Hooking - Kristine Allen Page 0,88

about the safety of my job if I say I’m banging the star player?”

He choked on his laughter. “Jesus. Let’s get you back to bed, then we’ll talk.”

Once I was cleaned up, he cuddled with me in the bed.

“There’s no real hard and fast rule that says we can’t date. You’re not an ice girl. I’ve never understood that rule, but it doesn’t really matter either way. So it seems like it shouldn’t be a problem, but I need some time to get some shit situated.”

“When I discreetly asked around, some of the people said even though there wasn’t a rule, they would find ways to get rid of the employees because the owners were old school sticks in the mud. So what kind of stuff do you need to get situated?” My eyes narrowed on him as he tucked me into bed. He got red in the face.

“I don’t want to say until I get more information. It might end up being a happy surprise.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure I had as much faith as he did.

And now everything was about to change.

It had been almost two weeks since Alex had told me he loved me. That Sunday dawned bright and early, but I’d been up all night. I was sitting on the end of the couch, waiting for Natalie to wake up.

The last away game of the stretch had been last night. Natalie and I had cheered them on from my couch.

We’d made plans for her to spend the night, then I’d drop her off on my way to Alex’s today.

She’d consumed a bottle and a half of wine the night before and crashed hard. I hadn’t touched it because the first sip didn’t sit well in my stomach.

When she wasn’t showing any signs of waking up, I stealthily ran a fingernail up her foot. She grunted and jerked her foot. I did it again.

She jerked again, but that time got up on her elbow. Her hair was a mess of tangles, and she had a miserable curl to her lip. “Whatchodoinupsoearly?” she mumbled.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I wake you?” I asked innocently. The look she gave me told me she wasn’t buying that.

“Mm,” she grunted. “Sure you are. Why are you up so dang early?” She ran a hand down her face, but it did nothing for her disheveled appearance. If it wasn’t such a dire situation, I might’ve laughed.

“I have a problem,” I finally admitted, crumpling into tears.

“Hey!” She quickly sat up and wrapped an arm around me. “What the heck happened?”

My hand that had been wrapped tightly around the stick in a baggie opened, revealing the item. Her eyes went round as saucers.

“Syd?” She asked repeatedly looking from me to the stick and back again.

“I know,” I wailed.

“Did you go to the store this morning? I didn’t even hear you leave. Why didn’t you say something last night?” Her shock caused her to have word vomit as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. I wasn’t sure I had, and I’d been looking at it all night.

“Because last night I still believed what was wrong was a stomach bug. Then I spent the night puking my guts up. When I got a clean towel out to dry my face, I spilled my tampons.” I sniffled. “Then I realized I hadn’t used any in quite a while. So I started to count the days, but it didn’t take a genius. I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me sooner. But Katie has been sick too; I just figured we were passing shit back and forth. So I had this from that time you thought you might be. You know, when we bought one of every test they had at the store?”

“Oh, shit. Um….” She hesitated, uncertain what to say.

“I knowwwww!” I grimaced as I blubbered.

“Sorry, Syd, I’m a little confused because you’re seriously distraught.” She gave me a questioning look. “You said he told you he loved you. I’m not seeing the problem. So it’s a little early in the relationship, but hell, he was ready to raise a baby he thought was his with some random chick. This one is with someone he loves.”

The problem with that logic was that she hadn’t been there the day he found out. Hell, he hadn’t even talked about the baby since the day they took him away. It was like the whole situation was simply erased. So he was either truly relieved or