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“Wait,what?” I gasp, mental whiplash leaving me confused. “Yes.”
He holds up the carrier, and suddenly, I get it. “You’re hired.”
“No.” He can’t be serious. Except—
“Yes.”Axel straightens. “I need a couple of weeks. Maybe a month, max. Just until I can find a more permanent solution. But I’ve only got five more days of emergency leave from the team before I have to get back on the ice and travel for games.” He swallows hard, looking down at where Otto is starting to squirm. “I’m going to have to leave him, so I need someone to move in, and—”
“Move in?” I wheeze. “We aren’t even friends.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t need a friend. I need someone responsible who knows how to take care of an infant, and I need them to start now.” He meets my eyes. “All the games and bullshit, they’re done. No more hassles. Just help me out, and I’ll pay triple what Diane did. Upfront. Please.”
“Triple?”
“Shit. Diane was notoriously cheap. And I’m asking you to help me round the clock. Four times?”
“Deal. I’m in,” I agree before he can change his mind, because this is the eleventh-hour reprieve I’ve been praying for. I don’t care how much of a thorn he’s been in my side. I don’t care what kind of player he is or that I’m pretty sure Axel couldn’t knock off the games and bullshit no matter how hard he tried. The only thing that matters is tomorrow morning I don’t have to get on that train and move home.
We knock out a few more details and then I flip the deadbolt to keep the door open while I follow Axel down the hall to his place. He unlocks it and then stops, letting out a long sigh. “It’s his first time coming home. No mother to hold him. A father who didn’t know he existed until two days ago. And an apartment that doesn’t have a single toy or decoration to welcome him in.”
Axel isn’t my favorite guy, but I’d have to be dead not to feel for him.
“I know what you’re saying, but all he needs is you.”
He gives me a tight nod and waves me in.
So, this is it. The devil’s lair.
It’s a big space. The living room is twice the size of Diane’s, and while hers has a nice view, this one has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the lakefront and a gorgeous slice of the city.
The interior, though… yikes. Bachelor-pad central.
I take in the wall of shelves filled with hockey trophies, medals, banners, and collectibles. There’s a big black leather couch with a spill of mail on the floor below and a couple matching oversized chairs. Glasses and water bottles lay forgotten on various black, metal, and glass surfaces. And in the middle of the room, a massive TV and entertainment center with a couple of game consoles that would have my brothers drooling.
It’s not the most baby-friendly place I’ve ever seen. But it’s not the least, either.
“This is fine, Axel. And it’s pretty clean. Plus, you’ve got that guy who comes once a week.”
“But it doesn’t look like the kind of place a baby would live.”
“Umm, not yet. But bring all that stuff you ordered over and I’m betting it will.” I walk around the open space of the front, seeing the potential even as I start my list of to-dos. “Eventually, you’re going to need to make sure that shelving with the shrine to yourself is secured to the wall. That the outlets have plastic covers and the cabinets get baby locks… but none of that will matter for months.”
When I look back, Axel’s standing in the middle of the room. The skin across his knuckles is bleached from the death grip he’s got on the carrier handle.
“Hey, why don’t you let me take Otto while you get his stuff.”
He hands me the carrier and I turn for the couch.
“Wait, no,” he chokes out, eyes bugged. “Not there.”
“The couch?”
A firm shake of his head.
“Anywhere else is fine,” he says, watching to make sure I don’t sit down before heading back out.
Okaaay. I walk Otto over to the island in a kitchen way nicer than Diane’s.
Then, carefully extracting the tiny bundle of boy from his car seat, I tuck him against my chest and sigh at the slight weight and new-baby smell of him.
