Chapter 13
Channing
“Congrats, Papa,” Polston says as he skates on by with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Uh, thanks?” I answer in confusion.
I continue my warm up on the ice just as Ivan Thorne, one of our defenders, skates toward me, coming to a stop where I am. “Dude, why didn’t you tell any of us you were expecting?” he says before taking a puck and shooting it toward the goal. “I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Come on, man. We all read the article and listened to the podcast,” Deane Powell says, stopping in front of me. “Natasha Nottingham. She’s a good-looking lady. Gets around a bit but not bad.”
“What the—” I start to say as I’m cut off by Brooks’ sharp tone.
“Halloway. You son of a bitch, you better have a real good reason as to why I shouldn’t knock your ass out right now,” he barks as he skates closer to me. He’s pissed, and there’s only one good reason why. Cassidy.
I stand tall on my skates as he slams me into the boards. His forearm is across my chest as he holds me in place. I could easily fight him off, but I’m not going to. I did exactly what he told me not to do after I tried to make it right. Yet here I am.
“Congrats, you son of a bitch. You’re a father… Oh yeah and let’s not forget how you completely blindsided Cassidy. She had no clue,” he says, relaxing his arm a little, only to slam me back toward the boards. “You were supposed to tell her about this possibility. Not sleep with her and brush it under the rug.”
Frustrated with not only him but myself, I push him off me. “You don’t think I know that? Fuck, I wanted to… was going to as soon as I was notified of the results.” Results that aren’t supposed to be in for another week. “Christ, I had no clue the results were even in till big mouth Powell over there mentioned the article and podcasts that are apparently out.”
Fuck.
I skate toward the bench, my anger building. Two weeks. That’s how long they said it would take even for a rushed paternity test to result. Yet here it is in black and white. News outlets, league bloggers are already talking about my unborn child with a woman I want nothing to do with.
We have a whole week left. Something doesn’t feel right about this. Talya hasn’t even contacted me about it like she said she would. The results are going to be emailed to her, so she could run damage control before anyone got wind of this.
“Halloway!” Coach yells from the tunnel behind the bench, signaling for me to come to him.
I step into the tunnel onto the rubber mat, Coach’s eyes narrowing at me. Watching me closely as if I’m about to explode into a million pieces. “I would say congratulations are in order, but I can see that this news isn’t what you were expecting.”
Not expecting. How about not wanting it to happen at all? This whole situation is fucked in more ways than one.
“Look, I need your head in the game and from what I just seen out there, two of my best players, two who are best friends, are at odds with one another. I don’t think you’re there.” He looks at me, contemplating his next words. “I’m going to make you a healthy scratch the first few games of pre-season.”
And cue even more outrage. What the fuck? He can’t do this. This is the only way for me to channel the rage building inside me. “Coach—” I start to say before he raises his hand to cut me off.
“Think of this as a mental break. Run some damage control, develop a plan over the next few weeks, and come back with your mind ready to win some games.”
I want to argue with him that this isn’t necessary, but I know it’s no use. I know that look. It’s the ‘don’t argue with me tone or else I’ll bench you for half the season’ look. Defeated, I nod and make my way to the locker room. If I’m going to be benched for God knows how long, then I’m going to hunt down Talya and find out what the fuck happened.
After quickly showering, I find my way to Talya’s office. It’s on the same floor as Cassidy and Hayley’s office, and I’m tempted to stop in there and grovel at her feet to allow me to explain, but I avoid that at all costs. At least until I figure out what the hell is happening.
I don’t even get a chance to knock on Talya’s door as she forcefully pulls me into her office. “Sit,” she says, as she rounds her desk. “I don’t know how the results were leaked and how they got the test completed so quickly for even a stat order.”
“I was just coming to ask you what the fuck happened. You said you’d call me when you got the results.”
“I know what I said, Channing,” she says, her irritation with this whole situation just as prominent. “Funny thing is I didn’t get an email about the results until after the articles and podcasts were released. We had no time to run damage control.”
“Something doesn’t feel right about this, Talya.”
“I know,” she says, pacing her office. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I think this test was altered. We were told two weeks, and it magically gets processed sooner? Not even Brooks could make Boyce and Hayley’s paternity test come back that fast, which is why I have a hard time believing this is real.”
She has a point. When Hayley had to fly to Arizona to get a paternity test to prove that Boyce Cameron was her son Camden’s father, she had to wait weeks. Not even her father, as high profiled he is, could speed up that process.
“Give me time to have the team PI dig into this.” Huh, the team has a PI on staff? Who would have thought?
“And what do I do until then?” I say.
“Play nice,” she says, walking around the desk to fire off an email to someone. “Speak with the team lawyers and your personal lawyer. Put something into place. A failsafe of some sort. But most importantly, give her whatever she wants.”
