Page 7

Chapter seven

Holt

“Still not cleared to play,” I grumble as I sink into my couch, turn the TV on, and grab my Xbox controller. It’s only been a week since I started PT, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but I had hoped maybe I’d be back on the ice sooner. I’ve been doing everything Dr. Jansen told me and then some.

As I’m launching Nightfall, my current gaming obsession, there’s a knock at my front door.

I mute the television, hoping whoever it is will go away.

It’s quiet for a moment, but just when I think I’m in the clear, there’s another knock.

Tossing the controller onto the couch, I get to my feet, grumbling as I walk to the door and yank it open.

“Kat?” Why the fuck is my ex-girlfriend standing on my doorstep?

Before I can tell her to get lost, a baby starts crying, and that’s when I realize she’s holding a car seat.

“Here,” she says, thrusting it into my arms.

There’s a small baby, a girl based on the pink blanket tucked around her, buckled in it.

“Umm.” I peer down at the car seat and back to Kat.

What the hell is going on?

Am I in an alternate reality?

Did I somehow enter the multiverse and come out in another version of my life?

She takes the bag that was hanging from her shoulder and drops it on the ground. “She’s yours. Good luck. ”

“What?” My mouth falls open, and that’s when I finally take Kat in.

She’s disheveled.

Well, disheveled for her, that is. She’s not wearing any makeup, there are dark bags under her eyes, her bleached blonde hair is up in a ponytail, her roots a darker color than the rest of her hair, and she’s wearing jeans and a long-sleeve gray sweater. And sneakers. She never wears sneakers.

She’s yours.

The words roll around in my head.

There’s no way.

We can’t.

She can’t.

“She’s. Yours,” she enunciates, tipping her chin toward the baby.

“What are you saying?” My voice hitches.

“You.” She points at me. “Me.” She points at herself. “Made her.” She points at the baby.

“I know how it works, Kat. ” I growl.

My heart starts racing, my throat tightening.

She had a baby?

And didn’t tell me?

I have a daughter.

A daughter I didn’t know about.

What. The. Fuck.

But wait, she was on birth control, and we always used a condom.

Because she didn’t want kids. Told me she wasn’t going to let anyone ruin her figure.

“What the fuck, Kat?” I hiss. “You were pregnant and didn’t think to call me and tell me.” I glare at her. “We haven’t been together since early April. It’s November now. Help me fill in the blanks.”

She puts her hands on her hips. “She’s about eight weeks old.”

“Still doesn’t answer my question, Kathryn.” I grit my teeth.

“She was born two weeks early. Turns out I was a little pregnant when we broke up.”

“You don’t say. ”

She shrugs. “I figured it was stress from my job and our relationship that caused me to miss my period. It’s happened before so I wasn’t too worried. I had an annual physical which is how I found out.”

“You didn’t think to pick up the phone and tell me?”

She shrugs again, and I want to snap at her to stop acting like it’s not a big fucking deal.

It is a big fucking deal.

We have a kid.

“I wasn’t exactly going to call you up and tell you. Besides, would you have believed me? Or would you have told me to take care of it? Be real, Holt, you wouldn’t have cared.”

My eyes widen and once again my mouth falls open.

Does she really think that’s what I would have done?

Hell to the no.

I would have definitely demanded a paternity test, but if the baby was indeed mine, I would have stepped up.

“Don’t give me that look, Holt. You and I both know you didn’t want kids. They would have gotten in the way of your career. Even I wasn’t important enough to you, which is why we’re not together anymore.”

I clench my jaw so hard I’m surprised I don’t break any teeth. I run my free hand down my face.

“No, you wanted me to be traded to Vancouver, and I didn’t want to go.”

She sighs. “Selfish. That’s what you were. All I wanted was for you to support me.” She crosses her arms, glaring at me, and I wait for her to stomp her foot for good measure. “But you wouldn’t.”

I shake my head. “You know damn well that’s not what happened,” I tell her through gritted teeth.

“Really? All the fighting. Arguing.” She shudders, putting a hand to her chest. “It got so stressful at the end.”

I start to argue with her but am interrupted by the baby’s cries. I shift the car seat in my hand so I can gently rock her.

“You still should have called. I deserved to know,” I grit out. “You’re telling me now because you realized you don’t want to be a mother anymore, right? ”

“Yep.” She pops the p , picking at her nails. “This is all your fault, so now she’s yours. I can’t juggle both my career and being a mother. I tried. And I’m not giving up my career.”

Holy shit. If I had both hands, I’d shake her.

“Kathryn,” I growl. “You owe me more of an explanation about all of this. I didn’t even know I had a daughter until right now.” I raise my voice, and the baby cries even more. “I don’t even know her name.”

“Kathryn Alexis Summerset. All the paperwork is in there.” She tips her chin toward the bag at my feet. “Her birth certificate. Medical records. I even had my lawyer draw up a paper signing over all my rights to you.”

Of course she named our daughter after herself. I wonder how much work it will be to change her name. There’s no way in hell I’m going to saddle my daughter with the name of the woman who abandoned her.

