A Lie for a Lie (All In) - Helena Hunting Page 0,77
to all my hockey games. I really don’t know how he did it. Farms are hell to run. Long hours, hard work, but he did it with a smile and cheered me on. I wish he was still here.” RJ squeezes shampoo into his palm and starts washing Kody’s hair.
“Your grandpa worried about me a lot. I’ll be honest, little man, I didn’t always make the best choices, especially when I first made the NHL—and I’m going to try my best to help you make better ones than I did. But your mom was definitely the best thing that ever happened to me, and so are you, and I think your grandpa would’ve loved you both so much, just like I do.”
CHAPTER 22
CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
Rook
Hours at the gym have become an absolute necessity these days, because otherwise, I have no way of exorcising the pent-up, restless energy that comes from being around a gorgeous, sexy woman who is also the mother of my child. Lainey is effortlessly beautiful, and she’s an incredible, patient mother—which wouldn’t have been a turn-on less than a month ago.
To be fair, I’ve seen a lot of boob recently. Seen but haven’t been able to touch. It’s an odd kind of torture. There’s been a lot of hugs and kisses on the cheek and flirty touches, but I don’t want to push too far too fast.
Then there was last night. Kody has been fussy the past few days because he’s teething, and Lainey was wiped from lack of sleep. I offered to stay over and take the middle-of-the-night feeding so Lainey could get more than a couple hours in a row. I was prepared to spend the night on the couch, and in hindsight that likely would have been a hell of a lot smarter.
She lay down with Kody on her chest, and I waited until they both fell asleep before I transferred him back to his crib. I figured it would only be a couple hours before he woke for a feeding, and her bed is so much more comfortable than the couch, so I stretched out beside her.
The middle-of-the-night feeding never came, though, so I didn’t relocate to the couch. Instead I woke up spooning Lainey, with my morning wood pressing into her back and one hand very close to cupping her boob. Thankfully it didn’t make things too awkward, which I’m taking as a good sign.
Regardless, the mounting sexual tension is the reason I’m on set number six of chest presses.
“What rock have you been hidin’ under the past couple o’ weeks? The only time I see you is practice or workouts.” Lance is my spotter.
“I’m a little busy these days,” I grunt through the eighth rep.
“When you gonna stop hiding yer tour guide?”
“I’m not hiding Lainey—I just don’t want to subject her to my shitstorm. And we’re kind of figuring out how we work together. The last time we went out, I got mobbed, and it freaked her out.”
“She can’t get used to it without exposure.” Lance racks the bar for me. “You can’t hide her from the world, and it doesn’t do her any good if you’re trying to protect her from the media. Rip the bandage off, Rook. Bring her to a practice—and when she’s ready, bring her and Kody to a game so she can meet the wives. She needs to know she’s not alone. Your team is your family.”
“She hates big crowds.”
“The boxes are safe. And Poppy and Sunny are like the Zen team—they’ll make her feel right at home.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “I’m hitting the sauna, and you should too, if you don’t want to be crying like yer baby later.”
He has a point. I’ve asked Lainey if she wants to come to practice pretty much every time we have one. And it would be great if she could attend before an actual game when it’s total mayhem. I decide I’ll bring it up again tonight, once Kody is in bed.
I fire off a message to see if Lainey wants to have lunch. Most of the time I’ll pick something up and bring it to the aquarium, but today I’m thinking we could try a café. Baby steps and all.
I don’t hear from her before I reach the aquarium, but that’s not all that surprising. She doesn’t respond to messages when she’s leading a tour or with the animals. I find out from Eden that she left work about an hour ago and