfriend. In my haste, I tripped on a purse and stumbled onto the lap next to Aaron. The coffee the guy was holding splashed against my chest, soaking the front of my t-shirt and his jeans.
“Yikes!” I jumped back, but the damage was done. “Crap. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“No worries,” the guy said, standing and shaking the liquid from his pants.
“He can buy his own,” Aaron said as he grabbed my hand. “How are you here? What time is it?”
“Hi.” I dropped my bag. “It’s after seven.”
“Fuck! I was supposed to meet you at the airport.” He pulled me onto his lap and kissed me.
Seeing him and being in his arms brought tears to my eyes. For a second, I’d thought I’d lost him before we had a chance to live the life he promised. I had once thought he was a player who was incapable of love, but I was wrong. As our lips connected, I placed my hand over his heart just to feel it beating.
“When your sister told me about the accident, I thought you…�
�� My voice faltered.
“I should have called you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too,” I said.
“This wasn’t how our Valentine’s day was supposed to start. I had plans.” He kissed me softly. “This is messed up.”
I offered a weak smile. “How are they?”
“Carter has broken ribs, and he shattered his collarbone. He won’t play hockey for a while, but he’ll live. His texts have been short.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Latisha is in surgery. The doctors aren’t saying much.”
“Have you seen him yet?”
He shook his head and threaded our fingers together. “Shouldn’t be much longer. Let’s go get you changed. I love you in a wet t-shirt, but this isn’t the place for it.”
I laughed. We headed towards the washroom at the end of the hall. Presley stopped us. The siblings embraced, but Aaron never let go of my hand.
“The nurse refused to release any details since I’m not technically family.” She sneered at the woman behind the desk.
“Jeremiah was driving when an idiot ran a red light, striking the passenger side. They were both conscious in the ambulance, but Latisha’s condition seemed to get worse after they arrived at the hospital.” He added the same details he’d told me earlier.
“Were they drunk?” Presley placed her hands on her hips.
His jaw clenched. “Carter doesn’t drink. It’s not his fault.”
“I meant the other driver.” She looked away. “I’m going to go sit with her family.”
“Sounds good. Thanks for coming, Presley. It means a lot that you and Josephine are here,” he said.
“We’re family,” she said and walked away.
My heart raced faster as he guided us down the hall. He opened the door, ushered me in and followed. I chuckled as he locked the door and grabbed my bag.
“Let me help you.”
“I can’t say no to you,” I replied, tugging my shirt over my head.
My arms paused in mid-air as I watched him rummage through my bag and grab the extra-large, black shirt on top. This wasn’t the right time. My breath lodged in my throat and I couldn’t move. He unraveled it and read the word on the front written in big bold letters. His brown eyes got huge.