Bennett (On the Line Book 2)

by Brenda Rothert

“Listen,” I said softly. “I’m sorry. So sorry. And I’m here for you. You’re not alone. I’m gonna let go of you now and we’ll sit down and talk, okay?”

  When I released her forearms, her shoulders dropped with defeat. “It gets worse, Bennett.”

  Worse? How could things possibly get worse?

  “Holy fuck, is it twins?”

  She shook her head. “No, there’s only one. But twins would be better than what I have to tell you now.”

  “I seriously doubt that.” An image of myself with a diapered infant in each arm flashed through my mind and I cringed.

  “I didn’t know you were a Flyer.” Charlotte’s voice was choked with emotion. “I didn’t know. When I went to Cosmos to ask Molly how I could find you and she told me that, I . . . it’s just awful.”

  She swallowed hard and tears slid from her eyes onto her cheeks.

  “That I’m a hockey player? What, am I too low-rent for you?”

  “No.” Her tone was sharp, but her expression remained miserable. “You might want to sit down.”

  I glared at her, quickly becoming aggravated. “I took the pregnancy news standing up, so I think I can handle whatever it is, Charlotte.”

  She shook her head. “If I would have known, I never, ever would have done what I did with you. Ever.”

  “Dammit, would you just spit it out? What’s the issue here?”

  “My brother is a Fenway Flyer. I threw up in the parking lot because I was so worried he’d see me coming here and confront me.”

  My eyes widened with disbelief. “What? Your brother?”

  “Yes. Liam Holloway.”

  Charlotte

  Bennett sat down.

  The color had drained from his face.

  “Shit,” he said softly. “I’m a dead man. I’ll know what my own balls taste like by morning.”

  I swallowed hard, feeling sorry for him. He apparently knew my brother well.

  “I’ve never visited him here at the player housing,” I said. “Is his apartment close? Is there any chance he’ll come here?”

  Bennett’s laugh held no amusement. “Oh, it’s a definite possibility since he’s my roommate.”

  My stomach did a 360-degree turn. “What? Are you . . .” I looked at the door. “I have to get out of here. Oh, God. I never should have come here.”

  Bennett stood up. “Yeah, you should’ve. This isn’t something you have to handle alone, Charlotte. I’m just as responsible as you are.”

  I wiped my hands across my cheeks. “There’ll be no handling. I was raised Catholic and I’m having this baby. I didn’t come here because I want something from you. I just felt like I needed to tell you.”

  Bennett stared at me in disbelief as I walked to the door.

  “No,” he said.

  “Yes. It’s my body. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t have it. No one even has to know it’s yours. Definitely not my brother. I’ll just leave here and you can forget I even came.”

  I grabbed the door handle and felt his hand covering mine, stopping me from opening the door.

  “That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t saying ‘no,’ don’t have the baby. I was saying don’t treat me like I’m not this kid’s father.”

  I sighed and looked over my shoulder, meeting the warm, milk chocolate eyes that had gotten me into this situation. “Look, I have to go. If my brother shows up, we are both in deep shit.”

  Bennett gave an unamused hum. “Trust me, I get it. He’s gonna kill me. But you’re not leaving like this.”

  “You can’t keep me here.” I gripped the door handle, my fatigue making me feel an unhinged note of panic.

  “Relax.” He rubbed my hand. “I’m coming with you. Let’s go someplace and talk.”

  “Can it be my apartment? I’m so tired.”

  “Yeah. I’ll drive your car there and catch a ride later.”

  I nodded, my body weakening with relief. I’d told him. I’d been dreading this conversation, and he’d taken the news very well.

  He was the only person other than my doctor who knew. It felt good to have someone to talk to, even if I hardly knew him. Even if he was Liam’s teammate.

  My gaze darted all over the small player housing parking lot as Bennett led me out to my car. If Liam saw us . . .

