Chapter 11
Levi
My leg bounced uncontrollably, my eyes flicking to my phone screen, constantly checking the time. Two hours had gone by since Arizona texted that she was at the hospital to pick up Maisie and asked if I could swing by her house to pick up Austin.
What the hell was taking them so long?
Silently berating myself for not insisting that I oversee Maisie’s discharge personally, I unlocked my cell, ready to message her to demand an update. My fingers halted their frantic motion across the screen when the teenager sprawled out on the couch beside me spoke.
“You used to play for Connecticut, right?”
I blinked, the panic blurring my vision dissipating slightly.
Until Austin brought it up, I had almost forgotten I’d turned on the early slate of games.
The time difference in California meant the East Coast action started around 4 PM.
It had become habit since the move to throw them on in the background when I got home after practice.
With only one month left in the regular season, the playoff push was in full effect, and the action around the league was intense.
Everyone wanted to earn a chance to play for that fabled silver trophy—the one I’d had the great pleasure of hoisting over my head after winning a league championship.
Greatest damn day of my life.
Tugging on the back of my neck, I watched my former team compete against the Minneapolis Freeze. “Yeah.”
“Why’d you leave? They might not be contenders anymore, but they’re a million times better than the Surf.” He snorted. “Every team in the league is better than the Surf.”
Austin might be brutally honest, but he wasn’t wrong.
Reclining against the cushions, I tossed an arm behind my head. “Wasn’t exactly my choice, kid. But I can’t say it wasn’t my fault. I stirred up a lot of shit in the locker room, wasn’t what anyone would call a good teammate, so they shipped me off the first chance they got.”
He turned to me. “Do you regret it?”
I blew out a heavy breath. “Every time I suit up for the Surf. I fucking hate losing, man.”
A knock came at the door, and I was up in an instant, rushing toward the wooden barrier and hauling it open, relieved to find Arizona and Maisie on the other side.
“Took your sweet-ass time,” I huffed. “Would it have killed you to check in?”
“Sorry, Dad,” Arizona sassed, shoving her way inside.
I snagged her wrist, noting how her pulse raced, though I wasn’t sure whether it was from the body contact or because she was pissed at me. Determined to find out, I leaned in, rasping in her ear, “That’s Daddy to you.”
There was a sharp intake of breath from the woman I held in my grasp, and a flush of pink rose up her neck to settle on her cheeks.
Oh, she liked that.
When she tugged against my hold, I let her go easily and turned to Maisie, who was still standing on the threshold. I noticed she was using crutches to support herself, her prosthetic leg noticeably absent.
Like she could read my mind, my daughter explained, “They said I need to give my stump a few days to heal. And after that, to only wear my leg when necessary so the same thing doesn’t happen again.”
“You need a new prosthesis,” I declared.
Maisie gave a half shrug. “Probably, but good luck convincing the insurance to shell out for one.”
“Fuck the insurance!” Her eyes widened at my raised voice, so I quickly softened it.
“Sorry. What I meant is, I’ll take care of it out of pocket.
We’re done letting some corporate entity that prioritizes profits over patients decide which of your medical needs are met.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk to the training staff at the rink, find out the names of the best pediatric orthopedist and prosthetist in the city, and make appointments. ”
She dropped her gaze to the floor. “You don’t have to do that.”
I reached out, then hesitated, my hand hovering over her shoulder, unsure whether I was allowed to touch her. It might be my blood coursing through her veins, but we’d only just met yesterday.
Steeling my nerves, I lowered my palm until it made contact. Maisie peeked up shyly, the hint of a smile curving on her lips, and an explosion went off inside my chest. This girl already owned my heart, and I never intended to ask for it back.
“I want to, Maisie. Let me take care of you.”
Tears glistened in her eyes, and her voice came out thick. “Thank you.”
“Come on, let’s get you inside.” I ushered her into the house. “Have you eaten?”
The rubber bottoms of her crutches thudded as she moved across the hardwood floor. “Not since lunch.”
“Then I think an early dinner is in order. How do we feel about pizza?” I asked our unconventional blended family.
Austin perked up immediately. “Pepperoni and sausage for me!”
I looked at the girls. “Maisie? Arizona?”
Arizona waved a dismissive hand. “I’m fine with anything.”
Maisie replied, “I like cheese.”
“All right, then.”
