Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) (8 page)

Cody clenched his jaw, then relaxed it. “Can I ask you a question, Doug?”

“What’s up?”

“How are you so certain about kids? I mean—and I mean this in the best possible way—you’re a serial divorcee. Aren’t you worried about bringing a kid into a marriage that might not work out?”

Doug eyed him, his face growing serious. For a minute, Cody was afraid he had offended his brother-in-law. “Is that why you don’t want kids? Is it not working out with my sister?”

Cody realized his misstep and shook his head. “That’s not it. I’m just… There’s other reasons.”

“So what’s going on with you and my sister?”

Cody waved his hands and shook his head. “No. I love Jo. We’re good. We’re not—I’m happy with your sister, man.”

“Well, good.” Doug seemed to relax at that. He’d never seen the man get so serious. Was it possible the man actually had some protective urges toward his family? Cody leaned back against the wooden chair. He sat there in silence for a while next to Doug.

“Joey’s pregnant, isn’t she?”

Cody’s gaze shot to the man, shock slamming into his heart. How in the world…?

Doug grinned. “I thought so. She’s been a little crazy since you guys got here.”

“I never said she was pregnant.”

“Yeah, I know my sister, man. Joey’s always been a little bit weird about being a mom. She told Mom when she was eleven that she wanted to get a hysterectomy.”

“What?” Cody laughed.

“Yeah, that didn’t go over well. She told Mom that she didn’t want to be bothered. I think Mom was just surprised that Jo knew what a hysterectomy was.” Doug smiled lightly at the memory.

“It sounds like her.”

“I imagine that she hadn’t told Mom yet, right?”

Cody shook his head, feeling sick to his stomach. He couldn’t lie, even though Jo was going to kill him for spilling the beans.

“Well, congratulations, I guess,” Doug said.

Cody met Doug’s eyes, uncertainty pumping through his veins. “You’re not going to tell her anything, are you? Jo wanted to tell your mom herself.”

Doug shook his head. “No. It’s not my news to tell, man. It’s Joey’s. I hope she does it soon, because if I could figure it out, so can Mom. And Mom will be way hurt if she doesn’t tell her.”

Cody swallowed the hard lump in his throat. It was definitely past time for Jo to tell her parents the truth. He just hoped that she realized it too.

A child. It was scary how a tiny ball of flesh could consume all his thoughts, especially when it was probably the size of a peanut at that moment.

CHAPTER NINE

Gavin grabbed his bag from his cubby and turned to his right, where Misha was getting his stuff. The man had taken off his jersey, and was left wearing a black under armor shirt that fitted his body so tightly. Gavin could see the outlines of Misha’s sculpted chest, the way his upper arms flexed beneath the fabric…

Porca puttana!
Gavin nearly banged his head into the nearby wall. He needed to quit thinking about Misha like that. He cleared his throat. “You ready, man?”

Misha nodded. Even though he wasn’t smiling, his stupid dimples appeared, as if magically coaxing Gavin to take the man in his arms and kiss the hell out of him. Because that was a good idea in the middle of the Highlanders’ locker room. When Gavin looked up at him, he was spellbound by the seductive burn of Misha’s baby blues.

“Awesome.”

The two walked mostly in silence. Gavin was grateful of the quiet after his conversation with Val, and the last two hours of serious fan mingling. When he was in range of his SUV, he unlocked the door, dreading the confined space of his vehicle. His body just went into overdrive around the man.

It hadn’t always been like this. Actually, when they’d first moved in together, there hadn’t been this intense longing for his roommate. The twenty-two year old was attractive, no doubt about it, and those dimples on his cheeks were sexy as hell. The sandy blond hair falling over his eyes seductively made sure women all but threw themselves at the man. He was so… different than Gavin, and his dark hair and olive skin. Gavin ground his teeth together and slid into his truck. Inside the vehicle, Misha’s spicy scent assaulted him, his cock hardening in his pants.

Fuck.

“What was Cody’s problem today?” Misha asked, buckling his seatbelt. “I thought he was going to jump off the bench and kick my ass when Coach started talking.”

Gavin shrugged, his heart in his throat. Was it getting warm? Too close. Too close. “Not sure. He’s been edgy lately. He left the signing early too.”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell over them as Gavin pulled the car from the parking spot and started the drive home. They didn’t live far from the practice arena, but it was just long enough to make Gavin completely uncomfortable. He was fooling himself thinking that Misha would ever think of him as anything more than a friend.

