Delayed Penalty (Empire State Hockey #5)

Chapter 16 – Avery

Chapter Sixteen

Avery

T he feeling of being licked startles me away, and not in an exciting, orgasmic sort of way. Nope, this is in a wet dog tongue sort of way that isn’t pleasant when you’re not a morning person. Opening my eyes, I see it’s just starting to get light which means we still have hours before I need to be up, but Luna is already back to kissing me again, her tail wagging excitedly at seeing my eyes open.

Reaching down, I scratch behind her ears, her happy groan as she pushes her entire weight into my pets is adorable. I love that I’ve known this pup for less than twenty-four hours and already it seems I’ve made a friend; an achievement not many have received. “Good morning, sweet girl.”

Looking around, I realize we never left the living room last night, Luna and I curled up on the couch with a big blanket covering us. I've honestly never been more comfortable than right now. A soft puppy snuggling me, a big warm blanket, and a comfy couch… with Harris apparently as my pillow.

Looking back, I realize he’s leaned back, head against the couch letting me rest my head on his lap. The position doesn’t look comfortable at all, but I don’t think I’ve seen him look this happy or this peaceful in a long, long time.

“Good morning, sunshine,” he says, his eyes still closed, startling me. I jerk up, almost causing me to fall off the couch, but thankfully, his arm reaches down and catches me, saving both Luna and I from being a pile of limbs and blankets on the floor. “Jesus, you good, Ave?” He laughs out.

The sound of his laughter first thing in the morning is soft and warm, wrapping me up all warm and cozy like this blanket.

“Yeah,” I say, smiling. “You just caught me off guard is all. I thought you were still sleeping.”

“So, you thought you could stare without getting caught?”

Busted.

“Not my fault you are ungodly pretty in the morning. Like who the hell wakes up like that?” I mutter.

Finally standing up, I stretch my arms out while Luna prances all around me. At least one of us is excited I’m up. I’m just worried if I don’t get up I’ll stay there all day, plus, if I don’t feed the little nugget, I’ll end up sick again.

“Hold on, Luna girl. Let me find a sweatshirt and make some coffee and then we’ll go.” The thought of coffee sends my stomach spinning and I immediately regret my decision to get up so quickly.

“Fuck me,” I groan as I race toward the bathroom, the feeling of my mouth sweating a sure promise I’m about to toss my cookies. Luna hurries in behind me, staying with me the entire time as she lies at my feet as I throw up.

“This is bullshit, Luna girl,” I groan, leaning back against the tub, my arm up against my forehead as I feel another wave of nausea creeping in.

“I thought you were starting to feel better?” Harris asks a look of concern as he passes me a few crackers and water.

“So, did I. That lasted all of like two days. Just enough to give me a false sense of hope,” I say.

Luna whimpers at my feet, pushing her nose at my hand, her neediness in full force, and I pet her, unable to ignore her cuteness.

“I think I need some food. That usually helps at this point. Carbs, specifically.”

“Here, I’ll grab you a pair of sweats and then we’ll walk Luna across the street and grab a coffee and some bagels—Trevor says that’s all Ellie has been wanting lately. Besides, I think that’ll probably be the easiest place to take Luna to do her business.”

“Sold. Lead the way.”

“Besides the obvious, how are you?” he asks, and I know he isn’t referring to me throwing up.

“I mean, I’ve been better. More stressed than usual with all the unknowns in my life right now, but I think I’m going to be okay.”

Harris looks around quietly as we sit on the bench, Luna staying right in between Harris and me while she watches the other dogs run around and play. Whether she’s protecting us or herself I’m not quite sure.

There’s two black labs playing fetch with another couple, who keep throwing a neon tennis ball that Luna keeps watching, her ears perking up with excitement every time she sees it. It’s adorable.

You know,” Harris says, his eyes watching the dogs as he speaks. I follow suit and look down and watch Luna, listening intently as he talks. “Last night… I wasn’t just giving you a load of shit. About any of it. I was dead serious. Hell, I still am.”

I glance up at him, his eyes fixed on me and even with all my insecurities around trust, I know for a fact that Harris isn’t lying to me. I truly believe he wants to help me. I can tell he thinks I’m worthy of happiness and for good things to happen for me, but after Peter did such a good job of making me feel like I didn’t deserve love, it’s hard for me to understand why he wants to do these things for me.

“Well, I mean, there’s a couple of reasons. The first one is that I care about you. I think it’s absolutely pointless for you to have to struggle and be stressed out just because your douchebag ex-fiancé sucks. Especially when I’m fully capable of helping you. Not only that but I want to help you. Plus… there’s the little fact that you’re carrying my baby right now, so insurance and everything will be necessary. Which I mean, I might as well just put you on my insurance…”

“What’s the last reason?”

