“Austin is right,” I say. “I’ll get another internship after the baby is born. The one I had sucked anyway. I was never allowed to do anything other than order lunches and make coffee. Mr. Hopper treated me like crap and made me cry all the time. It was awful.”
“He did what?” My dad’s nostrils flare from my confession.
I raise my hand. “Dad, chill. It’s okay. I don’t work there anymore.”
“Hopper made you cry?”
“Yeah, for the short time I worked for him.”
Duke balls his hands into fists at his sides. Even Austin has an angry snarl going on.
“Guys, calm down, okay? He’s an asshole, and I don’t work for him anymore.”
“I’ll have his job,” Dad snaps.
“I’ll kill him,” Duke growls.
“That asshole will pay,” Austin mutters.
“We got your back, Kit-Kat,” Theo says.
“Yeah, what he says,” Travis says, pointing at his twin.
“I’m gonna miss you guys.” I throw out my arms and they hug me. “Don’t kill anyone for me.”
“I can’t make any promises,” Duke says.
“That’s what you said when I told you Dean is the father of the baby, and look at the mess you made.”
“It’s just a suspension,” Duke counters.
“Twenty games,” Dad yells. “You’ll be lucky if you still have a career after it’s over.”
“Dad, I’ll be fine.” Duke gives him a wicked look. “Now that I don’t have to travel or train, I can go bother Kit-Kat in Philly.”
“Oh, no you don’t, Denny. You’re not going to harass Dean and me after what you did.”
“Why? Is your little boyfriend afraid I’ll kick his ass again?”
“First off, he’s not little. And second, you’re an asshole for going after him. You took Dean by surprise when you told him I’m pregnant. That wasn’t even a fair fight.”
Duke rolls his shoulders. “I would’ve kicked his ass either way.”
“You better apologize to him,” I yell. “Because you owe him one! You owe me one, you stupid jerk.”
Duke’s head lowers in shame. “I’m sorry, Kat. I wanted to hurt him not you.”
“Well, you hurt me in the process. I need him, Denny. He’s the father of my child. I love him. So, don’t touch him ever again.”
“It was my job,” Duke says in defense.
“No, that was too far,” Austin says. “Even for you. Everyone watching could tell it was personal.”
“I tried to play it off like it wasn’t,” Dad says. “But you know, with modern technology, people zoomed in the videos to read your lips.”
“They don’t know he was talking about Kat,” Austin says.
“Eventually, someone will figure it out,” I interject. “My stomach will get too big to hide it.”
“Is Dean going to marry you?” Duke says with venom in his tone. “The least he can do is make an honest woman out of you.”
You’re an idiot, Denny. Honest woman? Who says that? I’m not some woman from one of your old Western movies.”
“You know what I mean,” he shouts. “And leave The Duke out of this.”
“Don’t raise your voice with me, Dennis McAllister Baldwin.”
Using his full name gets an instant response from him.
“Don’t call me that.”
His middle name is my mother’s maiden name. She said she wanted her son to have a part of who she used to be, and I thought that was pretty damn cool. So, guess what my baby’s middle name will be?
“It’s the name your mother and I gave you,” Dad says.
“Oh, dear Lord,” I whisper. “Does everything have to be an argument in this house? All you guys do is fight about something. Can we just take a minute to be thankful that we have each other? That we’re all here right now under one roof for once. And in the middle of the hockey season, of all things.”
“Speaking of hockey,” Dad says. “The Flyers are on in an hour. I was thinking we could all watch the game together.”
I smile at his offer. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“I’ll order the pizza,” Austin says, reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.
“I’ll get the beer,” Duke says, turning on his heel. “I’ll need a lot of it to watch this shit,” he mutters under his breath.
“I heard you, jerk.”
He snickers and then leaves the living room.
“We’ll keep the couches warm,” Theo jokes, kicking his long legs up on the coffee table.
Tavis nods to add his agreement.
“I’ll… umm…” Dad looks lost. Austin and Duke left him with nothing to do. “I guess I’ll get the TV ready.”
“Okay, Dad.” I smile. “You do that. I have to run to the bathroom.”
He nods. “Your mother practically lived in there when she was carrying each of you.”
“You can teach the baby your famous slapshot.”
Dad chuckles. “I’m sure Dean wants to do that.”
“He learned it from you.”
He hugs me, holding me until I feel like I’m going to pee myself. Damn pregnancy side effects have ruined the moment but not the night because I plan to enjoy the time I have left with my family.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dean
Standing at Kat’s side, I hold her hand as the technician shows us the baby on the monitor. Until the first time I saw our child, none of this seemed real. But seeing our baby on the screen, moving his or her little feet, tugs at my chest, making me heart feel like it could explode. The last time the technician attempted to determine the sex of the baby, she couldn’t get a clear view.
She tilts her head to the side, rolling the wand over Kat’s stomach, and I follow her line of sight.
I point at the monitor. “Is that a penis?”
With zero expression on her face, she turns to Kat, who’s on the table between us. “Do you want to know the sex of the baby?”
Kat nods.
