Page 102 of Bagging the Blueliner
He was trying to shield me, but I couldn’t let him do that. “I would never ask you to take him on alone. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I came to your penthouse that night.”
Cal cupped my jaw. “Contrary to popular belief, Idohave self-control. I could have sent you away.”
“Sure . . .” I flashed him a smirk.
Shaking his head, he was used to my antics by now. “How about this? We make it to the end of the season, and we go to him together.”
Together. I liked the sound of that.
“Okay,” I agreed.
Sitting up, Cal looked back at me, boneless on the bed. “Need me to carry you to the bathroom before I take a quick shower?”
Barely able to manage a shrug, I smiled. “No, I think I can manage.”
Pausing, he countered, “What if I wanted to hold you close a little longer?”
My heart fluttered. How could I say no to that? The bottom line was that I couldn’t.
“Okay.”
Rounding the bottom of the bed, he bent down before looping his arms under my body and cradling me against his chest. Never had anything in my life felt so right.
I might not know a lot about love, but I couldn’t imagine it being something more than what I was experiencing here and now with Cal.
Hadn’t seen that coming.
Chapter 23
Hannah
If I thought theworst part of all my best friends being pregnant at the same time was being the only one able to drink, I was dead wrong.
No, it was swapping girls’ nights for girls’ brunches because none of them were able to stay awake past nine o’clock at night. Natalie was literally passing out during the third period at Comets games these days.
I wasnota morning person.
But never let it be said that I was a bad friend, because I dragged my ass out of bed at the ungodly hour of 9 AM to have brunch at Natalie’s on this early April Saturday morning.
Cal was gone when I woke, electing to join Jaxon at Beau’s hockey game. Preston and Liam were on babysitting duty for the rest of the crew while we had our girl time. Not that Natalie’s older two needed much supervision—they were both twelve at the moment, with Amelia’s thirteenth birthday fast approaching. Charlie was the only one who needed a watchful eye, but she’dkeep both men on their toes, that was for sure. She was a wild girl after my own heart.
Letting myself into Natalie’s house, I was met with the smell of cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven. Jackpot. It was a little-known secret that Jaxon was a master baker, and it would appear he’d left us with a parting gift before heading to the rink to watch seven- and eight-year-olds chase after a puck with the ice split in half for their tiny legs.
Natalie and Jaxon lived in what could only be called a mansion. The foyer showcased a sweeping curved staircase leading to the second floor, where six of the seven bedrooms were located—the seventh was situated in a basement apartment, of sorts. Her kitchen was bigger than my apartment, and the first floor easily rivaled the square footage of Cal’s penthouse.
Funnily enough, this behemoth of a home hadn’t been purchased with hockey money. When Liam snuck Natalie home from Europe, he’d bought it. And when Natalie and Jaxon got married, he signed it over to them.
In a twist of fate, Jaxon’s smaller bachelor pad next door now belonged to Amy and Liam, where they lived during their time spent in the States. The two couples were living forty yards apart.
Walking through the entryway and hanging a right into the kitchen, I found our girl gang already assembled. Natalie and Amy were busy plating more food than the four of us could ever eat. Lucy sat perched on a stool at the kitchen island.
The four of us knew no boundaries, so I didn’t need to ask before placing both hands on Lucy’s growing belly. She was the most petite of our group and looked like she had merely stuffed a basketball under her tight-fitting shirt. The rest of her body remained tiny.
“Do we know what we’re having?” I asked hopefully.
The Remington genes were strong. So strong, in fact, that most of them had the same brilliant blue eyes—like the ones that twinkled as Lucy looked back at me now—and raven black hair. The only one who looked completely different was Leo, with his blond hair and brown eyes. Not one of his and Natalie’s kids had gotten the blue eyes. Amelia and Beau had gotten the dark hair, but that was from their mother. She was the furthest thing from a natural blonde herself. If it weren’t for the pictures from her wedding to Jaxon being shared publicly, most would never know her hair was midnight black as well. Whoever her stylist was deserved major props—it wasn’t easy to turn black hair to blonde without it turning orangey.
“I was waiting for you to get here,” Lucy replied. “I wanted to tell all of you together.”
