Page 5 of The Head Game

Nico shoved him. Or tried, at least. Matty was like a brick wall.

“I’m just saying, it’s not like that with Sky. I’m not here to raise her kid but I’ll take her to her appointments, hold her hand, buy all of the cute baby shit, and when the kid is old enough, I’m going to teach it to skate. I can promise that much.”

Matty’s expression softened. “You’ll be a good uncle, Nico.”

“Hot Uncle Nico,” he corrected.

Matty gave him a wry smile. “How could I forget?”

“No idea. I’m stunning.”

Matty snorted.

The idea of being Hot Uncle Nico had grown on him. He just wished he was better at knowing how to make life easier for Sky.

He was shit at it and they both knew it but seriously, he was an only child and despite his years of man-whoring he’d been extremely careful to never knock anyone up.

This was not in his skillset.

Nico could create space on the ice for their offense, he had a great one-timer, he could pass on his backhand, and he was a hell of a shutdown defenseman.

He could get most people off in under two minutes with his mouth if he wanted to and he’d been told he kissed like the very devil himself.

But he was useless at reassuring Sky when she panicked about raising a baby alone.

Thanks, Nics. Have a good game, Sky shot back.

Nico was typing out a response when the words on the screen blurred. He blinked but it didn’t help.

What the fuck?

He shook his head, squeezing his eyes tightly shut for a moment before he opened them again.

The words settled back into their normal clear arrangement and he let out a tiny sigh of relief.

Must be exhaustion. His sleep schedule had been really fucked up lately.

“Hey, you okay?” Matty asked.

“Yeah. Trying to get my head ready for the game.”

Matty shot him a funny look but didn’t press.

Or maybe Nico needed to get laid tonight.

He’d been feeling off since the summer and he hadn’t put the energy into hookups the way he had last season.

Clearly it was messing with his head.

Nico thought guiltily of the promise he’d made to his captain earlier this fall that if the headaches persisted, he’d talk to the team doc about it. He probably should have listened to Dustin.

Every morning now Nico woke with a pounding headache at his right temple and he’d thrown up a couple of times.

He’d joked with Skylar that he had sympathy morning sickness and she’d given him a disgusted look as she flicked him in the nose then told him to shut up and stop making it all about him.

Gah. Maybe he should talk to the team doc soon. It was getting harder to ignore that something felt off.

Really off.

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