Page 63

Kelsey

S am and I washed each other and relaxed in the tub until the water grew cold and our fingers had pruned.

We stood, stepped onto the mat, and Sam wrapped us in fluffy white towels.

I pushed up on tiptoes, pulling his mouth to mine.

He took my lips gently at first, with our kisses quickly growing heated.

He reached under my arms and demanded “Up” against my mouth as I wrapped my legs around his waist, both towels falling to the floor, forgotten.

He carried me to the bed, setting me down on my back without breaking our kiss. In no time, he was settled between my legs, and his hand found my core, finding me ready. He buried himself fully inside me. The breath rushed out of me, and I let out a sound halfway between a moan and a whine.

“God, Sam. You feel so good.”

He groaned and began to pump his hips, “So fucking good, Kelsey. I’m not going to last long, baby. I’ve had your naked body pressed up against my hard cock far too long in that tub. ”

I clutched his ass, angling my hips to take him deeper inside me. “Me too, Sam. Don’t stop. Right there.”

Just then, I felt the start of my orgasm as it pulsed around his cock, eliciting a slew of expletives as he gave two more deep thrusts before he followed me over the edge. We both remained still, allowing our heart rates and breathing to normalize. Sam pulled out and inspected the head of his cock.

“What’s wrong,” I asked.

“It felt like something scratched me when I went deep. Is there any way that something could be up with your IUD?”

“Let me see?”

And we both spent the next five minutes performing a near-clinical inspection of the scratches on the head of his penis, followed by an internal exam of me. Even Sam’s long fingers couldn’t find the source of the issue.

“You know what this means?” I asked.

“What?”

“We’ve got no choice but to Google it. Or I can ask my mother.” Sam turned nearly white when I mentioned asking my mother. He shook his head and set out to find his phone to Google instead.

All was forgotten when he read his text messages.

“It’s Matthew, and he wants to come by and show us some pictures. He thinks he found him.”

My heart dropped, and the adrenaline that I recognized as anxiety raced through my bloodstream.

“Already?”

“Breathe, Kelsey. It’s going to be okay,” Sam whispered. “We’ll look through what he found, and then you decide what to do. You’re in control here.”

“Promise?”

“I swear I won’t let anything happen to Crew.”

I took a shaky breath in, “Okay. When does he want to come by? ”

Sam sent another message, and the response was practically instantaneous. “He can be here in thirty minutes.”

“Okay, we won’t have another chance until after we return from Texas, and I don’t want it hanging over our heads all week.”

Sam scheduled it, and I opened the duffle bag, rifling through it for something to wear. He watched me quietly as I dressed and then walked my bag to a door next to his closet, opening it to reveal an empty walk-in closet.

“I can send someone to pack up the rest of your things while we’re gone, okay?”

I found his eyes, my anchor, while my emotions stormed through my body, heart, and mind. As I focused on him, my breathing regulated, and I nodded.

“Okay.” Yep, we were doing this.

“Kelsey, are you nervous because it’s a big change, or do you have second thoughts?” Sam attempted to clarify.

“I want to be with you. I’m scared we’re moving too fast, and I don’t want to mess this up.”

“Without thinking about what could go wrong, does this feel right? Do we feel right? Do you have any doubts?”

“Oh, Jeez, Sam. I have generalized anxiety disorder. My brain can manufacture doubt about the color of the sky, and it could even convince me that water isn’t wet.

What I do trust is how I feel with you. Settled.

Happy. Comfortable. Outside my family, I’ve never felt like that. So no, I don’t have any doubts.”

“Okay, let’s go downstairs together and wait for the man, “ he said, picking up the baby monitor as he led the way.

We both sat silently at the kitchen island and watched the clock.

“This feels like the longest day ever,” I said out loud, in disbelief of all we had packed into a single day.

Leaving the city first thing in the morning, the early stop at the car dealership, the drive back, our run, the bath, sex, and now it was 7:30, and the private detective was expected any minute.

After he left, I needed to pack a bag for Texas.

“Josie also texted while we were busy. Dad is settled in rehab. She said they had a pretty good heart-to-heart on the ride. I think it’s going to stick.”

“Oh, Sam, I hope you get your dad back.”

When the doorbell rang, we both greeted Matt at the door and led him into the kitchen. Sitting at the kitchen island, he pulled out a folder and his laptop.

“Like I said to Sam, I’m pretty sure I found him. I was coming up blank until I started searching for hockey players. There was one Tom at USC and one at UCLA, but Tom Campbell also had photos on his Instagram from a trip to Cancun. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered.

When he pulled up the Instagram account, I recognized him immediately. His group of friends had hung out with my friends that night, and my roommate Lucy was even in one of the photos.

“Holy shit, that’s even my friend Lucy.”

“It’s him?” Sam asked.

“Yeah. Without a doubt.”

Sam squinted, inspecting the photo. “Wow, Crew looks just like him.”

We scrolled through his Instagram photos, trying to understand who he was, but he didn’t post often enough for it to tell a story.

“What’s his story?”

“He just signed an NHL contract with the Colorado Blizzards. His family lives in Northern California but moved from Vancouver when he was ten. From what I can tell, his mother returned to Canada recently. He’s squeaky clean, if you’re wondering.”

“What’s next?” I asked.

“That’s up to you. I recommend you work with an attorney before you reach out.

He’s probably going to want a paternity test, but I can imagine a kid who just signed an NFL contract is going to be careful when someone claims they have their baby.

I’ve given you everything you need to contact him. The next move is yours.”

“Great. Thank you. Monica has the electronically signed NDA; I know your services are already confidential, but I’d appreciate you signing that, too.”

I looked at Sam, confused. “Why would he need to sign an NDA?”

“With that, I’ll make my way out. I hope everything works out for you guys.”

Once he left, I asked Sam again, “Why do we need an NDA?”

“I want to ensure it doesn’t leak unless we want it to. Some people will sell anything to the tabloids. Now that we know he’s just signed an NHL contract, it’s a juicy story.”

“Are you okay if we reach out to him?” I asked.

“This is your decision; I’ll support you no matter your decision.”

“Yeah, he deserves to know he has a son. Now that I know exactly how to contact him, keeping that from him wouldn’t be right.”

Ugh.

“Okay. I can set up a conference call with my attorney this week. He’ll help us come up with a plan of action.”

“How would you have reacted if some woman you had a one-night stand with turned up with a baby a little over a year later?” If anyone would understand the stakes or the pressure, it would be Sam.

“I would have asked for proof of paternity, but once I had that, I’d want to be involved in his life. But the resemblance between them, Kels, shit, it’s undeniable. ”

“I feel like you are imagining Crew as the baby in question.”

“He’s my only frame of reference. I haven’t been around many babies.”

“If he doesn’t want to be involved with him?”

“Then we clear the path, and we make him mine. Do you think he will sleep through the rest of the night? Should we settle in and watch a movie?”

“Can we eat first? I’m starving.”

“Sure. Let’s see what we’ve got. I only had frozen meals delivered this week because we’re traveling so much.”

Sam found some perfectly portioned, macro-based meals that sounded good on the package but lacked salt. “Do you ever just make macaroni and cheese?”

Sam lifted his shirt, displaying his chiseled abs, and said, “This body wasn’t built on mac n cheese.”

I turned my back to him, pulled my pants down to display my ass. “Well, you don’t complain about this ass, and this was built on cheeseburgers and bacon.”

“Point taken, baby. You must have better genes or something.”