Bennett (On the Line Book 2) (29 page)

I paced around the waiting room, unashamed when tears fell onto my cheeks. I’d never even considered that this would happen.

“Mr. Morse?” a nurse dressed in scrubs said.

I followed her to a prep room, where I had to scrub and put on a gown. When I got into the operating room, I went right to Charlotte and smoothed the sweaty hair back from her brow.

“I’m here, baby. It’s almost over. He’s almost here.”

She murmured something unintelligible. The doctor and nurses went to work, and I said a silent prayer for the two people I needed to be okay.

“Here he is,” the doctor said a minute later. She held up our slippery-looking, screaming boy, who had a head full of dark hair.

Charlotte smiled, tears silently streaming from her eyes. I tried to speak, but only a choked sob came out. They took him aside to clean him up.

“He’s beautiful, Char,” I said. “So perfect. You did amazing.”

“Let’s name him . . . Christopher,” she murmured softly.

“I was thinking Charlie,” I said. “After you.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah. Charlie Holloway Morse.”

“Bennett.” She closed her eyes and smiled again. “I love you so much. And I love our Charlie.”

“So do I, babe.” I kissed her brow and looked past the sheet at the doctor. “Everything’s good?”

“Yes. I’m stitching her up. You’ll be able to hold your son in just a minute here.”

When they put him in my arms, I bent down and tilted my arms so Charlotte was face-to-face with him. She cooed and kissed him but was too weak to hold him just yet.

I rocked my bundled son and took him outside the operating room for a quick peek from my mom and Liam.

My mom cried, as expected. But what surprised me were the sniffles and tears from my tattooed, badass roommate.

“Man, he’s perfect,” Liam said, wiping his cheek. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. We named him Charlie. Charlie Holloway Morse.”

Liam sighed and looked up at the ceiling, fresh tears pooling in his eyes. “That’s fucking awesome, brother.”

He hadn’t called me that in almost six months. Maybe Charlie was the one person who could bring us back together.

Charlotte

W
hen I walked into the kitchen, Bennett was cooking eggs at the stove, wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweats and a sexy smile.

“Mornin’,” he said. “Made you some decaf.”

He poured me a mug of coffee and I took a sip. “I’m not even wishing for caffeine today because I just slept for
three hours in a row
.” I looked down at Charlie, who was nursing contentedly while cradled in my free arm.

“That’s like eight hours in non-newborn-parent time,” Bennett said.

“It is. For a four-week-old baby, he’s a good sleeper.”

I sighed softly. “Four weeks. My maternity leave is halfway over.”

“I’m stopping by that day care today to get a brochure after I meet up with Orion.”

“Orion? Training camp doesn’t start for a couple more weeks, does it?”

Bennett shrugged and met my eyes. “I told him after our last playoff game that I probably wouldn’t be back. I think he wants to find out my plans so he can get a new winger.”

“A new winger? What are you talking about? Is this because you guys didn’t win the championship?”

He shook his head. “It’s just time, babe. I need to get a better job.”

“The money thing is
fine
. We have enough.”

“Yeah, enough to get by, but I want more than that for us.”

I looked down at my bright-eyed son and smiled. “Please don’t quit, Bennett. You’re supposed to be playing hockey, I just know it.”

“Yeah, but . . . there’s this girl. I want to buy her a ring, and I can’t do that on what I make now. This is for the best.”

“No.” I looked up and held his gaze. “If you want to make me happy, keep playing hockey.”

“I’d be gone so much, though. You’d have to be up with Charlie at night and then go to work the next day when I’m gone. I need to be here to help with him.”

“You’re here a lot of nights too, though. It’s not like you’re permanently gone. And he’ll sleep better as he gets older. Don’t quit hockey for me. You love it and I love that. There are too few passions in life to let one slip away so easily. Didn’t you say that to someone when you were volunteering at the Suicide Prevention Center?”

A corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “Yeah, I did.”

“Then it’s settled.”

He arched his brows, amused. “Is it?”

“I hope so.”

Charlie had unlatched and was smacking his tiny lips. His eyelids drooped, a nap on its way soon.

“I’ll take him so you can eat,” Bennett said, scooping scrambled eggs from the pan onto a plate for me.

I passed him our son and he cradled him against his bare chest, rocking him slowly. Seeing him in action as a daddy was very sexy. My incision was nearly healed, and I’d be cleared for light exercise by the doctor soon. I was planning on counting sweaty sex in that category.

“I’m working twelve to seven at the lumberyard after I meet Orion,” Bennett said. “You want me to bring home dinner?”

“Sure.”

I finished my eggs and took Charlie, putting him in his cradle for a nap. The swishing sound of the motor rocking it back and forth made me feel sleepy, too. I curled up on the couch with a blanket and was almost asleep when I felt a warm kiss on my forehead.

My man was just about perfect.

Bennett

There were a few guys in the locker room when I walked in. Most of us still lifted weights in the off-season.

