Page 26

Shit. Why now? I’d been keeping my head down, doing exactly what I was told—no parties, no hookups, no reckless moves.

I’d been clean. Careful. It lit a fire in my gut to think I was being blindsided like this.

My job depended on never being caught off guard.

I’d let it happen once in my life—just once—and I’d promised myself never again.

So what the hell had slipped through the cracks?

Squaring my shoulders, I prepared for a fight if need be and made my way to Coach’s office. I knocked once.

“Come in,” he called and I pushed open the door, walking in. “Take a seat,” he directed.

“I’d rather stand, if you don’t mind.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“What the hell is going on? I’ve been keeping a low profile, keeping my nose clean. You’d have more cause to bring in Bonner than me.”

“Nose clean—I know. Low profile?” He tossed a newspaper at me. I didn’t even know places still printed newspapers. I thought everyone got their news online.

My jaw tightened when I saw the headline. What the hell was Bree going to say when she saw this? CINDERELLA STORY: FROM CLEANING LOCKER ROOMS TO FINDING HER PRINCE. WHO IS THE WOMAN WHO MADE COPPERHEADS’ GOALIE, BAKER REECE, GIVE UP THE SINGLE LIFE?

“How’d they find out? More importantly, why the fuck would they care?”

“You’re a pretty boy.”

“I’m not a pretty boy. Fuck you.”

“Reece, shut the fuck up and take a seat. ”

I rolled my eyes as I dropped down into the chair in front of his desk like a petulant child.

“You’re a grumpy pretty boy, but you’re still a pretty boy.

Antonov’s a whore and Bonner’s a train wreck.

Bishop is married, Jones is married and Winstead lives with his woman.

That leaves you. And now you have a woman.

Based on your history, people didn’t see that one coming.

Logue loves this. It’s great for the team image. ”

“Why am I in here?” Something about this felt off. “I’m just living my life.”

“People want to know her. Who is she? How’d you two start dating?”

“It’s no one’s business. She’s a private person.”

“Then she shouldn’t have hooked up with someone in the spotlight. Logue wants her more visible for the time being. Make sure she’s coming to events. Make sure you’re seen together. Give the public a happy, little family.”

“It’s not in my contract to parade around my woman.”

“You’re a great goalie, Reece. Best in the league, but you’re not getting any younger. Lots of talent entering the draft, and you have contract negotiations coming up next year. You make him happy he makes you a very rich man. You piss him off and you’re probably looking at trading in your jersey.”

There went my good mood. What if my mom—I couldn’t even think that, but what if Bree’s and my agreement ended before my contract was signed? Could I get Bree to agree to an extension?

“Can I go?” I asked, royally pissed off with the man in front of me.

“Yeah, go get changed.”

As I walked out of the office, I called the woman of the hour. “Hey,” she said when she answered, and that helped my mood a bit. Hearing her soft voice.

“We’ve made the news.”

“The Copperheads make the news quite often.” Her chuckle struck something inside me and I silently cursed because I didn’t want to have to tell her this.

“No. You and I. We made the news.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m a star goalie and you clean the locker rooms. They’re framing it as a rags-to-riches kind of thing.”

She sighed heavily. “We aren’t rags. Benny and I, we might be on the lower end of middle class, but we’re still middle class. I take care of my boy.”

Shit. “I know that, babe. You are the best mom I’ve ever seen. Benny’s the luckiest little guy in the world.”

“Then why do I feel so weird about this?”

“Because it’s shitty insinuations from strangers who don’t know a damn thing about you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. Will you get in trouble for making the news?”

“Nah—the owner loves this kind of shit. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.” And because I’m a coward, I left out the part about parading her around like my circus monkey. We could talk about that later, maybe after a couple of amazing orgasms.

But now I had to push that out of my mind, signing off with Bree.

I changed into my jersey, grabbed up my pads, and headed out to the ice.

The photog had Bishop on the ice skating down a puck.

He was the only one out there. It took a while to get to me because she needed to get shots of all the starters. Headshots and action shots.

