Page 39 of Hooked On Them

I excused myself from the conversation, gave it a beat, then casually drifted closer. I didn’t knock or open the door but hovered nearby, waiting to see if she’d come out.

Coach Lovell walked down the hall right toward me. “Hoping for some ice dance time again?”

“Uh… no. Just checking on a couple of things.” I kept my voice neutral, even though my face felt like it was betraying me. Did he suspect something was going on between me and Nora?

He paused, like he might press, then gave a short nod. “Don’t stay too late. You need to rest up before our away series.”

“Yes, sir.”

He tapped my arm with his clipboard and continued on down the hall. The moment he turned the corner, I headed the opposite direction toward the same corridor Dominic had vanished into.

The hallway was quiet, the buzz of post-practice activity fading with every step. I passed the rehab room, then the conditioning space, and found him sitting on the bench outside the weight room, hunched over his phone like it held the answers to all his problems.

I stopped a few feet away, close enough that he’d hear me breathing if he wasn’t so absorbed in scrolling. His face was a wreck with red-rimmed eyes and flared nostrils, and his knuckles were white against the black of his phone case.

“Dom.”

His head jerked up, eyes wild for a split second before recognition set in. He immediately darkened his screen and shoved the phone into his pocket.

But not before I saw what he was searching for.

Pregnancy.

Oh, fuck.

My whole body went cold as the pieces snapped into place with brutal clarity. There had been a weird energy between them, and Nora had been a little off-kilter.

“What do you want?” His words came out hoarse, like he’d been screaming—or holding back screams.

“Saw you bolt from Nora’s office looking like you’d seen a ghost.” I aimed for easygoing, leaning against the wall with forced nonchalance while my mind raced through a thousand scenarios, none of them good. “Thought I’d check if you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.” He launched himself up so fast that the metal bench slammed against the cinder block wall with a hollow clang that echoed down the empty corridor. “Just heading out.”

I stepped sideways, putting my body between Dominic and freedom. The corridor felt smaller with both of us in it, the fluorescent lights casting harsh shadows across his face that made the panic even more obvious. “Cut the bullshit, Wilson. What happened?”

“Nothing. Coaching stuff.” He tried to sidestep me, his eyes darting past my shoulder like he was mapping an escape route.

“Coach stuff doesn’t make you search pregnancy forums in a panic.” I kept my voice low and gentle, remembering how he’d looked exactly this panicked the time his father had shown up unannounced at practice last season. Dominic needed an ally right now, not another source of pressure.

He froze, the remaining color draining from his already pale face. “You were spying on me?”

“I have eyes.” I crossed my arms. “And you weren’t exactly being subtle.”

Dominic’s jaw worked silently, like he was chewing on words he couldn’t quite spit out. Then he sank back down onto the bench, all the fight draining out of him at once. “She’s pregnant. And it’s mine. Well, so she says.”

Even though I’d already figured it out, hearing him say it knocked the wind out of me. My chest constricted, a complicated tangle of emotions I didn’t have time to untangle.

“Holy shit,” I managed. Thoughts? Gone. Just static. The fluorescent lights were suddenly too bright and too harsh for this kind of conversation. “How... when did this happen?”

“Remember that charity thing I went to on a yacht?”

“Yeah.” I remembered because he’d texted me increasingly tipsy complaints about the whole thing all evening.

“It was a mistake. A fucking mess of a mistake. One time...” He paused, grimacing. “Well, technically two.” He dropped his head into his hands, fingers digging into his scalp hard enough to leave marks. “And now everything’s screwed.”

I lowered myself onto the bench next to him, leaving enough space that he wouldn’t feel crowded. I’d known Dominic for years, seen him at his lowest, but never quite like this.

“Did she just tell you?”

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