Page 79 of A Major Puck Up

With a Wendy’s bag in one hand, my other arm looped through the handle of Vivi’s seat, and Finn at my side, I scan the park for our bench mate from yesterday.

Yesterday.

It feels like I’ve lived an entire life in the twenty-four hours that have passed since we were last here.

“You added another child to the brood. Weren’t getting enough advice from this one?” a voice says from behind us.

I spin and chuckle at the old man shuffling our way. “Shut it. This is—” I take a deep breath; this is going to take some getting used to. “This is Viviane, my daughter.”

He smiles warmly at her. “She’s beautiful.”

My heart expands with pride. She really is a beautiful child. Her cheeks are rosy from the cold, and she’s taking in the scene quietly, as always. I set her seat on the bench and press a kiss to one cheek, making sure her blanket is tucked in around her. “Here,” I say to our friend. “I brought you your burger.”

“All right,” he says, snagging the bag from me with a chuckle. “Let me get settled, and then you can explain how you ended up a dad between today and yesterday.”

I snort. “That obvious I’m new to this?”

He shakes his head. “You told me yesterday Peaches didn’t want kids and you did. I imagine if you already had one, that would have been a discussion long before you broke up.”

I shake my head, ready to brush off the topic. Millie is the last thing I should be talking about. While Finn chases squirrels, I spill every detail of the last twenty-four hours.

“And Peaches isn’t the baby’s mother?” he asks, his tone a little too judgmental for my liking.

I don’t know who the baby’s mother is, but it’s not Millie. Fuck, do I wish she were. Hell, I wish we were both this little girl’s parents. Not that she’d want that. She made it abundantly clear the last time we talked that she was nowhere near ready for that. “No.”

“Seems like you have a lot more on your plate than you did yesterday, huh?”

I rub at my little girl’s foot through the blanket, and when her big brown eyes hold mine, I nod. Before today, I would have told this man that without Millie, the likelihood of me becoming a father was nonexistent. Now this little girl owns my heart.

“Yeah, I think I have to let Peaches go.” I force a deep breath of fresh air into my lungs, willing it to clear my mind. “So tell me, Henry. What do you know about babies?”

THE HOCKEY REPORT

“Good Morning, Boston. Colton and Eliza here, and this is the Hockey Report.”

“It’s certainly a strange day in Boston,” Eliza says. “Not so sure it’s a good one, though. Not if the reports are true and Sebastian Lukov has been hired by New York.”

“It appears they are. New York has gone through several coaches over the past two years, and not one of them has been able to keep owner Ben Jones happy. Given the circumstances surrounding Sebastian’s leave from Boston, it’s hard to believe he’ll be a good fit for the team.”

“He didn’t leave, Colton. Gavin Langfield gave him a swift kick in the butt when he fired him.”

Colton’s responding laugh is weak. “Well, Brooks Langfield certainly kicked his butt. As for Gavin, the current owner and coach of the Boston Bolts seems to have a bit more on his plate these days too, so I doubt he’s too worried about where Sebastian landed.”

“Yeah, there are reports that Coach Langfield was seen wearing a baby at practice.”

“Any news about whose baby it is?”

Eliza sighs. “Nope, but let me tell you, after seeing the pictures floating around on the internet of Gavin wearing an adorable chubby baby girl out on the ice, I’m pretty sure there will be a line of women hanging around the rink at all hours if someone doesn’t claim them soon.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

MILLIE

Still March

Everyone knows the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

I’ve run the gambit of them over the last few months. The moment Gavin walked out of his apartment, leaving me there with my mouth on the floor, I entered my first stage: denial.

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