Page 96 of The Golden Goalie

I nod. When he puts his hands carefully on my belly, I move them to where she’s moving. “Talk again,” I tell him.

“Hmm. Talk on demand. No pressure.” Sure enough, she gives me a good kick. His eyes widen in shock. “I felt that.” He holds his hands there a little while longer, but we don’t get anything after that.

“Hopefully she’s sleeping now,” I tell him.

“That was amazing, Amber. I can’t wait to meet her.”

I bury my head in his chest. “Me too.” He tugs on my hand and pulls me down onto his lap as he settles on the couch. “Rico—”

“Shh,” he cuts me off. “I’ve dreamed about this for a long time; I don’t want to wake up from this dream.”

I lay my head on his firm chest. “It’s not a dream, Rico.”

“I wish you would have just told me everything from the beginning.”

“Yeah, well I couldn’t let you give up hockey. But we already covered this,” I say, covering his lips with my finger before he can plead his case again. “I can think of something we can do instead.”

He smirks at me. “Oh yeah? And what is this grand idea of yours?” he asks in a low voice.

“You know what? I actually need to get home.” I push away from him like I’m going to stand, but he stops me with a firm hand around my waist.

“No, you don’t.” He leans forward and kisses me. When we’re both breathless, he pulls back. “Are you hungry? Did you eat yet?”

“No, I wanted to get over here right away to talk to you.”

His eyes soften. “I’m glad you did.” He gives me one more soft kiss. “Come on, let’s find some food. I’m starving.” He pretty much lifts me to my feet before standing. He takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen. “What are you hungry for?” he asks as he leads me to a chair and then walks over to the fridge.

My phone dings, and I look down at a text from Bri.

Bri-check this out

I click on the link and read a post from early this morning. I’m still staring when Rico comes over. “Hey, you good?” Without a word, I turn my phone around and let him read.

“Wow, your brother is really scary.”

I just nod. “Yeah, I wonder what in the world Noah said to him to get him to say all that.” I look up and meet Rico’s eyes. “I think I’m going to be free of him now. I mean, he’ll always be my baby’s birth dad, but...”

Rico nods. “Yeah.” Then he grins. “I should probably tell my mom and sister before they read this online.”

“Yeah, my mom too,” I agree.

He leans down and puts his arms on the table on either side of me, locking me in the cage of his arms. “You know, Adam did all the hard work for us. He just told the world that we’re together now and that he’s staying out of your life to do what’s best for us.” He uses air quotes for the last part of it as he smirks. “We both know your brother made him say that.”

I grin. “Yeah, he can be really good in situations like this. It’s kind of his specialty.”

He leans forward until our lips are almost touching. “You know what my specialty is?” he asks softly.

“No,” I whisper, leaning forward ever so slightly.

“Scrambled eggs,” he says with a smirk, pulling back.

I narrow my eyes at him, and he laughs. “That’s not where I thought you were going with that.”

He smirks. “Oh, I know.”

I shake my head as I stand to my feet. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just sit and relax.”

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