Page 76 of Press Your Luck

She nodded. "I just found out it’s triplets. I've been overwhelmed and scared and—"

"Too scared to tell me? I could be there for you, Naomi. Jesus fucking Christ. Do you know how often I've been there for you even though you pushed me away?" I scoffed and stepped back, running my fingers through my hair, hating the pain that seized my chest.

"I was going to tell you, Pierce, I truly was."

I looked at her again, wishing things were different but now recognizing how it truly was. "Now that I do know, rest assured that you will not keep this baby... these babies... from me."

Fear shone in her eyes. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to be a father. If you don't think you can handle your career and the babies, you can give them to me. I’ll do it."

Her expression was stricken, as if I had reached across and slapped her. "You won't take my babies away from me."

She could've stabbed me through the heart, and that statement still would have hurt more. The idea that she thought I’d take them away from her gutted me. It told me that she didn’t know me, either. How the fuck had I fallen for her?

"To think that I was in love with you, trying to figure out a future for us." I shook my head.

"How can you love me if you don't believe me?"

"Because, as it turns out, you're not the woman I thought you were."

Her eyes contained a mixture of pain and fury. “You don't have to worry about anything, Pierce. I'll take care of these babies. You don't have to have anything to do with me."

"Like hell will I abandon these kids." Unable to look at her any longer, I exited through the main door, wishing I had never opened the adjoining doors between our rooms. It wouldn't happen again. I was done being a fool over Naomi.

34

Naomi

Iwas such an idiot to forget that the sonogram picture was in my purse. I was an even bigger idiot for not telling Pierce about the pregnancy sooner. I tried to work up more anger at him for not believing me. Had he really loved me and I blew it? If that was true, wouldn't he forgive me? Wouldn’t he have stayed so we could talk it out?

I knew deep down that the situation was all my fault. Considering what Jeannie had done, I could see why Pierce would feel like he was living in déjà vu. Plus, there was the fact that up until the tournament, I did everything I could to push him away. Once, I’d told him that what we had done was wrong. So, what choice did he have but to think I was a selfish, callous person who didn't care about him?

It was funny, and unfair, how much you realized you loved and wanted someone the moment you knew you couldn't have them. Maybe over time, as we interacted in decisions about the babies, he would come around and I would be able to prove myself to him.

I learned another interesting fact of life and how quickly priorities could change because my job of proving I could be a good coach now seemed secondary to wanting to prove to Pierce that I could be the woman he had loved.

I thought about the flight I was supposed to be on with him and Porter the next day to return home. Normally, I would have used that time to make my case, but Porter would be there and it didn't seem like this was a discussion he should be witness to.

To avoid the awkwardness, when I got up the next morning, I booked a flight, packed up my things, and headed to the airport. I texted Pierce a message letting him know I was flying home on my own so he didn't think I was trying to run off with the babies. I received a read-receipt text, but no response from him. I didn’t hear from him that day nor a response to any of the texts and voice messages I’d left over the next two weeks. When he did text, he wanted to know when my next doctor’s appointment was and where.

It was ripping me apart to know I’d hurt him. To know I’d hurt our babies by killing any chance that we could be a family. I wanted to talk to Analyn and Ruby because I felt so alone and confused, but I had to consider that their loyalty would be with Pierce since their husbands’ loyalty would be to Pierce. It was one thing to be my friend when I was part of a rival team, but it was a whole other when I was accused of lying to and betraying Pierce.

One night after a crying jag, I had an epiphany that wallowing in my mistakes wasn't going to change anything. I had to focus on the things that I had control over. The things that people were counting on me to be a part of. That meant I needed to take my team to the championships, and I needed to have a serious discussion with Todd on how I could be both the coach and a mom. I vacillated on when I should talk to him since it was quite possible that he'd fire me. If I could win the championship, or at least get us into the championship game, I'd have more leverage. But my belly was swelling, and I didn't have that much time before people would begin to notice.

Maybe I was underestimating Todd, considering he'd made the wild and crazy decision to hire me in the first place. In fact, knowing him, I could see him deciding that the triplets would be mascots. While I couldn't let that happen, I had to consider that while Todd had some strange ideas for marketing, I thought deep down, he really did believe in me. If I could stay on as coach, not only would I be proving that a woman could make it in a men's hockey league as a coach, but that a single mother could do it as well.

I made the appointment to meet with Todd before our next practice. Regardless of how things went, I intended to tell the team as well. I hoped that it wouldn't matter to them one way or the other, but it was quite possible that they’d revert to their old behavior, in which case we wouldn't make it to the championships. I had to hope that this winning streak, and the very real prospect of winning the league championship, was a bigger desire than getting back at me for being a woman.

"Naomi, sit down." Todd looked at me over his desk, his head tilted to the side. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, at least physically. But I do have something important I need to talk to you about."

He held up both his hands in surrender. "Whatever's on social media, I didn't do it."

I shook my head. My lips twitched upward slightly. Of course he’d think that's why I was here. "No, it's not that." The truth of the matter was all the drama around the media had shrunken down to not being important compared to these babies and what I had done to Pierce.

I took a deep breath, unsure of how to proceed even though I'd practiced talking to him so many times. "I'm pregnant." Blurting it out seemed like the best way to go.

---