28. Dimitri
28
DIMITRI
W inning the game feels amazing, but all I can think about is Liv, lying in a hospital bed, carrying my baby. Well, more like our baby, but a baby that I already feel fiercely protective over.
I dodge the post-game interviews with that asshat Travis and race to the locker room to start getting cleaned up. I take a quick shower then throw on my clothes. I need to figure out where Liv is and get to her as soon as I can.
“Do you know which hospital they took her to?” I ask Connor when he comes into the room.
He nods. “Max texted me. Let’s get cleaned up then head over.”
“Where’s Aiden?” I ask.
“He got caught by Travis for an interview,” Connor says, irritation clear in his tone. “I hate that dude. He’s the worst.”
Aiden rushes in moments later. “Sorry,” he says. “Couldn’t escape the asshat.”
“It’s fine,” I say as I finish changing into my street clothes and slam my locker. “Just get dressed so we can get going.”
“If it isn’t the three guys I want to talk with the most,” Travis says in a cocky tone as he saunters into the locker room.
I glance around. It’s just him and us in the room. What does he want with us specifically other than the likely condition that he’s just out to cause trouble?
“What do you want?” Connor snarls. “We already gave you stuff for social media.”
Travis stays silent, looking at us with a strangely veiled hint of a threat in his posture.
“Look, man, we don’t have time for this.”
“Are you guys in a rush to get somewhere?” he asks as if he already knows the answer.
I glare at him. “Why do you care?”
“Oh, I just think some very interesting things have lined up lately for all of us who have inquiring minds.” He looks at his perfectly manicured fingernails.
I mutter Russian obscenities under my breath as I continue to glare at him.
“The Russian Bear is angry, I see,” Travis says. “That’s interesting. Do you feel that way about all of your flings?”
“Look, that’s not what we—” Connor starts to say but I cut him off.
“Don’t say anything to him,” I interject, shaking my head. “He’s not worth our time. Come on. We need to get going.”
“Interesting timing that my cohost declares on national television that she’s pregnant right after the media caught you three coming and going from her place,” Travis says in that slimy way of his.
I step closer to him, my eyes narrowed on his weaselly, smug face. “What are you trying to say?”
Travis shrugs casually. “It’s just interesting that all of you have been fooling around with her and now she’s pregnant. Do you know which one of you is the father?”
Something in me snaps. I race toward him and punch him in the face. His head snaps back and blood pours out of his nose. “That’s none of your business,” I growl at him as he stumbles back away from me.
“Are you all going to raise that kid together?” Travis keeps going, his voice sounding thick due to the blood pouring from his broken nose. He wipes at the blood and blinks, clearly trying to reorientate himself.
“Again, that’s none of your damn business!” I shout, hitting him square in the stomach.
Travis doubles over, and there’s a clattering sound as his cellphone hits the ground. I realize that it’s on and recording.
“You shady fucker,” I curse when I realize that he has been recording our conversation.
“Fuck this,” Connor says, stepping forward and stomping on the phone over and over until the screen cracks into tiny pieces.
“Hey! I’ll call the cops!” Travis shouts as he reaches for his phone, trying to grab it off the floor.
“No, you won’t,” Aiden says, shoving him back. He takes a couple of wild steps backward then falls onto a bench. Aiden leans over him threateningly. “You won’t bother Liv ever again because no matter what you think about her, we love her, and we will protect her within an inch of our lives. Consider this a little taste of what can happen to you if you keep harassing her.”
I step up behind Aiden and Connor to loom over Travis, who is bleeding all over his suit. His eyes are wide as he looks between the three of us, a sullen expression coming over his face.
“Fine,” he bites out. “I don’t have to expose her to the media anyhow. You guys have all done such a shitty job of keeping this a secret and everyone will know soon enough. No one is going to want to work with her, or you.”
“Don’t be so sure about that,” I say to him. I refuse to move as he tries to push past me, glaring at him eye to eye.
“Let him go,” Connor finally says, picking up the ruined phone and tossing it into the hallway. “Fetch,” he says to Travis, getting behind him and giving him a push toward the door.
I watch the sniveling little shit leave, his hand pressed to his bleeding nose, and curse under my breath. It would have felt better to keep hitting him, but I know that I can’t afford to do that if I want to keep my spot on the team.
“Come on,” Connor says, grabbing my shoulder. “Let’s go see our girl.”
We pile into Aiden’s car. When he looks over his shoulder as he backs out, I stare at him.
“You love her?” I ask.
Aiden glances at me then laughs. “Dude, I’ve loved her since we were kids.”
I smile. “Yeah. I think I fell in love with her as soon as I met her.”
In the backseat, Connor pipes up. “I didn’t want to make things weird, but yeah, I love her too.”
We’re all silent for a moment as we digest this information.
