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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LEDGER

Sweat drips from my jaw and adrenaline pounds in my chest as I line up at the faceoff circle.

I glance quickly toward the glass out of habit.

That’s where Marlee has been sitting this season, with the other WAGS.

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy that I have someone special to me sitting in the family section now.

Me.

Ledger Dayne.

I have a girl sitting in the family section cheering for me.

And not just any girl. Marlee. Remington.

She’s my future. My everything.

Even from here, I can spot her all bundled in my team hoodie, her cute belly unmistakable now beneath the worn fabric. She looks beautiful. Tired, but beautiful.

Tonight, I’ll give her that foot massage that Mom was telling her about.

Just before the puck drop, something shifts. Movement near the glass has my gaze falling there again. This time it’s Layken I notice right away. Seated beside Marlee, Layken is on her feet, waving.

Panicking?

I blink.

Was that…?

No. Can’t be…

But…

Marlee is hunched forward, her hands grasping her belly.

Marlee?

A medic appears first and then another shows up with a stretcher.

A stretcher?

Suddenly there’s commotion and people are rushing to get the stretcher through.

My heart plummets and my blood turns cold.

Oh fuck.

Marlee…

Coach yells from the bench, “Dayne! Heads up!”

The puck drops and there’s commotion all around me, but I don’t move.

I barely register the scramble, barely hear the whistle as the referee calls a false start because I’m nowhere near the face-off circle anymore. My body moves on its own accord and I’m skating, not toward the puck, but away from it.

I skate toward the boards.

Toward Marlee.

“Dayne? What the hell?”

I can’t answer him.

Not now.

I have to get to Marlee.

My gloves hit the ice and my stick falls from my grasp and then the crowd is murmuring as I vault myself over the boards, one of my skates catching slightly. I land hard and tear off my helmet as I sprint toward the concourse, panic overtaking every muscle in my body.

I’m coming Marlee!

Fuck!

Please, God, let her be okay!

The scraping of my blades on concrete fills the hallway as I round the corner too fast, nearly sliding into the wall.

And then I see her.

Marlee lying on a stretcher, paramedics surrounding her.

Her face is pale and her eyes are squeezed shut. One hand rests on her belly. Always protective of the life inside her.

Layken, Scarlett, and Corrigan stand nearby, all of them trying not to look too worried but I can see the concern I their eyes.

They’re just as scared as Marlee is.

This is bad.

Fuck, it’s bad.

Corrigan is an ER nurse. If she’s worried, it can’t be good.

“Marlee!” I call out, my voice hoarse.

Her eyes flutter open at the sound of my voice. The panic in her expression softening, if only slightly.

“Ledger. I’m sorry…” She shakes her head, a tear slipping down her sweet face. “I didn’t ask them to pull you out of the game…”

I nearly drop to my knees as I stand beside the stretcher, cocooning her hand in mine. My gloves gone, and my stick forgotten, the roar of the arena might as well be on another planet.

“I pulled myself out, Mar. I saw the commotion and no way in hell am I going to let you go through this alone.”

“Ledger, it could be nothing,” she whimpers, wincing in pain with the slightest movement.

Yeah, it’s not nothing.

“Are you okay? Is it the baby? What’s going on?”

The paramedics start to wheel her down the concourse and one of them answers as we walk. “We’re taking her in now. She’s stable, but she needs monitoring. Could be preterm labor, could be dehydration. We won’t know until she’s seen.”

I round on the girls following behind. “Why didn’t you call me?” I ask them, my heart hammering in my chest. “Why didn’t you do something? Anything!”

“Ledger—” Marlee starts but Layken interrupts her.

“Ledger, I promise, I called it as soon as she doubled over. I got help immediately. She said she had a stomachache earlier today and then she started having these stabbing pains.”

“It really could be nothing,” Corrigan reports. “Could be gas, or a little indigestion.”

“Or…?” I stare at her, waiting for the worst possible scenario. “Or?”

She gives me a sympathetic glance and releases her breath. “Or it could be a lot of things. Some not so concerning and some are a little more serious. We really won’t know until we get her into the ER and have a better look.”

“I didn’t want to worry you…” Marlee murmurs. “I don’t want you to get into any trouble. Ledger, you’re still wearing your skates. What did you do, fly off the ice?”

Too late babe. I’m already panicking and fuck yeah, I flew off the ice.

As fast as I fucking could.

I lean forward and kiss her forehead, whispering fiercely, “I’m coming with you, Mar. I don’t care if it costs me the whole damn season.”

