Page 80 of Hooked On Them

Time seemed to suspend as we came, foreheads pressed together. I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.

When she finally lifted herself off me, collapsing beside me on the bed, I turned to look down at her. Her hair was a tangled mess, her lips swollen, and a light sheen of sweat made her skin glow.

I lay down beside her, my chest heaving like I’d skated six consecutive penalty kills. My body felt simultaneously weightless and impossibly heavy, like I’d been hollowed out and filled with something better.

I rolled onto my side, propping myself up on one elbow to look at her, and her eyes searched mine for what? Regret? There was none to find. Just a tangle of emotions I wasn’t equipped to sort through.

Mine.The word flashed through my mind before I could stop it, primitive and possessive.

No, not mine, I corrected myself. Nora wasn’t anyone’s. She was her own person, stubborn and strong and absolutely fucking magnificent. But what we had created together was ours.

I let my gaze drop to her stomach. My hand followed, palm hovering for a moment before gently resting against the warm skin there.

I moved down so my lips were against her skin. “Hey, GB,” I whispered.

“GB?”

I glanced up. “Gummy Bear. That’s what they looked like in the ultrasound.”

She laughed, the sound warming whatever coldness was left inside me. I moved back up the bed, and for a moment, the weight of what had happened, and was still happening, settled around us like a blanket.

“I don’t want to be like him.” It felt like the words were ripped from somewhere deep. “I don’t want to lose this.” I didn’t say whatthiswas. I didn’t know yet. But I knew it was worth fighting for.

Nora took my hand and squeezed it. “You won’t be like him.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I told you this before… because you’re worried about it.” She shifted to face me fully. “Assholes don’t worry about being assholes. They just... are.”

I snorted. “Profound.” I leaned down to kiss her, softly this time, all the urgency from earlier transformed into something gentler but no less intense.

When I pulled back, her eyes were serious again. “What are we doing, Dom?”

The question hung between us, heavy with implication. Whatwerewe doing? Playing house? Giving in to months of tension? Creating a family?

“I have no fucking idea,” I admitted. “But I’m not running anymore.”

She traced the line of my jaw with her finger. “Good, because GB’s going to have tiny little hockey skates before they can even walk, and they’ll need you to teach them.”

We had a lot to figure out still, especially with the mess we’d created with Miles and Carter. But as we lay there together, I realized there was no one else I’d rather figure it out with.

Chapter26

Christmas Blues

Miles

The apartment was too quiet, even with the game rerun playing low on the TV. I hadn’t turned on the lights, just the small tree in the corner, which blinked like it was trying to make up for the rest of the room. I hadn’t bothered to finish decorating it, just three mismatched ornaments dangling like they were ashamed to be there. Honestly, same.

Christmas used to mean something. A reason to head home, see my family, feel useful. But this year? My parents were on a cruise in the Caribbean for some last-minute “we finally deserve a real vacation” moment, and my younger sister had a wife, a new baby, and zero time for her older sibling. For the first time ever, I had nowhere to go.

And that was starting to sink in.

My phone buzzed beside me on the couch.

Nora: I’m coming over tonight. Need to give you your Christmas present before I leave for LA tomorrow. Also, it’s ridiculous I’ve never seen your apartment. Address, please.

I stared at it, my heart doing that thing it always did when her name lit up my screen. She had no idea what this year had done to me. How much I’d needed someone or something to remind me I still mattered.

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