by Toni Aleo
Walking away, she shot him a grin over her shoulder before turning to look at something else. Man, she was so beautiful. His heart kicked into overdrive when he was around her, and he couldn’t believe how much he wanted to be around her. It was as if he never wanted to leave her. Would it always be like that? Or would it change once he went back to his old life? Training camp was starting soon and then he’d be traveling. Would he stay true, be the man who she believed he was?
“Erik! Look! They have a whole hockey line! Eek!” she gushed, holding out a little hockey outfit and little booties shaped like skates. He might not know what his future held, but he did know that right now, he wanted to try, and not just for her, but for Dimitri, too.
To his surprise, he was falling for both of them.
* * *
They had spent the whole day shopping and joking around with each other. Even though it made her mad that he wouldn’t let her pay for anything, she kind of found it romantic. It was sweet that he wanted to take care of her and the baby. It made her feel good, and gave her hope that he wasn’t leaving. Especially since he helped choose things for the nursery.
After all of that shopping they had worked up an appetite and decided to grab a bite before heading back home. She was glad they did; her feet were killing her.
Wiping her fingers on her napkin, she asked, “Do you want the rest of my salad?”
He shook his head, taking a swig of his beer. “Nah, I’m good.”
She nodded as she sipped her water. Wanting to keep the conversation going, she asked, “How old were you when you started to play hockey?”
“I was three.”
“Three! Sheesh!”
He smiled as he ate a fry.
“I was in skates as soon as I was able to walk. Jasha played when he was young, so he got us started at a young age, too.”
He took a swig of his beer and then looked over at her. She could tell that he wanted to say more but he was holding back. She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile and he smiled back before looking down at his plate.
A moment passed before he finally said, “He was actually a good dad until she left for the first time. I now know that she had gotten into cocaine and other drugs, and he just couldn’t deal with her leaving us. I think he loved her more than anything in the world. Sometimes I felt like he loved her more than us,” he said with a laugh.
“He never touched me until Jakob left. I think he knew that, together, Jakob and I would fight, you know, and I guess he saw me as weak without Jakob. I guess I was.”
“Erik, you were a kid,” Piper said, shaking her head. “You weren’t weak.”
Erik nodded. “I don’t know, sometimes I think I was. I mean I was a strong kid, I could have fought back, but I didn’t fight; I took it and I don’t know why. Why didn’t I call and tell Jakob what was happening, tell my teachers or call the cops? He told me the day he left that if anything happened, to call, he’d come and get me. I waited until I was sitting in a bloody room with two dead bodies in front of me before I called him.”
Piper bit the inside of her cheek as she watched a haunted look come over his face. Her heart ached for him, and she wanted to reach across the table and hold him, but knowing that he might not accept that from her now, she reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. She didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Erik.”
Erik nodded, running his thumb along the base of her hand. “You are the only one that I’ve told all that to. I know I haven’t told you much, but you know more than anyone else.”
Piper smiled as warmth filled her chest; that had to mean something. Nodding, she said, “Well, just to let you know, it makes me feel special that you wanted to tell me that.”
He smiled over at her. “You are special, Piper.”
Piper’s cheeks warmed as she leaned over the table, her belly bumping into her salad as they kissed. He made her feel so amazing when he said little things like that.
Parting, she flashed him a grin as she slowly sat back.
Taking a drink of water, she said, “Reese and I danced early, too. Mom thought we were going to be this amazing duo, but it was more Reese than me. I was damn good, but I liked to sing, too, so I wanted to do it all. I was such a free spirit.”
“You still are,” he said with a smile.
“This is true, but I’m not as bad as I used to be. I used to change my mind a lot.”
Erik shook his head. “That’s insane.”
“Yup, I wanted to be something new all the time. I was never happy.”
She looked up to meet his gaze. He had a weird look on his face as he asked, “Are you happy now?”
She smiled. She wanted to say that she had never been so happy in her life, that he made her life complete, but since he was a little skittish, she said, “Yeah, I am.”
“Good.”
The waitress came to get their dessert orders, which Piper passed on, but Erik ordered a big piece of cheesecake.
“You know, I wish I would have tried more things,” he said once the waitress had taken their order.
“You still could,” Piper said. She moved a bit, trying to get comfortable. She cringed as her back ached and he looked over at her with a concerned look.
“What’s wrong?”
“My back is killing me. I think I wore the wrong shoes for shopping,” she said, referring to her flip-flops. Waving off his concern, she said, “What do you want to do that you haven’t done yet?”
Erik shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I would like to go skydiving, but Coach Bacter would kill me.”
“You aren’t missing anything,” Piper said with a wave of her hand. “I used to want to be a skydiving instructor but then I found out it wasn’t as fun as I thought.”
Erik shook his head. “You are crazy.”
“I hear this often,” she said with a laugh.
Erik leaned back in his chair and asked, “Is there anything that you haven’t done?”
Piper put her finger to her lip as she thought, and then with a smile she answered, “I’ve never ice-skated!”
“Really?” Erik asked, shocked.
