Delayed Penalty (Empire State Hockey #5)

Chapter 17 – Harris

Chapter Seventeen

Harris

Hudson’s tomorrow? Can everyone make it?

Trevor

Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.

Cassie

Are you buying?

Cade

We’re in. Gwen’s at work right now but she’s off tomorrow night.

Yeah, I’ll buy.

Max

Then we’re definitely in.

Sawyer

Yup. Stella will be there, too.

Miles

I’ll be there.

Sawyer

Be nice to Rex. She also brought her boyfriend and he’s… well he’s something alright.

Me

Looks like I’ll be buying shots.

H aving a puppy living in my apartment is not as challenging as I thought it was going to be. Sure, it’s annoying having to constantly go outside, but luckily I found out our roof top has a large grassy area that’s covered for tenants to bring their pets outside, especially when it’s raining.

That won’t be a problem with us for much longer, though, because Luna has been doing so much better eating so we’re getting ready to bring her back to the shelter early next week, after the wedding because, of course, she needs to be there. Well, I am getting ready, Avery is grumpy about it and has refused to help, but there’s nothing we can do about it.

The idea is, as long as everything goes as planned, is to get married this weekend, go out with our friends the next day, and announce we’re married… and that she’s pregnant. All at once, just rip off the Band-Aid. After that, I’ll call my family and tell them and then worry about what’s next after that.

The first step in this plan is to go meet Trevor and his girls at the park, with bagels and cream cheese like I promised. It’s like a peace offering for yet another favor I need to ask for. Plus, I figure it’s smart for me to learn quickly how to handle women and their cravings, especially now that Avery is living with me. Kelly brought all of her stuff over this morning; apparently, she left a lot of it at Peter’s and only took the stuff she cared about. Works for me, but I’ll be happy to go get it for her if she wants. Pretty much take any excuse to have words with him at this point.

“Uncle Harris!” Addy screams from the swings, leaping off she comes running over to me, nearly knocking me over her flying hug was so strong.

“Jeez, kid, you’re getting too big to jump like that. One of these days, I’ll drop you.”

“No, you won’t. Unless you’re getting old and weak, but you’re still playing hockey, so I don’t think that you’re old and weak.”

“Hey now,” Trevor pipes up. “What are you saying about me?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Addy says, throwing an over-exaggerated wink at me before turning to look at Avery. “Hi. I’m Addy, what’s your name?”

Avery crouches down, looking at Addy eye to eye and a big smile. “Hi, Addy. That’s a very pretty name. My name is Avery.”

Addy looks over to Ellie and Trevor who nod, and smile and she turns to look back at Avery. “Want to come swing with me? These swings go super high, and my mommy says she doesn’t want to go too high because she’s pregnant with my little sister.

“I—” she starts, but I interrupt.

“Avery doesn’t like swings. They make her dizzy, but maybe she can help you?” I ask, hoping I’m not overstepping.

“Really?” she says excitedly, and when Avery nods she quickly grabs her hand, pulling her over to the swings.

Addy definitely doesn’t have stranger danger, but it’s adorable.

Once the girls are by the swings leaving Trevor and I sitting here, I can feel his eyes burning into the side of my head and I know he’s not letting me out of this one easily.

“So, what’d you call me for, dragging me and my family out when we could be comfy at home,” Trevor whines, a teasing tone that instantly relaxes me.

“Uh, I sort of need a favor,” I say, rocking back and forth on my heels. I haven’t actually had to come out and announce the pregnancy to anyone yet so I’m just winging the conversation. Looking back to Avery, then back at Trevor. “We’re having a baby.”

“Wait, what? I thought—wait… isn’t she engaged to someone? Paul?”

“She was engaged to someone, his name’s Peter and he sucks. Now, she’s engaged to me, with my baby on the way.”

“Did I miss a couple of chapters or something? Last I remember when we were at Cade and Gwen’s, you didn’t mention anything about a baby… that was like a month ago. Is this pregnancy brain? Can men get pregnancy brain?”

“No, you didn’t miss a few chapters. Let’s just say, you missed one jam-packed cluster fuck of a chapter I’m still trying to wade my way through. First step… you’re ordained, right?”

“Yeah…” He eyes me skeptically. “Are you thinking straight, buddy? I know this is the girl you’ve pined for as long as I’ve known you, but this is a lot happening fast.”

“I get it, Trev. I do. From the outside perspective, it probably looks like that. Remember my first year on the team?”

“Yeah, you were a little shit who wanted to fight anyone if they looked at you wrong. I fucked with you as often as I could.”

