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“Daddy, you did it!”
Ellis’s shouts are heard by every person in the front lobby as I come around the corner from the locker rooms. I chuckle, just as many others do, when I see him standing up on the chair by the concession stand, struggling to see over the people bustling in and out of the lobby.
“Technically, it was Jacob who did it,” I say with a grin, dropping my hockey bag onto the floor. “But you’re right, buddy, we won! Told you that you were my good luck charm.” The little boy jumps off the chair and races full-tilt at me. I scoop him up, hugging him tightly to me.
“We won! We won!” he chants repeatedly. “You’re my hero!”
I’m not sure there’s anything else my son could say that would make my throat constrict the way it is.
“You’re my hero, too.” Megan pushes the chair back under the table it came from and steps forward, stretching up onto her tiptoes to kiss me. “Congratulations, Number Forty-One.”
“It was a pretty good game, huh?” I say, pulling my hockey bag up onto my other shoulder and leading her out to the pickup truck with Ellis still muttering “Yes!” and “What a game!” to himself as we go.
“It was quite a dramatic win,” Meg says excitedly. “Quite a goal you got, too.”
I throw the bag into the truck bed, then pull the back door open to deposit Ellis into his seat, buckling him in securely before I close his door and climb into the driver’s seat. “I’m not going to lie, I think I got lucky on that one.”
“Hardly.” Megan slides into the passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt. “You played an amazing game, baby. I’m proud of you.”
I lean over and kiss her again, my chest swelling with pride at being able to call her my own. “Either way, I think we need to celebrate. Let’s get a bottle of that merlot stuff you like so much and go home. I’ve got a few ideas brewing.”
“I’ll bet you do,” she chuckles, her cheeks showing a hint of crimson at the suggestion. She reaches out and touches my hand, which stops me from turning the key in the ignition. “Celebrating sounds good, Craig, but no wine, okay?”
“Fine, we can—” The glint in her eyes makes me shut my mouth on the words. Silence spreads throughout the truck. Even Ellis is quiet, which hardly ever happens unless he’s sleeping. “Meg...”
Her mouth curves up at the corners. She merely nods, squeezing my hand in hers.
“Are you telling me...I mean, are you saying...” I can’t get the thought to become words on my tongue.
“That you’re going to be a daddy again?” She whispers it low, but not like it’s a secret. Like the phrase is laced with so much emotion she can barely speak of it. “Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m telling you.”
My eyes widen, my gaze dropping from her perfect mouth that formed the words to her lower abdomen, covered by her fleece jacket...where my son or daughter is growing inside her. “Meg...” I choke out. Then, I dive towards her, kissing her hard. “Oh God, Meg, just when I didn’t think you could make me any happier.”
“Daddy’s kissing Mommy...ew!”
Ellis’s outburst makes us both laugh, but it doesn’t stop me from kissing my wife once more, brushing my thumb along her cheek. “Daddy’s going to do a lot more than kiss Mommy,” I whisper to Megan. “He’s going to love her forever. Her and his little family.”
“Our little family,” she corrects me in a raspy voice.
“Ours,” I repeat. “Forever.”
“Forever.”
Defensive Daddy: A Bad Boy Hockey Romance
Chapter One
Samantha
My life was right on track. Dream job, loving fiancé, beautiful son—I had it all.
The only problem was that my promotion came at a time when that fiancé was too busy loving someone else, and that son of mine was wailing like a banshee wondering why in the hell we were standing outside the door of an apartment he didn’t recognize as home.
Well, that makes two of us, buddy. Because I wasn’t sure how we’d come to be here, either, renting this apartment, despising everyone I came across, and wishing I could figure out where I went wrong.
Maybe I never would. Maybe I was destined to question myself from here on out, knowing full well that, even though I didn’t know what it was, there was something I hadn’t done right, and that something had pushed away my husband-to-be, my high school sweetheart who’d held my heart for more than a decade. And whatever it was, it’d pushed him right into the arms of another woman.
“Come on, buddy. It’s okay, let’s get inside so I can get the rest of our boxes.”
