Page 139 of Three Pucks and a Baby

“No way!” I cried.

They broke into a sprint, and we met in the center of the room. Since Lindsey was twenty, she’d snuck away a few times to see me after she went away to college. But at sixteen, Hannah was still under my father’s thumb.

“I can’t believe you guys are here,” I said as I squeezed them tight.

“We can’t either.”

“Dad’s going to flip when he finds out we left,” Hannah laughed.

Lindsey rolled her eyes. “I’d love to see the look on his self-righteous face.”

“Better watch it. You don’t want to piss him off to where he stops paying for that fancy school you’re at,” I teased.

She shook her head. “I’d rather go into debt by taking out loans than have our family splintered like it is.”

“At least play the game until you graduate.” At her frustrated huff, I replied, “Then you can tell him to go fuck himself.”

“Bennett,” Mom chided behind me.

Snorting, I replied, “Considering you’re here for my illegitimate child’s baby shower, a few curse words shouldn’t surprise you.”

Mom fiddled with the gold cross around her neck. “Yes, well, Laura said that the two of you might be getting married before the baby is born.”

At the allusion to marriage, every molecule in my body seemed to explode as a roar of panic swept through me. When I glanced at Vivian, she wore what I imagined was the same expression of fear that I did.

“No one’s said anything about marriage,” Theo piped up from behind us.

Mom frowned at me. “You’re not getting married?”

“Maybe someday, but not anytime soon,” I replied.

Turning around, Mom stared at Laura. “But you said they were getting married.”

Laura tittered nervously as she glanced around us. “When you assumed that, I didn’t correct you.”

“Why, Mom?” Vivian demanded.

With an apologetic look, Laura replied, “I was afraid she wouldn’t come if she thought you weren’t getting married.”

Mom shook her head. “I still would’ve come.”

“You would?” I asked.

“Oh, honey, of course I would have.” She placed her hand on my cheek. “There’s nothing you can do that would make me not love you.”

Although it was the worst possible time to think it, least of all say it, I knew I had to. “Even if I was in love with a man?”

Both Mom and Laura gasped. As my mother stared at me in horror, Laura asked, “Why would you say such a thing, Bennett?”

When I looked at Vivian for confirmation, she nodded while Grayson groaned and buried his head in his hands.

“Because it’s the truth, ma’am.”

“But you’re in love with Vivian,” Mom protested.

I nodded. “That’s true. I love Vivian with everything within me.”

“So you don’t love a man?” Laura asked her expression one of confusion.

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