Chapter Forty-Three
Leo
Nothing wakes you up quite like someone telling you they might be pregnant with your child.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Hawaii, have you taken a pregnancy test?”
“No,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. I grabbed her and pulled her to me as a sob rose from her chest. “I figured it was nothing, just stress. It still might be nothing. But I can’t go back to Hawaii without knowing.”
“Damn straight, because if you’re pregnant I’m getting on that plane with you,” I said, the words flying out before the thought had even fully formed in my head.
It didn’t matter though; it was true. I’d been thinking for months that hockey wasn’t worth it if I didn’t have Sophia in my life, but I couldn’t bring myself to just abandon the thing I’d been working toward since I was five.
The thing my parents had given so much to help me achieve and that fulfilled me in a way I didn’t think I’d find with anything else.
Still, three weeks ago I’d sprinted to the nearest bathroom and barely made it to the toilet to throw up my breakfast after I signed my NHL contract.
It had nothing to do with nerves about joining the NHL and everything to do with feeling like I’d just signed away the most important person in my life in exchange for my dream career.
Talk about selling your soul to the devil.
Sophia lifted her head. “You’re not giving up hockey even if I’m pregnant.”
“The fuck I’m not, Hawaii,” I said.
“I could stay here,” she said quietly.
“No, we already talked about that. You love your family too much, you’re not doing that.”
“And you love hockey,” she said.
“I love you,” I said earnestly, eyes filling with tears.
“I know you do, Leo. But I won’t let you throw away your dream for me. Which is why we are where we are,” she said sadly, resting her head against my chest.
I kissed the top of her head and took a deep breath. If she was pregnant, it would change everything. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
When her family had been in town for graduation week, I’d noticed them all watching us curiously, like they wanted to say something but didn’t want to interfere.
I saw how they looked at Sophia and her happiness around me and my family, and there was something about the sadness in their eyes that made me think they knew she loved it here almost as much as she loved it in Oahu with them.
It was like they knew we were making a mistake, but they didn’t want to tell her how to live her life.
My family had no such qualms about telling me I was making a huge mistake.
Aunt Sloane had been the loudest of them, but they’d all made it clear that they thought I should ask Sophia to stay in Boston with me.
I hadn’t had the heart to tell them that I’d follow her to Oahu before I’d break my promise to let her go home where she wanted to be.
“I’m going to go buy a test,” I said, “There’s no point in figuring out how we’ll handle it until we know if there is something to handle.”
She sniffled and I cupped her face, forcing her to look at me. “I love you, Hawaii. No matter what, you and this hypothetical baby are adding to my life, not taking away from it.”
I could see the protest in her eyes as she opened her mouth to object.
“No,” I said. “Just wait here and I’ll be back in an hour with a test and an iced latte. Okay?”
She nodded and lay back down on the pillow as I slipped out of bed and pulled on a shirt that’d been laying on the floor. I gave her one last kiss, my heart surging with hope before I walked out the door to get the answers we needed.