Page 79 of Slapshot Baby

He stepped onto the porch to answer it. When he came back inside, the smile was still there. "Something came up. I'll make it up to you. I promise."

He kissed our foreheads, grabbed his keys, and walked out the door.

Lucy slammed her bedroom door so hard the hallway photos rattled. Mom sat at the kitchen table with her hands folded, staring at nothing, her grey-green eyes flat and empty.

I stood at the front window in my yellow sundress until the streetlights came on, watching the driveway. Despite evidence to the contrary, I waited for his headlights.

He didn't come back for four months. The fair had closed for the season the week before.

Now I'm about to hand Kai the kind of news that would change our relationship forever. If I do, will he stay or will he run?

"Ava? Are you still there?"

Kai’s voice pulls me back into my kitchen, my hand cramped around the phone. Biscuit barks.

I blink. "Sorry. I zoned out."

"For a while." His voice drops, patient but probing. "Something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired and dramatic."

“Ava—”

“Forget it, Kai.”

"Can you come to the rink tomorrow? Then after practice, I want to take you somewhere."

"Where?"

"Not telling you."

"That's suspicious, Kai."

"It's a surprise."

"Surprises from hockey players involve bars that smell like feet and somebody's cousin named Brody."

"My surprises don't involve Brody." His voice turns hoarse, making my skin prickle. "Come to the facility, then let me take you out."

"Like a date?"

"Like whatever you'll say yes to."

This man has the strategic patience of a siege. He doesn't storm the castle. He just shows up every morning and waits until you open the gate yourself.

And I keep opening it.

"Fine. I'll be there."

"Good."

"And Kai?"

"Yeah?"

My palm presses flat against my stomach, over the place my baby’s heartbeat is drumming.

"There's something I need to tell you in person tomorrow."