Page 89 of How We End

“To the dealership in Henderson?”Walker asked.

“I have to call my mom.”Teigen’s excitement was palpable.

“I should probably call mine too.”Anders took Teigen’s hand.

“I’m starving.Anyone want to head into Reno for dinner?”Mason asked as he and Hannah put the game away.

“Yes.”Walker shot up from the couch.“Can we do a buffet?”

They all started making plans for going out to dinner.The last thing I wanted to do was spend hours in a casino.

“You are welcome to go, but I’m going to pass,” I said to Julian, setting my glass on the table.

“I am not going to a casino with those four.I’m too old.”Julian pulled me up from the couch.“We’re going to sit this one out.But be safe.”

“Okay, old man.I call shotgun,” Tyler called.

“We’re taking an Uber.”Hannah shook her head.

When I was a kid, I wanted a TV family.When I got older, I would’ve settled for a family that liked spending time with each other.Now this was what I wanted.

Friends.And sunsets.

CHAPTERFORTY-TWO

WYATT

December 25

Upstairs, I flopped back on the bed.I could hear car doors slamming, and the house was quiet.“Is that what it’s like to have kids?”

“Fuck if I know.”Julian flopped down next to me.“Have you ever been married?”

“No.”I rolled over to face him.“My job isn’t really conducive to marriage proposals.”

“Funny, mine wasn’t either.”

I studied his profile in the low light, running a finger over the bridge of his nose and down over his lips.Studying him.His jawline, the scars.The color of his eyes in the gray light of the room.The way he watched me.I felt a shift between us.We were more than just sex now.

“Do you want kids?”he asked.

“No.”

“Like, ever, or right now?”

“Never.”It was more than this job.It was that I didn’t know how to be a parent.How to not fuck up my kids.

“She said that.That she didn’t want them.That’s what we fought about that night in February.A bunch of us were here in Reno for the All-Star break.She and I weren’t in a good place.I knew she was cheating on me.Hannah caught them leaving a hotel together.I found the pregnancy test.It was positive.”

“I thought you?—”

“I can’t.I confronted her, and we fought.I said some horrible things to her.She got drunk and told an entire room full of my teammates that…” He rolled over.“That I was bad at everything.Being a husband.A friend.Fucking.Hockey.She said that the reason she was fucking Payton was because he was better at everything.I don’t know why I let her fuck with me.Why I cared what she said.”

I watched the muscles in his jaw flex, his breathing slow.

“The other night she waited for me after the game.She told me it was mine.”

“Did you believe her?”I asked softly.