CHAPTER EIGHT THEO
CHAPTER EIGHT
THEO
Lucy stops on the front porch of her parents’ house, spinning abruptly to face me. Her eyes are filled with a myriad of emotions as she shakes her head. “I can’t go in there.”
My throat tightens. Today has been a whirlwind of emotions for her. I held her together after her appointment this morning and I won’t let her fall apart again. She needs to stop letting her fear control her. She has to move forward and the only way she can do that is by being honest with everyone.
If only I could be honest with her too…
“Yes, you can.” I take a step closer, my hands gently wrapping around her biceps. “You can do this. It’s going to be okay. I don’t know how they will react, but it will all be okay.”
“They’re going to be so pissed,” she mutters, closing her eyes and shaking her head again. “I know I would be if I were them.”
“It doesn’t matter. Their emotions are theirs to deal with, not yours.”
Lucy’s eyelids lift and her eyes sink into mine. “You’re right,” she says after a moment, pushing her shoulders back and straightening her spine. “How they process and handle it is up to them.”
A small smile tugs on the corners of my lips. “Exactly.” I let my hands fall away from her arms.
Her chest rises as she inhales deeply, slowly releasing. “Thank you,” she says quietly, peering up at me through thick, dark lashes. “For coming and for always talking me down from spiraling.”
“I’ve seen you spiral before. It isn’t pretty.” I chuckle, winking at her. “I’d rather save us both from the trauma of that.”
She swats at my arm, the sound of her laughter swirling around us, seeping into my pores. My favorite sound. “Come on.” She tugs at the sleeve of my hoodie. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”
I reach past her, pulling open the screen door and holding it for her as she opens the exterior door.
The smell of cooked vegetables immediately hits my nostrils when we walk into the house and my mouth instinctively waters.
Lucy kicks off her shoes and shrugs off her jacket, hanging it up just inside the door.
I follow her lead, leaving my sneakers next to hers.
Lucy’s mother’s voice carries down the hallway. “Lu, is that you?”
“Yeah, Mom,” Lucy calls out to her. She gives me a small smile, one that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. The tension is heavy in the air. The uncertainty. The undoubtable anxiousness that Lucy’s trying to conceal.
“You told her I was coming too, right?” I ask, my voice low as we head in the direction of the kitchen.
Lucy glances at me from the corner of her eye. “I forgot.”
I press my lips into a flat line. She gets a free pass, since she’s been such a ball of stress lately. But this has the potential to be awkward… Well, more awkward than I imagined it would be.
Lucy’s mom is by the stove, moving pots away from the burners. Her back is turned to us, and I do a brief scan of the kitchen and dining area, looking for her father.
Rowan Taylor was one of the top goalies in the league back when he played professionally. Lucy’s parents and mine have been close since we were babies. I’ve known her family for as long as I can remember.
Her father’s got a soft spot for her and her mother, Hadley. He’s a nice guy, in all honesty. Although, he’s not someone who I’d want to be on the bad side of.
“Hey, Mom,” Lucy says, walking over to greet her mom. “I brought Theo along, I hope you don’t mind.”
Hadley pulls her in for a hug. “Of course! You know he’s always welcome here.” She releases Lucy and wastes no time hugging me. “Hi, Theo.”
“Hi, Hadley.” I smile, returning the embrace before we break apart. “How can we help?”
She turns back to the stove. “Can you grab the pot of soup and take it to the table, please?” She glances at Lucy. “Your father is out back tending his chickens. Can you tell him to come in?”
I snort, my face scrunching as I find Lucy’s gaze. “Chickens?”
She shrugs, laughing quietly. “His new hobby, I guess.”
“He needs to find a new one,” Hadley mumbles under her breath. “How have you been, Theo?”
“I’ve been great. Just busy with hockey, you know how it goes.”
Lucy slips out through the back door and Hadley gives me a knowing look and a nod. “All too well.”
I help her get dinner on the table and she takes her usual seat on the far side. I’ve been here enough for dinner to know exactly where everyone sits. Rowan sits at the end with Hadley to his left and Lucy to his right.
Lucy and her father come back into the house, laughing about something as they head into the kitchen. Hadley pours some glasses of water and takes a seat, patiently waiting for the two of them.
