Nine months later, she was having a baby.
This couldn’t be a coincidence.
Could it?
He downed his beer and asked the bartender for a shot of whisky.
“Are you doing shots without us?” Logan asked, coming up beside him.
“Yeah.” Ryder downed the shot without looking at his friend.
“You okay?”
“No. Not even a little.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I…” He and Logan were close, but this was personal and had to do with more than just him. He had to talk to Peyton, but she hadn’t given him her number.
Which meant he had to tell Donovan.
Shit.
He swallowed and looked across the room. “I have to take care of something,” he told Logan. “I’ll explain later, okay? Give me a few.”
He walked toward Donovan, who was laughing, his arm around his wife.
“Hey. You got a minute?” Ryder asked him.
“Sure.” Donovan turned to him in surprise. “What’s going on?”
“Can we, uh, talk in private?”
“Okay.” Donovan followed him out to the lobby of the hotel. “What’s up?”
Ryder met his friend’s eyes. “It’s been nine months since we helped Peyton move out of her apartment in Chicago and get away from her ex.”
“Yeah, so?” Donovan frowned. “Why does it—” He cut off abruptly, his eyes narrowing. “Are you fucking kidding me? Did you sleep with my sister?!”
“After we got her settled at the hotel, she was still pretty shaken up, so I asked her if she wanted to get a drink… One thing led to another.” He swallowed hard. “I wanted to see her again, after, but she told me she doesn’t date hockey players, especially not her brother’s teammates. She wouldn’t even give me her number. And I swear to you, I had no idea she was pregnant.”
Donovan shook his head. “She’s stubborn about the hockey player thing. She dated one of my teammates in high school and he hurt her, so that was it for hockey players in her love life.”
“Who did she tell you the baby’s father was?” Ryder demanded after a minute.
“She wouldn’t tell us much of anything. She told us she was with someone else the day after they broke up, but she never told us who the someone else was. Now I know why.”
“I’m sorry, Donovan. I swear, we were careful.”
“Then it’s probably not yours.” He put his hands on his hips and stared up at the ceiling. “Which is kind of a bummer because that means it’s Troy’s kid, and none of us want him to be in the baby’s life. We’ve all been hoping it would turn out to be the other guy’s kid, no matter who he was.”
There was an awkward silence.
“I need to talk to her,” Ryder said quietly. “She and I absolutely need to have a conversation.”
“Yeah, for sure. But give it a couple of days, okay? Let me talk to her first and—”
“No. This is between her and me. If this was my mistake, it’s also my responsibility.”
Donovan looked like he wanted to protest but finally nodded. “All right, but still, give it a few days. She’s in labor now, so it’ll probably be two or three days before she’s home and up to a serious conversation like that.”
“Will you just send me her contact info?”
“Yeah.” Donovan pulled out his phone. “I’m serious, though—don’t do anything to upset her until she’s had a few days to recover from the delivery. I get that you want to know if it’s yours, but she’s had a rough year and a few more days won’t matter.”
“I’m not going to upset her,” Ryder said defensively. “But we have to talk.”
Donovan sent him a text. “That’s her cell number.”
“And address.”
Donovan frowned. “Why do you need her address?”
“So I can send her flowers, dumbass. She just had a baby, whether it’s mine or not.”
“Oh. Right.” Donovan sent him another text and Ryder stared at it for a second before stuffing the phone in his pocket.
“Can we keep this between us for now?” Ryder asked. “There’s no need for anyone to know we slept together unless it turns out to be my kid.”
“Agreed.” Donovan stared at him like he had something else on his mind but was reluctant to say it.
“What?” Ryder asked. “Whatever it is, just say it.”
“Were you into her or was it just sex?”
“I’ve been into her since the first time I saw her,” Ryder admitted. “But she always had a boyfriend, she’s my buddy’s sister, and then when I finally had a shot, she blew me off, said she wasn’t interested in anything beyond a one-night stand.”
“Good to know.” Donovan turned and walked back into the bar.
Ryder stared after him in confusion. Why the fuck was it good to know that he’d been into Peyton and she’d blown him off? Shouldn’t Donovan be pissed at him?
It felt a little like the twilight zone all of a sudden, and Ryder didn’t have a clue what to do next.
He might be a dad.
He and Peyton might have made a baby.
And she hadn’t told him. Warned him. Nothing.
It might not be yours, a little voice whispered inside of him.
“Sonofabitch,” he muttered, running a hand through his unruly hair.
“You okay?” Logan asked, coming up to him. “You look kind of freaked out.”
“You have no idea.”
“You, uh, want to talk about it?”
“Not yet. But thanks.” He turned and headed for the elevator. He wasn’t sure if he was going to throw up, cry, or laugh, but whatever happened in the next few minutes, he needed to be alone.
2
“Come on, Peyton, just one more push and your baby will be here.”
Peyton Legori looked up at the doctor and growled. “You’ve said that at least a dozen times already—at least tell me the fucking truth!”
“Are you sure you don’t want your mother in here with you?” one of the nurses asked.
“No, I don’t want my fucking mother in here—ahhh!” She gripped the sheets and panted through the next contraction, pain ripping through her.
She was never having sex again. No way, no how. This sucked more than anything she’d ever imagined, and she was never doing anything that might get her in this situation ever again. Nope. No orgasm was worth this much pain.
“Motherfucker!” She hissed out the expletive, along with another few, before she realized the doctor was talking to someone else. “What’s happening?” she demanded. “Something is wrong, isn’t it?”
“The cord is wrapped around your baby’s neck,” the doctor said gently. “Don’t push for a minute so we can cut it. Relax, Peyton, okay? I promise, the next push will be the last.”
“Oh my god.” Peyton’s breath left her in a rush. “Is the baby okay?”
“Everything is going to be fine. Just try to relax.”
Relax? Her baby might be in danger and he wanted her to relax?!