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I shrug and take a bite of my sandwich. “There’s a game tonight. I don’t want to throw him off only hours before.”
“There will always be a game, especially during the season,” Mom reminds.
“I’m also kind of hesitant because, I mean. . .we aren’t together. We are good friends. I don’t want him to feel pressured. I’m fully capable of raising this munchkin on my own.”
“But how do you feel about him, because we all saw how you guys looked at each other at Hunter’s wedding.”
My eyes widen and I flush. I wanted to rip Evan’s clothes off at the wedding. I wince. “There is an attraction between us, but we need more than that. I don’t want to create instability for the baby.”
“Fair,” Mom says. “But maybe get the ball rolling. Tell Evan about the baby and take things slow. You still have around six months for my grandchild’s arrival,” Mom suggests, sounding giddy.
“Okay, we’ll see.”
We finish with lunch and Mom heads out to her firm, and I head to the arena since I feel terrible about leaving Jamie on game night.
I have mixed feelings about telling Evan about the baby. We’re friends, and a child is for a lifetime.
I stop in at Daddy’s office, even though Mom updated him after our appointment that all was good. Daddy gave me a quick hug and then made me promise if I’m too tired or worn out I’d let him know. To which I assured him I would.
When I walked into my office, I was ready for another day of work as I took off my jacket and placed my purse hanging off my desk chair.
“Hi, Patty,” Jamie says, coming up to my door. “Glad you made it in. We’ve got a busy load.”
“I’m ready. What are we dealing with?” I ask.
Jamie goes through a list of all our players and their injuries, but we pause on Connor.
“His groin is bothering him.” Jamie frowns.
“Shit,” I curse. “Is he playing tonight?”
“Coach planned on using him tonight, but I’m not sure he can handle it,” Jamie states. It’s hard for me to overstep because I realize my dad is kind of a boss around here, even if to me he’s the softy who read me good night stories and tucked me into bed at night when he was home.
“Should we mention it to Coach?” I ask because I obviously like to keep things professional.
“Connor thinks he can handle it,” Jamie says.
“But he may be setting himself up for a worse injury,” I put forth, it’s a bold statement on my part.
Jamie tilts his head from side to side. “He only had slight pain on evaluation. I’ll mention it to Coach and let him make the call.” We then move on to discuss treatments for some other players. When I head out to the treatment room, Connor is there.
“Hi, Patty, I’m feeling a little tight,” he says.
“No problem, let’s go through some stretches and see how you do,” I suggest to him.
“Thanks, my little girl is coming to watch me play tonight. I was in touch with Liam and his fiancée, Skylar, offered to bring her along with her son, Crew.”
“That’s awesome, I understand why you want to be on the ice.”
We go through some easy stretches at first. I can tell by Connor’s facial expression that he is feeling more pain than he’s letting on.
“If it’s too much maybe you should let Aaron goal tend tonight,” I suggest. “I know your daughter is going to be out there, but better safe than sorry. Maybe sit this one out with ice?”
I watch Connor process my words, but I get the feeling there is more going on.
“I’m good. The stretches are helping,” he insists.
His reaction doesn’t sit well with me but he’s his own person.