“Nope, I’ve actually been afraid to—don’t laugh!”
“You will jump out of a plane but won’t get on some ice?”
“It just doesn’t seem right. You do it beautifully but I’m pretty sure I’d look like a spider on roller skates.”
Erik continued laughing as the waitress brought over his dessert. Piper eyed it and watched as Erik took a forkful before looking up at her. “Want some?”
“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head and looking away.
“Whatever,” he said with a chuckle before putting the bite in his mouth. “I’m going to take you skating; you have to learn. Dimitri will be on skates as soon as he can walk.”
“Good for him, but I will not.”
“I won’t let you fall,” he assured her.
“No way,” she said with a shake of her head, but a grin on her face.
He pinned her with a lusty look as his mouth curved up at the side. “You don’t trust me?”
“Oh, that’s dirty,” she said accusingly, still grinning.
“I try.”
Piper giggled as she rolled her eyes. She was about to say she wasn’t going, but her phone rang. Digging it out of her purse, she saw that it was Harper. With a smile, she answered, “Hey, you.”
“Hey,” she said with a sniff, and Piper knew something was wrong instantly.
“What’s wrong?”
Harper let out another sob before taking in a deep breath. “I lost another baby.”
“Oh Harper,” Piper said sadly as Erik glanced up at her. “What do you need me to do?”
Piper hated that her sister couldn’t carry a child, and no matter what anyone said, she thought she could. She knew that it was hard to accept something you didn’t want to believe was true. This couldn’t be good for her body.
“I need
you to come get Ally for me for the next couple of days. I need a D and C to get the fetus out and then I am going in to have my tubes tied. I’m done, Piper. I can’t do this anymore.”
Oh, thank God.
“Okay, that’s fine.”
“Can you come get her tomorrow?”
“What time? I have to go help Reese tomorrow at nine.”
“My surgery is at one, but I gotta be there at ten. I’ll ask Elli to come over and get her,” she said with another sniffle.
“No, that’s okay. I’ll have Erik keep her while I’m with Reese.”
“Oh, okay. I forgot about him.”
Piper ignored that and said, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow; everything is going to be okay. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks Piper, bye.”
As Piper hung up the phone relief filled her. She was sad for Harper, but she was glad she finally realized trying to get pregnant wasn’t good for her, physically or mentally.
“What’s wrong?” Erik asked.
Piper glanced up from her phone. “Harper had another miscarriage.”
“That sucks. Is she okay?”
Piper shook her head. “Not really; she is having surgery to tie her tubes tomorrow. She isn’t going to try anymore.”
“So we are keeping Ally?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind, can you keep her tomorrow while I help Reese out?” she asked, pulling out her phone to send an email to Emmaline to let her know that she might be late sending chapter 10 since she would have Ally.
“What are you doing with Reese?”
Piper looked up. “She needs help with some choreography. The same thing I did last time.”
Erik let out a frustrated breath. “Piper, you can hardly shop without your back hurting and you want to dance?”
“I’ll manage,” she said simply.
“No, I don’t want you to. You need to take it easy. Reese will figure it out and I don’t understand why you have to keep Ally when my brother lives there, too. He could watch his own kid.”
“They are my sisters and I like to help out when they ask.”
“I understand that, sweetheart, but you have a lot going on. Our baby is coming. You have a book and a nursery to finish before that. I’ll call Jakob, tell him to keep Ally, and then you tell Reese that you can’t help anymore.”
“Erik, I am fine I can do everything.”
Erik shook his head. “No, you can’t. Please, humor me here. You won’t worry about yourself because you are worrying about everyone else. I worry about you, so please help me keep my mind at ease.”
Piper blinked, confused. Maybe he was right; she did have a lot going on. If she wanted him to trust her then she needed to show him she trusted him, too, even if she’d rather do what she wanted. She was a busy person, always helping out when people needed her. It was in her nature, but Erik was right, her back had been bothering her. She had actually been dreading dancing tomorrow because she knew she would be off her ass for the rest of the week.
With a nod, she said, “Okay.”
Chapter 19
“So what are we doing here?”
Erik glanced over at Piper and waited for her to answer. He wasn’t a fan of doctors’ offices and he’d much rather be at home, laid up on the couch. Piper looked over at him from the magazine she held and smiled.
“They are just checking me out, making sure our little man is okay.”
“Okay,” he said, leaning back in the chair. After all, they did need to know the baby was okay. Reaching for his phone, he started to play Angry Birds as they waited. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long and soon Piper’s name was being called. Piper put her magazine on the side table and stood as Erik followed behind her.
“Hey Piper, how are you?”
Wait, he remembered that voice.
A bad feeling came over him as he looked up and discovered why. Dread filled him as he locked eyes with Piper’s nurse. Erik never forgot where he put his dick and it had been way down the throat of Piper’s nurse. Christina was in the room when Piper came to tell Erik she was pregnant.
What a coincidence.
Christina looked up at him and her eyes went wide with recognition before they refocused in a glare. “Erik?”
Piper looked back at Erik, and then at Christina. “You know my husband?”