  I couldn’t even think about it. My older brother was very protective of me. If he even found out Bennett had touched me, he’d blow his top. Finding out he’d gotten me pregnant would probably result in criminal charges.

  He couldn’t know. Bennett and I would have to make sure of it. I was already at the end of a frayed emotional rope, and I couldn’t take any more stress right now.

  Maybe we’d be able to tell him later. Like much later, when our kid was in high school.

  Our kid. I looked over at Bennett and resisted the urge to laugh like a maniac. I still couldn’t even believe this was happening. I was having a baby with a man whose last name I didn’t even know.

  Bennett

  Charlotte radiated exhaustion on the drive to her place. She was slumped against the passenger side window, looking like she could fall asleep any second.

  “What’s your last name?” she murmured.

  “Morse. Bennett Christopher Morse.”

  “I’m Charlotte Elizabeth Holloway,” she said softly.

  I cringed at the sound of her last name. Liam’s younger sister. How had I been so stupid? He’d probably still been in Cosmos that night when I met Charlotte but hadn’t looked over and seen us. If he had, everything would be different now.

  I’d had a pregnancy scare with a girlfriend in college, and waiting to see if she’d get her period had felt like the longest two days of my life. I was terrified every minute of losing my hockey scholarship if I had to quit school to get a job and support my child. Thank God it had been a false alarm and I was able to finish school.

  And now, at age twenty-six, I didn’t feel much more ready. At least I’d finished school, but I didn’t make much money as a minor-league player.

  “I’m so tired,” Charlotte said. “Work wears me out right now.”

  “Just rest. We’ll find time to talk when you’re feeling up to it.”

  I couldn’t provide much in the way of financial help right now. A major-league player would tell his girl she could quit her job and he’d take care of everything. All I could do at this moment was give Charlotte the shoulder she needed to lean on. I’d make sure she didn’t have even more stress from knowing how freaked out I was right now.

  By the end of the fifteen-minute drive to her place, Charlotte was asleep. I opened her door slowly, reaching an arm in to support her.

  “Bennett?” She gave me a confused look.

  “We’re back at your place. Want me to carry you in?”

  She rubbed her eyes and got out of the car. “No, I’m okay. We can talk.”

  We went up the sidewalk and into her building. The carpet in the building’s small lobby, already stained in several places, had a pile of vomit in one corner.

  “The fuck?” I said. “Is someone gonna clean that up?”

  Charlotte shrugged. “Hopefully. Maintenance isn’t exactly stellar here.”

  She opened the door to her apartment and I followed her inside. I hadn’t noticed the furnishings the other time I’d been here because all my attention had been focused on her. But now the threadbare couch with two crates in front of it as a coffee table caught my eye.

  The place wasn’t lavish by any means. It kind of reminded me of our player housing apartments. I’d figured an attorney would have something better than this.

  “What up?” a man asked as he walked out of the small kitchen. He was short and skinny, his dark hair shooting up in all directions.

  “Hey, James,” Charlotte said, sounding weary. “Can we have some privacy?”

  “Yeah, when I finish cooking my bacon.”

  James scanned me from head to toe. Suddenly his eyes looked like they were about to bulge ou
t of his head.

  “OMG! This is him, isn’t it? This is your baby daddy! Stop denying it, Charlotte, because I know from the way you blow chunks every morning that you’re knocked up.”

  I furrowed my brow and looked at Charlotte. “Did he just say OMG?”

  “Yeah. This is my roommate. He’s a bit . . . quirky.”

  “You guys want some bacon?” James asked.

  “No.” Charlotte sighed. “We’re going to my bedroom.”

  “Oh, got it. You gonna bump and grind? No worries about getting pregnant anymore and all?” He grinned at me and gave a thumbs-up.

  “Shut the hell up,” I said. “Go eat your bacon.”

  Charlotte led the way to her bedroom, closing and locking the door behind us.

  “Why do you live with him?” I whispered. “Tell me you were never involved with that jackass.”

