IMPACT: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (17 page)

Chapter 31

Olivia

"A stutter?" I repeated.

He was looking at me so gravely, so seriously, that I knew this wasn't a joke. And for once in my life, I managed to catch myself and not ruin the moment.

"So you don't talk to me sometimes because you're embarrassed?"

He nodded and turned away, the tips of his ears reddening. The doors swished open and by the way he bolted from the elevator, I could tell he needed a break to collect himself.

I'd figured that much out about him so far.

Quietly, I followed behind him, all of the questions I wanted to be answered swirling around at the tip of my tongue. But I waited. And as I waited to hear what he had to say, the tightness in my chest that had dwelt there since I'd met his brother started to loosen.

His
brother
.

I sat down next to him. "I'm going to ask you a few things, okay? Just nod or shake your head until you're ready to talk."

He placed his hands on his knees and looked angry for a moment, and then nodded.

All around us were the sounds of babies being born. Maybe that's why I was so eager to get past this problem. At any other point in my life, I would have harped on this, made him pay, made him think he owed me.

But this, this baby... fuck it, we were in it together, right? I wasn't doing it alone. That was for fucking sure.

So I needed to be a grown-up and find a way for us to work it out.

"Your brother spent time in prison," I began.

He nodded.

"Is he violent?"

He shook his head.

"Do I need to be worried around him?"

He shook his head harder.

"I'm going to trust you on this."

He nodded once.

I thought back to the blue-eyed man in his apartment. "He's kind of creepy though."

Brad opened his mouth. "Marc spent three years in prison. He's an idiot, but he's not violent."

"What did he go in for?"

Brad shook his head. "He did the books for a company that defrauded the city."

I winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah. He says he was just trying to keep his job. He wasn't innocent in the traditional sense of the word, but he wasn't malicious either. Just," he sighed, "an idiot."

"Hmm," I said. "So he's a tax guy?"

"Yeah, or was. Can't find a job now. Hence why he's living in my apartment and scaring the shit out of my girlfriend."

This time, it was my turn to nod silently. The wheels in my head were turning.
Maybe I do know a finance guy after all, Kyle.

"Can we talk about the other thing?" I finally asked.

He closed his eyes and looked pained.

I chose my words carefully. "You don't...you talk just fine."

He shook his head. "When I'm careful. When I choose the right words and I work hard to stay relaxed."

Something sharp ripped through the hole that had been healing in my chest. I stood up and stalked to the nurses' station and loudly demanded that they tell me how Candace was doing. I yelled at them because I wanted to yell at Brad, but that would be really fucking counterproductive. In the midst of my tantrum, I could hear how terribly petulant I sounded, demanding to know how Candace was doing, which room she was in, whether they were sitting on their asses or actually helping my friend....

When they finally lost patience and ordered me to sit down and wait, I was almost relieved. Because now that I'd lost my shit on the professionals, I could come back and sit next to Brad without killing him.

"I mean, I didn't expect them to come let me deliver the baby or whatever," I babbled, as I sat down. "Except, maybe I kind of did."

"Let's just sit tight. You told them to tell Ian and Candace we're here, right?"

"Yeah, under pain of death. Now, what were you saying?"

He grimaced. "You mean before you stood up and went apeshit on the nurses for no reason?"

"I had a reason," I sneered.

"You listened to what I was saying?"

"Oh I listened, Brad. And what I heard was that you can't talk to me," I took a deep breath, "you can't find your words when you're with me..." tears stung the corners of my eyes. "Because you can't relax around me."

Chapter 32

Brad

I took a deep breath. "I didn't say that, exactly."

"In so many words, yes, you did. Which means you still don't trust me."

"Olivia," I sighed. "I think...I th-think...shit."

Her eyes went wide. "Really?"

I looked down and pressed my lips together. Distressed, she stood up and knelt in front of me, grabbing my hands.

