LEO: How are you feeling?
God, what a dumb question. She’s probably feeling pregnant and pukey, same as she had yesterday.
My fingers hover over the screen and I pause, trying to think of something smart to say.
Like, How are you feeling now?
Or, Did you puke today?
Or maybe, Will you give me one of those ultrasound pictures?
“Christ,” I mutter, shoving my phone in my gym bag. It’s just lucky one of the guys hasn’t caught me mooning at my phone. Hell, it’s a fucking miracle they haven’t tackled me to the floor and beaten the shit out of me for doing what I did to Harper.
Not just the knocking up part.
But the rest of it.
I know the women know what happened, know they think I blew her off because I’m an asshole—I definitely felt the multitude of dirty looks they tossed my way in the aftermath of my actions.
They just don’t know why?—
I shake my head.
It doesn’t matter why.
“Yo, Ricky!” I hear.
I glare over at Smitty. “What?”
“You going to actually work out or just dissociate all afternoon?”
I move over to the floor, grab a mat, and start stretching. “I am working out.”
“To actually get ready for the season or to stare at your phone?”
I roll my eyes but don’t engage, and thankfully Smitty gets distracted by some insane exercise that Sawyer is doing.
It involves a barbell, a resistance band, and a fuckton of Bulgarian split squats…
Oh, and plenty of me staying far, far away so I don’t get dragged into having to try it.
I still do a lot of hard shit, though it doesn’t feel that way. There are exercises on my training docket I really don’t enjoy, but—and maybe it makes me even more of an asshole—I like working out. I like lifting heavy shit. I like just being here in the weight room or on the ice or in the locker room.
I like feeling like part of a team. A family.
Because mine is such a goddamned nightmare?—
“Fuck!” Smitty booms, reracking the barbell. “Goddamn but you’re a monster, Cupcake. That shit is hard.”
Cupcake is the nickname Smitty’s given him.
And no one knows where he got it from.
But that’s Smitty.
I watch as Sawyer takes his place and does another of his crazy exercises, this one designed for strength and agility and balance.
And it looks interesting enough—although still devious—that I try it too.
