Chapter 4 #2
“Really.” He gently stroked her head. “Melody, would you go into the kitchen? We’ll start dinner soon. Anna and I need to discuss something.”
“What?” She looked up at Anna curiously.
“Melody,” he repeated stonily.
“Yeah, fine!” she said, drawing out her words and sighing dramatically. “But I get to use a sharp knife!”
“You can break the spaghetti. Why don’t you get it out of the cupboard? And use your stool.”
“Of course!” she said enthusiastically before calling out, “See you later, Anna,” and running down the hall.
“Is she…yours?” The words were out before Anna could stop them. They had to come out; everything else was irrelevant.
Lucas rocked back on his heels and narrowed his eyes, putting distance between them with his body and gaze. “Yes,” he finally stated.
“What?” Her lungs suddenly contracted. So he could tell her how much he liked his blowjob, but not that he had a daughter? And if she called him Lu, not Dad…was she his step-daughter?
“Are you married?” she snapped, shocked. “You have a wife and still slept with me? Oh my God, was I the other woman?”
“Hold your ponies, Anna,” he replied calmly, his jaw still tense. “Not a wife. Melody is my niece. But she…” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “She’s my responsibility.”
She stared at him with her mouth open. Part of her was relieved, but the other part was completely stunned.
She knew his sister had died last year. Google had told her that — not Lucas himself, God forbid!
But there had never been any mention of a child on the Internet!
Only that the goalie had tragically lost a family member, and that was the reason he had either missed or messed up the last few games of the playoffs. Other than that, however…
“I don’t understand. You have a child and didn’t tell me?” Anna hated that she sounded so breathless. Hated that Lucas was so tall and looking down at her. Hated that he raised his damn eyebrow again, while his words sounded completely composed and calm, unlike hers.
“I don’t know what it would have to do with you.”
“No?” she exclaimed in disbelief. “So you wouldn’t be a little confused if you found out that I had kept a daughter from you?”
“I would only be confused if a second brother suddenly appeared and started the biggest scandal in the history of the L.A. Hawks,” he replied tonelessly.
Anna snorted and ran her hand through her hair. “You’re such a hypocrite, Lucas! You told me: No lies. You judge me for keeping the thing about Jack from you, but you have a child of your own?”
“I didn’t lie.”
“But you kept it a secret!”
“And?” His voice was as unyielding as the brick house itself. “I asked you if there was anything I needed to know that would be my downfall. You said no.”
“I didn’t think it would be our downfall either!” she snapped, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head. How did the easiest sexual relationship she’d ever had turn into such a disaster?
“God.” She rolled her shoulders, exhausted. “I’m so sick of secrets. How is it that no one knows about her?”
“Easy. The press isn’t interested in me. No one is interested in me. Which would change if two of my teammates beat me up within an inch of my life.”
Oh, please – Dax and Jack wouldn’t beat him up. They would kill him.
She pressed her lips together. “That’s why you’re so angry. Because the media doesn’t know anything about her and you want it to stay that way.”
He turned his face away. “Her mother died last year. She’s been through enough.”
Anna swallowed and nodded. She understood the situation — but she didn’t understand him.
“You could have told me. If I’d known…”
“Why would I have done that, Anna?” he asked harshly.
She furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. “Because we had sex regularly for six months?”
“Yes. Sex. Nothing more.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying we were in a relationship, Lucas, but I believed we were at least on friendly terms.”
“No,” he said calmly. “We have nothing in common.”
With her mouth gaping, she stared at him…while a stabbing pain filled her chest. It shouldn’t have, but her heart disagreed vehemently with his words. In fact, Lucas’ words felt like a long, thin needle being pushed through her breastbone into the right atrium of her heart.
Because, yes, it may have been a purely physical relationship…
but Lucas had saved her every week from drowning in the hectic waves of her own mind.
He had made her forget all her doubts, even if only for a short time.
He had erased her insecurity. He’d washed away the stress in one fell swoop.
Anna had thought that, for him…it had at least meant something.
Sometimes, he had kissed her as if he were drowning, and sometimes, he had touched her as if she were the only thing keeping him on the ground.
She had obviously been wrong.
Maybe that should have made her sad, but instead, she grew angry. He was looking at her as if she were wrong, as if she had imagined things that weren’t there.
“Nice,” she said through gritted teeth. “That’s real nice. Since I seem to be just your doctor, nothing more…” She jerked the pill bottle out of her jacket pocket. “Here!”
Lucas ignored her outstretched hand. “I don’t need them.”
She snorted. “Are you in pain?”
“No.”
She stared at his legs — his weight was shifted so clearly to the right that he might as well be the Leaning Tower of Pisa. “I can see you’re in pain!”
“Yeah, I have a headache from this conversation.”
Anna pressed her lips together. Oh, she could see he got a headache, if she slammed the pill bottle against his temple.
“Lucas, I don’t know if you realize this, but things have changed.
” She lowered her voice and took a step closer, gazing up at him coolly.
“You may have been in charge in bed, but this is real life, and I’m your doctor.
I tell you what to do. Not the other way around.
So take the damn pills. I’m not leaving until you do. ”
Lucas raised his other eyebrow too — but remained silent.
She let out a frustrated breath. “It’s not only about the pain!
It’s about preventing infections. You’re no longer young, Lucas.
” She looked at him with pity. “I know, in fact, that thirty-three is rather old, in the hockey world. And that young hotshot, Blake Ford, who has the prettiest pair of functioning knees in the league, is on your heels.”
Lucas’ expression darkened, but Anna kept talking. Their non-relationship was clearly over. No talking was no longer a rule.
“That must be frustrating. If I were you, I would do everything to keep my job a little longer. Penny mentioned that your contract extension is still being negotiated. You know, most goalies get knee problems at some point and few recover from them. Your knee will never be one hundred percent again. But if you damn well do what we tell you, we might keep it at ninety-five!”
For a full minute, Lucas merely glared at her, his gray eyes as cold and meaningless as a refrigerator door. Finally, he whispered threateningly, “Why are you trying to make me angry?”
Anna snorted. Please, she wasn’t trying...she had succeeded! The muscles on his forearms were bulging. She might not know him, but she knew his stupid body!
“Because you’re driving me crazy!” she replied sweetly. “You know, people always say that sex makes everything complicated. But right now, I feel like no sex makes it complicated!”
“It’s you who’s making it complicated, Anna. By standing here, by talking…”
“I wouldn’t be standing here or talking to you if you took your pills,” she interrupted, annoyed. “In case you missed it, I only enjoy your company when you’re naked. So, you either take off your clothes now or take the damn pills!”
Lucas’ jaw cracked, but the next moment, he snatched the bottle from her, tipped two pills into his palm, and swallowed them.
“Great,” she stated tonelessly as she turned and stomped back down the gravel path.
“Anna,” he called out as she reached her car. She reluctantly turned.
“What?”
He rubbed his short beard and sighed heavily. “Melody…”
“Nobody will hear about her from me,” she interrupted, annoyed. “I’ll just say that I found out why you rarely open your mouth.”
He blinked at her, irritated. “What, why?”
“Because everyone would find out that you’re just an asshole,” she said abruptly, turning her back on him and getting into her car. She couldn’t believe she had ever gone to bed with that idiot!