War (Boston Bolts Hockey #3)

2. Tyler

TWO

TYLER

PRESENT DAY

Brooks: You’re late, and your favorite redhead is pissed.

Aiden: It amazes me how you bring out this side of her. To the rest of us, it doesn’t exist.

Hall: If you tell me it’s because you’re finally getting laid, I’ll tell Ava it’s my fault.

Brooks: LOL

Aiden: You’re sick, Hall.

Aiden: By the way, Lex screens my texts, so she’s def going to read this.

Brooks: LOL. Lennox just up and smacked Aiden on the back of the head.

With a huff, I slip my phone into my pocket. I love my teammates, and I’m fortunate enough to consider them friends. Brooks Langfield, our goalie, specifically. The guy has stuck with me since college. He’s quiet and levelheaded most of the time, and up until he met his fiancée, Sara, he didn’t so much as look at women. His focus was fixed solely on hockey.

His younger brother Aiden is our center and one of the greatest players the NHL has ever seen. He recently reconnected with his ex-girlfriend, Lennox Kennedy— yes, of the Boston Kennedys. Known for Kennedy Records, Kennedy Diamonds, Kennedy Properties —and they didn’t waste any time getting married. She may be American royalty, but she’s down-to-earth and a blast to be around. Best of all, she keeps Aiden truly smiling. He’s one of the best guys I know, and he’s always building up the people around him, but behind his happy-go-lucky personality, he battles bouts of depression. It makes me happy to know he’s got an amazing wife in his corner.

Then there’s Daniel Hall. He’s a winger like me. He, Aiden, and I—the first line—spend a lot of time together. Outside of team practice, we put in extra time on the ice, working on our own plays. And if we’re not at Bolts Arena, we’re texting. Since Hall came to the NHL, he’s been my go-to guy when I want to go out. The boy is never not down for a good time. But my priorities have changed over the last few months, and he’s been nagging me about not being around as much.

Hence the comment about getting laid. That’s another thing I haven’t done in a long-ass time.

I don’t miss it nearly as much as I thought I would.

I’m going to need to tell them the real reason I’ve been avoiding going out. I can’t even imagine their reaction—how I’ve managed to keep it a secret this long is mind -fucking -boggling. Not a single person besides our assistant coach Fitz knows—well other than my attorney and the people involved. I haven’t wanted to jinx it. Haven’t wanted to get my hopes up. But this meeting could change everything.

Leg bouncing, I watch the clock, itching to get out of this office. I really am going to be late today. Not that I have a choice in the matter. This appointment is the most important thing I’ve got going on. Even more important than hockey. Not that Ava will understand.

Since we got off on the wrong foot two years ago, she’s made it crystal clear what she thinks of me, and honestly, it’s easier to let her believe it than to try to prove her wrong.

Brooks: Just a heads-up, your brother is here .

Jaw clenched, I stare at the text that comes through from my best friend. This one is in a thread between the two of us only.

That word, brother , rankles me. Stepbrother? Brother? In any other scenario, the distinction is insignificant to me. Family is family.

Except when Xander Warren is involved.

Yes, the dipshit took my father’s last name. He and his mother probably cooked that up together. The list of people I genuinely hate is short, but Xander tops it.

It hasn’t always been this way. When my father married his mother, we were young. Both six.

Even then, though, Dory made it clear that I was not welcome in my father’s home.

So I lived in Canada with my mother and only visited Boston in the summers. Unlike most kids, I dreaded the last day of school. It meant having to leave my mother for eight weeks. It meant being stuck in a place where I knew I wasn’t wanted.

My father made a killing in the stock market, but he worked long hours, and when he wasn’t working, he was networking. Always out. Always traveling. Barely around, despite how little time the two of us had together.

But despite all of that, I loved him. Love him.

He’s oblivious of the way his wife treats me and ambivalent to the way Xander does.

Maybe I should hate him too, but he’s the only family I have. So in honor of that, I’ve worked to maintain some semblance of a relationship with Xander and Dory. Even if they couldn’t care less about me.

Or I should say I tried. Nowadays, I don’t make any effort at all. Unfortunately, Xander has become a fixture in my circle as of late. In a cruel twist of fate, he’s dating Ava. And since she’s best friends with Brooks’s fiancée and Aiden’s wife, it’s a real mindfuck.

If I didn’t despise her just as much as she despises me, I’d consider warning her. But fuck it. They deserve each other.

As the door to the conference room swings open and my attorney appears with a smile on her face, my anxiety eases slightly. “Did she sign?”