She can’t be serious. Giving Natasha what she wants is like telling her she has unlimited credit to use on my credit card.
Before I can protest, Talya holds up her hand. “Before you melt down on me, we have to play the game to win it. Play nice until we know more and expose her if this isn’t the truth. For all we know, she could have faked the results and is going after you because she knows you’ll do the right thing.”
She’s right. I would do the right thing. My parents raised me to be a man of honor. But being a man of honor for Natasha is a whole different ball game than being one for say Cassidy.
After some much deliberation, I leave Talya’s office heavier than when I first entered. I’m glad her suspicions are just as heightened as mine, but how can she expect me to play along with this? If I give Natasha so much of an inch, she’ll take a whole damn mile.
I stop at the elevator but hesitate to press the button. I should stop in and see Cassidy. Explain myself. But if I do, will she even see me? Swallowing my nerves, I turn on my heels and head straight for her office. Luckily, the door is open, and the waiting room appears to be empty.
Her desk is empty and as I approach Hayley’s door to knock, it’s pulled open, revealing a visibly upset Cassidy. Her blond hair is tied on top of her head in a terribly messy bun, her blue eyes a rimmed red, mascara smeared around the edges.
God, I fucked up big time.
“Hey—” I start to say as she cuts me off.
“Hayley has cleared her schedule for the rest of the day. You’ll have to come back tomorrow. If your matter is urgent, you can see a trainer for evaluation.” Her tone is cold, clipped as she rushes to her desk, piling her belongings into her bag.
Her once carefree, vivacious personality is now cold, lifeless, and I have no one to blame but myself. She was nowhere near this broken when Vince cheated on her. Sure, she shed a few tears but looking at her now, I know she’s shattered. I did this.
I plant my feet firmly in front of her desk, my jaw clenching. I have to fix this. “I’m not here to see Hayley. I’m here to see you,” I say, watching her movements slow.
“There’s nothing to say, Channing.” Her voice is low, almost inaudible as she pauses what she’s doing. “If you excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be.”
“Cass—” I say, reaching out, holding her elbow gently. “Please let me explain…”
“Explain what?” she says, her eyes hardened with hurt. “Explain how you got a puck bunny pregnant and abandoned her to go on my sham of a honeymoon. Or explain how you started a relationship with me knowing she was pregnant, and you’d never be able to give me what I want.”
“That’s not correct—”
“Well then, what is—”
“Neither of those things are correct,” I say, my voice raising as I cut her off. “Neither of those things are correct. I came here to fix things, make the truth known.” My voice is now lower.
She closes her eyes as she takes a shuddering breath. Everything inside me screams to reach out to her, but I don’t. I stay firmly planted. “There’s nothing to fix,” she says, her gaze finding mine. “There’s nothing to fix. I refuse to be in a secret relationship or share with a puck bunny again.”
“Cass—”
“Don’t. I have to go,” she says, before rushing out of her office, leaving me just as broken.
“So, we are in agreement. We both want what’s best for the fetus,” Natasha’s lawyer says as we sit in the conference room of the Skipjacks main offices.
“It’s a boy,” Natasha snaps. “And yes. I don’t want him growing up in a broken home like I did,” she says, as if she’s not asking me to cut off my own foot and feed it to her.
Talya has told me to go along without whatever she demands and by that, she means let her move in and pretend to play happy little family. It’s a crock of shit if you ask me. But it’s recommended while the PI we hired works to prove this whole thing is a setup.
A setup that has caused my life to go to shit. I try to call Cassidy to explain things, but she never answers. I even stop by her office again to only be told that Cassidy is working from home for the time being.
Which is probably why I drive by her house every day after practice, sit in the car, willing myself to go up to her door and apologize. Yet, I’m frozen. There is no way she’ll forgive me.
“Channing?” My lawyer looks at me with a questioning look. What is she asking? Oh, right, responding to doing the right thing for the baby.
“Uh… yes, I agree,” I say, pulling myself out of my thoughts. “As I said before, she can move in with me. That way, I can truly be present for her and the baby.”
“Very well then,” her lawyer says, pushing the agreement drawn up by my lawyers across the table to me. Natasha’s name is scribbled at the bottom. “We will be in contact once the baby arrives to put a custody agreement in place.”
I nod, standing from the chairs, ready to leave, but stop and glance at Natasha. “You can move in to my penthouse tomorrow. It gives me time to get my shit in order.” I watch her as she smiles with triumph. “And one other thing, while we’re co-parenting and making it work, I expect you to have no outside relations, as well as I. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” she says, as I turn to leave.
Now to just put up with Natasha till the truth can be revealed. Let’s just hope it’s sooner rather than later.