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TWELVE

HANNAH

Never in my life has anything been more awkward than walking up and down the aisles of Walgreens with my bestie’s twin brother, looking for pregnancy tests.

Let me set the scene.

By some miracle, Daniel snuck me out of the bar. He texted Camden Snow and had him snag his jacket—and the keys and wallet inside it. I texted the girls and let them know I was heading out.

The only bump in the road we came to was the moment when Camden saw me in all my walk-of-shame glory, waddling down the hall, trying to keep Daniel’s juices from free flowing down my leg.

Yeah, he knew precisely what I was doing. That was evidenced by the way he eyed me up and down, then turned to Daniel and nodded, a smile on his face, and muttered, “Nice.”

No. Not nice, Baby Snow. Nothing about this is nice.

God, I might have to stop calling the boys Baby anything if I actually have a freaking baby.

Anyway…

It took a minute to find the correct aisle—much to my shock, neither one of us has ever had to do this before—and now we’re staring at a wall of pregnancy test options.

“This one tells you how far along you are,” he says, squinting at the back of a purple box.

If it were up to me, I’d snag a couple and bolt. This is mortifying. We barely know each other, and we’re shopping for pregnancy tests.

How is this my life?

But Daniel picks up a second box, this one pink, his movements languid and easy.

“This one claims it can detect pregnancy five days before the others.” He hums to himself as he considers the two boxes, one in each hand.

With a huff, I snatch both from him and clutch them to my chest. “They look great. Let’s go.”

“I feel like we should get a few more.” He plucks a box from the highest shelf. The shelf I can’t reach, yet he doesn’t even have to stretch.

Sheesh, he’s tall. Will we make a tall baby? Are babies tall? How would a tall baby even fit inside me? I stare down at my short torso, then shake my head, and when I look up, he’s grabbing yet another pregnancy test box.

“You’re probably hoping for a negative test and think that the more boxes we get, the more likely the chance?—”

He whips around, frowning. “It’s actually something a friend of mine told me. He and his wife were trying to get pregnant. Took a test, got a positive result. They were really excited, but it turns out it was a false positive, and…” He lifts one shoulder. “Anyway, I figured we’d have a more definite answer if we had a few of them.”

I pluck two more from the shelf at random, then pull the one from his hand so we have five total. “Okay, just in case we need to break a tie.”

He laughs, and instantly, a little of the tension in my muscles eases. I’m not normally this uptight. And I never care what others think of me—but here and now, I can’t help but stress about my every word, my every action. Because if I’m judging him as the potential future father of my child, then it’s safe to say he’s judging me as the potential mother of his.

I don’t have a single maternal instinct. I’m the last person who should be given a child, and before tonight, Daniel would have been the last guy I’d pick to father mine.

But holy hell, has he shocked me tonight. He’s handling all of this a hell of a lot better than I am.

“Should we get diapers?” Daniel points to a package to the left of us in the aisle.

I bite back a chuckle. “Those are for adults.”

“Why would adults need diapers?” His tone is almost sarcastic, like he thinks I’m the clueless one here. But then he picks the package up and reads the words on the box, and a second later, his entire body shudders. He tosses it back onto the shelf. “So newborn ones?”

“How about we stick to the pregnancy tests for now? Then, if it’s positive—” The words hang between us, making it hard to breathe. Other than the painful way my stomach twists, I don’t even know how to feel.

“If it’s positive,” Daniel says softly, taking my free hand and squeezing, “then we’re in this together.”

I roll my lip between my teeth and stare into his warm brown eyes. How is it that, already, I’ve developed an instinct to seek them out for comfort? “You’re annoyingly cute.”

He grins and leans forward, his mouth dangerously close to my own. “Take out the word annoyingly and try again.”

With a roll of my eyes, I spin and walk away, but I’m smiling, and I’m pretty sure that was his plan all along.

I blink at the toilet, then at the test. Dammit. Now I don’t have to pee. I glare at the test again.

If I thought picking them out was awkward, it had nothing on standing in the checkout line with Daniel Fucking Hall by my side. I told him to go outside, that I’d handle paying, and he practically growled, “When I said we were doing this together, I meant all of it.”

I drew the line at letting him wait in the bathroom with me while I peed on these sticks. I’m sure he’ll regret that position soon enough. There’s no way the media hasn’t been notified that the playboy winger of the Boston Bolts was buying a cart full of pregnancy tests tonight.

