Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(11)
“He doesn’t need to have intentions,” Tess said, the words tumbling out of her as she tried to figure out how to explain the situation to her girls so they didn’t form a vigilante posse. “I’m not trying to make Cole marry me. I barely know him and, anyway, I’m not sure I even ever want to be married. However, there’s no way I’m going to keep this baby a secret. He deserves to know he’s going to have a child.”
“So we go along for moral support,” Lucy said.
Yeah. That was not going to happen. “I’m sure that’s how he’ll see it, as opposed to oh, I don’t know, the torch-bearing villagers after his head.”
Gina tsk-tsked. “We’re not that scary.”
“Yeah we are,” Fallon and Lucy said at the same time.
“I appreciate it, but this is something I need to do myself. All I need is his address.” She turned to Fallon, who was engaged to one of Cole’s fellow Ice Knights players, and Lucy, who kept the players out of hot water. “Can either of you get that for me?”
Lucy took out her phone and opened her contacts app. “Consider it done.” She hit send.
Tess’s phone buzzed in her pocket, alerting her that Lucy’s text went through. “Thanks, you guys are the best.”
“We’re your best friends,” Fallon said, reaching over to give her a quick hug. “It’s what we do.”
“Well, that and buy a million teeny tiny baby clothes,” Gina said with way too much excitement.
Lucy swiped Tess’s wine cup. “And drink your wine now that you can’t.”
“More wine for us,” Gina said with a giggle as she snagged the cup from Lucy.
Fallon, who never messed around when it came to a competition, did an oh-look move and then just took the cup from a distracted Gina and downed it before anyone could stop her.
They were all laughing hard enough that when Larry shushed them for the beginning of class, they could barely catch a breath. That was the thing with her girls—they always made things fun, even the hard things. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, alerting her for the second time that Lucy had texted Cole’s info. Now all she had to do was figure out how to tell her baby’s daddy that the stork was coming to town. That would be easy, right?
Hi, we haven’t talked since that dance when I told you good luck with getting back together with your ex, but we’re gonna have a baby. Surprise!
Oh yeah, this was going to go over like Forever in Bloom running out of roses on Valentine’s Day.
Chapter Four
Consistency was the key to making Cole’s world work.
Game day or not, he was usually up by seven and out the door by eight thirty, headed to the rink for treatments and the morning skate. After that, it was media availability, the team meeting, and lunch. Then he was either getting on a plane to go to another city for a road game the next day or—if it was a home-game day—back to his house for a pregame nap before heading back to the rink for on-ice warm-ups, a quick game of hacky sack to relax, and finally it would be time for puck drop.
That was his life, eighty-two games October through April with only four off days a month. And that didn’t even count the additional games for the preseason that started in September or the postseason if the Ice Knights made it into the playoffs for three best-of-seven game rounds before a best-of-seven final series to win it all—the Stanley Cup. If that happened, his season wouldn’t end until early June. On off days and between seasons, he followed the schedule as closely as possible with more film review, a few team barbecues, and the occasional trip to whatever construction work site across the western half of the United States his dad was working at that week.
Every day, game day or not, he followed the same routine so closely, Cole didn’t even need to set an alarm. He just woke up when he was supposed to, went through his day as scheduled, and never, ever changed a thing except reporting to the rink during off-season. Why mess with what was working—especially when he knew all too well because of his constantly moving childhood what happened when chaos was introduced.
Nothing good.
And that was why he was at home on one of the few off days the team had this month watching game film on a loop so he could see in high-definition as he had his ass handed to him repeatedly thanks to the new offensive strategy Coach Peppers had insisted he try. It wasn’t working. What he used to do, the way he moved across the ice, that worked. This new shit? He looked like a kid from the juniors trying to keep up with the big boys.
He ignored the buzz of his doorbell the first time. Petrov and Christensen had been tag-team texting him all morning. They could find someone else to be the fourth in their indoor golf simulator game. Golf was the worst. Was his opinion based at least partially on the fact that he sucked at it? Yes. He was a professional athlete who hated losing almost as much as he hated someone fucking with his routine. He was who he was, and he wasn’t about to change.
At the second buzz, he got up and looked out the window. Neither Christensen’s Mercedes-Benz coupe or Petrov’s Range Rover was parked next to his black Dodge Hellcat. Instead it was a teal VW Bug with eyelashes attached to the headlights and a flower power bumper sticker.
“Who in the fuck?”
That’s when he saw her. Tess. He hadn’t seen her since Lucy’s wedding. She wasn’t wearing a dress this time but instead a pair of jeans and a lime-green sweatshirt declaring bookmarks are for quitters—but there was no mistaking her. The woman walking back to her car was Tess Gardner, haunter of his stray thoughts for the past month.