“Hey, man, where you been?” Shuck asked me.

“Working and taking care of my boy.”

“How’s he doin’?”

I pulled up a photo of Charlie on my phone. “Cutest kid on the planet.”

“He is. Look at that big noggin. So how’s your woman?”

“Charlotte’s great.” I looked through Orion’s office window in the back of the locker room and saw him sitting at his desk. “Hey, I have to go talk to Orion.”

“Cool, see you around.”

I saw Liam on the other side of the room. He nodded and I nodded back. He’d stopped by Charlotte’s a few times since we’d brought Charlie home. Things seemed better between us. I hoped eventually it would be like old times again.

“Bennett,” Orion said as soon as I walked into his office.

“Hey, Coach. Thanks for the flowers you and your wife sent Charlotte.”

“Fortunately, my wife’s good at those things. How’s life with a baby?”

I sat down in the chair in front of his desk. “It’s really good. Tiring, but good.”

“Glad to hear it.”

I took a deep breath, deciding to just dive right in. “So listen, I’m sure you want to know what my plans are since I told you in May that I was probably done.”

“Have you reconsidered?”

I shrugged. “No. I think it’s time to move on. But Charlotte sees it as giving up on my dream, and she doesn’t want me doing that.”

“You don’t see it that way?”

“No. I’m almost twenty-seven years old, and I’ve been playing hockey most of my life. I’ve loved it. It would’ve been nice to make it to the top, but my dream was to play pro hockey, and I did. And thanks to the shitty salary, I got to play purely for love of the game.”

Orion grinned and picked up a puck from his desk, turning it over in his hand. “Yeah, I remember those days. When your practice clothes are held together with duct tape and you can’t always afford a new stick when you need one.”

“I’d love to coach at some point. Maybe youth hockey. This isn’t it for me and hockey for sure.”

“No, it’s definitely not. I didn’t ask you to come in so I could ask about your plans for the season.”

“Oh.” I furrowed my brow, confused.

“I wanted to tell you that Chicago wants you.”

If my bladder had been full, I would’ve pissed myself. I just looked across the desk at my coach, too shocked to even speak.

“No more duct tape for you. You’re in a great spot to get a nice contract. They want you to start training camp with the team.”

“Are you fucking serious?”

“I fucking am.” He grinned and stood, coming around the desk to shake my hand.

“I don’t . . .” I shook his hand mechanically, my head spinning. “I don’t know what to say.”

“This is it, Bennett. The chance to play at the highest level of the game.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Yeah, but . . . the timing is really bad.”

“How so?”

“I’ve got a four-week-old.”

“Charlotte and the baby can move with you.”

I shook my head. “She won’t go.”

“What?” Orion practically yelled. “The woman who doesn’t want you to give up your dream won’t go?”

“She doesn’t want to get married or live together.”

“But you live with her now.”

I exhaled deeply. “Not officially. My stuff is still at my apartment.”

“Surely she’ll understand this isn’t a job transfer. It’s a big-ass promotion. And there’s no requirement that you guys get married for you to take it.”

“It’s a huge commitment.”

“Marriage?”

“No,” I said. “Chicago. I couldn’t go there and half-ass it. I’d have to be all in. And I don’t see how I could do that and still be the father and partner I want to be.”

“Bennett.” Orion leaned on the front of his desk and looked down at me. “Pro athletes have families. You can make it work. Hire help.”

“Maybe . . . they’d still want me in six months. If I stayed on as a Flyer.”

Orion’s eyes bulged. “Are you out of your fucking mind? You don’t say
no
to this. Or
maybe
later
.”

“Yeah, I do.” I lowered my brows in a serious look. “A year ago I would’ve been on my way to Chicago five minutes after you told me. But I have a family now. Charlotte’s going back to work in four weeks. We both have to make sacrifices to be the parents we want to be, and this is mine.”

“This is
insane
. You’re going to turn down ten times the amount you make together right now so that she can work for the county and you can work at a lumberyard?”

I scowled. “You don’t want me back?”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll beat your ass on to the injured reserve list if you come back here.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “I know where your head’s at, okay? I
had
to give up the NHL. You don’t. You’re passing on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Orion had retired after a short NHL career to donate a kidney to his nephew. I’d thought that he, of all people, would understand where I was coming from.

“I can’t,” I said, bowing my head with disappointment. “I’d be sorry if I said yes. With Charlotte and Charlie here and me there, I’d be miserable. No amount of money or fame would make up for it.”

Orion stood and waved an arm through the air, clearly frustrated. “Is that it, then? Are you positive? You can take some time to think about it. Maybe talk it over with Charlotte.”

“I’m positive.” I glanced at the clock on his wall and stood up. “I have to get to work.”

He nodded, disappointment all over his face. As I walked out of his office, I felt a pang of sadness myself, but it was no longer myself or my coach I refused to let down. Charlotte and Charlie mattered most to me.