After a million fucking years, she called me over to snap off a couple of headshots and then I padded up. Bonner slapped pucks at me. She told me to be natural, so I did what I got paid for and stopped them.

Once she had what she needed, she called out, “That’s a wrap. Thanks, Reece.”

I waved, but as we still had practice, I stayed in my spot. We practiced hard. By the time I skated off the ice, sweat dripped from my hair.

Bree had her cart over by the lockers, and she was wiping them down when I entered.

She turned to look at the door, and damn, she looked so vulnerable.

I hated seeing such a strong woman look like that and the thought hit me that I needed to kiss her.

Needed it more than breath in my lungs. I charged her, pressing her against Antonov’s locker.

She had just enough time to suck in a breath before I took what came there for.

“Not fair,” Bonner called, and that ended the kiss.

“Since you’re blocking my locker, do I get some of that too, beautiful Bree?”

“Where you from again?” I asked him.

He eyed me curiously. “Berezhany. Why?”

“Because I need to know where to ship your body if I hear you say that shit again.”

“I’m sure he was kidding,” Bree whispered.

“I’m sure I don’t give a fuck.”

“Go—shower,” she said next, pushing me in the direction of the showers. “I’ll take my leave now,” she announced to the room, pushing her cart toward the door as I opened my locker to grab my clothes.

There were probably twenty missed notifications on my phone from my mom’s nurse. I called her back right away. “Hey, everything okay?” I asked when she answered.

“No. Your mother is in the hospital. She had an episode this morning.”

“An episode?”

“Since the tumors have spread?—”

“Spread? She said the one she had wasn’t getting smaller.”

“I’m sorry. They’ve spread to her lungs and kidneys.”

“Anyone call her work? I’ll have to get a hold of them.”

“Her work? She hasn’t worked in several months. ”

The fuck? “No. She told me she wanted to stay in Virginia for her students.”

“Baker?” Bree asked and I felt her heat hit me.

I looked at her, shaking my head. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then I hung up.

“What?” Bree asked.

“Ma’s in the hospital. It’s spread. She never said a damn word to me about it. She hasn’t been working for months.” The choking sensation made me panic because it felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Bree rubbed my back.

“What can I do?”

“I have to go up to Virginia.”

“Let me call my boss. I’ll try to arrange a couple of days off. Then I’ll get Benny. Claudia will watch him.”

She didn’t even hesitate to jump in and help. Elyssa never lifted a finger and yet my fake fucking girlfriend planned to drop everything to be with me.

“Shower,” she ordered me with the phone to her ear. “Mr. Radke an emergency has just come up. I need to take a couple days off.” That was the last I heard before reaching the shower room.

After the shower, as I dressed, several of my teammates stayed with me. “Anything I can do?” Bishop asked.

“Fuck if I know. Mom’s in the hospital. I know I have to move her here so I can take care of her. I need home care. Nurses for palliative care.”

“You and Bree get to your mom. Jaycee and I will start gathering lists of in-home nurses for you. Budget?”

“Fuck a budget. This is my mom.”

“Got it.”

“You need anything else, let me know,” Jones offered and Bonner nodded in agreement.

“Thanks. I got to get to Bree’s place.”

When I pulled into her complex, I didn’t see her car, so I decided to have Claudia buzz me in. But then I saw Bree turn into the lot. She parked next to my truck, pulled Benny out, and jogged up to me with one arm out ready to hug me and I sank into her touch.

“Let’s go in,” she said, opening the door for us. I followed her inside. We stopped at Claudia’s place first. She was surprised to see us both this early when she answered the door.

“Everything okay?” Claudia asked.

I shook my head. “Ma’s in the hospital.”

“Give me Benny,” she said. Bree kissed Benny’s head and I’d swear he knew I was sad and opened his arms to offer a hug for me. I took it.

“Momma loves you,” Bree said to him. “Thank you,” she said to Claudia. Once Claudia shut the door, we stepped across the hall to her apartment so she could change. I used her laptop to secure tickets home.

