Baby Daddies: Puck Buddies Series

by Tara Brown

  He finishes with grunts and jerks and heaving exhales, shaking the elevator.

  A smile flashes across my face as I struggle to get my breath.

  He’s nodding and leaning against me, exhaling against my cheek as he fishes the card from his pocket and scans it, pressing the “P” button.

  We’re disheveled and I’m not wearing my underwear—since he picked it up from the floor and put it in his pocket like a pervert—when the elevator lands. Simon is waiting, no judgments, just a lot of purring and rubbing against calves.

  We enter the apartment and it’s the first time it feels like we’re home. I’m home. Maybe he’s my home.

  22

  Not that kind of girl

  Friday, August 18

  Lori

  “What’s going on?” Carson asks as he whacks me in the stomach and saunters into my apartment for poker night.

  “Nothing much.” I whack him back. “You hear from Sami at all?”

  “No. She’s not allowed to have her phone while they’re on the honeymoon.” He laughs wickedly.

  “I can’t blame him. She’s extra. I’ve never seen a girl touch her phone that much.” We walk out onto the deck and sit in the loungers where I have a bucket of beers on ice.

  “Is Cap already here?” Carson glances around.

  “Nope, he should be arriving any moment. Where’s Rich?”

  “His d-bag brother is forcing him to go to some party.” He makes a jerking-off motion which is very Carson of him to do. “Is Jenny here?”

  “No, she’s out for dinner talking to Stan,” I growl.

  “Stan Levisohn?” Carson sits and lifts his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Yeah. She’s been hunting for a job for two weeks, nonstop. It’s not going well. She disclosed being pregnant to a few, and they were not interested in someone who’s dating a billionaire and pregnant. Basically, laughed in her face and said she’ll be a socialite stay-at-home mom in eight months. Why would they hire that?”

  “Oh, bro.” Carson winces. “This has got to be affecting the sex life.”

  “Between that and the sleeping all the time, it’s been interesting to say the least.” I chuckle but it’s all bitterness. I sit and crack open a beer. “Stan’s going to hire her back and that will add some fire to my life. I threatened him every way I could, so we both know he’ll do everything he can to undermine this relationship.” I lift the beer. “To Stan, screwing me over at every turn.”

  “And to having the foresight to know it’s going to happen.” Carson laughs and lifts his beer.

  We drink and I can’t fight the self-pity.

  “Hey!” Cap shouts as he walks across the living room with Mike on his heels.

  “Mike!” I say excitedly.

  Simon stops them at the French doors and demands affection. Mike scoops him up and rubs his ears. “What’s going on, boys?” Mike asks.

  “Living our best lives,” Carson answers as they sit. “How are you not back in Florida?”

  “Liz is seeing family and shopping.”

  “Pregnant girls gotta shop. Is Bev coming?” Cap questions as he takes a beer and hands one to Mike.

  “Yeah, she and Geoff should be here any second. I can’t believe he has her living in New York.” That brings a genuine smile to my lips.

  “Matty still hasn’t said much on it.” Carson winces.

  “What’s he gonna say? Who tells Bev to do anything?” Cap whistles. “She is a spicy girl.”

  “Speaking of spicy, how’s things with Sukii?” Carson waggles his eyebrows.

  “Nice.” Cap’s answer is missing something.

  “Nice?” Bev says from behind the table, startling us all. “Did you just use nice to describe your relationship?” Her mocking Southern twang is just what the moment needs.

  “It’s nice.” Cap shrugs but avoids eye contact with us. “It’s simple. We hang out. We watch movies. Eat. It’s low key.” The silence from everyone makes him lift his gaze to ours. “What? Is that so bad?”

  “Yes,” Bev bursts with a laugh. “That’s describing your relationship with Lori.”

  “No,” I disagree. “We have spanking and challenging each other in workouts and him yelling at me and calling me names. Our relationship has way more fire than nice.”

  Cap sighs and closes his eyes, muttering, “Maybe it’s what I need after the Sandy fiasco. Just a nice girl who wants to hang out and not ask for a lot.”