Christina’s glare deepened.
“Your husband?” she said with a nod as she moved to the scale. “Yeah, I know him.”
Erik waited for her to say she slept with him, but she didn’t. He didn’t care if she did, it meant nothing to him, but he did worry if it would make Piper mad. Piper only seemed amused, a grin on her face as she went through the motions of the appointment. The whole time Christina said nothing. She did her job, sending Erik dirty looks the whole time.
Following Piper into the exam room, he sat down in the seat beside her and looked up as Christina asked Piper questions about her pregnancy. Once she left the room, making sure to send Erik one last pissy look, Piper moved to the bench to grab the sheet that she needed to cover her legs. She had worn a skirt so all she had to do was take her panties off.
“How do you know her?” she asked looking over at him as she climbed up on the exam table.
Erik wasn’t sure how to answer her. He could lie; it was before they got married and she didn’t need to know. But then again, he wanted to be honest with her.
“She sucked me off a while back.”
A grin came over her face as she nodded. “I know.”
Erik was surprised by her answer. “You knew?”
Piper smiled as she glanced back at him. “A couple of months ago, I came in and she was on her phone showing her friends who she had been with. She said he was number fifteen on the Nashville Assassins, which meant it was you.”
Erik was irritated that Christina was telling his business all over the doctor’s office and that Piper tried to set him up. Scheming woman!
“So you tried to set me up?”
“I wanted to see if you’d lie,” Piper said with a grin.
Shaking his head, he muttered, “I should be mad at you.”
“But you’re not because I’m too cute to be mad at,” she answered, fluttering her eyelashes as she swung her legs like a child. “I knew you wouldn’t lie.”
“I could have.”
“Yeah, but you respect me more than that.”
He had to smile at that because she was right. He was about to tell her so when a knock came at the door and in walked what looked like an Abercrombie & Fitch model.
“Hey, Dr. Richards,” Piper said happily.
Doctor?
“Hey, Piper, how are we feeling?” he asked in his low, raspy voice.
Erik was a confident man and could even say when he thought another man was good-looking without feeling the least bit gay and at that moment Dr. Richards fit that bill. He was a very good-looking man, and Erik instantly hated him.
This was the guy that had his hands up in Piper’s pussy?
What the fuck?
Puffing up his chest, he got up to stand closer to Piper before he pinned the doctor with a “She’s mine” look. He wanted to punch the guy right in his pearly white teeth and then gouge out his eyeballs to make sure he never looked at Piper’s pussy again. He never had such an intense hatred for someone the way he had for this guy and it was all because of Piper; now what did this mean …?
“Good, thank you, and yourself?” she asked as she smiled up at him dreamily.
Erik’s jaw hurt, he was clenching his teeth so hard. He wanted to smack the guy and then yell at Piper for asking how he was. Why did she care?
“I’m good, thanks. Hi! I’m Dr. Richards,” he said when he finally noticed that Erik was in the room.
“Yeah,” Erik said in a stern voice. “I’m her husband.”
“It’s great to meet you,” he said a little overly happy for Erik’s liking, but then again, Erik would be happy too if all he did was stick his h
ands up women’s pussies all day long. Asshole.
Piper elbowed him in the ribs hard enough to get his attention. When he looked at her, she shot him a stern look and said, “Sit down, babe. I gotta lie down.”
“I’m good,” he said, holding her hand tightly. He should have gotten Piper a bigger ring, then this dude wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Piper was nowhere near single and this guy needed to back up with that grin and those large hands. Looking down at his own hands, he now wondered if his hands were big enough to please her.
Man, what was wrong with him?
Shaking his head, he watched as Dr. I’m-Too-Sexy measured Piper’s belly.
“Do you think I’m too big?” Piper asked.
“You are measuring right at thirty-four weeks, so only a week ahead. I think he might be a big boy. We might need to discuss inducing you if you don’t go by thirty-eight weeks.”
“That’s early,” Piper said.
“It is, but it’s okay. You have a small frame. I don’t know if I want to risk having you go full-term, especially with how big your husband is,” he said flashing Erik a grin.
Yeah, asshole, I’m big and I could kill you with my pinkie, Erik thought as he glared.
“Really?” Piper asked and Erik could see that made her nervous.
“Yeah, he feels big but then again you are really small. We have to take it week by week, okay? Let’s check you out; scoot to the edge.”
Erik wanted to yell, Hell no! But instead he watched as some other guy put his hand up in Piper. Rage filled him and reason wasn’t showing its face. All he saw was red, but when he glanced down at Piper, he saw that she wasn’t enjoying it and that sort of made the whole experience tolerable.
After his examination the doctor said, “Looks good. You are maybe a fingertip dilated, if that. He’s dropped a lot, though, and like I said, I don’t think you’ll make it full-term.”
“But will he be okay?” Piper asked.
Erik was so busy hating the doctor that he hadn’t been listening. Was there something wrong?
“Yeah, he should be fine. There is always risk, Piper, but you are having him in the best hospital in Tennessee with a great doctor and my dad will be a phone call away; everything should be fine.”