Pregnant.
He ground his teeth together so tight his whole face ached. He’d put his entire life’s plans on hold for her because she wasn’t ready for kids—no, didn’t even want kids. The kids she’d told him she wanted with him before he put a goddamn ring on her finger.
Pregnant.
Fucking pregnant.
“Coach?”
Shaking his head, he dismissed Linc with a wave. Not now. It’s not a good time.
Seemingly getting the message, Linc barked a few orders at the team before slipping his mouth guard back in, throwing one last quizzical glance at Elliott, and skating back onto the ice.
Elliott knew he was being irrational. Nothing he said, did, or stewed on would change the fact he gave so much of his life to someone who was now shitting—once again—on everything they had.
But he couldn’t stop his blood from boiling, he couldn’t stop the clawing rage in his chest, or the bubbling blood under his skin.
The crowd falling deathly silent pulled his attention to the ice. Theo lay sprawled out at the feet of a de la Peña brother. Apollo, maybe, the number on his shirt wasn’t in view.
On the big screen, the open ice check was repeated in slow motion. He winced. That had to hurt.
The de la Peña brother—it was Apollo after all—helped Theo to his unsteady feet to a smattering of applause from visibly concerned spectators. The check was good, clean, but hard, and Theo, all fifty pounds of the kid, had no chance.
Grant, a forward for the Snow Pirates, hurried across the ice to slip an arm under Theo’s and help Apollo lead him off the ice. Apollo was almost as pale as Theo as he handed the rookie over to Linc and Brandon on the Snow Pirates’ bench.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him. I thought it was a clean hit.”
Elliott cupped a hand over Apollo’s shoulder pad and squeezed. “It’s all good, kid. It was a clean hit. Thanks for bringing him back.”
“Of course.” He turned to Theo who was getting checked over by a medic and hesitated.
Theo gave him a shaky thumbs up. “I’m fine, Apollo. For real.”
He didn’t look fine. He looked like he was gonna throw up on the medic’s feet.
The Raccoon nodded, but he didn’t seem convinced. His brother skated up behind him and handed him the broken pieces of Theo’s stick which he in turn handed over the boards to Russell.
Linc gave him a firm nod as if to say everything was good between them before the de la Peña twins skated back out for the last few minutes of play in the game.
“You should be fine. Just a bit of a bone cruncher. But if you’re still feeling woozy later, make sure you tell someone, okay?”
Theo nodded and gave a brittle smile. The hit had shaken him—it would have shaken anyone in the same position. Hell, he’d seen Austin Morgan, former enforcer for the Snow Pirates, take a hit from one of the de la Peña brothers and even he’d made his way back to the bench on shaky legs and looking a little green.
They were a force to be reckoned with.
And Elliott was jealous that they weren’thisforce. With the de la Peña boys guarding Theo’s back like bulldogs, their team would be unstoppable.
Jealousy.
That was the ugly, bone-chilling feeling which had been weaving its cancerous way through his body all day. It was the bitter taste at the back of his mouth, the heavy weight in his stomach, and the sadness dragging him down.
How could he not be jealous? The woman he thought he’d be with forever was having a baby with another man.
“You okay?” Keeping one eye on the ice he turned to Theo who nodded.
“He hits like a wrecking ball.”
Elliott nodded. “It’s definitely not fun to get hit by the de la Peña brothers.”