  Bev stares at him, a puzzled look growing on her face. “Are you being serious right now, Belamy?”

  “What?”

  “That is a not a low-key girl, my man. That’s a girl who is biding her time. She is waiting for you to get past your ex and the divorce. Then she’s gonna pounce and the next thing you know, you’re married again, having kids, and she’s redecorating your apartment and making you sell the place on Cape Cod ‘cause it’s too far.” Bev words as usual are savage.

  Geoff winces and grabs a seat, taking a beer and keeping his thoughts to himself. I’m not sure he understands how much we all need her sage and stabbing words of wisdom.

  “No way.” Cap waves her off.

  “She is on her best behavior. I bet she says yes to every single thing you want to do. No matter the request.” Bev points at him as she takes a seat and cracks a beer. “Tell me what you have in common? What are her hobbies? Her favorite color? How many times has she said no or taken a personal day or been too tired to do what you want?”

  Cap parts his lips but it’s dead air. He scowls and then perks up. “She left Nat and Brady’s wedding with Jenny.” He’s smug. I hope he enjoys that feeling. I suspect it won’t last.

  “You told her you didn’t want her to go?” Bev folds her arms over her chest.

  The standoff continues. We’re watching like it’s a tennis match.

  “No. But she chose that.”

  “Without consulting you?”

  “What do you mean by consulting me?” He’s getting fired up. Carson’s eyes are glistening with excitement. Geoff looks like he might leave. Mike’s chuckling.

  “Did she come to you and say, ‘I’m leaving with Jenny if Lori blows this,’ which he did.” And under the bus I go as usual. “Or did she say, ‘Hey, do you mind if I go with Jenny if Lori blows this?’ which he did.”

  Carson winks at me.

  Cap presses his lips together.

  Mike bursts out laughing.

  Carson slaps Cap on the arm. “You’re getting a new wife.”

  “I don’t want a wife!” Cap’s adamant. His eyes widen and he loses the anger as it turns to desperation. “What do I do? How do I stop this from becoming a wife situation? I don’t want to sell the Cape Cod house.” His desperation is adorable.

  Carson and I sit back and relax and prepare for the wisdom to come seeping from her in twangy sarcasm.

  Geoff is visibly confused but remains silent.

  Bev grumbles, “Firstly, how often do you see each other?”

  “I don’t know. Every day,” he sounds unsure of the answer, which is not how Cap sounds about much.

  “Okay, you can’t date a girl, who’s almost thirty and hoping to settle down, the way you are. You have no boundaries, Cap. If I was Sukii, I would think you wanted this relationship to go somewhere hard and fast. Do you sleep over every night too?” Bev laughs but he doesn’t. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You can’t play house and expect her to think this is a fling.”

  “You sleep over every night?” Carson loses the humor he was rocking. “Exclusively?”

  “Dude,” Mike agrees. “Come on now. For how long?”

  Cap gulps and I cringe. “Since you met, right?” I ask.

  “You and Jenny must be the same.”

  “Yeah, now that she’s become my ward. The last two weeks. Before that I was lucky to see her two days a week, sometimes weeks without seeing her at all. She’s big on the boundaries.”

  “Shit,” Cap says, sitting back in his chair. “So she thinks we’r
e heading in the marriage direction?” We all nod. “I’m gonna have to break things off. I thought this was a fun summer fling. I’d start work again and we’d cool off.”

  “When was the last time you dated someone?” It’s Geoff’s turn to mock Cap, which he does with mastery in tone and expression.

  “I met Sandy, my ex-wife when I was fifteen. She was it until last summer.” His cheeks flush and I realize he still loves her. This breakup was not his idea. And he has next to no feelings for Sukii beyond the rebound kind. He was smitten in the beginning and now that he’s seen the error of his ways, it’s done. Jenny’s going to be devastated for her friend. Dread trickles in as I realize this will turn into something for us. Which means I must do anything I can to avoid talking about it with her.

  “Do you guys play poker or is that code for Bev giving you free lady advice?” Geoff mocks us.

  “Both!” we all answer at once.

