Page 25 of Hooking
Cassidy.
I was supposed to go to her house for dinner tonight. Our first official dinner as a couple. However, all I can think of now is going home and figuring out how to fix this mess.
I pull my phone from my pocket and see a few texts from Cassidy, followed by several from Brooks. Yeah, I’ll have to deal with him later. Ignoring both threads, I call Talya and ask her to set up an appointment with the lab tomorrow after morning skate.
Walking into my house, I drop my keys on the table by the front door before heading to my room to change. I throw on a pair of black athletic shorts, forgoing a shirt, and head to my home gym. Working out my frustration is what I need to do. Brutalize my body. Usually, I would find a woman to help work out my frustrations, but that’s exactly how I ended up in this situation. Listening to my dick instead of doing the more sensible thing like now.
I spend hours lifting weight after weight in the gym. Running miles on the treadmill. Doing anything I can to rid myself of the shit show unfolding in front of me. Yet, all I end up with is sore calf muscles and a migraine from hell.
“Halloway,” Brooks barks as soon as he spots me walking into the locker room. “Outside. Now.”
Great. I should have seen this coming. He’s been blowing up my phone since last night.
Brooks: Seriously?
Brooks: I warned you. I told you what would happen if you hurt her.
Brooks: You have some explaining to do, Lucy.
Brooks: But seriously, man. What the fuck was that?
I have no one to blame but myself. I’ve let my dick control my emotions for so long, and it has walked me right into a puck bunny trap. One that I won’t avoid if the baby does turn out to be mine. I’ve always said I would try to make it work with whomever carried my child, no matter the consequences. But with Natasha. That’s a fucking suicide mission, and I knew it all along.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Brooks lays into me as soon as we step into the hall. “Cassidy, how could you do that after I specifically warned you? She’s been through enough the last two weeks.”
He’s right. He did warn me. Yet I let my emotions get the better of me. I wanted her for so long, and I was finally going to have her. No matter what I swore in the past.
She was it. My end game.
“I know,” I say, in a frustrated groan. “I fucked up, okay? But I meant what I said to her. I still want what I had with her. Things just got a little more complicated.”
“Well, un-complicate them.”
Easier said than done.
“I can’t, man.”
“And why the hell not?”
Just say it. “Because Natasha’s pregnant.”
He looks at me to say, how is this your problem, so I answer that for him. “Six months pregnant. Possibly with my baby.”
His eyes widen in surprise as I go over the entire cluster fuck. The stories threatening to be released. The conversation with Natasha yesterday. The impending doom I’m facing when I get out of practice today.
I’m terrified.
“And you didn’t think to tell Cassidy any of this?” he asks when I finish.
“She would have told me to go fuck myself right then and there,” I say, defeated. “No one would want to deal with puck bunny drama. Especially Cassidy.”
Vince put her through the wringer. Why would she want to be involved with drama like that again?
“I have to let her go.”
“Bullshit. Maybe you should just talk to her.”
“And say what? Natasha is pregnant, probably with my baby. Would you accept me with a child?” I’m yelling now, knowing that my frustration is getting the best of me.