“Heard about Vince?”

Gavin nodded. “Yeah.” The man had had some heart problems lately. He’d gone in for a routine visit, and the doctor had sent him to the emergency room. Ellie had taken over for her father, something Gavin was sure she hadn’t expected to have to do while she was in school. “Sucks.”

“You want to drink tonight?” Misha’s soft Russian accent filled his ears.

Between the sound of his low voice, the spicy scent of his cologne, and the way his arm muscles flexed when he moved, Gavin was sure he was going to self-combust in the driver’s seat.

“I think I’m gonna stay in.”

He gripped the wheel, so hard his knuckles were white. Dying. That’s all there was to it. Gavin was going to burn up and die. Right there in the driver’s seat.

He nearly groaned out loud when he pulled into their garage and got out of the car. He sucked in a deep breath of non-Misha-saturated air. He needed to get a hold of himself.

“What’s wrong with you?” Misha asked as he shut the passenger side door behind him. He peered over the SUV, a peculiar frown on his face. “You’re all weird this afternoon.”

“I must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me.”

I’d like to be sucking your face right now, but you currently think I’m straight
. He clenched his jaw and walked around the car. He pulled open the entrance into the house and walked through, not bothering to shut it behind him since Misha was following him in.

“Pfft. Please. Go take a nap, and then we go out tonight.”

“I don’t know, Misha.”

“Let’s get a girl. Bring her back for good times.” Gavin glanced at Misha, who wiggled his eyebrows with that stupid goofy smile on his face.

“You said you weren’t comfortable with the threesome thing.”

Gavin was comfortable with it.. God, he was too comfortable with it. Being so close to Misha… a soft pliable body of feminine grace between them. Rubbing against him, even accidentally. It sent a thrill through him.

Misha shrugged. “It was fun. We try again?”

Oh, that would be such a damn mistake. His self-control was crumbling as it was, and Misha, damn him, was tempting the fuck out of him.

“I don’t—”

“Oh, come on. We hit the Penalty Box.”

Misha grinned at him, and walked away. As soon as Misha was out of earshot, Gavin braced himself against the door to the garage and groaned. What was Misha thinking? A threesome? The last time they’d involved themselves in a threesome, Gavin thought he was going to come in his pants in the first thirty seconds after Misha had gotten naked. The girl was hot too, but Gavin’s mind had been all about Misha.

He was doomed.

*~*~*

Jo sat down on the couch with a hot chocolate. She wished she’d thought to pack the Bailey’s in with her clothes. Her mother’s no alcohol rule was killing her and Christmas wasn’t for another day. She pulled her sock-covered feet up under her and arranged the plaid throw over her legs.

There was something about being home with family, as irritating as they were, that made her feel better. Safe. Stress had been eating away at her sanity for the last few weeks, and she was ready for it to go.

Michele came in the room, with a matching hot chocolate cup with her. Michele was one of those people that were just naturally hard to get along with. She loved her sister, but she always thought more about herself than the family.

Michele plopped down on the couch next to her. “So.”

“So.” Jo returned. “What’s up?”

“No beer?”

Jo rolled her eyes. “You’re nineteen, Michele. I’m ten years older than you. I cannot buy you alcohol, regardless of the fact that Mom doesn’t want it in the house.”

“You’re such a goody-goody.” Michele pouted, one pink lip protruding from her mouth. “I suppose it’s easy for you. You’re always lucky. Looks, the rich guy, the awesome house, alcohol before you were twenty-one.” The lip protruded more. Jo resisted the urge to yank on it. Michele definitely had baby sister syndrome, which made Jo want to act like the older sister and pick on her.

Damn adulthood.

She opted for the maturity angle, to her own regrets. “Cody wasn’t rich when we got married.”

“Didn’t take him long.”

“Are you seriously jealous of my husband, Michele?”

“Not really. I’m just… not feeling great about myself lately.” Michele frowned. Jo sighed, feeling for her sister. Michele did a lot of stuff at school. Maybe she was just overwhelmed.

“How’s school going?”

Michele hesitated, her gaze shifting away and then back. “It’s okay.”

“Yeah? The engineering classes hard?” Michele had always been a super smart cookie. She was currently going to school in Dallas for electrical engineering.

“Can I tell you something? And you don’t tell Mom and Dad?”

