Page 42 of In The Game

“Who’s his father?”

“Are you serious?” She shoves at me again, but I’m too big for her to budge.

“You need to tell me if he’s my son.”

She gawks at me and then narrows her eyes. “I don’t owe you shit. You weren’t the only guy I slept with. I’m a puck slut, remember?”

My nostrils flare. The disparaging term irritates me. “Yeah? The condom break with any of them?” I grit out.

She’s silent.Come on, sweetheart. I’ll wait.

“What do you want from me?”

What do I want?I want answers!

“When’s his birthday?”

More silence. It’s not doing her any favors. I almost laugh. Those thick pursed lips are telling me everything I need to know.

“Answer me, Raleigh.”

“May twentieth.”

That’s within the window I already calculated. “Holy fuck.” I run my hands through my hair and spin in a circle before standing in front of her again, this time begging. “You have to let me see him.”

She grabs me, digging her claws into my biceps. There’s a fire in her eyes like I’ve never seen before. She pushes me into the door and shoves her pointed finger into my chest.Shit, she’s strong.If I knew she wasn’t hurting inside, this would be such a turn-on.

“First of all, fuck you for even having theaudacityto request something like that after everything you put me through. Am I even allowed to be this close to you? And where’s your girlfriend?”

I flinch and screw up my face.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Her chest is almost touching mine. She steps back, so I use the opportunity to advance. “I have been looking for you for years—”

“That’s a bold-faced lie! I contacted you after I found out I was pregnant, and what did you say?”

I search her eyes, there’s zero memory of this. I would have fucking remembered someone telling me they were pregnant.

“I have no idea! Because you never told me!”

“You called me a liar, you insulted me, called me a whore, and threatened me with a restraining order. And, just so you know, I never wanted money. All I wanted was for you to know he existed. This isyourloss, not mine.Youmissed out—”

“A restraining order?!”Why the hell would I do that?Any Lakes player could back me up on this. They know I never got over her. She’s known asRunaway Raleighby the team, they constantly give me shit about her being my one who got away.

This time I’m the one stabbing my chest with my index finger. “I wanted to see you again. Why didn’t you leave your number, huh? This could have all been solved if you hadn’t slipped out in the middle of the night!”

“I did! I left it with your agent, your public relations team, your social media staff, I reached out to every avenue I could think of. I’ll never forget the things you told me, your messages said plenty about the type of person you are.”

“I never got any messages. I swear to God, Ral. Give me names. I don’t know what happened back then, but whatever you think happened, you’re wrong. And I’m not leaving today without your number.”

She scoffs. “Why do you even care? Why now? You have some amends you need to make for your own self-enlightenment? Well, fuck if I’m going to help you achieve that. You can rot for all I care.”

Holy shit. Who is this person?

I give a suspended blink and shake off her verbal slap in the face. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since that night.”

“Yeah, me neither,” she spits. “Nobodyfucksme like you do.”

Ouch.

---