Page 21 of Slapshot Baby

Minutes later, I'm staring at two pink lines on two different tests, then a plus sign on a third.

I sit on the edge of my childhood bathtub with three plastic sticks lined up on the counter as evidence.

I’m pregnant.

My business is finally making enough for me to live comfortably in LA. I've saved enough for a down payment on my dream house. But we're expanding, and right now, the business needs almost everything I have.

This isn't the time to be carrying the child of a man who's already proven he says all the right things in the dark and means none of them once the sun comes up.

I didn't plan for this when I was fucking Kai in his living room and his bed.

I shouldn't have—

My hand moves to my stomach.

The thought stops there.

Because beneath the shock and the worry and the million questions racing through my head, something warm spreads through my chest.

Something that feels suspiciously like love.

Already?

I can regret being careless. I can regret trusting Kai. I can wish the timing were different and that I had any idea what the hell I'm supposed to do next.

But I can't wish this baby away.

My eyes burn at the realization.

There's a knock on the bathroom door.

"Ava?" It's Mom's soft voice. "Come out, baby."

I open the door. My mother takes one look at my face. She gives me a comforting hug that makes me want to shatter into a million pieces.

Lucy is sitting on the edge of the couch when we get to the living room, her expression caught between fury and concern.

"Whose baby is it?" she asks.

"Does it matter?"

"It matters if I need to drive somewhere and break a kneecap."

That startles a wet and humorless laugh out of me.

"The hockey player from the gala."

"The captain who got your number and ghosted you for weeks like a coward?"

I nod.

"Ava." My sister's voice drops into the register she uses when she's about to say something I don't want to hear but need to. "Are you going to tell him?"

"I don't want to."

I have to think of how he never called or texted. No "Did you get home okay?" Not even a lazy midnight you up?

For him, it was one night.