Page 15 of On Thin Ice

“And it’s messing with you? Everything okay?”

I blew out a breath. “I’m going to have a kid.”

Micah’s eyes widened. Fuck, those words really just came out of my mouth.

“Damn. Okay, okay. And the woman? Are you together? Or was it a one-night stand? Wow.” He coughed out a laugh. “Wasn’t expecting you to ever say that.”

“Neither was I,” I said sardonically. “It was a fucking shock, for sure.” I raked one hand through my hair while gripping the stationary bike handle with my other so I didn’t fall over on my ass. Wouldn’t that be the perfect end to my epically shitty week?

“So,” Micah drew out.

“It’s someone I’ve had an on-again, off-again thing with for years, never really more than that. Her brother’s one of my old teammates.”

“Oh shit. Does he know?”

“Since I’m still breathing, I’m going with no. Also, she’s due in like four months and lives in San Francisco, and I was an asshole when she told me. Fuck. I never wanted kids.”

Guilt squeezed my chest. Yes, Ally’s words had been unexpected, but I’d been a total dick to her.

“Wow. Okay, so this is happening soon. What do you want? What does she want?” he asked.

“From me? Nothing. She wants nothing.” I couldn’t keep the slight twinge of defeat from my voice.

“Okay. So she doesn’t need you for anything, and you never wanted kids. That’s a win-win, right?”

“Fuck that. She’s having my kid,” I bit out.

Micah grinned. “Then you should probably talk to her and not be a jerk about it, don’t you think? If you want to be involved, you need to reach out and do something, idiot. The ball is in your court, so this isn’t a ‘wait and see what she wants to do next’ situation.”

I glared at him. “Why do I feel like you just played me?”

“Because I did. Clearly, you’ve been ruminating on all this shit since she told you, but when I mentioned the easy out, you immediately tried to bite my head off. So that’s your answer.”

“Fucking rude,” I muttered.

Then it was Micah’s turn to shrug.

“What if I don’t know what I’m doing? I’m twenty-five. What do I know about being a father?”

“From what I hear, parents just figure it out. You could always talk to Flower.”

“Why don’t I just call Ethan myself,” I grumbled.

“Holy shit. You knocked up Ethan Hartnell’s little sister?” Micah chuckled. “At least he’s one of the nicest guys in the league.”

“Yeah, when you’re not sleeping with his sister. He warned me off her for years.”

Micah chuckled. “Looks like that didn’t work.”

Then he slapped me on the shoulder. “Just talk to her. Apologize. How long since she told you?”

“Almost a week.”Six days, to be exact.

“Oof. That’s a lot of days, man. You better call her and truly apologize. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to tell you if she waited so long to do it.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m going to head home. Thanks, man, I appreciate it. And if you could just keep this between us?”

“Of course. Not my place to spread gossip. I’m a vault,” he said, squeezing my shoulder as he stood next to me.

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