  Which has us laughing as Cap grabs the cards. “Speaking of poker, we need to start playing so Bev can win and get paid for the advice.” He winks at her playfully but there’s no hiding the genuinely stricken state he’s in.

  “Y’all are never going to catch up to the amount of money you owe me.” Bev scoffs and picks up her hand.

  I hate it but she’s not wrong.

  We’d all be lost without her.

  23

  Et tu, Lori

  Saturday, August 19

  Jenny

  Stuck contemplating the job offer from Stan and our meeting yesterday, I’m mid float with bubbles so high I taste the bubble bath when Lori comes in, sweaty and gross-looking.

  “How was your workout?” I ask, chuckling at how creepily domestic this all feels.

  “Good. It’s one of two today.” He wipes his face. “I’m just taking a break and then doing another round of cardio.” His eyes drift along my body under the soapy water. “Unless you wanna work me out.”

  “Maybe.” I try to sound into it but Stan’s offer is eating at me. “I have to check in with Judith about the party first. She texted me and I have ignored her all day.”

  “That’s dealt with. I meant to tell you, the caterer called this morning.” He takes a big drink from his water bottle. “So I called Judith and spoke to her. She’s gonna approve the final details on the menu with them and then everything will be ready for Saturday night.”

  “You spoke to Judith?” I sit up, splashing water on the marble floor and wincing. “Sorry.”

  “Yes, and one more sorry out of you, I’m climbing in there with my polluted, sweaty body, and we’ll make a real mess of this bathroom.”

  “Okay gross, that’s bad for the baby.”

  “It’s not. I was on Skype with the best baby doctors in the city all morning while you slept in. They’re called obstetricians, by the way. Sounds fake, but it’s not. They told me what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

  “Is this happening?” I ask him.

  “Don’t come at me.” He points. “You’ve been slack about this baby. Like not taking vitamins yet. Which is why I have prenatal vitamins being delivered any moment. I got a couple of types so if the first one makes you sick, we can move on to a different one.”

  “Lori!” While I’ve found his sudden dedication and due diligence to the baby amusing, the dad switch he’s turned on is aggressive.

  “And we have a birth planner coming to talk to us about that. Please don’t fight me on it. I want this taken care of so we can plan trips and appointments and my hockey schedule around everything we need to.”

  “Look, I’m sorry for not being all ‘mommy of the year’ yet, but what is a birth planner? How do you plan it? Does she have a conversation with my vagina and the baby?”

  He stares at me, visibly annoyed. “You haven’t been reading anything, have you? You’re just winging it. Wait, did you say sorry again?” He offers up that grin.

  “Don’t!”

  He strips his clothes off way too quickly and steps into my tub, smelling like sweat and deodorant.

  “Lori!” The water spills over the side as he puts his enormous self at the opposite side of the bath from me and takes up too much space.

  “Why is it so hot in here?” he says after he’s settled and the water has stopped slopping over the edge. “This is unbearable. It’s burning my balls.”

  “Let me guess, Dr. Eckelston, hot water’s bad for babies.” I laugh and put my feet on his chest as I try to make myself smaller.

  “It’s not recommended.”

  “Seriously? What is this?” I sit up and crawl into his lap. “Why are you going into hyperdrive with this?”

  “Apparently, I’ve hidden it well from you, but I’m not usually chill when it comes to learning something new.” He kisses me. “And I don’t like half-assing things.”

  “Fine. But if you slap one cookie out of my hand, I’ve hidden three loaded paintball guns in this house. I will shoot you in the dick.”

  “Is the paint toxic? Did you check? You have to get rid of those when the baby comes. They’re dangerous.”

  I kiss him to shut him up but it doesn’t last.

  “Can we get out? I don’t take baths and this is killing me. I’m too hot.” He moves like he might stand up with me in his lap and force me up.

  “Fine. But did you honestly talk to Judith?” I ask as I stand with him. “For real?”

  “Of course. I told you, you’re not handling this party. You’ve had the worst two months of any single person I know, except Sami. It’s bad for the baby.”

