Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
HARRISON
The crowd noise filters through the concrete walls, distant and muffled, but here it’s just the hum of fluorescent lights and the squeak of rubber soles on tile.
I’ve got my suit jacket slung over my shoulder and my tie loose in my hand, my mind already half on the press briefing waiting for me down the hall.
It was a big win for us, but I know without a shadow of a doubt this presser will be all about my future.
“Hey Meers,” Ledger catches my eye when he steps through the door of the locker room. He hitches his thumb behind him. “I think there’s a little guy out there who desperately needs his dad.”
“Oh shit.” My heart drops. “What’s going on?”
Ledger shrugs. “If I had to guess, he heard the news about his dad not playing hockey anymore. But I could be wrong.”
Fuck.
“Thanks Ledger.”
“Sure thing, man.”
When I step out of the locker room I stop cold.
Harper is standing by the wall near the family entrance, her coat on, her hair pulled back, but it’s Connor who guts me in one glance.
He’s sitting on the bench outside the locker room, shoulders shaking. Full-on crying.
Not the quiet kind of tears.
Not the kind kids try to hide from others.
The kind that come from somewhere deep and scared and raw.
My chest tightens instantly. “Connor?” I say, dropping everything. Jacket, tie, doesn’t matter. I’m moving before my brain catches up. “Hey, buddy, what’s wrong?”
He lifts his head, eyes red and wet, face twisted with panic.
“You’re quitting?” he chokes out.
The word hits me harder than any body check ever has. I glance up at Harper, confused, and she looks just as wrecked, but she gives me a small nod. Not accusatory. Just honest.
My shoulders fall as I look at both of them.
He knows.
“I—” I start, crouching in front of him. “Connor, listen to me—”
He scrambles to his feet and suddenly his hands are clutching my dress shirt like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
“Don’t,” he sobs. “Please don’t. I don’t want you to stop playing.”
My throat burns. “You…don’t?”
“No! I just got you, Dad!” he says, voice breaking. “And now everyone keeps saying you’re gonna quit.”
Dad…
He called me Dad.
The word lands between us, soft and shaky and sacred. It’s the first time he’s ever said it. The first time he’s ever called me Dad.
I don’t breathe.
I don’t move.
Fuck, I don’t think my heart has ever stopped and started so fast in my life.
“I want a whole season,” he pleads. “One whole season where I get to watch my dad play hockey like all the other kids. I want to come to the games and wear your jersey and tell people that’s my dad out there.”
Tears sting my eyes before I can stop them.
“I want to see you play,” he whispers. “Please don’t quit. Please!”
I press my forehead to his, one hand cradling the back of his head, the other firm on his back like I can anchor him here.
“Hey,” I murmur. “Hey. Look at me.”
He does, hiccupping. His glistening blue eyes pierce my heart.
“I wasn’t planning on leaving you,” I say quietly.
“It was never that, okay? I was just thinking about timing. About being around for you. About doing this right so I can be the best dad for you. I thought maybe you’d like it better if I was home with you more, that’s all.
Hockey doesn’t have to be my life because you’re my life now. ”
Harper steps closer then, her hand resting on my arm.
“There’s something else,” she says softly.
I look at her, heart still pounding, already stretched thin with emotion. She takes a breath, then says, “I’m pregnant, H.”
The hallway tilts and I nearly lose my balance.
Whoa.
“What?” I breathe.
She smiles through tears. “Almost fourteen weeks.”
Wh-wha-what?
I laugh and choke and cry all at once, a sound I don’t even recognize as my own.
Pregnant?
She’s pregnant?
Like, for real?
She squeezes my arm. “And I would love for our second child to see their dad play too.”
“We’re having a baby?”
“Mhmm.” She nods biting her bottom lip.
“Another baby?”
“Yeah.”
“A whole baby…from the very beginning?”
She laughs this time. “Yes.”
Connor looks between us, stunned. “Wait, you’re having a baby?”
Harper nods slowly. “Mhmm.”
“You mean…you mean I’m going to be a big brother?”
She smiles softly this time. “You are.”
He wipes his face with his sleeve, sniffling, then looks back at me with renewed urgency. “See? You can’t retire. Because Mom is going to have a baby and I’m going to be a big brother, and I need to bring my baby brother to all your games and teach him about hockey.”
I tilt my head up at Harper silently asking if she knows she’s having a boy already, but she shakes her head, lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug “We don’t know yet, but…maybe.”
I let out a shaky laugh and pull Connor into my chest, holding him tightly against me.
“Okay,” I say. “You win, Connor.” I push him back enough to be able to see his face. “Whatever you want me to do is what I’ll do. As long as it’s okay with your mom.”
He stiffens. “Really?”
“I’ll give it another year. Ten years if you want,” I say, pressing a kiss into his hair and glancing up at a now tearful Harper. “At least one more season for sure. You’ll get your year. I promise, but only on one condition.”
His arms lock around my neck like I’m the only solid thing in the world. “Okay, what?”