“Oh, I remember. But that was right after I found out that Avery had cheated on me and was leaving me. I lost contact with her after that, and I sort of lost it. It didn’t help it was all because of our Coach’s friend, not that he ever knew about any of it.”

“What do you mean?” Trevor asks, his eyes bouncing between me and his girls, always making sure he knows where everyone is and I’m so excited to watch him become even more of a family man when their new little one is here.

“He basically told me he would ruin Avery’s career—her dream of being a teacher—if I tried to reach out or if I told anyone about it. Not only that, but he knew Cade and I were close and had dreamed about staying together on the same team. I couldn’t risk him following through finding a way to fuck that up too.”

“What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell Coach? Even if they were friends, I feel like he still would have wanted to know. Why didn’t you tell anyone? Something could’ve been done, you shouldn’t have had to worry about being blackmailed.”

“I was young, na?ve, and I trusted they had the power. Looking back now, I should have done so many things different, starting with not putting so much importance on my career when nothing mattered the moment I lost her.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, so it may seem fast, but a marriage protects us both while her douchebag ex tries to get her fired just because he’s a spoiled dickhead… but that’s a story for another day.”

“So… let me get this straight. You want to get married, and you want me to do it?”

“Exactly.”

“When?”

“Does tonight work? Her sister is back at my place still and I’m sure she’d love to have her there.”

“Wait… seriously? Are you going to tell your parents? What about the guys?”

“That’s what tomorrow is for. I figured we would go to Hudson’s and tell everyone the news without having the pressure on Avery to have a bunch of people there.”

“Valid. So. Yeah, I mean, we’re free tonight, what’s the plan?”

“Can you meet at my place at say… eight?”

Trevor looks at me with a big smile, but I can tell he’s surprised by this whole situation. Not that I can blame him. As far as everyone is aware, I’ve been single and playing the field for as long as they’ve known me. Granted, everyone but Cade met me after Avery broke my heart.

For a while there I was definitely enjoying being in the NHL and having women willing to warm my bed whenever I wanted… but it was so empty it did nothing to help me recover. It wasn’t until I started to get serious about hockey and met the rest of the guys that I really started to try to be happy again—which is when I slowed down the one-night stands. Regardless of what point of my life I’ve been in, though, if it was after I was with Avery, not a single woman has ever compared.

“You’re like, serious about this? Even if it’s not a real marriage in the sense of it being a love and forever sort of thing. You’re still all in?”

“I never once said it wasn’t a love or a forever sort of thing. A marriage is a marriage, regardless of how long it takes her to get on the same page as me.”

He looks surprised, but Trevor just smiles. “Well, then I better get these two crazies home so we can get ready for tonight.”

“Agreed.”

“You know I have to tell Ellie about all of this, right?”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Just try to keep it on the down low until we have a chance to announce it tomorrow. It’s not that I’m hiding anything, I just want to be able to tell everyone in person, and truthfully, I’d just like to be able to do it all at once after it’s all taken care of.”

“You got it,” Trevor says as we start walking toward the girls. “I’m proud of you, man. You’re going to be an amazing dad.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so,” Trevor say, so confidently that I’m starting to believe it.

When we walk back into the apartment, Kelly is on the couch watching a movie while Luna is side eyeing her from the other couch.

“Looks like you two still haven’t bonded.” I laugh as Avery practically runs back to Luna who’s obviously just as excited to see her.

It’s fucking cute… and almost makes me wonder if there’s a way we’d be able to keep Luna… I wish.

“Nope. She thought about it when I was eating pepperoni and cheese, but she wasn’t quite brave enough to get close, so she was shit out of luck. I told her she could sit her pretty butt on that couch until you guys got home.”

“Was she being too pushy, Luna girl,” Avery says as she snuggles up to Luna, looking back over at her sister who looks shocked at the two of them. “What time do you have to leave?”

“No specific time. I actually don’t have to be at work for two more days and I don’t have to get the kids till then either.”

“That’s sort of perfect,” Avery says, looking over at me. “You see… we’re kind of going to get married… tonight.”

“What the fuck?” Kelly says, looking between Avery and I like we’re crazy. “I feel like I’ve missed something. Either that, or you two have lost your damn minds.”

She might not be wrong, but fuck it… luckily for me, I’m going to let Avery take this one because I’ve got a couple of things to get ready before tonight and Luna is going to be my helper.

“I’m going to let you two hash this out a bit while I go run a couple of errands with Luna.”

Avery looks over at me and I can tell she’s relieved.

I get it. There’s something about these conversations that sometimes it just needs to be one on one.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”