Catch Me (The Redwood University #3)

Chapter 1

Lois

Have you ever seen a six-foot-four hockey captain cradling his newborn daughter like she’s made of glass?

That’s what I'm looking at right now, as I tumble into the hushed hospital room at 11:48pm. My hair surely looks like a bird’s nest, my mascara smudged under my eyes like a badger, but I couldn’t give less of a shit. The tiny coo from the corner of the room has my heart skipping, I need to look at her, to see her delicate body cradled in my brother’s arms. But first, I have to see if Callie is ok.

I rub her forearm lightly and press a kiss to her cheek.

“How are you? How’s things down there?”

I gesture down to her nether regions, which I'm sure are looking mighty swollen and sore right now.

The woman is a champ to put up with my brother in the first place, but to push out a nine pound baby that he planted inside her? She’s a got to be some sort of fucking saint. Callie’s cheeks are flushed and she looks like she hasn’t slept in weeks, but she’s glowing with joy as her soft green eyes stay fixated on Sean and her daughter.

“Yeah Lo, I'm ok, just exhausted physically and mentally.”

She smiles at me, tearing her eyes away from Sean.

“Between me and you,”

she whispers, in a room full of people.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever recover, but it would be worth it.”

When I say the small hospital room is full, I mean it’s full . We’re like sardines in here. Molly and Kyle sit tangled on a much too small armchair in one corner of the room, Molly’s hand laying gently on her best friend’s thigh. Sean, of course is whispering sweet nothings to his baby girl as he sways, a huge hand running slowly over her tiny, dark haired head. Lewis and Anais are sat on the only other two chairs in the room. They are mismatched, like the ones you pull out on Christmas Day when the whole family shows up and you don’t have enough seating for everyone. The only person not here right now is Nick Andersen, my brother’s friend and teammate.

I don’t care that he’s not here, really I don’t, not one tiny bit.

Everyone is mesmerised by the tiny bundle of pink that’s snuggled into my brother’s chest, and I think I’ve waited long enough to finally take a lingering glance at her face.

My heart albeit explodes inside my chest when I look at her. Her skin is tinted pink, her lips parted, occasionally sucking on Sean’s finger whilst she lets out the softest little crackle of a cry.

She is perfection, in every way.

I drop a hand to Sean’s huge bicep and he turns his head to face me, his mouth split into a bright, prideful beam.

“Hi Lo, meet Lily.”

“Hi Lily,”

I whisper, dipping my face closer to her’s.

“We’re going to be best friends.”

Sean whips her away playfully.

“No way, she’s Daddy’s best friend.”

“Oh Jesus Christ,”

Kyle groans with a roll of his eyes, earning a jab in the ribs from Molly who sits nestled on his lap.

“Can I hold her?”

I squeak, swallowing the bubble of overjoyed tears that have become lodged in my throat.

“Please Sean?”

He hands her to me without a second thought, and before I know it I have a warm, squirming, snuffly little ball of happiness in my arms. I trail a finger lightly under her chin, up and over the swell of her rosy cheeks and around the crown of her head. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

A bubble has formed around me and all I can see, hear and smell is precious Lily. The sounds of hushed conversation that surround me are muffled, like I have cotton wool wedged into my ears and the only clarity I feel is when I peer down at my new niece.

It doesn’t take long for my bubble to burst though.

The hospital door swings open and crashes against the wall, shaking the entire building. Every person in the room spins their head towards the sound and I do the same. The only difference being, I don’t think anyone else’s heart bounced against their ribcage when they saw Nick Andersen standing in the doorway. One, thick tattooed bicep is propped against one side of the door, the inked skin rippling as his muscle tenses. My eyes flicker to his taut stomach, the grooves of his painfully perfect abs waving hello to me through his sheer, white t-shirt. The man is fucking exquisite to say the least and to tell the truth, I’ve been the tiniest bit into him since we first met almost two years ago, when Sean and I transferred to Redwood.

Ok, that’s a lie. I’m totally fucking obsessed with Nick and I'm starting to wonder if it’s borderline unhealthy, considering this hunking slab of tattooed goodness barely even knows I exist.

