Chapter 24
twenty-four
When I first found out I was pregnant, I freaked out. It changed my whole life, and I couldn’t see how good it would be for me.
Now, I’m sitting in class, actually paying attention to the teacher instead of going over routines in my head. I always had to keep my grades up to stay on the skating team, but ever since I stopped skating, my grades have gotten better.
I think I actually even enjoy some of my classes.
Even if I don’t make it to the Olympics, I will be grateful for this. I learned that not everything has to be about skating and that there is life outside of the rink. One with a handsome hockey player who wants to be part of my world for the indefinite future.
The teacher calls class, so I grab my things and head outside. When my phone vibrates, I smile.
“Hey, handsome. What are you up to?” I ask Brett as I answer the phone.
“Can you meet me right now?” he asks.
“Sure. Is something wrong? Are you okay? I don’t have my car, but it would only take me like ten minutes to walk back to the apartment,” I spit off in succession.
“No. Calm down. I’m on campus. Can you meet me at the library?”
My nerves immediately settle. “Oh. Yeah. Of course. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Thanks, buttercup.”
When we hang up, I change directions, heading toward the library. When I get there, Brett is waiting outside for me, a tea in his hand.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. Let’s head inside. I got us a study room.”
“We are studying? Or is this a kink of yours? I don’t want to get kicked out of school. I’m sure they have cameras.”
He snorts. “No, baby. We aren’t having sex in the library, but good to know your mind is always in the gutter. Come on. I’ll show you.”
I follow him inside to the room he has reserved. His laptop is set up with two chairs on one side of the table. He helps me sit in one, adding a cushion to the seat for my comfort, before he takes the other.
Then he wakes the computer up. On the screen is a nearby high school.
“What is this?” I ask him.
“I need to plan what I am doing after this, and I want your input. I know that you want to stay close to here and work with Irina, right?”
I nod. “Irina said she is going to hold a spot on the team for me next year. It’s my senior year, so it’s the last chance I have to work with her, but she did mention that she is thinking about starting her own rink close by. If she does, I’d like to continue to work with her.”
“Okay, so these are my options. This is the high school closest to here. It has a decent hockey program. I can be an assistant coach to the team and teach one subject. Right now, they have a weight-lifting class available. I would only have to go to work for practice and two days a week when I teach classes,” he tells me.
“Wait. What?”
He looks over at me. “When I graduate, I’ll have my teaching degree.
I mean, technically I could already have it, but with being medically redshirted last season, I had to take a couple of bullshit classes to be eligible, but yeah.
So I can teach whatever I want, but this school seems to have the best schedule.
Between us, Wyatt, Cora, Grace, and Peyton, we can make sure the baby is always taken care of. ”
I sit in shock as I look at him. How did I not know that his degree was in teaching? Have I really been that far into my own shit that I never even asked him? Does he even know what I’m going to school for?
“What am I going to school for?” I ask him, suddenly needing to know.
He gives me an odd look. “Sports medicine.”
I am such a shitty person. I can’t believe he knows what I’m studying, but I had no clue about him. I make a mental promise to be better for him. He deserves so much better than what I’ve given him.
“What are your other options?” I ask him, not wanting to dwell on my sudden emotions.
“This is Bartlet Academy. It is closer to Boston, so I wouldn’t be able to live quite as close, but we could get a place halfway between the two and commute.
They have an opening for the head coach of their hockey team, and they would let me teach whatever class I want.
Coach actually recommended me to them when I told him this is what I want to do. ”
“Is that what you want to do?” I whisper to him.
“Teaching has always been a passion of mine. Even when we were younger, I would take the newbies under my wing and try to help them get better. I think it’s my calling. Would you be okay with that? Being with a teacher-slash-coach?” he asks, pushing my hair from my face.
“I don’t care what you do as long as it makes you happy. I don’t want you to settle for the closer job because it would make our lives easier. If you want the academy, take it. We will make it work.”
He smiles warmly at me. “I want you. You make me happy. Everything else is just extra on the side.”
“You’re going to make me cry,” I warn him.
“Don’t. Please. I can’t stand to see you cry.
Listen, I do like Bartlet Academy, but I would be in a contract with them, and I’m not sure I want to be locked in.
Once you get picked up for the Olympic team, we will need to travel a bit more, and I want the flexibility with that.
I’ve talked to Horner High, and the principal is excited to have me on board.
Said the job is mine if I want it, and that when the time comes, they will gladly find someone to cover me while I follow you across the world. ”
“It’s France. It’s like an eight-hour flight if we go direct,” I tell him, rolling my eyes.
“Wherever it is, I’ll be there with our little cabbage, cheering you on as you win gold.”
“You’re too much,” I tell him, leaning over to press my forehead to his.
“No. Never. Just enough for you,” he promises.
I nod, looking back at the screen. “It sounds like you already made up your mind, so why ask me?”
“I don’t make decisions without you anymore, buttercup. It’s you and me against the world.”
It feels oddly right to know that he feels that way.
“The first one, then. So we can spend as much time together as a family as possible,” I tell him.
He nods. “My thoughts too.”
For the first time, a future with Brett doesn’t scare me.
