Page 95 of My Best Bet

“I'm always nice,” Kappy said.

“Ugh,” Piper rolled her eyes. “I hate men,” she said under her breath.

Kappy pouted out his bottom lip. “Me too, baby.”

“No.” Piper pointed a finger at him. “Do not give me your sexy eyes.” Taking one more up-down look at him with a frown on her face, she announced, “I can’t,” then stomped back to the kitchen to get away from him.

Kappy turned to me. “That didn’t go so bad, did it?”

I twisted my lips. “Could’ve gone worse I suppose.”

“She’s staying for the party, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, she might have to leave for Carl at some point, but–”

“Carl?” His eyebrows slammed down. “Who the fuck is Carl?”

“He’s–”

But Kappy was already marching into the kitchen before I could tell him.

A couple hours later, the party was in full swing. Most of the kids, including Lucy, Charlotte, and Sophia, were bundled in their coats and playing outside where an inflatable bouncy castle had been set up– we lucked out on having a rare, beautiful sixty-degree November day. A large game of mini-sticks was raging in the driveway and I think some of the dads were getting more into it than the kids. One mother already had to reprimand her husband to take it easy on the tiny kid playing goalie.

Colt’s house had filled up with a lot of the same women I saw in the player’s family room after the last Whalers game. Piper was chatting about ice dancing with two young moms in the living room.

“So, you’re Colt’s girlfriend?” a woman with wavy dirty-blonde hair and bright blue eyes asked. She was burping a tiny sleeping baby on her shoulder. “I’m Elsie, Henrik’s wife.”

That question had me staring like a deer caught in headlights. “Uh… I…”

Strong arms looped around my waist, and I was hit by his signature laundry and sandalwood scent. Thankful for the distraction, I looked up to find him grinning down at me.

“She is,” he said before turning his hat backwards and dropping a kiss on my lips. “You ladies want anything to drink?” His eyes landed on Elsie. “Oh, I think you got a little…” He grimaced, motioning to her back.

The baby had spit up gooey, white liquid all down her shirt. “Oh shoot.” She worried her lip. “Can you guys… Can you… uh…”

“I’ll hold her.” Colt moved to help her.

“I’ve got a couple extra tops in my car,” Piper offered.

“You’re sure?” she asked, looking from Colt to Piper, caught in indecision. “You can just go get Henrik if you want? Tell him we have to go.”

Piper waved off her concern and moved for the front door. “My car is my second closet. One sec.”

“Henrik’s busy outside teaching the little tyke in net not to be afraid of shots,” Colt added.

Elsie’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? No one’s getting hurt, are they?”

“Nah, they’ll be fine,” he said with a deep chuckle. “Here, I’ll take her, go get yourself cleaned up. Take your time, Els.”

She nodded and carefully placed the precious bundle in his muscular arms.

The baby let out a tiny cry from being moved, but as soon as Colt bounced his knees a little, the baby snuggled further into his arms and promptly fell back to sleep.

Studying the baby’s tiny button nose and little rosebud mouth, my heart wobbled.

“Wow… I can’t even believe Lu was ever this small,” he said, smoothing his thumb over the baby’s few strands of hair with reverence. “That time was such a blur.” He choked out a laugh before his face slightly creased. “I wish I would’ve appreciated it more to be honest, but I was drowning in spit up and dirty diapers, completely in over my head. JP and Kappy pretty much moved in to help me, and my mom came over almost every day.”

“What happened to–” I shut myself up. Now wasn’t the time to ask, not with all these people here.

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