“Why do you think there’s another reason?” he asks.

“You said there were a couple of reasons, and I’m not sure, but the way you’re twiddling with your fingers and not making eye contact right now, it just doesn’t seem like you’re quite done with whatever it was you were saying.”

He looks back down at his hands, looking uncomfortable. Reaching across the bench, I grab his hand, squeezing it to remind him he’s not alone in this. I mean, even if we are both alone right now, we can be alone together.

That has to count for something, right?

“Remember yesterday how Peter mentioned me fighting?”

“Yeah…” I say anxiously. I’m well aware of what Peter can do when he’s involved with something—I’m praying that’s not the case with Harris.

“Well, when I first got signed on with the Cyclones, I had a rough year when it came to fighting. Peter must’ve found out from his dad that I was put on probation for the first couple of years. Basically, I was given an ultimatum. Get my shit together or they were either sending me down to the AHL, or they were going to trade me.”

“That’s awful,” I say, this is the first time I’m hearing about this. I always knew there’s fighting in hockey, I’ve seen plenty of games—especially of his back in college. But I didn’t know him to have a fighting problem. “But why would Peter care? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but what did he benefit from that? He had me. But also, that was like six years ago, what does that have to do with now?”

“Do you remember the night at the bar when you threw the dart and it hit that guy?”

“You mean, when it hit his stupid Boston Bandits foam finger and he acted like a baby? Yeah I remember,” I tell him, rolling my eyes at the memory. He was such a wimp.

“Yeah, well, apparently that stupid fan recognized you. Or at least one of his buddies did after he videotaped the whole thing. Just so happens they recognized you because they remembered you with Peter. The fucker sent it to him, which based on the text from my coach this morning, he passed it along to him as well.”

“Excuse me? Are you telling me that Peter is intentionally trying to get you in trouble now? How old is he? He’s acting like some spoiled, petulant child and frankly, I’m over his bullshit.”

“You’re the one who agreed to marry him,” he says, earning him a glare.

“Don’t fucking remind me.”

“So, what do you say? Marry me so I can tell my coach I was fighting for my wife and unborn baby’s honor?” he jokes, but I can see the seriousness of the situation. He’s worried, which tells me whatever happened in the past must’ve been bad if it has happy-go-lucky Harris worried.

He does have a point. If I was willing to marry Peter, why the hell would I say no to Harris? Especially when it sounds like it’ll benefit us both.

“I mean, at this point, I don’t exactly have anything to lose, so… yeah, I guess I’m saying yes.”

He beams, tugging my hand over and pulling me into a side hug which just excites Luna. Popping up on the bench behind us, she wiggles her way into Harris’s lap, ensuring she’s at the very center of the hug, soaking up all the love.

“When should we do it?”

“Honestly? I have a meeting with Coach next week, so I was thinking sort of as soon as possible.”

“Oh…” My heart starts racing, but it feels like… excitement instead of the fear I’d expect.

The entire time I was engaged to Peter, he always balked anytime we tried to come up with a date. Well, up until this last year. Recently, he said it was happening next summer whether I liked it or not. Guess I showed him.

“Yeah… I looked it up last night. We could go in, get the marriage certificate, then as long as it doesn’t happen that same day, we can get married. I was thinking I could have Trevor do it… he’s ordained and everything. We basically just need to go get the marriage certificate, do the ceremony with witnesses then file the paperwork.”

“You’ve done your research,” I say with a smile, and he blushes.

“You fell asleep right away when you were snuggling Luna, I stayed up on my phone for a bit before I fell asleep as well. I looked it up so I knew what our options were if you ended up agreeing.”

“I want to say yes. I want to say let’s just go do it right now, but how do we ensure we aren’t going to get hurt. I can’t get into something right now. My life’s already a big enough cluster fuck, I can’t add that I’m trying to make things work with my ex-boyfriend turned fake husband and baby daddy. It’s too much of a mouthful.”

“Whatever you say. We’ll put up boundaries. We’ll act how we need to when my coach or your ex is around, and outside of that we’ll just be friends.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it means I get to make sure you’re happy and safe, absolutely.”

My heart swells, his thoughtfulness so evident that I wonder why I’m so worried about having all of these rules. These protections in place to safeguard my heart. Then I remember the way I felt when he left, and I know exactly why I need to guard myself.

“So… are we doing this?” I ask once and for all.

“You tell me. I’ll drive us to pick up the marriage certificate right now if you tell me yes.”

“I guess you’d better grab your keys. Luna, we’re going on a drive.”