Page 59 of Taming Tyler Hayes

She narrowed her eyes at him. “About what?”

“Interesting timin’, eh? You gonna pretend you don’t remember what happened after I left the hospital? Before you moved, when I came over to ‘talk’?”

“That was…no.” She dismissed him.

“You ever tell him? Because if you recall, I got permission. Did you? Get Jake’s permission before you fucked me one last time?”

She turned away from him, crossing her arms. “Ty…”

“Is it? Because neither of us had a condom, Mar. And we did it anyway.”

She shook her head, still facing away from him. “I…took a Plan B.”

“Did you?”

She flipped around. “Yes, Ty! I did. The math wouldn’t even work anyway. Physically impossible. It’s…Jake’s. OK? It’s Jake’s.” She looked away. “It has to be Jake’s.”

“Right. You keep fuckin’ tellin’ yourself that. I’ll just make sure I come around on holidays.”

Before she’d moved to Florida, she’d spent a little time with each of them alone so she could say goodbye. Her time with Ryan had mostly been spent with him gushing about how in love with Hayes he was, but her time with Hayes had ultimately led to them having sex.

Before they’d done the deed, he’d called Ryan. And Ryan, cognizant of what a complicated situation the three of them had, gave him the green light.

“Look,” Ryan had said. “Whatever you have to do, you do. So long as we agree to never, ever talk about this again. Ever.”

She’d always been a bit of a gray area with both of them anyway.

Amara had done the math; the timeline didn’t work.

That was, until she’d gone to the doctor last week and they moved her due date up two weeks based on the fetal measurements, admitting that they’d gotten the original date wrong.

That? Made the timeline at least plausible, combined with the fact that she had meant to take a Plan B, but with all the chaos of the move, she couldn’t remember if she actually had.

“It’s Jake’s, not yours. And I’m sorry, but you’re gonna tell Ryan what happened or I will.”

Hayes wiped his eyes and started back toward the house.

“Hey!” she called desperately, his back turned toward her. “Tyler, I…you know I wouldn’t fuck up your career. You’re too young. It…I would never.”

He stopped walking. “Yeah. And you know I wouldn’t fuck up your perfect little life with Jake. So…forget it. The math, right? Just like you said.” He turned back to face her and pointed at her. “But if that kid grows up to be an NHL all-star with a giant fuckin’ cock, we both know why.”

He opened the door to the house and went inside, not waiting for her. He made his way through the foyer and turned into the living room, where Ryan and Jake were seated on opposite couches, both messing around on their phones.

Ryan noticed Hayes standing there. “Hey. Are you…”

“Rook, we need to talk,” he interrupted solemnly. “Now.”

Ryan stood up, nervously putting his phone in his pocket and walking toward his boyfriend. “Hayes? Is everything OK?”

“We need to talk. Now.”

???

“What’s the…what’s wrong?” Ryan asked, as they entered Amara's office, Hayes pulling the door shut behind them. “Hayes? Talk to me.”

“I, uh, I…,” Hayes fumbled, pacing back and forth while running a hand through his hair. “Shit. So, this is a big step for me, for us, and I feel like everything’s about to change.”

“Yeah, it is. That’s kind of the point. You can’t keep going like this.”

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