Page 88 of Puck Princess

“Did you use the whole damn thing?”

“Bro, I ate Ramen for a month.” I chuckle. “Unless Callie wants it in our room, it might be going into storage for a bit. I have to make room for the baby.”

Lance whistles. “That’s fucking wild.”

“If you’re gonna tell me I’m whipped, save your breath. Dax already did.”

“Ah, so that’s how his shoulder got fucked.” Lance laughs at his own joke. “No, I was talking about you being a dad—it’s fucking wild.”

“If you’d told me six months ago that I’d be a dad before the year was out, I wouldn’t have believed you. I never saw this for myself.”

“What? Really?” Lance looks more surprised than I think he has any right to. “It’s wild that it’s happening now—and like this—but you’ll make a great dad, O. You take care of everyone—your sister, the idiots we work with, Callie. You’re a natural.”

I have no idea what to say to any of that, so I’m grateful when Dax starts yelling about pizza from the other room.

Moving furniture isn’t how I would’ve chosen to spend today, but as we head back into the kitchen, everyone is laughing and talking and having a good time. I realize I have a lot to be thankful for right now.

Callie is positively glowing, just standing there with her soda looking flat out like forever.

I’m about to beeline towards her, maybe talk her into sneaking out of the apartment and putting that emergency stop button in the elevator to good use. But as I pass our bedroom, I hear something inside.

The door is cracked, and I poke my head in to find Spencer standing at the foot of our bed.

“The fuck you doing in my room?” I ask. Though I realize immediately I don’t actually care. “You need to learn to mind your business, Santos.”

Spencer just looks at me smugly. “I think you’d be surprised how much of your business and my business coincide.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Spencer bites his bottom lip, chewing on his next words. If Coach wasn’t in the other room, I’d give him something else to chew on.

I’ve never wanted to knock a man’s lights out quite the way I want to wreck Spencer Santos.

“The pizza is here. Grab a slice and leave.”

“That how you say ‘thank you?’” he mutters, heading for the door.

I step in front of him, blocking him in. As much as it physically pains me not to hit him, I ball my hand at my side.

“That’s how I remind you where your place is. You need to learn who is in charge, in my home and at the rink.”

“Captain it like a true man and maybe I would. Then again… probably not.”

He tries to slip past me, but I shove him into the hall.

The asshole bounces off the drywall, and I want to use his skull as a battering ram.

The conversation in the other room dies down as he whirls back to me. “What the f?—”

“Get out,” I snarl.

Spencer laughs, but he’s livid. I can see it in the set of his jaw. “I came here to help and you’re making me leave?”

“You came here to be an insufferable asshole, so yeah, I am.” I shove his shoulder again. “Get. Out.”

“Owen?” Callie appears at the end of the hallway. Her voice is strained, scared.

I don’t know if she’s worried about me or what I’ll do to Spencer. Either way, she doesn’t need to bother. I can handle my own, and Spencer deserves whatever is coming to him.

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