Beyond the Game: A Surprise Pregnancy Sports Romance (Chicago Red Tails Book 3)
Beyond the Game: Chapter 9

“FuuuuuUUUUUCK!” I shout once I’m in the privacy of my truck. I rest my elbows on my steering wheel and my head in my hands, reminding myself to take a few deep breaths.

“What the fuck just happened?”

I’ve done nothing but think about her for months and there she was, standing in my fucking living room.

And then suddenly, I’m about to be a dad?

No fucking way.

Not happening.

There’s no way that kid is mine.

“There hasn’t been anyone else…”

Is she the type of person to lie about something like this?

She didn’t seem that way all those months ago.

Honestly, she looked scared tonight.

Ugh! Fuck!

Tapping my phone a few times, I send a text to the team’s group chat.

Me: Malone, I’m picking you up in ten. Nelson, we’re coming to you.

Hawk: Uh. Okay…everything okay?

Me: No. I’ll explain when we get there.

Milo: What’s going on?

Colby: Guess I’ll put some clothes on.

Zeke: Can’t be there. Elsie is napping. Sorry man. Call me if you need me.

Quinton: Oooh, Dexter gossip? I’m on my way!

My tires screech as I turn out of the parking garage and then step on the gas to reach Hawken before I seriously flip my shit. My mind is racing and I can’t calm it down. No amount of knitting is going to make this go away and I don’t know what to do.

Hawk lives in a smaller condo just about ten blocks from me so I’m in front of his building in under eight minutes, but he’s ready for me. He steps out of the lobby, thanking the doorman, and hops into my truck and we’re off to Colby’s.

“Foster,” he says, turning to look at my face. “What’s up, bro?”

“I think I’m completely fucked. That’s what’s up.” I clench my jaw, frustrated with myself for the way I handled the entire last fifteen minutes of my life.

“How was I supposed to handle it though?” I ask myself much to Hawk’s confusion.

“Handle what? Dude, what’s going on? And watch your speed. You don’t need to be on the front page for a fuckin’ speeding violation.”

“Fuck it. I’ll offer the cop season tickets.”

Malone scoffs. “Yeah, because that’s legal.”

I huff a few times trying to decide how I want to talk about this but Hawken is my best friend on the team. He’s like a brother to me. I mean they all are, but Hawken is the one I’m closest to. He gets my humor. He gets my craziness and he doesn’t judge me for it. “I don’t know if I fucked up or if I’m being fucked, man. And it’s driving me crazy.”

“Alright,” he drawls. “You want to fill in some gaps for me?”

“The girl. Remember the girl? My girl, from Key West?”

He grins. “Amanda Hugginkis.”

Fuck, hearing hear name makes my dick twitch and sends a sharp pain through my chest at the same time.

“Yeah. Her name is Tatum. She’s here.”

“She’s here?”

“She’s in town.”

“You saw her?”

“Yeah. In my house. Standing in my living room.”

He shakes his head, his eyes narrowing. “I don’t—’

“With my sister!”

“Rory?”

“I only have one sister, man. You know that.”

“Tatum is in town and she’s hanging out with Rory?”

“Yeah.”

“How did that happen?”

“Supposedly she’s a new teacher at Rory’s elementary school or some shit.”

He’s quiet for a second and then purses his lips. “Sooooo why are you here with me in your truck and not fucking her brains out right now? Isn’t she what you were pining for all fucking summer?”

“Yeah. She is…was….is…ugh fuck. I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? Dex, you’ve done nothing but talk about how much you lo—”

“She’s pregnant, Hawk.” There. I said it.

I blow out a slightly stuttered breath.

“Pregnant?”

“That’s what I said. Very pregnant in fact.”

“Ooookay.”

“And she says it’s mine.”

He scoffs. “And you believe her?”

“That’s just the thing…I didn’t believe her. I basically told her to go fuck herself and left.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”

We pull into Colby’s driveway just as Milo and Charlee do. They can both sense the tension when I step out of my truck but Charlee is the first one to me, wrapping me up in a hug like she’s been known to do.

“Whatever it is, Dex, we’re here for you.”

My tension softens a bit as it does every time Charlee’s around. Not because of some weird crush I have or anything like that. I respect her a lot for the things she’s gone through and whenever she’s around I try hard to rein in my temper so she never has to feel the anger and contempt she had to put up with when she was with her asshole of an ex. None of us on the team ever want to put her back in that headspace so we all try to calm our emotions when she’s around.

I suspect that’s exactly why Milo brought her along.

He knows if I’m pissed, it’s bad.