Emery stays here more than at her own place these days, but she felt she needed to sleep in her own bed and get some space. I don’t like it, but I understand it.
Today was a lot for her. I knew it would be, but she needs to start thinking about the future.
I can’t stay in school indefinitely, and I don’t want to be drafted across the country away from her.
Before her, that might have been okay and I would have done it for a few years, but it’s not where my heart has ever lived.
I want to help other kids achieve their dreams. I want to see the light in their eyes when they learn something new. I guess because of my shitty childhood, my passion is for kids.
Shutting the door, I head into the living room to find Kellan, Wyatt, and Colson, the freshman who moved in this year, are sitting on the couch.
“What are you guys doing?” I ask, taking one of the chairs.
“Watching this documentary on penguins before people start coming over. Did you know they give rocks to the penguin they love?” Colson says.
“Maybe you should try it, Wyatt,” Kellan teases.
Wyatt glares at him before focusing back on the TV.
“You guys are having a party?”
“Not a party. A get-together,” Colson says as if there’s a difference.
“Right…”
“What are you doing home?” Wyatt asks after a moment.
“I live here?” I answer, wondering what he means.
“Usually you are in your room with your girl or you are at her place or wherever you guys go. I haven’t seen you without her outside of practice in weeks. Did you fuck it up? I swear, Brett. I will nut check you if I have to go console her.” Wyatt finally looks at me.
He’s dead serious, too.
“Bro, chill. She wanted some time to herself tonight. Said she felt like she hadn’t spent any time in her own space in a while. She’s fine. You can text her and ask,” I tell him.
He harrumphs, but picks up his phone.
I laugh, shaking my head. Crazy fucker cares too much about us and not enough about himself. I swear.
When he gets a text back, he looks over at me. “She said she’s fine. Just thinking about the future. What’s that mean?”
I roll my eyes. “You are being dramatic. I told her today that I want to teach at a school nearby and that I wanted her input. I think it freaked her out a little bit that I am so rooted in the future right now. I love her, but one of us needs to plan for this kid. I’m happy to be the one to take on the burden. ”
“Wait, you’re not drafting?” Colson asks.
I shake my head. “That was never the goal for me, kid. Sometimes there are more important things.”
“You are crazy. You could go in the first round. The millions you could make? The fame?”
I look him in the eye. “That can all disappear in a minute. I have money. Money is paper that is meaningless if that’s all you have.
Fame? I don’t want people knowing my name.
I know all of you do, but for me? I want a small-town family life.
I don’t want people stalking me and talking about how good I look humping the ice.
For me, hockey is a hobby. It’s not my life. ”
He looks shocked, but he nods. “Yeah. I guess that makes sense.”
Kellan laughs. “You don’t get it, but you’re still young. When you find the one, you’ll be willing to give it all up for her, too.”
“I hope I never find the one,” he mutters as he gets up and leaves the room.
“You scared the poor kid,” Kellan jokes.
I shrug. “I could have lost it all last year when I got hurt. If I had been depending on getting drafted to survive, that would have ruined me. The kid needs to realize that not everything is about hockey. He needs to put eggs in other baskets otherwise, he might starve to death.”
“You’re really not going to draft?” Wyatt asks.
I shake my head. “Nope. I’ll be honest, it didn’t appeal to me much before, but knowing I’m going to have a family now? I don’t want to be away from them.”
“What can we do?” Wyatt asks.
“Help out where you can? I know it’s a lot to ask, but when Em and I have to be in class or she has practice, can one of you help out? I’m going to ask the girls, too,” I tell them.
“You don’t even need to ask. I was thinking…she is due in March. Move her in here before then and get your room set up with a crib and all that. We can all take turns helping out easier that way. I can study while the baby sleeps or plays,” Wyatt tells me.
“Cora and I are totally on baby duty. She loves kids, so we will step in wherever needed. I know Grace would too,” Kellan adds.
“Peyton too,” Wyatt says.
“It’s not your kid, though. I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
“The fuck it ain’t our kid.” Kellan looks at me, all indignant.
“We are a family, which means that kid just inherited four crazy-ass uncles and three aunts that would do anything for them. There is no obligation. Honestly, you’d better put your name on the schedule because you might miss out on time with your own kid for the amount of time we will be stealing them.
” Wyatt gives me a sharp look as if daring me to argue with him.
I smile. “I can’t even see you changing a diaper.”
He shrugs. “I’ve been practicing.”
“What?” Kellan says. “Fuck, where? I’m behind.”
Wyatt smirks at him. “I sought out the early development professor. Explained what I had going on, and she was happy to help.”
“Oh, I’m sure she was. Did she also help you with your cock?” Kellan asks him.
“That’s disgusting. She’s like eighty.” Wyatt scrunches up his nose.
“Come on, Kel. We all know our man is hung up on that one chick. What’s her name again?”
“I will cut your balls off and feed them to a goat,” Wyatt says so nonchalantly that it’s actually scary.
I think he really might do it.
“On that note, I think I’m going to bed. Have a good night, fellas,” I tell them, hopping up from the couch.
“Coward,” Kellan yells out as he continues to needle Wyatt.
I smile to myself as their voices fade.
I fucking love these guys.