Page 9 of Sweet Thing

The baby was young, maybe six months. Or ten. I knew nothing about baby ages. Weirdly, the second she landed in my arms, she stopped crying and stared up at me with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

“Oh good, she likes you!” Vicki unshouldered a carry-all bag and dumped it at my feet. “Here’s the thing, Lars. I can’t do this right now.”

My gaze snapped to hers as a sense of foreboding overcame me, or more than what I’d experienced the second I laid eyes on my one-night stand and wondered what the hell she was doing here.

“Do what?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t reach out earlier.”

Dread seeped deeper into my bones.

“What’s going on here?” The words sounded muffled, like I was speaking underwater.

“She’s yours, Lars. Meet your daughter.”

ChapterTwo

Lars

I thinkshe just said this kid was mine.

She said something else, about not being able to dothis, whatever this was, but for now I had to focus on the first part of the shit equation.

This kid was …mine?

Because Vicki had omitted pertinent details about her relationship status the first time we met, my reaction was slow. Should I take it at face value? Assume it was a shakedown? Laugh at the fact my teammates were yanking my nerves-taut chain?

People were starting to pay attention now. A woman had just handed a baby to a professional hockey player in a bar, dropped a bag, and was now backing away.

As in dumping and dashing.

A baby.

I finally found my voice. “You need to explain this.”

“What’s to explain? Sometimes condoms fail.” She took another step back, a prelude to a breakaway.

I moved to follow her, like a tiger stalking prey, but a zombified one who was only learning to lurch. The baby was starting to feel heavier than the pit of dread forming in my gut.

So many questions. I tried to prioritize them into immediate need-to-knows.

“Why am I only hearing about this now?”

“I’ll be in touch in a few days.” She turned tail and fled.

I couldn’t chase her down, not with this new weight in my arms. I turned to Adeline. “Could you hold it?”

To be honest, I could have asked anyone else nearby. A teammate, a bartender, hell, Theo Kershaw had more experience with babies than anyone else I knew. But something innate knew that Adeline would know what to do.

My confidence was rewarded when she jumped into the fray with no hesitation and accepted the bundle into her safe embrace. Instinctively, I took an extra couple of seconds to make sure the little one was settled and ignored that peculiar shift in my chest at the sight of Adeline holding her.

If she was really mine …

“Vicki!” I quickstepped out of there and caught up with her outside the bar, which was probably better. Less teammate interference and more chance to scream my head off without some looky-loo filming it.

“I need an explanation here.”

She turned, teary-eyed, and my heart melted a fraction.

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