“She did. Once she confirmed that the money had been transferred, of course.”

Head hung, I punch my fist into my hand and blow out a breath. “Thank fuck.”

Stepping up in front of me so I’m forced to look up, Madi narrows her dark eyes. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. You have a long road ahead of you. And if you’re going to be a dad, you need to watch the language.”

A dad. Fuck. I can’t believe I’m really going to be a dad.

On autopilot, I shoot her my signature smirk. “Come on, who could say no to this face?”

All she gives me in response is an arched brow. Madison Scott is not easily influenced. A few years ago, she married movie star Duncan Scott in what can only be described as the biggest scandal to ever hit Hollywood. The woman is basically immune to my charm, and that’s exactly why I hired her. I don’t need a yes-woman. I need the best of the best, and I need a woman to give it to me straight. Fortunately, she’s both.

“You’re a single thirty-two-year-old man who travels for ten months out of the year and is known for getting into fights on the ice. You aren’t exactly the ideal candidate for adoptive father of not one, but three kids.”

Her harsh words are like a slap. Damn. “I’ve got Maria to help, and Brayden is like a built-in babysitter.” Maria is a nurse I hired because one of the children I’m trying to adopt, Josie, is a cancer survivor and spent a good chunk of her little life in the hospital. Outside of me and Bray, Maria is another stable person in Josie’s life. That should count for something, right?

Madi seems unmoved by this though, continuing on in her explanation of just how difficult this adoption will be. “And Josie has spent a big chunk of her nine years on this earth in a hospital. She’s been abandoned by not only her birth mother, but her foster parents. She needs stability.” Madi’s lips pull down in genuine sympathy. “Scarlett’s only two. She’ll keep you on your toes, she may be yours now, but this entire situation is an uphill battle. I don’t want you getting your hopes up. ”

Straightening, I cross my arms over my chest. “I never get my hopes up.” I don’t. I’m an eternal pessimist. In my experience, if something can go wrong, it will. Not one aspect of my life has been easy. Nothing has gone according to plan. But in comparison to what Josie has been through? What I’ve experienced has been a walk in the park. Between the four of us—Brayden, Josie, Scarlett, and me—I figure we’ve earned a little good luck by now. I blow out a breath. “But Scarlett and Bray are mine now, right? A judge will want to keep all the siblings together.”

It’s wishful thinking. I know this. I met Josie at a charity event last Christmas. Everyone at Langfield Corp knows her. She was diagnosed with lymphoma sixteen months ago, and when her foster parents received the news, they left her at the hospital. As in, they walked away and never came back.

The thought of her spending her days and nights alone in a hospital at only eight fucking years old made me sick for weeks. I could relate in a way, though my experience was completely different. It was just me and my mom, and she was the one that was sick, but I was still alone in that hospital. And after she died…

My jaw hardens. This isn’t about me. It’s about Josie.

After I met her, I wanted more than anything to cheer her up, to take away some of the loneliness, but I worried that visiting a little girl on my own would look weird.

So I brought Brayden along.

And week after week, I fell more in love with her.

Despite all the hardships she’s faced, Josie is filled with optimism. She radiates a goodness, a purity, so rare and special. And fuck, is she funny. The girl reminds me so much of my mom. Smiling through the pain, laughing through the hard days.

Within weeks, I was hiring an attorney and working out plans to adopt her.

But what Madi said to me today? It’s the same thing she told me a year ago. I’m single, I’m a hothead and I’m a hockey player. In other words, I’m not a good bet.

I’m not worth it.

Maybe it’s true, but it never sat well with me. I don’t have a family. Josie doesn’t have a family. I would move heaven and earth to be the person she can rely on. To give her a warm bed, food, and whatever medical care she needs. What else could possibly matter?

After Madi gave me the hard truth about my odds, I set out to find her birth mother, hoping that she could help me get custody of Josie. I knew she was only sixteen when she relinquished her rights, so I assumed—na?vely, of course—that she’d done it because she wanted a better life for her daughter. That when she learned that her little girl was all alone in the world, she’d jump at the chance to help.

I was proven wrong by yet another woman.

Krista Sternoff is no better than Brayden’s mother, Trisha.

