Page 103 of Faking it with the Billionaire
“Maybe?” Her voice squeaks.
“I thought you were pretty confident in your answer.”
“I am, but I’m less confident in us giving Bristol a sibling,” she says. Her cheeks redden, and she leans on her tiptoes to kiss my lips.
“Why is that?”
Whatever hesitancy I sense vanishes from her features. “It’s hard to get pregnant when we’re always using a condom.” She chuckles, and I sense there’s more to it than her little joke.
“Are you telling me that you want us to try for a baby?” I grab her hands, intertwining our fingers together. “Because I’d love that.”
She exhales nervously. “But what about your team? The game? You won’t be around much if you sign the new contract for the Ice Dragons, and I am terrified to do it alone.”
Fitzgerald sent over a generous three-year contract, but I’ve been stalling on signing. It’s everything that I want and more, but he is still the general manager. And I want him gone.
“We still have plenty of time,” I assure her. She’s twenty-four. We don’t have to rush into expanding our family yet.
“Daddy, your team is on television,” Bristol chimes from the other room.
I thought she was cleaning up the table in the dining room, but it seems that she abandoned her post for a little more entertainment.
I turn the small television on in the kitchen and watch as the headline announces that four women have come forward, accusing Brent Fitzgerald, the general manager, of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
“What does that mean?” Bristol asks, coming into the kitchen.
“You shouldn’t be watching the news,” I tell my daughter. “Go turn on cartoons.” I’d rather her not ask a million questions about Brent Fitzgerald.
She scampers off to the living room, and I turn up the television, trying to get as much of the story as possible.
The news further elaborates that criminal charges are being pursued and that Brent Fitzgerald has resigned from the Ice Dragons, effective immediately.
“What does this mean for your contract?” Em asks.
“I have no idea. I can renegotiate for more money, or I could just buy the team.”
EPILOGUE
EMERSON
There waszero chance of Kyler turning down the opportunity to play for the Ice Dragons, and when the new general manager offered him a three-year deal with the same terms, he jumped at it.
It’s never been about the money for Kyler. He has plenty of it. And while he still believes it’s cursed, he’s put it into a trust that will make an offer on the team the moment he’s out of the game.
His lawyers insist that he can’t play for the NHL and be the owner of an NHL team simultaneously. And he loves being on the ice too much to hang up his skates. But he will.
He talks about it with me and his brother, Jasper, all the time.
It’s our little secret.
And I like that Kyler trusts me like family. We are practically family—we’re still fake engaged, and since we’re dating, we’ve just kept the fake relationship news a secret a little longer.
No one needs to know the truth. It’s no one’s business.
And I honestly don’t mind hockey, especially watching him play. It’s been nice meeting the hockey wives and their kids. Bristol has made a ton of new friends since the first day I was invited to the wives’ room. And I’ve made a lot of new friends myself.
None of them know that what Kyler and I had wasn’t real in the beginning. But it’s real now. One hundred percent genuine.
Bristol and Sophia have become best friends ever since the dinner. Once a week, we take the girls ice skating, and Liam tags along.