Her saddened eyes fill with tears and my chest tightens.

“Ledge…”

“I love you, Marlee Remington.” My words are sincere but urgent.

I love her.

I love her so damn much it’s killing me inside that I can’t free her of her pain. “There’s nowhere else I want to be except right here with you.”

The paramedics hasten their speed and I stay right with them, hand still clasped in hers as they roll her toward the exit.

When we pass the tunnel entrance, I hear a voice from the ice behind us.

“Dayne! She okay?” I don’t even have to turn my head to know it’s Griffin calling out to me.

Right.

Game must be over now.

Did we win?

I don’t even fucking care.

“Don’t know Griff.” I can feel the quiver of my voice and pretend to clear my throat to cover up my fear before I tell him, “I’ll let you know. On our way out.”

“ You get her there safely, man! We love you Mar.”

As we approach the exit, I lift my head just in time to lock eyes with Coach. For just a moment, my asshole puckers and I fear he might read me the riot act about leaving the ice in the middle of the game, but to my surprise he doesn’t.

He nods and simply says, “Take care of your family, Ledger.”

“I will, sir.”

I don’t thank him.

And I don’t look back as we head out the door and into the ambulance.

Because I don’t give two shits about hockey right now.

I know I’m right where I need to be.

The soft thud of footsteps, the hum of machines, and the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of a fetal heart monitor are the only sounds I can focus on. The chaos of the hockey game is a world away now.

I’m seated next to Marlee’s hospital bed, still in my uniform. I finally got my skate off and am currently sporting sock-covered feet and wild helmet hair. I’m sure I look like a man who just sprinted off a battlefield. I suppose in a way, I did.

I hold Marlee’s hand in mine not allowing my gaze to roam anywhere else but on her. She looks pale, tired, but alert. Calm, even. Or at least she’s trying to be.

“You smell like the penalty box,” she finally whispers. Her eyes are slow to blink and I know she must be so exhausted.

“You scared the hell out of me, Mar.”

“You didn’t have to run off the ice like that.”

“ I’d do it again a thousand times,” I tell her, squeezing her hand and rubbing my thumb across the back of her hand. “It’s just a game. You? You’re not a game to me, Marlee.”

She smiles faintly. “You said you love me.”

“Do you need me to say that again a thousand times too?” I ask. “Because I do, and I will.”

She swallows and then says, “I love you too, Ledger.”

Her words take my breath away.

She loves me.

She said the words I’ve longed to hear.

The words I never thought I would hear in my adult lifetime.

“Mar…”

“You’re my person, Ledger,” she continues, reaching out her hand and pressing her palm to my cheek.

“I never thought I would be in this place. Pregnant and totally in love with my baby’s father, but here I am.

Looking at the man I love and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s the man meant for me. And I love him so much.”

Fuck. Me.

My chest relaxes and finally the adrenaline of the day expires and my emotions spill out of me. I try to fight back the tears but there’s no stopping them.

“I need you to be okay, Marlee. Please, God, be okay. Whatever is going on, we’re going to figure it out.

Together. And then I’ll never take another day with you for granted ever again.

” He takes my hand from his cheek and kisses my palm.

“I love you and I’ll do whatever I can to be the man you deserve.

I’ll never hurt you, Mar. I promise you that. I just need you to be okay.”

Please don’t leave me.

Don’t leave me like my parents did.

“Hey,” she coos, grabbing my hands and holding on tight until I look her in her glistening eyes. “We’re okay. I’m okay. The baby is okay. I promise. We’re going to be fine. At least, I hope we’re going to be fine, but I’m not going anywhere, okay? I promise.”

I nod, resting my forehead gently against her temple. For a moment, we simply breathe together, calming our racing hearts from the chaos of the day.

There’s a knock at the door, and a cheerful-looking ultrasound tech rolls in with a cart.

“Sorry to interrupt this cute moment,” she says, smiling brightly. “But we need to do a quick scan to check on the baby if that’s okay. The doctor wants to make sure everything’s where it should be and that there are no underlying issues.”

“Please,” Marlee says with an approving nod. “I’d be in a sheer panic if I wasn’t already hearing the fetal heartbeat telling me the baby is still in there and not trying to check out early.”

She pushes up her gown, and I stand next to the bed, my eyes fixed on the monitor.

Please let the baby be okay.

Please God, let it be okay.

The tech presses the ultrasound wand against Marlee’s belly, and in a second, the room fills with those quick, watery whoosh-whoosh-whoosh heartbeats again.

Music to my ears.