The technician smiles. “Congratulations, you’re having a boy.”
Kat squeezes my hand tighter, her grin reaching up to her blue irises that are sparkling in this light. She’s five months pregnant now, her stomach growing more each day.
“We’re having a boy, Dean.”
I bend down to kiss her on the lips and brush my thumb along her cheek. “Thank you for this, Kitten. Because of you, I’m getting the family I had always wanted.
“Noah,” she whispers, running her hand over her stomach. “Eww,” she growls, forgetting about the slimy ointment the technician rubbed on her belly.
After the technician cleans up Kat’s stomach, I help her up from the table. She grips my shoulder to steady herself, a bright smile stretching across her lips.
“We only have a few more months,” Kat says. “I’m so scared.”
“I got you.” I brush her hair off her forehead, and she smiles. “You can do this. I know you’re freaked out about the delivery and all of the horror stories you read online and in books. But it’s going to be okay. You’re not the first person to have a child. Your experience won’t be the same as anyone else’s, so don’t compare yourself. For all you know, you could have Noah right away.”
She chuckles. “Not likely. Those special unicorns are rare.”
I shrug. “I read that some women go into labor and deliver almost immediately.”
“I won’t be that woman,” she spits back. “I don’t have that kind of luck. Watch, with my luck, I’ll be in labor for twenty-four hours.”
“Don’t focus on the negative. Just worry about what we’re going to do when Noah comes. Okay?”
Her lips twitch. “You’re like Austin. You always know the right thing to say. How do you do that?”
“I don’t know.” I roll my shoulders. “I just do.”
Kat slides her hands up my chest, tugging at my shirt. She presses her lips to mine, and the quick kiss before the technician pop
s her head into the room makes my head spin. I doubt I’ll ever lose this feeling when it comes to her. From the moment I met her, I knew she was the one. She was special. And now, she’s mine.
When I wake up, Kat’s side of the mattress is cold. Panicked, I roll out of bed and rush into the living room. The apartment is silent, the flat screen turned off. Where the hell did she go? She never wanders off without telling me.
I head back down the hall, toward our bedroom, when I spot her blonde head in Noah’s room. She’s sitting in the wooden rocking chair by the window. The sun streams in through the curtains, making her skin look like it’s glowing. Letting out a sigh of relief, I clutch the doorframe and watch her. She’s so beautiful, her pale skin free of makeup, her blonde hair so long now it covers her large breasts. Every part of her is growing along with my son.
Kat’s head is down, her hand on her stomach as she whispers to Noah under her breath. If she knows I’m here, she doesn’t let on. She continues to stroke her stomach, her soft voice the only sound in the apartment. After a while, she starts to sing a song I recognize. It’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the song from The Wizard of Oz. Kat said her mom would sing it to her when she was a kid. They watched the movie together a lot, and even more so after her mother became bedridden.
After she finishes singing, she looks up at me. “Noah likes when I sing to him.”
I step into the room, closing the distance between us, and drop to my knees in front of her. She makes room for me between her thighs, and I lean forward to push her shirt up to kiss her belly. Kat coos when I kiss her soft skin.
“Hey, little man,” I whisper against her stomach. “You ready to come out?”
Kat laughs. “Not yet. But I can tell he’s going to be aggressive like his daddy.”
I peek up at her and smile. “He’ll make a good hockey player.”
“How could he not be? Hockey is in his DNA.”
Her stomach growls loudly, and she runs her hand over her baby bump.
“Are you hungry?”
She nods. “Noah’s never satisfied.”
I lead Kat into the kitchen. She sits on one of the stools in front of the island at the center of the room.
“Noah wants bacon,” she says.
I open the refrigerator and laugh. “And what do you want?”
“Pancakes.”
“Pancakes and bacon it is.” I drop a package of bacon onto the counter and open the cabinet to grab the pancake mix. “Anything else?”
Kat eats the same meal often, even at two o’clock in the morning when she wakes me up, craving something sweet.
She shakes her head. “No, that should do it… for now.”
“I’ll be gone for two days.”
“I know.”
“I’ll make you enough pancakes and bacon to last until I get back.”
She grins, leaning her elbows on the counter. “You’re the best baby daddy ever.”
I snicker at her comment. “Is that all I am? Your baby daddy?”
“No, of course not. You’re also my chef.” She says this with laughter in her tone. “Thank you, Dean. I mean it. You’ve been so good to me.”
“A man is supposed to provide for his family.” I remove two frying pans from the drawer and set them on the stove. “Just doing my job, Kitten.”
“I think I love you more each day,” she says.
“I think I love you more each second,” I say to top her.
She giggles. “You looked good on the ice last night. We watched the game.” She rubs her stomach to indicate she watched it with Noah. “I think you guys will make it to the playoffs.”
I glance over my shoulder at her. “With the way we’re playing, we have a shot.”
“You’re doing so good for your first year. My dad is impressed. Even Duke and Austin have made comments about how well you’re playing.”
“Coming from your dad, that means a lot,” I say with a wink. “Not so much from Duke.”