“Thanks Charlee. I promise I’ll be good. It’s just been a crazy fucked up last hour of my life.”

“Anything I can do?”

“I wish, but also, I doubt it.”

Together, we make our way into Colby and Carissa’s house, the entire group standing around the kitchen watching Carissa and Charlee prepare snacks for us because it’s what we do when we’re together. When we’re not playing hockey or talking about hockey, we’re eating.

I give everyone the basic run down as I did for Malone on the way here and for the most part, everyone remains silent until I get all the words out. And when I tell them how I left things with Tatum, Carissa and Charlee share a glance.

“What? What did that mean?” I gesture between the two of them. “Why did you just look at her like that? Spill it, Smallson.”

Carissa’s cringe says enough, but I heed her words anyway as the punishment I’m pretty sure I deserve.

“Dex, I think you fucked up. And I say that with all the love in the world.”

Charlee nods. “Agreed.”

“Fuck.” I push my hand through my hair. “What the hell do I do?”

“Did you not use protection, bro?” Quinton asks me. “I know you took some with you.”

“Fuck yeah, I used a damn condom. I don’t go anywhere without them. You know that.”

“Yeah, but how hard were you fuckin’?”

I’m about to answer ‘pretty damn hard’ but Carissa waves off the question.

“Doesn’t matter. The end result is the same. You slept with her and now she’s pregnant.”

“Exactly. You have to put yourself in her shoes,” Charlee explains. “Though I know that’s much easier said than done. Let’s say it is yours.”

I relent with a sigh. “Okay.”

“If everything she’s ever told you is true and she’s newly divorced, moving to a new town with a new job and finding out she’s pregnant, that’s more than enough to probably have her scared out of her ever-loving mind.”

“Right.” Carissa nods in a tag-team explanation. “But then to add fuel to the fire, she finds out who you are and that you’re living in the same town as she is and she only barely gets the chance to react to that before you’re finding out she’s pregnant.”

 ‘And before either one of you can talk rationally about it, you’re telling her she’s full of shit and accusing her of trying to trap you into a relationship.” Charlee finishes.

With each passing sentence, I cringe harder and harder. “Fuck, you guys. You’re making it sound like I’m the world’s biggest dick.”

They don’t respond in words. Only a shrug and a slight eyebrow raise.

That’s loud enough.

I get it.

I blow out a resigned sigh. “Because I was a dick.”

With his arms crossed over his chest and leaning against the kitchen cabinets, Colby asks, “Do you have any reason to think she’s lying to you?”

“No. I don’t, but what if she is lying? What if for some Godforsaken reason this is all a scam? What if she slept with someone else in the last however many months?”

“You can demand a paternity test. Get lawyers involved.”

“If she’s not lying, she’ll hate you for that,” Carissa scolds her husband. “Just sayin’.”

I scoff at her. “For trying to protect myself?”

“Did she try to contact you in any way up until earlier today?”

“No.”

“And how pregnant is she?” She counts back to May. “She would have to be what…seven or eight months or so?”

“Sure. Yeah. I don’t know.”

“Dex, that’s pretty damn pregnant. Do the math here. A little over seven months ago we were in Key West. If she was trying to trap you, she wouldn’t have waited seven months to do it.”

Finally, I lift my head, staring back at Carissa, defeated. “You think so?”

“I feel ninety-nine percent certain. She would’ve either been taking pregnancy tests like three weeks out and would’ve contacted your agent or she would wait to have the baby and then tell the world it’s yours so you would send her money to shut her up.”

A pit of unease grows in my stomach and for the first time since I can remember, I feel like I need to vomit. Tatum was nothing but an amazing human when we were together in Key West and she’s all I’ve thought about since that magical night. The moment I saw her in my living room I wanted to pick her up and crash my lips to hers and never let her go, but something was different about her this time. Other than the obvious change to her physique.

Maybe it was fear?

Maybe it was shock?

Maybe she really didn’t know I lived there.

“Fuck. I messed up.”

Milo claps my shoulder. “But there’s never been a fuck up you couldn’t fix, Dex.”

“I can’t fix pregnant, Milo.”

“Nope. You can’t. But if that baby is yours…”

“I know.”

If the baby really is mine, I’ll step up and do the right thing. Whatever that is.

“You know there’s one person you can call who might be able to give you a little peace of mind,” Colby suggests.

As if.

“Oh yeah? And who’s that?”

