Page 43 of Hooked On Them

I needed to talk to someone who wasn’t directly involved, someone who understood complicated situations.

I grabbed my phone and navigated to my contacts, finding my sister’s name while silently hoping she wasn’t currently in the middle of recording. Josie was a nanny by day and clandestine puppeteer by night, filming relationship advice and adult content for her YouTube and OnlyFans.

It was exactly why I needed to talk to her about this situation; she’d listen to me without judgment… I hoped.

The phone rang four times before Josie’s face appeared on my screen, her hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head and a smear of something shiny on her cheek.

“That better be glitter on your cheek and not jizz, or I’m hanging up,” I said by way of greeting.

Josie rubbed at her cheek and looked at her hand. “It’s glitter from an art project.” She squinted at me through the screen. “You look like shit.”

“Wow, thanks, sis.” I repositioned myself on the couch, pulling a throw pillow against my chest. “Are you alone?”

Josie’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, why? Is this one of those calls where I need wine? Because I can go get wine.”

“It might be a tequila-level conversation.” I chewed on my bottom lip, suddenly unsure how to deliver the news. There was no good way to say, “surprise, I’m knocked up by my player in a completely unprofessional workplace scandal,” so I did what any rational adult would do: I blurted it out like I had two times already. “I’m pregnant.”

Josie’s face froze, then she leaned so close to the camera I could count her eyelashes. “I’m sorry, I think we had a connection issue. For a second there, I thought you said you were pregnant, which is impossible because you’re the one who lectured me for twenty minutes about effective birth control last Christmas.”

“My IUD fell out or something.”

“Your...” Josie’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit, Nora.” She disappeared from the frame for a solid minute, then returned with a glass that definitely wasn’t filled with water. “But you always use condoms.”

“I did… both men did, and that was the second failure. Two condoms rubbing together is not the best idea.” I would have laughed at her expression if this situation wasn’t so messy.

When she didn’t respond, I gave her a very brief rundown of what happened and ended with, “It’s Dominic Wilson’s.”

Josie choked on her drink, spluttering and coughing. “The hockey player? The one whose dad is basically Satan in shoulder pads? Dad is going to lose his shit, Nora.”

“No one is telling Dad.” I slumped deeper into the couch, wishing it would swallow me whole. “I’m stuck in this impossible situation where I’m his coach, and he’s the father of my baby, and the PR nightmare is about to go nuclear.”

Josie took another long sip of her drink. “It’s not ideal, but people have babies with coworkers all the time. You’re both adults. I’m really surprised you slept with someone you’d have to see again.”

“You and me both… it just kind of happened. There was all this tension, and I hadn’t had sex in months. It was a moment of weakness.”

She snorted. “I understand that.”

“It’s more complicated than that, though.” I lowered my voice, even though I was alone. “Dominic’s teammate, Miles, suggested we tell everyone he’s the father so that Dominic can still be involved.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Josie leaned in again, her expression incredulous. “So your solution is to pretend a completely different hockey player knocked you up? That’s not a solution; that’s a CW drama.”

“I know it sounds extreme…”

“It doesn’tsoundextreme. Itis. Trust me, I know something about keeping secrets.” She was probably thinking about how she’d kept her puppet show a secret for months. “Secrets have expiration dates, Nora. The longer you wait, the messier it gets when it finally spills.”

“I know.” I put my face against the throw pillow and let out a mini scream. “But the fact that it’s his makes things complicated. He has a track record of sleeping around, so we can’t exactly say we were already seeing each other before I started coaching. Miles is in the clear on that front.”

Josie’s expression softened. “Look, I get it. I do. Sometimes you need a little time to figure out the right way to handle things. But this lie? It’s going to blow up in your face eventually.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Announce to the world that I had a yacht threesome that resulted in a pregnancy with one of my players?” I’d probably leave out the threesome part.

“No, of course not.” Josie sighed. “You do what you need to do. Buy yourself some time. But start thinking about an exit strategy from this lie, because the longer it goes on, the harder it’ll be to undo.”

I nodded, grateful for her understanding. “I’m scared, Jo.”

“I know you are. But you’ve never backed down from a challenge before, and you’re not starting now.” She gave me a small smile. “You know I’ve got your back, no matter what. Even when your life choices make mine look sensible by comparison, which is really saying something.”

That pulled a reluctant laugh from me. “Thanks, Jo.”

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