When I first found Krista, I was sure I could convince her to help me. She was living in an almost bare studio apartment with her two-year-old daughter, Scarlett, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. That was this past summer. After that, I gave up my apartment in the hockey building and vowed to dedicate the rest of my life to these kids. I bought a house in the hopes of moving everyone in. Brayden, Trisha, Krista and her two kids. I paid for food and clothing and every other necessity. All I asked was that Krista stay sober and be a mother to Josie and Scarlett. I knew the situation wouldn’t be perfect, but it was the only way I could come up with that could guarantee Josie, Brayden, and Scarlett would be safe and cared for. That’s when I hired one of Josie’s nurses, Maria, to move in with us. To be a support and comfort to Josie during the transition.

Krista lasted three weeks.

I was in Denver for an away game when Maria called to tell me that Krista had gone out to the grocery store and hadn’t come home.

She reappeared a week later.

For a week, she didn’t check in on her kids. She didn’t call to let us know she was okay. No, she chose to spend that week high or drunk or god knows what.

The next day, I had Madi draw up an offer I didn’t think she’d refuse.

I was right.

For fifty grand, Krista signed over her rights to Scarlett.

The process of adopting Josie is much more complicated. Krista hadn’t regained her parental rights to Josie before she took off, so we’re back to square one with her.

For now, I’m fostering with the hope of adopting, but because I travel so much, it’s an uphill battle.

“Yes, judges typically want to keep siblings together, but Josie and Scarlett have just met, and Brayden isn’t their biological sibling. He’s not even yours. You’re his guardian and nothing more.”

A mixture of pain and relief washes through me at that last statement. I made Trisha the same offer I made Krista, but Trisha chose rehab over signing over her rights to Brayden. As much as I want to be Bray’s dad, I’m impressed that she’s willing to do the work to be a better mother. I’ll gladly pay for the most expensive rehab facility if it means Brayden has a shot at a sober mother.

In the meantime, I’m the closest thing he has to a parent, and he and Josie have bonded over the last year. We’re a family of strays, sure, but we’re still a family, and I’d do anything to stay together.

“Is there anything I can do to sway the judge?”

Madi’s eyes bulge, and she takes a step back. “Like bribing him?”

“Fuck no,” I huff, my leg bouncing again. “Something legal.”

Her shoulders sag instantly. “Oh. Well, providing more stability at home would go a long way. Another parental figure would be ideal, but since you’re single, a long-term nanny could work.” She hums, lips pursed. “Though I think it’s a bit too late for that.”

Irritation oozes through me like poison seeping into my bloodstream. “How could it be too late? I’ve barely had a minute to wrap my head around becoming a dad, let alone get shit set up.” I’m trying hard to do the right thing, but jumping through the hoops the courts create is a fucking full-time job. One would think they’d be on board with the idea of giving Josie a home so she doesn’t have to remain in the hospital. That they’d happily allow a person she knows and trusts to adopt her rather than placing her with strangers.

Even if I had to hire a nanny, Josie would still have her sister, Brayden, and Maria. And I’d be there as often as I could. It’s so un-fucking-fair. I’m trying to do the right thing, and still, it isn’t enough.

I shouldn’t be surprised, though. That is literally the story of my life .

“You’ve got months until the hearing, and even then, as long as you can show the judge that Josie has a stable home life and is fed and taken care of, you will remain her foster parent while the process of adoption continues.”

She clears her throat and straightens further, clearly gearing up for a come to Jesus moment. She gives me these kinds of lectures often. I appreciate them as much as I despise them. Because they always give me the push I need. So I sit silently and wait.

“But,” she finally begins, the single word terse, “no fights. No bars. No random women. Stay out of the press, Tyler.”

I grind my teeth, biting back the urge to say I’ve been doing that for months . More than months. Since I met Brayden, I’ve worked to set a good example for him. Going so far as to give up my apartment in the city and buy the house in the suburbs so the kids could attend better schools and have privacy and a place to call their own.

I don’t go out. I don’t fuck random women. I’ve settled down. I’m boring . I’m practically an old married man. Just don’t have a wife.

With the exception of Daniel Hall—who’s still a baby at only twenty-four and just beginning his hockey career—my friends have settled down too.

In a surprising twist of events, Coach named me captain this season. I can’t imagine he would have done that if he couldn’t see all the ways I’d made changes. It feels good, knowing that one person believes I’m worth it.

Now I have to get the court to agree.

“Got it. No bars. No booze. No fights. Now,” I say, my tone turning sardonic, “if I can find a woman willing to be a mother to the kids, I’ll be golden.”

Shrugging, Madi says, “A wife would be ideal, but yeah, you get the point.”

I laugh at the absurdity of her statement. A wife? Where the hell would I find one of those?