Page 89 of Don't Puck Up
“She’s so freaking adorable, isn’t she?” I murmured, in awe of how much she’d grown while we were away. Her dark hair was already a few inches long, and her chubby face and toothy grin were so cheeky that she had every one of us wrapped around her little finger.
“That’s it, Peanut. Go to Dad,” Jacques encouraged as he kneeled behind Rusty. “You can do it.”
When she finally crawled into Rusty’s lap, he lifted her up above his head and cheered before he squeezed her tight and peppered her face with kisses. “You’re going to be such a little terror, aren’t you, Peanut? There’s no stopping you.” He laughed, and Carina leaned in close, kissing her baby’s head.
“It’s okay, Zeus will keep you out of trouble, won’t he?” Carina cooed.
“Hey, everyone,” Keeley said as she greeted us. “Mind if I join in with your group?” She had a baby a few months older than Charlie on her hip. I hadn’t known she’d been pregnant, but Chris looked as surprised as I was.
“Keeley, you remember Locke,” I said.
“I do. Hi.” She smiled at him and dropped her diaper bag, set down the baby, who was dressed in a Stitch onesie, and held out her hand to shake.
Locke took it and asked, “Who is this little cutie?”
Keeley sat cross-legged next to us and grasped the baby’s hands. “This is my foster daughter, Hannah.” She lifted Hannah’s hands up, and the little girl kicked out her legs with a big smile. “We’re still finding our feet aren’t we, baby girl? But Momma loves you.” She turned to us and explained, “Her mom was a single mom, no dad or other family in the picture. She was killed in a car accident after she’d dropped Hannah off at daycare. My ex and I had our names down to become foster parents. I got the call about Hannah and said yes immediately.”
“Your ex? I’m so sorry, I didn’t know that you’d split.”
She huffed out a laugh that held no humor. “We hadn’t up until a few months ago—the day before Chris came out in fact. I went home to tell him that we had a baby, and he chose that night to tell me he’d been sleeping with his junior agent for eighteen months and they were having a baby together.” She turned back to Hannah and held her hands. The baby girl stood up and bounced on her legs doing cute little squats, flashing Keeley a toothy grin. “If you ask me, I got the better end of the bargain, didn’t I sweet girl?”
“Miller’s here.” Chris nudged Hux, and the other man nodded.
“Gauthier, wanna come say hi?”
The three of them stood up and made their way over to Brayden Miller, the team’s newest transfer. He was a third-year recruit born and bred in Texas who’d blown off a football scholarship to try out for ice hockey in high school, and then he’d gone on to secure a full scholarship for college and took the team to a Frozen Four championship. He’d been recruited by the Bruins and killed his first two seasons.
The man was big, blond, and looked like an adorable Labrador puppy, his wide smile lighting up his face. The man standing next to him had some serious black cat energy happening.
Jacques led him over to our group, and I noticed the rainbow nail polish on Miller’s fingers. “Everyone, this is Brayden Miller, our newest recruit, and Spencer Clay, his husband.”
Carina’s eyes widened, and she gaped. “Spencer Clay? Oh my goodness!” She flushed and giggled, then met Cara’s gaze. Her daughter was wide-eyed and staring.
Spencer looked between the two of them and nodded politely, that aloof, unapproachable energy radiating from him.
“Am I supposed to know who Spencer Clay is?” Locke asked me in a whisper.
“I’ll share his playlist with you. Carina’s been sending me his songs all summer.”
Hesounded like Benson Boone and looked and moved like Yungblud. He was slim but ripped and always wore head-to-toe black with his trademark scowl. Jacques introduced us all, and as soon as he got to Keeley, both Brayden and Spencer stood a little straighter.
“This is Keeley Fisher, our PR Manager, and her daughter, Hannah.”
“This team suddenly got a whole lot more interesting,” Brayden drawled in an unmistakably Texan accent. “You’re as pretty as a Texas rose.”
“No,” Keeley said, her no-nonsense tone cutting. “You’re here to play, Miller, not flirt with the staff.”
“Harsh,” Locke whispered, and I bit my lip and looked wide-eyed at Carina. She side-eyed Cara, who was grinning.
“Come on, we’ll introduce you to the rest of the team,” Chris said, clearly reading the room.
“Oh, this is perfect,” Cara whisper-squealed. Keeley raised an eyebrow at her, and Cara continued with a happy sigh, “No nonsense professional woman who’s a single mom and whose heart was broken is swept off her feet by the cinnamon bun and black cat heroes. And seriously, look at that butt.” She held her hand out, gesturing to the men walking away. “Hockey butt for the win, am I right?”
Monroe held out a hand to her, and they high-fived, but Keeley didn’t look impressed. “He was asked to leave Boston because the coach walked in on him and his husband having a threesome in a storage closet. With the team owner’s daughter.”
“Was she legal?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, she was our age,” Keeley responded with a wave of her hand. “But still, the owner’s daughter? In a storage closet?”