Of course the kid at the counter recognized him right away. Looks like I’ll have to enlist Sara’s help tomorrow. And that means I’ll have to actually tell Sara that I got myself into this position with our best friend’s twin. I’m not ready to tell anyone, and yet it’s a certainty that I can’t keep this secret for more than a day or two.

Only if it’s positive.

The words are a taunt.

Because if it’s negative, this will be nothing more than a funny story I’ll share with the girls. Not Millie, obviously. But the rest of them will have a good laugh at my expense.

It’s fine. This will all be fine.

“Hannah?” Daniel’s voice, followed by a gentle knock on the door, makes me jump.

“Just trying to remember how to pee.”

He laughs. “Do you need water? Or soda? You could turn on the faucet. Running water normally works for me.”

I sigh. This is absurd. Just sit down on the toilet and pee . “I’m fine.”

I pick up the test that says it will tell me five days earlier than the others and get to work. Once I’ve set the stick on the ledge next to the window, I wash my hands and pace.

“ Han. ” Daniel’s voice on the other side of the door has my heart rate picking up. Do I go out there so we can wait together? Do I sit here and stare at the test? I don’t know him that well. None of this feels natural.

Then again, if he were someone I knew well, like Noah, who arguably knows me better than anyone else, I don’t know that I’d feel any more comfortable.

Bizarrely, Noah isn’t who I want in this moment. For some inexplicable reason, Daniel is. So I open the door.

Arms up, he’s gripping the doorframe above me, leaning forward, eyes roaming over me, like he’s trying to decipher my body language. As if that’ll give him the answer he’s waiting for.

“I didn’t look yet.”

He nods, dropping his hands to his sides. “Do you want me to look?”

I blow out a breath. “It said three minutes, so we’ve got at least another two.”

Stepping back, he gives me room to move past him. I make a beeline for my bed and drop onto it, causing the Walgreens bag to crinkle. Heart lurching, I turn away from it. The stick I just peed on is one of many I’ll have to test.

Though if it’s negative, I don’t care what Daniel says. I’ll chalk this up to a mistake and kick him out so I can take the others by myself.

But if it’s positive…

“Isn’t it wild how long two minutes can feel when you’re waiting for something important? When I’m on the bench during a game, it feels like everyone is moving in slow motion while I wait to get back onto the ice. Then once I’m out there, it flies by.”

I offer him a weak smile. “Your life revolves around hockey, huh?”

He shrugs. “Is that bad?”

Head shaking, I pick at a piece of lint on my pants. “No. Work is my life. And honestly, I love hockey.”

With a step closer, he smiles, his eyes lighting up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m glad I don’t have to work with you guys, though. All the bullshit the Revs guys pull is starting to make me hate baseball. It’s work, ya know? But hockey—I can just enjoy watching the sport.”

“I can see that.” The bed dips as he settles beside me, pushing the white plastic bag away. “Who’s the biggest pain in the ass on the baseball team?”

I snort. “Is that even a question?”

Lips pressed into a line, he shrugs. “I really don’t follow the Revs, and I definitely don’t read gossip rags.”

My eyes roll out of habit. “Of course you don’t.”

With a nudge of his elbow, he frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you probably don’t follow because you know what they say about you.”

“You keeping tabs on me, dream girl? What do the tabloids say?”

My lips itch with the need to smile as I assess the man who keeps pulling them out of me despite the shitty situation we’re in. “Another night, another girl. That kind of thing.”

Daniel licks his lips as he studies me. “Does that bother you?”

There it goes, another laugh, though I don’t think he was trying this time. “God, no. I haven’t been pining for you since we last slept together, Baby Hall. I’m not that kind of girl.”

Head bowed, he shrugs. “No, I guess that’d be me.” Before I can process the words, he switches topics. “So who’s the biggest pain in the ass?”

“Jasper Quinn,” I say easily. He’s the reason I’m here right now. If he hadn’t been accused of knocking a girl up, I wouldn’t have realized my period was late, and we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.

“Okay. And who’s your favorite Bolts player?” His lips lift like he knows he has this in the bag.

I bite my bottom lip and peer over at the bathroom door. “I don’t pick favorites.”

With his lips against my ear, he lets out a low, deep laugh that rattles me all the way to my toes. “Bullshit.” He pulls back and stands. “Want me to check it?”

With a thick swallow, I give him a single nod. I don’t think I could make my feet move if I tried right now.

He disappears into the bathroom, and when he reappears, he’s got the simple white stick in his hand. Face set in a completely neutral expression, he says, “We’re pregnant.”