“Hey guys,”

he drawls, walking into the room and immediately owning it without even needing to try.

“So, where’s the kid?”

My chest closes in on me when his gaze lands on mine for a beat, then instantly falls down to Lily, who is still breathing evenly in the cradle of my arms. Nick’s footsteps are all I can hear as he approaches me, his warm chocolate irises failing to lift to mine again, no matter how hard I try to telepathically beg them to.

He touches a finger to Lily’s face, poking gently at one chubby cheek.

“Awe, cute, congrats guys.”

He slaps a congratulatory hand to Sean’s shoulder.

“Thanks man,”

Sean says, smile still stretching his face wide as he watches his baby girl.

“Yeah, thanks dick, I mean Nick.”

Callie says, her tone loaded with sass and sarcasm as she folds her arms across her chest. She hates Nick, has done since the moment she laid eyes on him and clearly motherhood hasn’t yet softened her.

Nick simply grins at her though, likely enjoying seeing her riled up at his looming presence. He flexes a scabbed knuckle and winces a little.

“What happened to your hand? Been sticking your dick in someone else’s girl again?”

Sean teases, but my stomach flips at his comment. Nick likely doesn’t even know I'm in the room and yet, the image of him with a lanky blonde wrapped around him makes me sick.

Nick shakes his head, short chestnut tresses moving with him.

“Not this time,”

he grins wickedly and I definitely might throw up.

“Punched a hole in my sideboard before I left the house. My dad tried to call me again and I needed to get my anger out on something that wasn’t going to punch me back.”

“Ah, he’s back in touch is he?”

Nick nods, brown eyes falling to the ground and for a moment, I see a glimpse of something I’ve never seen in him before. A tiny flicker of emotion, other than anger pushes through the bravado, but dies in the shadows just as quickly as it reared it’s head. Nobody other than Callie, Sean and Nick have said a word since he got here, he totally dominates any room he walks into. He’s like my brother in that way, their presence takes over whatever else was going on before they arrived and immediately all eyes are drawn to them. But with Nick it’s a little different, for me anyway. When he walks into a room there’s an instant shift in energy, he could walk into a silent church on a Sunday morning and everyone would look up from their hymn sheet. I don’t know how to describe it, he’s just so raw and dominating. It’s like he exudes this hot, molten lava that just engulfs me every time I'm within a mile of him.

Speaking of molten lava, Lily’s teeny butt rumbles against my arm as I shift her body to lay against my chest, her little head on my shoulder.

“Erm, Daddy Taylor,”

I point to his daughter’s butt.

“We have a situation here that definitely needs your attention.”

Sean clicks a finger in the air, triumphant grin blinding me.

“No problem, Daddy to the rescue.”

He lifts Lily out of my arms, the warmth of her body lingering against my skin.

“Back in a minute.”

The door of the ensuite bathroom falls closed with a soft thud as Sean disappears with Lily and the awful smell that’s flowing from her ass. Callie’s tired eyes have fluttered closed and she dozes in and out of sleep soundly, her curls splattered around her head like a thunder cloud waiting to burst.

Molly rises to her feet, pulling Kyle up with her.

“We better get going,”

she whispers across the room to me.

“I have training super early and so does Ky.”

The man in question nods beside his blonde haired girlfriend.

“Yeah, I gotta be at the rink for 7am and with Sean out for the next few weeks it’s going to be all hands on deck if we want to keep our winning streak.”

The Redwood ice hockey team is one of the best university teams in the country, racking up an almost unbeatable number of points last season and smashing records left, right and centre.

They’re impressive, on and off the ice.

Maybe I shouldn’t have a thing for hockey players, considering my brother has been a master of the ice since he was six years old.

But I think that’s what helped to grow my fascination with them over the years.

I’ve watched the power, the precision and the sheer animalistic force these men have in them when they are fighting for the win.

It’s sexy as hell, but I’ve never actually wanted to jump into bed with any of them.

I guess that’s not strictly true, Nick Andersen has been the subject of several of the imaginary dream boards that live inside my head.

I like to pretend that one day he will acknowledge my existence and fall madly in love with me…or just bend me over the edge of his mattress and fuck me until I forget my own name.