"Look, I think I get it. I know I do a lot of talking, but that's how I figure shit out, okay?" She cast her eyes down and I nodded, my tongue feeling like a leaden weight in my mouth. "When we started, we tried so damn hard not to make this a thing. And then it became a thing, so we did a fucking U-turn and fell in love and all that poetic shit. But we haven't escaped our start yet." She grimaced and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, blinking hard. "I just, I know that I haven't escaped it. I'm working on trusting you, Brad, but I keep getting all tripped up because I'm still expecting you to leave. All the men in my life, they've all left," she sniffed and quickly wiped her nose, "and fuck, it's so pathetic for me to be sitting here and claiming daddy issues and I hate that about myself which is why I worked so damn hard not to care if you left."

She looked up at me with those eyes, the most beautiful eyes I had even seen. "If you left me, then I was right and I didn't have to change a single thing about my life. Which is why I kept pushing you to go."

I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to hers. We sat there, breathing for a moment. Until the pull of her lips dragged me in and I was kissing her again.

She clung to me just as hard as I held her, and I quickly lost myself in those lips, that mouth, those little sounds she made. Everything about her was maddening in every sense of the word. I was completely fucked for her and I knew I would be for the rest of my fucking life.

"Fuck," she exhaled as she pulled back, panting hard.

I kissed the corner of her mouth, swiping away the tear that hung there. "We'll figure it out," I told her, holding her hands in mine. "Because Liv, I'm
not
leaving. I'm staying right here, with you." I kissed each finger in turn. "I love you."

"I love
you
," she sniffed. Then she nodded and started to smile. "Okay," she whispered. "I'm not going anywhere either."

"Good," I grinned. "And I'll tell you why I'm staying."

"Yeah?"

"Because on the scale of one to ten, you're a nine and I'm the one you need."

She looked up at me sharply. "That's awful." But her smile told me otherwise.

"I'm hurt. I thought it was completely appropriate for the situation."

"The whole point is to be
inappropriate,
" she laughed, nibbling at my ear. "I mean, here we are in a hospital waiting room and I'm going to tell you that your ass is so fine it's a shame you have to sit on it."

"Feel this shirt?" I asked

"Yeah?"

"Guess what it's made of?"

She wrinkled her nose. "If you say boyfriend material, I'm leaving."

I was laughing into that perfect place on her neck when a nurse cleared her throat. "Excuse me? Hate to interrupt but...your friends wanted me to tell you that you can come in."

Olivia popped up so fast she nearly clocked me in the jaw. "She had the baby?" she gasped.

The nurse nodded. "Follow me."

Chapter 33

Olivia

"I'm going to drop it," I said, completely panicked."

Candace sighed tiredly and reached for the alien – potato that was making strange little mewling sounds in my arms. "Give her back, then," she said, reaching for her daughter.

I made to hand the baby back with an audible sigh of relief, but then Brad reached out his arms. "Can...can I hold her?" he ventured. He was looking right at me.

The way he was looking at me, it was like he already knew. He was just waiting for me to get the courage to tell him.

He slid his arms under mine, and the baby into them. "Yeah, here we go," he whispered to her. "I've got you little girl." She made a little yawping sound and he started swaying as if on instinct. She immediately closed her eyes.

"Aw, that looks good on you," Candace cheered, clearly whacked out of her mind on painkillers. "Liv you guys should totally...."

"And that's enough of that!" I chirped, elbowing her in the ribs.

But when I looked to where she was looking, my breath caught in a gasp.

Brad's huge body was hunched protectively over the tiny, fragile baby in his arms.  He widened his eyes and then smiled, making dorky faces at the little doughy bundle, and his eyes shone happily.

He almost looked like he could cry.

I walked over and put my hand on his arm. "Hey," I whispered. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I just wanted to stand there with him and share this moment. Because it was the moment that everything slid into place and I knew he'd be just as great of a dad as he was a great man.

He looked up at me. "Hey," he said softly.

The little girl opened her mouth in a tiny, perfect yawn.

Then she screwed up her face and Brad looked startled.

"Guys? I think she just pooped on me."

