On Thin Ice (Denver Stampede Book 4)

Prologue

ALLY

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

I sat back on the toilet seat, but no matter how many times my brain said nope, that stupid word was still bold as hell on the stick.

Pregnant.

I dropped my head to the hand not holding the pee stick and took a deep breath.

What the ever-loving hell was I going to do?

My stomach clenched.

It’d been doing that a lot lately, which is why I’d finally taken a test. Being late was normal for me, so I hadn’t questioned it at first, but being two weeks late and nauseous had me heading to my local drugstore.

I’d taken five tests.

Plus signs and that word were coming at me from every angle.

I sighed and reached for a saltine, taking a bite of the dry cracker.

Yup.

Pregnant.

How the hell had this happened? I hadn’t slept with anyone in months, and I definitely had a period during my last cycle.

Dom.

Ah, fuck.

Damn that man and his too-skilled tongue and everything else. Now I was knocked up by my sort-of ex, my brother’s former teammate—by a man that I should know how to resist by now.

Domenic Tremblay, former hotshot rookie forward for the San Francisco Strikers and current forward for the new Denver Stampede.

And the man I never should’ve slept with again.

Last summer, we’d hooked up after my brother’s wedding, and I’d said never again. Again.

But then I ran into him at Crash and Byrne, the Strikers team bar, in March when he’d been in town for a game against his old team. A few drinks and we were back at my place, making poor—but enjoyable—decisions.

Dammit.

I was a smart woman. I was on the Pill—and took it like clockwork—and we’d used a condom. Not that either of those methods is one hundred percent effective, but come on, that combo should’ve made it close.

I paused.

Maybe the condom had broken or been old.

Wait.

Shit.

I’d gotten sick the day before. Bad shrimp or something at lunch, shortly after I’d taken my Pill.

Dammit. Could that have really made a difference?

I’d felt fine the next day and gone to the game, and then Dom had scrambled my brain with his stupid tongue after said game.

Something he’d been doing since I first met him over four years ago and since we’d first hooked up two years ago. We’d flirted since day one, just teasing, but it never amounted to anything. Then, it all boiled over one night. Our fling hadn’t lasted long. We’d both been so young and had wanted different things. But that didn’t mean I was good at resisting him when we ran into each other after that.

See Exhibit A.

The five positive pregnancy tests mocked me.

The back of my head hit the wall behind me. What was I going to do?

Should I call him? I snorted out a laugh.

Yeah, that would go over well.

Yeah, hey, so we made a baby.

Hell. That should not be a phone call.

I took a deep breath, pushed down my nausea, stood up from the toilet, and walked away from those stupid tests.

Then I called my best friend. Darcy would know what to do.