“Hey, Theo,” Rowan says, holding his hand out to shake mine after he washes them at the sink. “How have you been? Ready for the season to start?”
“I am.” I nod, smiling at him. “I’ve been good. Just keeping busy and getting ready.”
“You played your ass off last season. Keep it up, kid,” he says, patting my shoulder.
Lucy watches the two of us, her expression unreadable as I meet her eyes. She gives me a small smile—the same one she had when we first got here. Once we’re all sitting at that table, the conversation she came here to have is going to be unavoidable.
“It’s okay,” I mouth to her, reaching for her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. She squeezes back and lets me go before making her way to her seat at the table.
I sit down on the chair next to her. “This smells wonderful, Hadley.”
“Oh, thank you!” She chuckles. “It’s just vegetable soup. The stove did most of the work for me.”
Rowan cocks his head to the side. “Don’t give that old thing all the credit. This was all you, baby.”
Hadley smiles brightly, batting her eyelashes at him. All the years they’ve been together and they’re still hopelessly in love.
Lucy blows out a breath, half rolling her eyes at them. I duck my head, concealing my quiet laughter before holding out my bowl for Lucy to fill it. We fall into a comfortable conversation about hockey and Lucy’s new job as we all scarf down the delicious meal Hadley made.
As we’re all finishing up, the conversation shifts… steering right into the danger zone.
“So, Lu, what did you want to talk to us about?”
Lucy’s body immediately stills. The air around her shifts. She sets her spoon down, grabbing her napkin as she carefully wipes her face. “Um, yeah. I—” She puts the napkin in her lap, wringing her hands together. “Well, I have something I need to tell you.”
Shit.
Time has momentarily suspended. Rowan plants his elbows on the table, wrapping one hand around the other as he waits. Hadley patiently sips her water. Both of their eyes are on her, just waiting for her to continue.
“I—um.” Lucy sucks in her cheeks, the color draining from her face. “I’m pregnant.”
Hadley sucks in a breath. Rowan doesn’t look like he’s fucking breathing. And Lucy—well, she looks like she’s waiting for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
No one says anything for at least thirty seconds. My heart pounds harder inside my chest. Someone needs to say something. Anything. I know this silence is killing her.
“Okay,” Hadley finally says, her voice cutting through the thick air. “Um. You know, this is unexpected.” She glances at Rowan. “Your father and I are a bit… shocked.”
Lucy quickly nods her head, her throat bobbing as she swallows hard. “Yeah, I know. I was too.” She intertwines her fingers. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“I know, honey,” Hadley says softly, offering her a small smile.
“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone,” Rowan says, his voice gruff. “You never mentioned anyone to us.”
Lucy’s silent for a second, her breathing growing more erratic. “Well, you see, that’s where it gets a bit complicated.”
Hadley tilts her head to the side. “Complicated in what way?”
Come on, Hadley. As if she doesn’t know how complicated things can be. Hell, Lucy’s biological mom left her outside the fucking hospital because she wasn’t capable of caring for her.
And my biological father? Piece of shit did the same thing to my mother as this guy did to Lucy. He wanted nothing to do with my mother or me. Left her to do it all alone.
Just like Lucy.
Thank god for my stepdad, Nash. He stepped in while she was pregnant and helped her and fell in love with her. He raised me as his own. He’s the only father I’ve ever known.
And this child Lucy’s going to have doesn’t even have that.
“It wasn’t expected. We didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Rowan’s expression gives nothing away. “Who is ‘we’, Lucille?”
Shit, he pulled out her government name.
“The guy—the father, I mean,” she says in a rush, stumbling over her own words. “He… we weren’t… aren’t together.”
Hadley reaches for Lucy’s hand. “Oh, honey,” she says softly. “It’s okay.”
Lucy shifts in her seat. “I’d just met him that night and I made a mistake.” Her voice wobbles and she looks like she’s going to bolt. The panic is setting in. “We were both drunk and he was—”
“Lucille.” Her father’s voice drops like a fucking weight.
She quickly looks at me, eyes wide and filled with tears. This is not good. Not good at all.
“Who is the father?”
