Page 40 of On Thin Ice

“So distract him with that, and he’ll grow to love Dom,” Darcy said. “Or at least tolerate him.”

Laughter bubbled out of me. “Yeah, even tolerate may be a stretch. Let’s go to the suite. Or maybe we should grab seats near the glass?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in the room with all the WAGs right now. But being close to the glass and watching my brother potentially injure Dom wasn’t my idea of a good time, either.

“I vote suite. I’m sure everyone knows by now,” Darcy pointed out.

I sighed. “Okay, fine.” Before my secret had gotten out, I’d been looking forward to watching the game up close. To watching Dom up close. The last time I’d seen him in person, he’d been looking shell-shocked as I turned to leave his condo.

A few minutes later, we walked into the family suite. Penny, Amanda, Gabi, and Sophia all stopped talking to look at me.

“Hey, Ally. Fucking men are the worst gossips,” Rylie exclaimed. She was the coach’s daughter and currently dating Desmond, one of the players.

“So, I guess you all know, then,” I said.

She grinned. “Yup. Dom, huh? Makes sense. There’s always been something between the two of you. Bet Harty’s losing his mind.”

“Something like that,” I muttered.

“Ah. He’ll get over it. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters,” she replied.

“Thanks.” Rylie was always sweet to me.

“We’ve all been locker room talk at some point,” she said with a shrug. “Men are so much worse than us.”

“So true. Jake’s been pestering me about it for months,” Darcy chimed in.

“Get over here, Ally,” Penny called out, a bright smile on her face.

“I totally knew it,” Amanda said with a grin. She was engaged to the captain, Cheesy.

Penny rolled her eyes at her best friend. “You did not.”

“I did too. They were very flirty at your wedding,” Amanda said.

“True. But it clearly didn’t happen then,” Sophia said. “How long have you guys been a thing? Like, Ally and Dom 2.0?”

I snorted. “So not a thing. Ugh, I have no idea. I got pregnant when the Stampede were in town last March. Definitely not planned, and we’re not really a couple. But we’re figuring out how we’re going to co-parent, I guess.”

“Sit down. Need a cookie?” Penny asked.

I chuckled. “Definitely.”

“I’m on it. They’re from Devine,” Penny said, referencing her favorite local bakery.

“Now, fill us in. I mean, only if you want to,” Amanda said, taking the seat Penny had just vacated.

“Wait for me,” Penny yelled, rushing back with a full platter of cookies.

While we settled in, a few of the other WAGs joined us. I’d known these women for years and they’d been like family since Ethan had joined the team five years ago. There were very few secrets in the group.

“Yes. Dom is the father. No, I don’t know what’s going to happen because he lives in Denver, but like I said, we’re figuring everything out,” I said. “It’s super weird, but we’re focusing on the baby.”

“Think you’ll move to Denver?” Sophia asked.

“Um, we haven’t really talked about that,” I said. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities since my job was remote, but could I really leave my entire support system for a currently unstructured co-parenting agreement? No, that wasn’t happening. I needed them.

Thankfully, the game announcer started up, then the anthem was sung, and I got out of saying anything else.

Penny booted Amanda out of her seat right after the anthem so she could sit down next to me again, claiming auntie privileges, and she squeezed my hand. “Whatever you need, Ally. Anything. You know, you just have to ask. And don’t worry about your brother. He’ll get his head out of his ass eventually and be nice to Dom. He just wants you to be happy, and sometimes he gets a bit overprotective. We just have to call him out on his caveman ways.”

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