  “So you and my stepmom are just chatting it up?” What in the hell?

  “Yeah, she was even nice to me.” He offers me a smug grin. “Although, Judith was surprised we’re dating. You didn’t tell them.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, since we’re going to Nova Scotia for the birthday, I was thinking maybe we could go to BC. Do this whole meet the family thing all at once.”

  “What!”

  “If everyone from Nat’s wedding knows about the baby, word will get out. That’s not how I want to tell them.”

  “Shit.” I hadn’t thought about that. “Okay,” I agree but dread is making me uncomfortable.

  I climb out of the bath to find Simon on the mat, staring at Lori. “Why does he watch you in the bathroom?”

  “He likes to rub his fur against my wet legs. He knows it makes me crazy.” Lori smiles at the cat, offering an expression of undying love.

  “How old is he?” I ask as I towel off.

  “Eleven, no twelve.”

  “You’ve had him since you were a kid?”

  “Yeah, my brother, Sean, found him. There were two of them. Their mom and the siblings had been hit by a car and they were alone. He brought them home, and we nursed them and kept them in secret. When I went away to school, Sean took care of them with Grace, our chef. Sean’s cat passed away the year I graduated. By then Sean was long gone.” He glances at me, saying his brother’s name for the first time since we met. “You’re going to love Grace. She’s this spicy lady who rips me a new asshole every time she sees me. Think Bev with a German accent.”

  “Great,” I mutter, leaving him and Simon to their ritual, and pull on some shorts and a tank top. I grab a snack from the fridge and settle in on the sofa to finish going over my employment contract Stan had drafted for me yesterday during our meeting.

  I’m about halfway through it when my phone buzzes.

  He dumped me.

  The text from Sukii makes my entire body tense.

  I Facetime her.

  “Hey,” she answers sniffling. Her eyes are puffy and red.

  “Seriously? Are you home?” I ask.

  “Yeah.” She sniffles.

  “Be there in half an hour. Sweet or salty?”

  “Both,” she groans.

  “Okay.” I press “end” and get up from the sofa, grabbing my purse and leaving everything on the coffee table.

  “Hey, you wanna get some pizza?”
Lori calls from the deck where he’s pacing, cooling off after his second workout, even though it’s a hundred degrees outside.

  “Nope!” I shout and walk to the elevator. “I’ll be back later.”

  “You’re leaving? Where you going?” he asks, breathy and confused.

  “Out,” I snap my answer, accidentally taking his friend’s betrayal out on him.

  “Where?” he growls, not up for my attitude.

  “You know what, it’s none of your business,” I say and regret it almost instantly. He didn’t do anything wrong but my mood is rotten and there’s no stopping it. I press the elevator button, annoyed with him, his friend, hockey players, meeting his parents.

  He gasps and bolts, rushing me and the elevator. I jump inside when it comes but he’s too fast. He pins me against the wall with his sweaty body.

  “Lori!” I shout, trying to wriggle free.

  “Where?” he says again.

  “You’re so sweaty! Get off me!” I demand and press my body into the elevator wall to escape him.

  “That’s not what you said last time I had you pinned in the elevator.” He lowers his sweaty face to mine and forces a clammy kiss.

  “You’re so gross.” I manage to slide away from him, wiping his sweat and spit from my face.

  “Tell me where you’re going.” He leans against the wall, blocking the door. He will not let me out of this elevator until I do.

  “No.” My ass is up and now I won’t tell him at all costs.

  “Then I guess you’re not going anywhere.” He folds his arms over his chest and blocks the doors completely.

  “Fine.” I laugh angrily. “Then I guess I’m not.” I cross my arms over my chest too, mimicking him.

  “So we’re riding the elevator for fun?” He narrows his gaze.

  “Well, until you stop being controlling, yes.”

  “You’re really not going to tell me where you’re going? Is this about the job? Are you moving out?” He’s in disbelief.

  “No! I’m mad you didn’t tell me Cap was breaking up with Sukii.” It’s a gamble but the subtle wince confirms my guess. “You knew, didn’t you?”