“He apologized,” she groans. “Will you ever forgive him? One day he’s going to be your brother-in-law.”
“At least he’s not Noah’s godfather.”
“Yeah, that burned his ass when I chose Austin over him. But he did it to himself. How could we ask him to be Noah’s godfather after he messed up your pretty face?”
With my back turned to her, I laugh. “You think I’m pretty?” The bacon crackles in the pan, reminding me to flip it over.
“You know you’re pretty.” She snorts. “You’re prettier than me.”
“Not a chance,” I shoot back. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“Ha! Yeah, right. We both know that’s a lie.”
After I add some pancake batter to the hot pan, I turn around to meet her gaze. “When I look at you, I don’t see anyone else, Kitten. You’ve always been the prettiest girl in the room, in my opinion.”
She stretches her arms across the island, and I slip my fingers between hers. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth, my expression mirroring hers. This moment is perfect. From the day I met her, I had dreamed of something more, something better, and now, I have it with Kat.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kat
The Wells Fargo Center is on fire tonight. With the Flyers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the crowd hums with excitement. Fans in the seats below us are going insane, hands raised in the air along with foam fingers. Fights are breaking out all over the place. Philly fans are pretty intense. I’ve learned that over the years of living in the city. But now that Dean plays for the Flyers, I notice it even more.
The few people brave enough to wear Capitals jerseys are getting heckled by their seatmates. I can see them going at it right below our box. Dean and his team worked their asses off to get into the playoffs. I’m so damn proud of Dean that I grin like an idiot as I sit next to my dad in a luxury box. Go figure the Flyers are playing the Washington Capitals, Duke’s team. How convenient?
“Oh, look.” Dad points down at the ice. “Duke’s in again.”
Duke’s twenty game suspension was lifted before the start of the playoffs. Even though he’s apologized several times to Dean, I still don’t believe him. He says it through gritted teeth every single time as if he can’t stand the thought of admitting he was wrong. My brother is a difficult person to know and love. He means well, I know he does, but when it comes to Dean, I’m just as protective of him as my brothers are of me. I don’t like anyone messing with him, especially not my own family. They’re supposed to have my back.
“I swear to God, if he goes anywhere near Dean, I’m going to march down there and punch him in the face.”
My dad laughs. “He knows better, honey.” He pats me on the back. “I told Duke if he ever tries that with Dean again he’s out of the family.”
I snort so hard I spit. “No, you didn’t. I bet he loved that.”
“I thought he was going to cry. You know your brother. He’s very… passionate. He feels everything but keeps it all inside.”
“I wonder where he gets that from,” I joke, wiggling my eyebrows at him.
“Duke’s still upset he’s not Noah’s godfather.”
“I would’ve picked him if he hadn’t acted like an asshole.”
“Your brother has a big heart. He’s just misunderstood.”
“Dad,” I groan. “Please, would you listen to yourself? Duke is not misunderstood. He’s just full of rage. I bet he loved smashing in Dean’s face. He’s lucky Dean looks like himself again.”
“Honey,” Dad hedges. “This is your hormones talking. I know you don’t mean anything you’re saying about Duke.”
“He makes me so mad,” I spit back. “Why does he always have to be so rude to Dean? We’re going to get married one day, and Duke will part of our wedding. He’ll be the godfather of our next child. So, he needs to get with the program and get his butt into therapy.”
“He went through league-mandated anger management
already,” he says with a wicked smile.
“That worked well,” I deadpan as I watch Duke throw one of the Flyers into the boards like some maniac.
My dad chuckles, giving Duke an approving look as he watches him go to town on the ice. “Duke is still seeing the therapist they assigned to him. He seems to like her. He talks to her.”
I raise a curious eyebrow. “It doesn’t seem to be working.”
“On the ice,” he says, “it’s Duke’s job to rough people up.”
“Yeah, I know, Dad. I played hockey for years. I know why he’s doing it, but I think Duke likes it way too much.”
“You haven’t been around him much lately. I think the doctor is getting through to him.”
“Does he like her?”
Dad smirks.
I shake his arm. “Hey, what are you hiding from me?”
“Your brother sort of has a girlfriend.”
“Shut the front door,” I yell. “No, he doesn’t.”
Duke’s never had a legit girlfriend, not in the actual dating sense. He hooks up with women, but that’s about it.
“You’ve met her?”
Dad nods. “Yeah, she’s nice. She’s doing wonders with Duke’s attitude. I’ve already noticed some of the changes in him.”
“Like what? This I have to hear.”
“He doesn’t explode like he used to. Now, when he gets angry, he stops himself from losing control. Before he started working with Dr. Devine, he would break everything in sight and say horrible things to people. Of course, he didn’t mean any of it, and some people wouldn’t forgive him after he was done wrecking the place.”
“Dr. Devine,” I say. “What’s her first name?”
“Delilah.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “His doctor’s name is Delilah Devine. Seriously?”
“Yep. Duke calls her Lila.”
“Wow, my brother has a crush. I never thought Duke would like anyone more than himself.”
Dean (Face-Off Series Book 6) Page 13