  She glared at me and hissed back in a whisper, “Of course not. Gross. We’re just roommates.”

  “But why?”

  “Money,” she said. “I went to law school with James’s sister, and when she said he needed a place to live, I said yes because I needed the money.”

  “But you’re an attorney.”

  She scoffed. “I’m an assistant state’s attorney, Bennett. The money’s not that great, and I have huge law school loans to pay off.”

  “Oh.”

  Her expression was defeated as she sat down on the edge of the bed where we’d gotten ourselves into this situation.

  “I don’t know that I’ll let him stay once the baby comes,” she said. “I think that would be a bit much.”

  I buried my face in my hands as it all hit me again. She was pregnant. We were having a baby together. I wanted to flip my shit, but I couldn’t with her right next to me. That could wait until I was alone.

  “One step at a time,” I said. “We’ll figure things out, okay? For now, I think you need some sleep.”

  “What about you?”

  I glanced at the other side of her bed. “I could lie down with you. I’ve gotta leave for a road trip at four AM.”

  “You don’t have your car here.”

  “I’ll get a ride.”

  I pulled back the covers on her bed, and a fresh, clean smell drifted out from the pale pink bed sheets. Charlotte kicked her shoes off and climbed in, still wearing her clothes.

  “Don’t get a ride from my brother,” she murmured.

  “Ah, no. Definitely not.”

  “We can’t tell him.”

  I sighed and kicked off my own shoes. “He’ll find out eventually.”

  “I can’t think about it right now. I haven’t even told my mom yet.”

  I took my shirt off and tossed it to the floor. After I’d reached for the button on my jeans, I glanced at Charlotte.

  “You mind if I take these off?”

  She laughed and met my eyes. “A little late for that question, isn’t it?”

  My cheeks warmed as she looked me up and down. I could tell she liked what she saw. “I just mean . . . I’m not trying to get with you right now or anything.”

  “Yeah, that’s not even possible. I’m completely exhausted. My misdemeanor call was huge today, and I hardly even got to sit down. So much walking up and down the courthouse stairs because the elevator’s broken.”

  I climbed into bed beside her and she switched off the bedside lamp.

  “Have you been to the doctor?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I’m definitely pregnant.”

  “I figured, but . . . is everything good? With the baby and all?”

  “Yes. I’m reading a book about pregnancy, and it says some people think the sicker you are, the healthier your baby is. If that’s true, this baby’s in great shape.”

  I could hear how worn down she was in her soft, sleepy voice. I wanted to reach out and hold her, but I kept my hands to myself.

  “I’m sorry you’ve been sick,” I said.

  There was a pause, and I thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she spoke.

  “Thanks, Bennett.” Another pause. “For everything.”

  “I’ll be gone ’til Sunday afternoon on my road trip. Will you text me? Let me know how you’re doing?”

  “Um . . . sure.”

  “What?” I asked, not liking the uncertainty in her voice.

  “Can you leave me your number?”

  With a single note of laughter, I asked, “Didn’t I do that already?”

  “I . . . threw it away.”

  I blew out a breath and rolled my eyes up toward the ceiling. So I wasn’t just having a kid with a woman I hardly knew, I was having one with a woman who hadn’t planned on talking to me ever again after our one-night stand. Great.

  “Yeah, I’ll leave it again.”

  She said nothing, but my mind was turning as I lay in the darkness. A baby. With Liam’s sister. And her words from earlier sounded over and over in my head.

  “I didn’t come here because I want something from you . . . No one even has to know it’s yours . . . I’ll just leave here and you can forget I even came.”

  “Charlotte?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m here for you. I want to be here. You have to let me, though.”

  She didn’t respond. A few minutes later, her soft, even breathing told me she was asleep. I wasn’t even close, though. My mind swam with worries that always circled back to Liam ending me when he found out I’d knocked up his baby sister.

  Somehow, I had to focus on hockey this weekend and not let on to Liam that anything was amiss. And hope like hell that Charlotte had meant what she said about not telling him.