“Sure,” Jo said uncertainly. She and Michele had never been close enough to be confidants, though it was always something she’d imagined she would do with a sister. The reality was just different than the desire. “It doesn’t involve killing, does it? I don’t have the strength for burying a body today, Michele.”

“No!” Michele giggled. Her face sobered, dropping the smile. “Okay… I dropped out of the engineering program six months ago.”

Jo stared at her sister. Bomb drop, anyone? “What? Why?”

“I didn’t like it anymore, Joey. It was… boring.”

“What did Dad say?” Dad had been the one pushing Michele to do the engineering program. He’d been super jazzed when Michele had made it in the program.

“Mom and Dad don’t know.”

Oh, Good Lord Almighty. This was just like her sister, to just up and quit when things got hard. Or to hide things to keep from confronting her problems. “You need to tell them!”

“I will! Just… not yet.”

“What are you going to do? I mean, no school? Mom’s not going to be happy.”

“I… I want to be an artist. I want to paint.”

Okay, so this at least made some sort of sense. Michele had a huge collection of paintings growing up. Gorgeous, colorful portraits of people.

“Really?” Jo met her sister’s eyes. “You really want to do that for a living?”

“Yeah. See, there’s this art school and I signed up for it. I got accepted!”

“That’s fantastic, Michele.” Oh, man, but Jo couldn’t help thinking of how much Mom and Dad would be disappointed. They’d really pushed for this engineering degree.

“It’s a really good school, one of the best in the world. It’s also in Italy.”

Jo’s jaw dropped open, and she put her hand on her sister’s to keep her from babbling on.. “Wait… Italy?”

“You can’t tell Mom and Dad yet. I’m… waiting until after Christmas.”

“When are you supposed to be there?”

“Mid-January.”

“Oh. My. God. Michele.”

“I know! Shh!” Michele put her hand on Jo’s leg. “Mom and Dad will hear you.”

“This is something you need to discuss with them. “

“I know. I know. I will.” Michele sighed. “I just didn’t want to ruin Christmas, because they’re going to be mad at me.”

They sat there for a minute. Jo warred with herself until finally she asked, “Can you keep a secret?”

Michele sat up. “Yes. Tell me now.”

Jo bit her lip, suddenly nervous. But keeping this secret was killing her. She should be able to trust her sister, and she could look at this like she was practicing for telling her mother, right?

“Come on, Joey. I told you mine!”

“Okay, but this is super important that you not tell Mom yet. I want to tell her myself.”

“Okay. I promise. Shoot.” Michele leaned forward, eagerly, suddenly making Jo nervous. “Come on, Jo.”

“I’m pregnant.” The words caught in her throat, terrified her. She’d never really voiced the words before. Not out loud. Her pulse pounded in her ears.

Michele stared at her. “What?”

“Shh, keep your voice down.” Jo hissed at her.

“How far along are you?” Michele whispered.

“Almost three months.”

“Oh. My. God.” Michele squealed, as quiet as she could and stamped her feet in excitement. “That’s awesome. I’m gonna be an aunt!” Her eyes widened. “When are you telling Mom?”

“Um… I don’t know. Soon.”

“You should tell her first! And then when I tell her I dropped out of engineering school, she won’t get mad at me because she’s so happy for you.”

“Oh, honey, she’s going to be angry. More that you didn’t tell her until the last second, but there will be anger.”

“But if she’s in a good mood because she’s going to be a grandmother…”

“I’m not going to be your safety net.”

“Whatever. You’re so straight-laced. What the hell.” Michele crossed her arms, pouting like she was eight again.

“I mean it, Michele. You cannot breathe a word of this.”

“Fiiiiine.” Michele rolled her eyes. “Are you going to tell her before Christmas?”

“I don’t know, Michele. This wasn’t exactly a planned thing.”

“What? The Amazing Josephina Reynolds Baker screwed up?”

Jo glared at her sister. “I was on birth control, smarty. Apparently, if Cody breathes right, I get pregnant.” She heard a commotion in the next room. She leaned toward her sister. “Remember. You promised. Not a word.”

Michele zipped her lips. “Same to you.”

*~*~*

Jo stood up as her mother walked in the room, but the sheer stiffness in Cherry’s expression made her pause before saying anything. Her mother was mad about something. She could see the burn of fury inside her eyes. But her gaze was settled on Michele.