“What does this mean?” I ask them, breaking the silence. “Can we all be in love with her and make this work?”
Aiden frowns a little as he navigates the car onto the freeway. Finally, he says, “Isn’t that basically what we’ve been doing all along?”
All I can do is nod. He’s not wrong.
“Do you think she feels the same way about us?” Connor asks, ever the pessimist when it comes to relationships and trust.
I look over my shoulder and see that he’s looking down at his hands, flexing and opening them over and over again.
“Well, I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”
Connor lifts his head and gives me a thin smile. “Yeah. We have to ask her, don’t we?”
“Yeah,” I respond, worry coiling through me. What if she doesn’t want to be with us? What will we do without her in our lives? We’ve become so close over the past few months that I’m struggling to imagine a reality without Liv in it.
“Max just sent me a text with her room number,” Aiden says as he heads toward the hospital parking lot. “Sounds like they’re keeping her overnight for observation,” he adds, glancing at his smartwatch quickly before turning into the lot.
“That’s not good,” Connor says quietly.
I shake my head. “I’m sure everything is fine. She took a nasty fall when she fainted, and she hasn’t been taking good care of herself. I bet they just want to evaluate her and get her fluids up to where they need to be, make sure she’s good to go before they send her home.” I hope I sound more certain than I feel.
“We’ll cheer her up,” Aiden says optimistically as he parks.
I’m grateful for Aiden’s sunny personality in moments like these when Connor and I tend to think the worst and get all doom and gloom. He’s the right counterweight to our more aggressive and cynical personalities.
I realize with a start that I also can’t imagine my life without the close relationship I have with the two men in the car with me. Part of the reason that I love Liv so much is because she helps tie us all together. Each of us has struggled over the years with intimacy, relationships, and closeness with the people we care about.
But Liv makes it easy for us to come together and bring out the best in one another. She’s the glue that holds our circle together. She makes us better, she makes us want to be better.
I can’t help but wonder if we would have been capable of the big win that we pulled off today if Liv hadn’t come back into our lives. It’s hard to say, but I do know that Connor, Aiden, and I have been playing better than ever on the ice since we started our situationship with Liv.
“We have to convince her to stay with us,” I say out loud, my voice sounding a little desperate.
Aiden sighs. “All we can do is try. But we can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. If she wants to be with us, great. If she wants me to parent from a distance while contributing to child support, that’s what I’ll do. We have to agree to let her choose what she wants, and not force her into anything by begging or whining. Yes, we love her but we don’t need to lose our dignity over it.”
Connor laughs. “You make us sound really pathetic,” he says.
Aiden looks over his shoulder at him, a serious expression on his face. “I feel like I might die if she doesn’t want to keep seeing me. Tell me that you don’t feel the same way.”
Connor’s expression immediately turns solemn. “I do feel the same way.”
“That’s not pathetic,” I tell them. “That’s love.”
Aiden grins at me then climbs out of the car. “Let’s go check on our girl,” he says.
We walk to the hospital’s front entrance. Upon entering, I walk over to the information desk and ask about Liv. The woman behind the desk frowns and says that visiting hours are almost over but she can call up and check.
I tap my foot impatiently as I glance around at the nurses and doctors hurrying by, all on a mission to save lives. I feel like I might explode if the nurse tells me that I can’t go up and see her.
“Okay,” she finally says. “You have about ten minutes. The elevators are to your right. Third floor. The nurses at the station up there can direct you to her room.”
“Thanks,” I say quickly and take off toward the elevators, the boys hot on my tail.
“I assume Max is still here,” Connor says, shifting his weight back and forth as we ride up to the third floor.
Aiden nods. “Yeah. He said he’ll hang out until visiting hours are over.”
Connor gulps. “Do you think he’s angry with us?”
I snort. “He’s pissed at us. I know I would be if Liv was my sister and I’d been lied to by my three best friends for years.”
We all fall silent, letting his words sink in as the elevator dings and the doors open to the third-floor of the hospital.
We walk to the information desk and ask where Liv’s room is. The nurse directs us down the hall and to the right. We hustle in that direction and my heart starts racing in my chest.
What if Liv turns us away? What if she doesn’t want to talk to us about the future? What if she says that she doesn’t want us to be a part of the baby’s life?
I press all my worries down and take in a deep breath as I step into Liv’s room.
She looks beautiful. She’s tapping away on her phone, her brow furrowed. I assume she’s catching up on highlights from the game and I can’t help but smile. She’s passionate about her job, and it should come as no surprise that she’s still working, even while she’s staying overnight at the hospital for observation.
“Liv?” I say, tentatively stepping forward. “How are you feeling?”
She lifts her gaze to mine and smiles. She sets down the phone then glances at Max, who nods and slides past all of us with a meaningful look.
“I’m okay,” she says with a sigh, gesturing for us to come further into the room. “We need to talk.”