  Charlotte

  I ate the M&M’s in my hand one at a time, thinking as I slowly chewed.

  It was time to tell Wren. I’d put it off, but I couldn’t do that anymore. She was my mentor and I respected her tremendously. She’d given me such a break when she’d hired me, passing up applicants with experience for a recent law school grad. I’d been hoping against hope for the job since it was in the very city where my brother lived and it would mean working under Wren Amandre.

  My mom had taken the news well. She’d gotten pregnant with Liam as a teenager, so she knew these things didn’t always go according to plan.

  But Wren was a woman of high standards. My hesitation about telling her stemmed from not wanting to disappoint her.

  I finished the last M&M and got up from my office chair. It would feel better to get this over with.

  “Is she free?” I asked Sara, whose desk was out in a common area between all the offices.

  “She’s in with Riley, but—”

  The door to Wren’s office opened and Riley stepped out, meeting my gaze. His expression softened as he approached me.

  “Hey, Charlotte.”

  “Hi. Are you finished? I need to see Wren.”

  “Yeah.” He furrowed his brow with worry and spoke in a low tone. “Will you please stop shutting me out? It’s been two months. I know we can work things out if you’ll just let me in.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about this. I need to see Wren.”

  “What about dinner later?”

  “I can’t.”

  He sighed with aggravation. “Are you seeing someone else?”

  “No. I don’t want to see anyone right now.”

  “Is this still about the job? If I’d known it would cost me our relationship—”

  Sara was trying to look like she was reading something on her computer screen as she took in every word of our conversation. I glared at Riley.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s over.”

  I left him and went to Wren’s door, knocking twice before I heard the muffled sound of her voice telling me to come in.

  “Hey,” I said, closing the door behind me.

  “Charlotte.” She smiled and took off her reading glasses. “I haven’t gotten more than a quick word in passing with you in so long. Please, sit down.”

 
; I sat down in a wood chair in front of her desk, my heart pounding with nervous anticipation. Wren’s opinion of me mattered. I wanted to be just like her someday. She was polished, hardworking, and compassionate.

  “I’m so pleased with your work on the Matthews case,” Wren said. “That was some great negotiating on your part.”

  “Oh. Thank you.” I looked down at my hands in my lap.

  “What’s up, Charlotte? You can tell me.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’d like this to stay between us for now, but since you’re my boss, I feel like I need to tell you that . . . I’m pregnant.”

  Wren nodded slightly. “I figured.”

  “You what? How?”

  “You had some bad morning sickness.”

  I laughed lightly. “Yeah, what’s up with that term, anyway? It’s so not just in the morning.”

  “Has it gotten better, then?”

  “A little. And I’ve gotten more used to it. If I keep myself well-rested, that seems to help.”

  “Good. I wanted to reach out to you several times and remind you that you have sick time and medical leave, but I didn’t want to intrude.”

  I studied the way her red suit coat looked against her cocoa skin, not wanting to think about her knowing this whole time. It mortified me.

  “Does Riley know?” she asked softly.

  “No.”

  She nodded. “I’d never bring something like that up with him, but I’ve been hoping maybe the two of you would be able to work things out, in light of this . . . development.”

  My lips parted and I forced them closed. “In light of . . . ? Oh. It’s not his baby.”

  Wren’s expression shifted then and I saw it. Judgment. Humiliation complete.

  “Oh. I’m sorry for assuming, Charlotte. That was thoughtless of me.”

  “No, not at all.” My cheeks burned as I tried to think of what to say. “This was . . . unplanned, obviously. Riley and I had broken up.”

  About three hours before it happened, I thought but didn’t say.

  “And the father is . . . in your life? If you don’t mind my asking?”

  I nodded. “He is. He’s been very supportive.”

  At least, he’d tried to be. I wasn’t responding to Bennett’s texts and invitations to get together much because I was overwhelmed already with work, being sick, and trying to eat and get enough rest.