Nope. Not happening.

She turns on her heel, and without another word, stalks toward the elevator, leaving me standing in the hallway with a crying baby.

“Shit.” I grab the diaper bag at my feet and carry it, and the car seat, inside my apartment.

“Shhhh,” I soothe, unbuckling her and picking her up, thanking my mother for making me take babysitting and CPR classes when I was a kid, so at least I kind of know what to do.

I cradle her in my arms, and she immediately stops crying.

I smile down at her, rocking her. “You poor thing. Can I set you down so I can get the rest of your things?”

She doesn’t respond because of course she doesn’t. She’s a baby. She doesn’t talk. I set her gently back down in her car seat and make quick work of bringing the rest of her stuff, which consists of a stroller and a large suitcase, inside. I scrub a hand down my face.

I’m a dad.

I’m a fucking dad.

I take a shaky breath.

What the fuck?

My heart races .

I don’t even have a crib for her. Or anything except whatever Kat brought. Which, knowing her, is probably just clothes and toys that she’s too young to play with.

I wipe the sweat off my face and take a deep breath. The elephant is back. I close my eyes for a second, counting back from ten. Now is not the time for another panic attack.

What do I do?

My parents and sister are thousands of miles away. They can’t help me right now. I pick up the car seat gently because she’s asleep and walk back to the living room.

“Caleb,” I mutter.

He’s our former captain and still lives locally with his family. He’s got two kids. He’ll know what to do.

I punch his number in, and he picks up on the second ring.

“Holt. What’s up?”

“Ummm . . .” I let out a shaky laugh. “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“Oh-kay.”

“I’m a dad.”

“WHAT?”

I hear his wife’s voice in the background. “I’m putting you on speakerphone. Jenna is here.”

“Hi, Holt. What’s going on?” Jenna asks.

I blow out a breath and tell them the Reader’s Digest version of what went down with my ex. “I’m kind of in over my head, and don’t know what to do first.”

“We’ll be right over with a crib—I’m assuming you don’t have one—and some other stuff. Caleb and I were just talking about how we should put everything into storage. But you can borrow whatever you need, for as long as you need it,” Jenna says gently.

“Thank you.” My voice comes out in a whisper.

“We got you, brother. Anything else we can do?” Caleb asks.

“The others . . .” I blink back the tears that are threatening to fall and clear my throat, hoping he doesn’t hear the emotion in my voice. I can only imagine what they’re going to say when they find out .

“I got you,” Caleb says.

“We’ll be there in an hour,” Jenna says.

“Thanks,” I whisper, hanging up the phone and sinking back against the couch.

My mind reels with all the things I’m going to need to do, including buy a safer car because my truck is fine for me, but it’s only got one row of seats. Probably not good for a baby.

I’ll need all the baby things—formula, bottles, diapers, clothes, and everything else.

Tugging off my shirt, I lean down and pick up my daughter.

She squirms a little, and I’m afraid she’s going to wake up, but she doesn’t as I place her gently against my chest and just breathe.

A sense of calm washes over me. I sit there in silence until there’s a knock at the door.

Before going to open it, I snag my shirt off the couch and manage to put it back on without having to set my daughter down.

This time, the people on the other side are a welcome sight.

“We brought you a bassinet too,” Jenna says, walking over to me once they’ve brought everything into my apartment. Her eyes flitting to where my daughter is nestled against my chest, still asleep. “Which was a good call because she’s tiny.”

A few minutes later, there’s another knock, and I find Hunter, Elias, Madison, and Coach Weaver standing at my doorstep.

“Caleb called. We were at dinner,” Hunt says by way of a greeting.

“Thanks.” My voice comes out sounding hollow and far away.

As I’m closing the door, a voice calls my name. I open it again to find Brody hurrying down the hallway, Aubrey, Wes, and Sebastian behind him.

“How are you doing?” Brody asks, putting a hand on my arm, when we make it into the kitchen.

I half shrug, half shake my head at him.

“Right,” he mutters, glancing at his fiancée. They have a silent conversation before she gives him a small nod. “Come on,” he says to me, and I follow them into the living room.

The packed living room.

Everyone’s gaze turns to me, and I feel my face heat up .

For shit sake, Kat, you had to go and do this to me.

“Jenna. Mads. Aubs. Why don’t you guys work on setting up all the baby stuff? And we can all talk.” Brody turns to me. “Where do you want everything?”

“I don’t know.” I run a hand through my hair, pulling at the ends. “Sorry guys, for dragging you all here.”

“Nonsense,” Jenna says. “We’re family. Why don’t I hold little miss for you, if that’s ok, and you guys can talk in the kitchen. We’ll set everything up here and move it all later.”

“Thank you.” I hand Jenna my daughter, and watch as she carefully carries her to the couch.

Wes walks over to me and slings an arm around my shoulder. “Kitchen.” He tips his chin in the direction we all just came. “Maybe one of us should order pizza or something because I have a feeling this is going to be a long story.”