“Elias. Or if you want a female perspective…Whitney.” He shrugs like calling his brother and sister-in-law is a no-brainer. “They had a one-night stand at our wedding in New Orleans. I had no idea he actually knew her, and I guess thank God he did or else he may never have been given the opportunity to be that little one’s dad. Things have worked out well for them. I’m sure they would sit down and talk this through with you.”

“I suppose that’s not a terrible idea.”

“How do you feel about all this?” Colby finally asks now that I’m calm.

Worried.

Scared out of my ever loving mind.

Confused.

Overwhelmed.

Irritated.

Defeated.

“I don’t know how I feel right now. I think I—”

“Where the fuck is he?” The front door slams as my sister’s voice pierces through the foyer.

I lower my head. “Oh shit.”

Rory makes her grand entrance into the kitchen and punches me as hard as she can on my upper arm. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Ow!” I grab my arm. When she goes to try it again, Hawk wraps an arm around her, effectively caging her in.

“That’s enough Ror.”

“Enough? This douche nozzle doesn’t know what enough is. He only ever thinks with his dick regardless of the goddamn consequences, isn’t that right, DICKSTER?”

I cringe at the new nickname, apropos as it may be.

“You stupid fucking asshole!” Rory rages. “How could you do that to her?”

“Rory, I didn’t mean t—”

“You should’ve seen her after you stormed out! A sobbing mess and scared out of her damn mind. Do you have any idea what she’s going through right now?”

I have a small idea, yeah.

“I—”

“She has nobody, Dex. NOBODY! She’s less than six weeks away from giving birth and you just stomped all over her and made her feel like a lying sack of shit.”

“I know, Rory!” I shout back. “Fuck. I know, alright?”

Still wrapped in Hawk’s arms, she points at me with a tight glare. “You better fucking fix this, brother.

“I will.”

“How exactly?”

I toss my head back, growling in frustration. “I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly prepared for this.”

“Yeah, well, neither was Tatum.”

She holds my stare until I’m so uncomfortable I have to look away. “I’ll talk to Tatum. She deserves an apology.”

“Damn right, she does.”

“Easy there, Foster,” Hawk murmurs in her ear.

The tension isn’t leaving my body though, no matter how calm Rory is or how quiet everyone around us is. My head is nothing but a raging storm of fear and anxiety and worry.

Pushing both hands through my hair, I look around the room and finally say what’s been on my mind since I hopped in my truck and peeled out of the parking garage.

“I don’t know how to be a good dad.”

Fucking tears spring to my eyes and I can feel my chin quiver.

God, I feel like such a pussy.

I lock eyes with my sister again and say to her, “Our sperm donor was a piece of shit. He did nothing for us. We barely knew who he was.”

Rory doesn’t respond, but I see the unshed tears in her eyes.

“How am I supposed to be the person she needs? I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing! All I know is how to defend the puck. I can play hockey. That’s it.”

“Bullshit.” Quinton shakes his head. “You know a lot more than that, man. Give yourself a little more credit.”

Milo clears his throat. “I don’t have any children, Dex, but I imagine she doesn’t need a magician right now. And she doesn’t need someone with all the right answers. She just needs someone she can count on to support her.”

“She doesn’t want your fucking money, Dex,” Rory announces.

“I didn’t mean financially.” Milo shakes his head. “Though if it were me, she wouldn’t pay a dime if I could more than afford it. I mean she needs someone she can depend on to hold her hand through the next several months. No doubt she’s scared. You’re scared. So be scared together so it’s not as bad for either of you.”

“Landric’s right.” Colby nods. “We’ve all rallied around Zeke, haven’t we? Elsie is the most loved little kid in Chicago when any of us are around her. If you think for even a minute we’re going to let you fail…”

“Not to mention you’ve literally been talking about Tatum since the day we left Florida and she’s right here. In your town and carrying your child.” Charlee beams. “If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is.”

“What if she hates me? What if nothing between us is right?”

“Do you honestly believe that?”

No.

“Everything about her felt so right when we were together. I would’ve done anything for her. I would’ve given her the world. I would’ve asked her to stay if I hadn’t fallen asleep. That’s my biggest regret.”

Carissa rubs my arm and wraps hers around me. “I think once you talk to her, you’ll find things are going to work out just fine. Try not to overreact. Your feelings are very valid, but remember, you’re not the only one feeling them. Just be there for her. That’s all she needs.”

My eyes flit to my sister who is wiping tears from her cheeks. She nods to me, agreeing with the ladies trying to help pull my shit together.

Somewhere inside me, I find the strength to pick my head up and take a deep breath. Steeling myself to take the first step forward, I turn to Rory.

“Where can I find Tatum?”

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