It was a whirlwind from her apartment to the airport, then being ushered onto the plane. I hardly felt like I could catch my breath until we taxied down the runway.

“Thank you,” I said. “For being here. It means more than you know.”

She smiled this sad smile. “We’re a team. It’s what we do.”

A team.

Me and Bree. Shit if I didn’t love hearing that.

“Why do you look sad?” I asked. My gut said it was something more than my mom.

“It’s nothing. Let’s get your mom taken care of.”

“You’re holding something back. Swear to God, I don’t have it in me today. What’s wrong?”

She let out a long, slow breath. “My boss said that he couldn’t spare me and if I didn’t show up tomorrow, then I needed to look for another job. So now I have to go job hunting or get my job at Slits back.”

“You left your job for me? ”

“Reece, it wasn’t even a choice. You needed me. What kind of place doesn’t care if family needs help?”

“You said she was family?”

“My mother-in-law. But he reads the papers and knows we aren’t married. That we haven’t been together long.”

“ Bree .”

“Not a choice.” The way she shut the conversation down, she meant every word.

Bree Michaels was a fucking amazing woman.

“You’re not dancing again,” I said because a thought hit me. A thought as brilliant as it was frightening. We were friends faking more. We weren’t the real thing. This had the potential to blow up in my face, but still, it felt like the right move. “I want you to live with me.”

“What? I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“For one, your mother will be there. Secondly, I can’t leave Claudia. And lastly, it’s a good apartment and I can afford it. Once this ends, my boy and I will be homeless.”

“You’ll never be homeless, Babe. I’d never let that happen. Claudia can come too. My house is huge. And I’ll pay your rent while you live at my place. But I’d feel better knowing that you were there with my mom during the day when I can’t be there.”

“You’ll keep up my apartment?”

“Utilities and everything.”

“And Claudia?”

“Of course.”

“I can’t let you do that. You’re hemorrhaging money as is. Your mom’s medical bills. Benny’s tuition. Now you’re going to keep up our apartments? It’s too much.”

“Babe, I know how much I can afford to spend. You think in terms of paychecks, but I have a solid investment portfolio paying out dividends that keep me living a good life. When I say it’s not a problem, it’s not a fucking problem. ”

She bit her lip thinking about it then said, “Only if Claudia agrees to come. I can’t leave her behind. And Benny has to be comfortable. Is it childproofed?”

“Childproofed?”

“My place is set up for a three-year-old. Is yours?”

“Not yet. It will be by the time we get back. Anything else?”

“He has to be comfortable staying there. He knows his room in our place and at Claudia’s. If he can’t settle, then we have to leave.”

“Got it. Think if we bring his room to my place, he’ll get comfortable? Actually, we could bring all your furniture. I can store my stuff in your apartment if I can’t find a place to fit it.”

“That’s actually a really good idea. But how are we going to move furniture if we’re in Virginia?”

“Got that covered.”

Jones and Bonner just got called up. I’d call my cleaning service when we landed and tell them to expect movers. Getting plans in place made me feel a bit more in control of the situation.

Bree reached, over taking my hand, weaving her fingers through mine, and rested her head on my shoulder. We didn’t talk, but her touch, this act of kindness, helped me beyond measure. I used her to keep myself calm instead of letting all those intrusive thoughts in.

When we landed, the minute the seatbelt light went off, I shot up out of my seat with Bree holding on to my shirt to not get separated.

We practically ran down the ramp into the terminal heading for the car rentals.

I’d reserved us a truck, and because of doing it all online, within ten minutes, I had the keys in hand, leading Bree out to where the truck waited for us.

My phone pinged with texts from the nurse giving me which hospital, my mom’s floor and room number, and the number to give the front desk for admittance. I had to ask for clarification. The nurse was kind and texted back right away. Only visitors with a patient number were allowed up on her floor.

Up on her floor.

My stomach roiled.

Sickness turned to anger.

The closer to the hospital we drove, the angrier I got. Why’d Mom keep this from me? I could’ve been taking care of her in Charleston.