I’m not one for a one night stand, I’ve only had sex with one person and that was my ex-boyfriend, James.

He was nothing to write home about, just kind of filled a gap I knew needed filling at the time, the man shaped hole in my chest that gaped every time I looked at Nick across the ice during a game.

Molly and Kyle make their way towards the door and Anais is next to jump out of her chair.

“I better come with you guys, we’re meeting at the gym early tomorrow too, right Lo?”

She glances at me with questioning eyes and I'm jolted back to the new reality where I'm the captain of the gymnastics team.

“Sorry, yeah, 8am.”

I smile, dropping into the leather armchair beside Callie’s bed.

“See you then.”

The three of them slip out of the hospital room silently, leaving Nick, Lewis and I alone with a sleeping Callie. I tap a finger against my knee uncomfortably, thank god Lewis is here because if it was just Nick and me I don’t know how I’d—

“Well, I better go too.”

Lewis pats his legs once and stands, gifting me a soft smile before moving his gaze to Nick.

“Want a lift home Anders?”

Please go with him, please god don’t stay here alone with m—

“Nah man, I'm good, I’ll be home later.”

Nick wafts a dismissive, inked hand towards Lewis who simply shrugs, throwing me a brief wave and leaving us alone in the room.

The air immediately thickens, but I swear it’s like Nick doesn’t even notice.

He leans back against the chair he’s made his home in and flicks a careless finger across his screen, his mind engrossed in whatever currently resides on his phone.

I watch him intently, unable to drag my eyes away even though I'm fully aware that I'm staring and if he catches me, I’ll likely turn bright red like a rhubarb.

“That was fucking awful and I don’t intend to ever go near that girl’s backside again.”

Sean whips out of the ensuite like a tornado, his tiny daughter pinned to his chest in a ball.

“Well, until her nappy explodes again of course.”

He places Lily into my arms without even asking if I want to snuggle her, because of fucking course I do and why would he even need to ask. I nuzzle my nose into the velvety, soft skin of her neck and drop a teeny kiss there as she coos quietly.

Nick snickers in the corner and Sean’s eyes land on him.

“What you laughing at over there?”

Nick shakes his head, wide smirk covering his gorgeous face.

“Just a pic someone sent me. It's nothing I haven’t seen before, I don’t think there’s a crevice of that chick’s body that I’ve yet to discover after last week.”

“Oh yeah?”

Sean chuckles, “You even remember her name afterwards?”

Nick ponders for a moment and I one hundred percent want to die on the spot.

“Miley…or Kylie…”

he lifts his shoulders in a fuck boy shrug, “one of the two.”

“Are you talking about Kya Baxter? The swimmer?”

Nick shrugs again.

“Fuck knows man, all I know is she rocked my world more than once last week and she clearly still wants more.”

My stomach sloshes uncontrollably and the images of Nick and leggy Kya Baxter rolling around in his bed naked plague my mind. I don’t know how long I zone out for, but Sean is soon clicking his fingers in front of my face.

“Lo, wanna give my baby back now so you can go home and sleep? You look exhausted.”

He’s right, I am exhausted.

I’m exhausted from this game I'm playing with myself every time I'm around Nick, convincing myself that at some point he’ll notice me and I'll be the one he’ll want to wrap his naked body around.

But the sane portion of my brain — however small that may be — knows that the likelihood of that happening is practically zero.

Maybe if I looked like some of the girls he’s usually spotted with I’d stand a chance.

But of course, I'm not a five-foot-ten, blonde bombshell with legs that go directly to the pearly gates.

No, I'm not like those girls and I never will be.

I won’t go back to a place where I hate myself so much that I mark my skin to make myself feel better.

I worked so damn hard to kill the mindset of constantly chasing perfection.

My family battled with me, especially Sean, to drag me out from the pit of self doubt.

I refuse to let this tattooed, arrogant man whore pull me back into the shadows of insecurity that used to drown me daily.

I don’t live my life like that anymore, so instead of letting my own spiralling thoughts attack me from the inside out, I hand Lily back to Sean and slip out of the hospital room.

Sean calls a sarcastic, “Bye then,”

after me, but I ignore him and make my way out of the hospital into the chill of the October air.