“I’m going to need your mom to marry me,” I tell him.
Connor’s eyes grow wide at my words, his hands clutching mine.. His head tilts ever so slightly and half of his mouth turns up in a goofy little smile. “You want to marry my mom?”
“More than anything in the world,” I say, my gaze shifting to Harper.
She’s frozen, one hand pressed to her mouth, the other to her stomach—our baby—as tears spill down her cheeks. I stand and take her hand in mine.
“Harper Richardson,” I say, my voice steady despite my racing heart, “I’ve loved you since I was nineteen years old.
I’ve never stopped loving you. And now you’ve given me a son and you’re carrying our second child…
” My voice breaks. “If I’m going to continue to play hockey, then I want to do this right.
All of it. I want to love both of our children and I want to be your husband, if you’ll have me. ”
“Dad!” Connor tugs at my sleeve, his voice urgent. “You’re supposed to kneel! That’s how it works in the movies!”
I laugh, wiping my own eyes. “Oh shit. You’re right, buddy.”
I drop to one knee right there in the hallway outside the locker room. Connor sits on my knee and I wrap a strong arm around him, holding him to me as I take Harper’s now trembling hand in mine.
“I don’t have a ring yet,” I admit. “This wasn’t exactly planned, but I swear to God Connor and I will go find you the most beautiful, most expensive ring we can find.”
“Harrison…”
“And we’ll buy a house,” I add, not letting her speak. “A big house with a huge yard where the kids can run and play and—”
“Harrison…”
“And we can even get a dog. No, two dogs because a dog deserves to have a friend too.”
“And a cat!” Connor adds, lifting his arm up like he’s answering a question in class. “Because dogs like cats.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I nod, approving of Connor’s addition. “And a cat.”
“Hey H?”
I finally stop to take a breath. “Yeah?”
“When do I get to say yes?”
My heart stops, then thunders back to life. Harper’s face is a beautiful blur through my tears, but I can hear the smile in her voice.
“Uh, you can say yes right now. Anytime now. We’ll wait, right Connor? We’ll just uh, we’ll sit here and wait for you to say—”
“Yes.” She laughs, the sound watery and perfect. “Yes, Harrison Meers. Of course I’ll marry you.”
She bends down to kiss me and Connor squirms between us, his small arms wrapping around both our necks, pulling us into a messy three-way hug. “Fuck yes! My dad is gonna marry my mom! We’re gonna be a real family!” he shouts, loud enough that I’m pretty sure the entire arena can hear him.
I don’t even care about the language.
Let them hear.
Let everyone hear.
“We’re already a real family,” Harper whispers, her forehead pressed to mine.
“I love you so much, Harp.” I bring my hand to her stomach and she covers it with her own. “And I swear to God I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you every single goddamn day.”
“I love you too, H.”
Someone clears their throat behind us, and I turn to find the entire team standing in the hallway, grinning like idiots. Bodhi has his phone up, recording everything. Even Ella is here still dressed in her mascot costume.
Oh shit.
“You know,” Griffin says, “when we said you needed to address the retirement rumors, we didn’t expect a full-on proposal and baby announcement.”
“Not exactly how I planned it,” I admit, my arm still around Connor’s shoulders. “But when your kid calls you ‘Dad’ for the first time and begs you not to retire, you kind of have to go with the moment.”
August claps slowly. “Masterful improvisation, Meers. Truly.”
Bodhi lowers his phone, grinning. “Dude, this is going straight to the wedding video.”
“You recorded all of that?” Harper asks, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“Every beautiful second,” Bodhi confirms. “Including Connor’s very enthusiastic f-bomb.”
Connor’s eyes widen. “Oops.”
“Yeah, oops is right,” I say, ruffling his hair. “We’ll talk about that later.”
The guys crowd around us, slapping my back, congratulating Harper, high-fiving Connor. It’s a blur of faces and voices, and I’m still trying to process everything that’s happened in the last five minutes.
Pregnant.
Engaged.
Dad.
Those three words keep circling my mind, each one more incredible than the last.
“So,” Barrett says, crossing his arms with a knowing smirk. “About that retirement…”
“One more year,” I tell him, meeting his eyes. “At least.” I glance down at Connor who is smiling ear to ear and ruffle his hair. “That okay with you, son?”
Tears fill his eyes as he nods enthusiastically and then reaches up to hug me. I lift him in my arms and let him wrap himself around me as he cries happy tears. “Thank you, Dad.”
“Anything for you, bud. I’d do any-fucking-thing for you.”
I close my eyes and squeeze him tight and for the first time in my life, the future doesn’t feel like something I’m chasing or outrunning or hiding from.
It feels like something I’m choosing.
And when Blakely Rivers clears her throat awkwardly from the press room down the hall, I barely notice.
Because my son is holding me.
My future wife is next to me.
She’s the love of my life, the one I’ve waited for, and she’s carrying my baby.
The press room can wait.
Because right now, there is absolutely nowhere else I need to be.
THE END