"Give her back," Candace demanded. Brad handed her over and Candace fell back against the pillow, looking completely wrecked. "On second thought, call the nurse. I'll deal with enough poopy diapers soon enough."

"Yeah you will," Ian agreed.

She looked at him with a new, fierce glare. "Oh you're going to be getting to deal with your share too, don't you be thinking any differently."

Big bad Ian Carter looked completely cowed. "Of course, honey," he murmured, kissing her forehead and gently nudging her hair back from her face.

But Candace didn't see how Ian was looking at her. She was too busy staring down at the baby in her arms. "Now that I'm looking at her," she said softly, gazing into her newborn daughter's face, "I can see why she was so desperate to get out. How did you fit in there, little Princess?" she cooed.

In response, her daughter reached out with her flailing purple hand and closed her chubby fingers around her mother's index finger.

We all caught our breath, Ian included.

"Now ain't that some shit," Brad murmured.

I turned and looked at him. "You always do know how to commemorate a moment," I sighed.

"One of the things you love about me," Brad murmured into my ear, stepping us gracefully back so that Ian and Candace could have their moment. "One of the many, many things."

We said our goodbyes and walked out of the hospital room hand in hand. "What the heck do we do now?" I wondered. "There's no way I'm going back to work after this.

Brad looked down at me with a mischievous glint in his eye. "There's something I've wanted to do with you for a while now."

"You already tied me up," I pointed out.

"Right. Something else. Come with me."

"Uh..."

"Don't you trust me?"

"Are you going to be using that line against me from now on?"

"Yup. Forevermore."

He clasped my hand in his and led me away from the hospital room and I I tried and failed to keep the stupid grin off my face. "Forever?" I repeated.

He didn't look back at me. "Don't pretend you don't know where this thing is headed, Liv," he grumbled.

"So romantic."

"Yup."

"So was that like a low-key marriage proposal or something?"

"Sure. Why not?"

I flushed from head to toe. My insides felt like they were gleaming. "My caveman," I choked, touching his face.

"Damn straight. And I always will be."

Chapter 34

Brad

There was something so peaceful about being alone in the practice rink. I laced up my skates and hit the ice with a sigh of contentment. The hyper-chilled air hit my face and I inhaled deeply.

Then I turned back to look at Olivia. "Are you going to stop making fun of me for 'twirling around on the ice' now?" I called.

Olivia's cute little face was scrunched up in this murderous scowl that made me want to burst out laughing. So I did, because she was hampered by the ice skates and couldn't reach out and kill me without falling on her face.

"I'm, ugh, never going to, goddammit all to hell, stop making fun of you," she threatened, inching her way onto the ice. She was bent nearly double, arms flailing out in front of her like a windmill.

"You look like you're trying to fly instead of skate. You know that flapping your arms won't work, right?"

"Fuck right off, Bradley," she cursed.

I took a deep breath. "I'm only doing this so you stop embarrassing yourself," I said, skating over to her side. "Here, as nice as your ass it, you can stand without sticking it up in the air."

I took her arm and tried not to grin like an idiot when she clung to my arm like a drowning man grabs a life preserver. There were definite perks to letting her into my life like this. More opportunities to grab her ass. "Here Just push off with your back foot.  Glide. I’ve got you."

"Fuck!" she yelled as we started to move. "Slow down!"

"We're going about two miles an hour," I pointed out.

"Too fast," she panted. "Way too fast."

I slowed to a granny pace "Is this better?"

"No!"

I laughed. "You're just mad because you're not immediately good at it."

"No! I'm mad because that's my default reaction when things are trying to kill me. You should see me behind the wheel of a car."

"I have. You're terrifying."

"Well now I'm walking around with fucking
knives
strapped to my feet, and you're telling me I have no reason to be afraid?"

"No, you don't have to be afraid. But you do have to trust yourself." I placed a tentative kiss on her forehead. "And trust me, too. Don't be scared, I've got you, baby."

"Baby?" she asked. "Are we going to talk about how you just called me baby?"

"Nope!" I grinned, and pushed off hard on the ice, making her yelp and cling to me.