I snatched up my cell from where it lay discarded on the couch and quickly placed an order for three pies, securing Maisie’s and Austin’s requests plus a supreme for me—had to get my veggies in.
As soon as I hung up, Arizona commanded my attention. “There are a few bags in my trunk, if you wouldn’t mind bringing them in. Then we need to go upstairs and assign bedrooms.”
Right, because Arizona, Austin, and Maisie lived here now.
I hadn’t had roommates in a while—not since I upgraded from my first home in Hartford—and those had been my teammates, guys who were either on their rookie contracts or were constantly moving up and down between the Comets and their minor league affiliate in Providence.
Women occasionally spent the night, but there were never any kids.
This would be a whole new experience for me.
You’re just racking those up these days. Fatherhood, marriage—what’s next?
Probably divorce if Arizona had it her way, but I had a year before I needed to think about that. I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.
I jogged out to Arizona’s beat-up four-door sedan parked in my driveway and popped the trunk. I expected to find a couple of suitcases, but the space was overflowing with shopping bags instead.
Looping the handles around my wrists, I only needed one trip to bring everything inside, dropping the massive bounty in the entryway, and calling out, “Go on a little shopping spree?”
Arizona’s heels clicking signaled her approach, and when she came into view, both hands were perched on her hips. “Maisie had exactly one change of clothing in her backpack, so yeah, we stopped off at the mall. Is that a problem?”
Shit, I’d been so consumed with the need to fight for custody that I hadn’t stopped to consider that my daughter had quite literally shown up with only the clothes on her back.
Thank God Arizona would be riding shotgun on this crazy ride for the next year while I got my bearings and figured out how to be a dad.
A dad. Still didn’t feel real.
Arizona jerked her chin in the direction of the staircase. “Shall we?”
“Yeah, give me one minute.” I walked over to where the kids were chilling on the couch and handed Austin some cash, instructing, “Tell the pizza guy to keep the change.”
Without so much as a glance over his shoulder, he pocketed the money. “Got it.”
Hustling back to my fake-fiancée-soon-to-be-real-wife—which was also beyond unreal—I gestured for her to precede me up the steps. “After you.”
She glared at me. “You just want to stare at my ass.”
I couldn’t contain my smirk. “So what if I do?”
Her eyes lifted to the ceiling. “Just so long as you remember touching is firmly off-limits, go ahead and eat your heart out.”
With that, she took the stairs slowly, with an exaggerated sway of her hips, the tight fabric of her pencil skirt clinging to the rounded curve of her tight little backside, and I was half tempted to drop to my knees to crawl after her like a damn puppy dog.
When she reached the top, she peeked back to find I hadn’t moved a single inch, and her eyes dipped to where my erection tented the front of my shorts. Hunger flashed in those brilliant blue gems, and straight white teeth descended into the plush pillow of her lower lip.
She was fucking killing me.
“Coming?” Her voice came out as a sexy purr, the sexual innuendo clear.
Goddamn, she was a vixen, and I vowed to make it my personal mission to get her to break the no-sex rule she’d imposed. Keeping my hands to myself for a full year simply wasn’t going to work.
Roughly clearing my throat wasn’t enough to keep my voice from coming out gruff. “Yeah.” I reached down, wincing as I adjusted my painfully hard cock, before I climbed to the second level of the house.
Since she’d been the one to sell it to me, Arizona knew the floor plan and moved toward the guest wing—yes, this house was massive enough that it had wings. Methodically, she opened the door to each extra bedroom before turning around to face me.
Humming, she remarked, “Didn’t expect you to have all of these furnished.”
“You can thank my interior designer. She insisted that none of the rooms remain empty.”
Arizona laughed. “Single guy with a six-bedroom house and deep pockets? Yeah, she saw you coming.”
I shrugged. “Guess it’s good for us that she did.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She clicked her tongue in thought. “Probably makes the most sense if we give Maisie and Austin the ones with attached bathrooms. That way, they can have their privacy.”
My head cocked to the side. “Uh, you don’t want your own bathroom?” I’d assumed she would take one of the rooms featuring an ensuite for herself.
Her eyes slid shut, and she shook her head. “God, you really don’t know how this has to work, do you?”
“What are you talking about?”
Lashes lifting, she asked, “You remember Hilda?”
A chill ran down my spine, and I shuddered. “How could I ever forget?”