Page 44 of Chasing The Goal
She peeked at me through her fingers. “This is so not how I imagined this conversation going.”
Darren appeared behind Connor and me in the doorway, both looking wildly entertained.
“Wait,” Darren said. “What's going on?”
"I'm pregnant, Coach doesn't know yet,"
"Hot damn, hottie Mallory is making a mini me," he slapped me on the shoulder "Look at that Jay man, you are going to have two of her to oggle over!"
Mallory blinked. “Technically, yes.” she completely ignored Darren's extra comments.
Connor squinted. “And you’re—Jaymie’s—so are you two—?”
I turned to face them fully, my cheeks red. “No. We are just friends… I'm just a shoulder to lead on, since we live in the same building,” I was prattling on, clearly not keen to talk about the subject either.
Darren leaned against the frame, curious now. “You’re helping her though?”
“Yeah,” I said simply. “She’s doesn't have any family or much friends in the city. We are two floors apart, it would be cruel to ignore a friend in need.”
Mallory spoke up from the screen. “It’s a long story. well, shorter than this pregnancy.” she joked, she always found the silver lining even at her own expense.
There was a pause. Then Connor, softly: “Damn.”
She smiled then, just a little. “I’ll let you get back to it, talk to you guys later."
I waited until the screen went black before turning to the guys. “Can we please keep this private? She’s not ready for the team gossip mill.”
Connor nodded. “Of course. Sorry, man.”
Darren clapped me on the back. “She’s a strong gal. And so are you.”
I shrugged, heart beating heavier than it had on the ice. “Trying to be.”
The rest of the night passed in a blur of cheap beer and chirping each other over highlight reels, but I kept checking my phone like it owed me something. At one point, Logan nudged me.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just… invested.”
Later, in the quiet of our shared room after lights-out, my phone buzzed again.
Mallory
Glucose test tomorrow morning. Gross orange drink and all.
Rescue me asap.
You’ll be fine.
You’ve survived worse.
Like what?
The mens locker room, post game
Accurate but not nearly as bad as this
Thanks for earlier, by the way. For having my back.