“Me.” The lie escapes me effortlessly. What did I just do? Lucy inhales sharply, her gaze pinned on me, the color vacant from her face.
“The baby is mine.”
All three sets of eyes are on me. The room is quiet enough that you could hear a pin drop. I can’t tell if Lucy looks like she’s going to lose her shit on me or if she’s relieved.
Rowan pushes back his chair, the feet dragging across the wood floor. “Get up, Theodore.” He works his jaw. “We need to have a talk. Outside. Now.”
Lucy looks back and forth between her mother and father. “No, you don’t. It’s okay. It’s not—”
“Lucy, it’s okay,” I assure her, squeezing her shoulder. Rowan’s already turned around, heading to the back door.
“Your father needs this, Lu,” Hadley says to her.
She looks at me. “This is still a lot to take in. I have questions, obviously.” She directs her attention back to Lucy.
“We love you, Lu. Both of you,” she adds, nodding her head at me.
She gets up, coming over to hug Lucy. “We will do whatever to support both of you during this.”
“Thank you, Mom,” Lucy cries, hugging her tighter. She shifts her head, looking up at me. “Thank you,” she whispers, her eyes locked on mine.
The muscle in my jaw tightens. Goddammit. I’m powerless around her and this tonight proves it. What the hell have I done? I can’t take any of this back. I can’t tell them it’s a lie.
Not when Lucy’s looking at me like I just saved her ass.
There’s a rough knock on the glass door. Fuck. Rowan’s waiting outside.
He’s going to kill me.
My stomach churns, a mountain of dread building in the pit of it as I force myself out of the kitchen and onto the back patio. Rowan’s standing with his back to me, staring out in the direction of where his chicken coop is.
The silence is deafening.
I stand, palms sweating, waiting for his acknowledgement. I know he heard me come out here. My footsteps are heavy as I chance a few steps closer, standing diagonally from him.
“When you were born, Nash was obsessed with you. You were all he talked about. All he cared about, other than your mother, of course.” He pauses, still looking out across the yard. “I never thought I’d want to have kids, but when I saw the way he looked at you, there was a twinge of envy.”
He tucks his hands into his pockets and continues. “When I found out about Lucy, I was fucking terrified. I saw how Nash was with you and didn’t know how the hell I’d do it too. A baby? I was playing professional hockey, single, and not where I wanted to be to have kids.”
His chest rises as he sucks in a deep breath. I wipe my palms against the fronts of my pants. “I couldn’t have done it without Hadley.” He shakes his head, turning to look at me. “It was a tough time, and she kept me afloat through it all.”
“You and Lucy have been best friends since you were kids.” He pins his gaze on me. “Will you be the one to keep my daughter afloat? Will you be the one she can lean on when things feel hard or too heavy?”
I straighten my spine, pushing back my shoulders. The last thing I’m going to do is crumble in front of Rowan Taylor. “I always have been.”
“Will you continue to be?”
“Yes, sir.”
His eyes are hard. “She deserves the fucking best, Theodore. Are you going to be the fucking best?”
Jesus Christ. I swallow roughly. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s not going to be easy.” He works the muscle in his jaw. “You’re not allowed to run away when things get hard. Her and that baby are both going to be reliant on you.” He tilts his head. “If you can’t be what they need, this is your chance to walk away.”
This is my chance to come clean. This is my chance to tell him the truth. I glance at the door. Lucy’s sitting at the table next to her mother, her cheeks are glistening, but I can see a smile on her face.
A smile I never want to take away from her.
“I’m not going to walk away.”
He stares at me for three heartbeats, his eyes burning into mine. He dips his chin. “Good.” He pulls his hands from his front pockets. “I’m trusting you to keep her safe. Her and that baby.”
“Yes, sir. I know.”
“You’re a good man, Theo.” He motions for me to follow him inside. “Don’t give me a reason to change my thoughts about you.”
I swallow hard, nodding my head as I follow him. Rowan walks back into the house, holding the door open for me as I step inside. Lucy and her mother are deep in conversation, but her eyes shift, immediately floating to mine. The softest, most subtle smile tugs on the corners of her lips.
And at that moment, I know I’ve made the right choice.
I gave her father my word and I will do whatever it takes to keep Lucy and her baby safe.