Hard Fall (St. Louis Mavericks 1)

“Canada?” She stiffened a little. “I can’t move to Canada, Wes. I mean…my boss is already freaking out about me being in St. Louis. She’ll lose her mind if I move to another country.”

“We have to talk about it, though. We can’t just bury our heads in the sand because it’ll happen this summer if it happens.”

“Summer’s a long way away.”

“Six weeks, babe.”

“Ugh.” She nestled deeper into my chest. “I don’t want to talk about that. We’ve had a stressful enough year and we’re just settling into a routine.”

“Yeah, but the season’s over for us, which means we have to start talking about all the stressful stuff.”

“Tonight?” she asked, tipping up her head and giving me a mischievous smile as she reached between my legs and wrapped her hand around my cock. It instantly sprang to attention and I kissed her, taking her mouth with deep, sensual pulls on her tongue until she climbed on top of me.

“We definitely don’t have to talk anymore tonight,” I whispered against her mouth, palming her ass.

“What should we do instead?” she teased, running her hands over her breasts as she watched my face.

“You should let me fuck you until you can’t walk and your pussy screams for mercy.”

She licked her lips. “Now that sounds like something I’d want to talk about.” She dipped her head to kiss me again. “If I wanted to talk.”

“Mmhm.” I lifted her by the hips and lowered her down on my cock, pushing deep inside of her. “What were you saying?”

“Fuuuuck.”

The next couple of days were nice. Cleaning out my locker and saying goodbye to the guys kind of sucked, but I knew I’d see most of them during the off-season, so it was kind of a relief not to have to worry about the Mavericks for a while. The kids kept us busy, Hadley and I were all over each other at night and a well-oiled machine during the day, and it felt like this was the first time I’d been able to breathe since that horrible night in January when we’d lost Ben and Lauren.

Hadley and I had agreed to table any serious conversations about the future until I’d had a chance to chat with my agent and find out what kind of interest there was for me in the hockey world. I was sure lots of teams would love to have me, but it had to be the right fit, both for my skills and personality, and my personal life. With Hadley and the kids in the mix, I couldn’t just go anywhere. Sometimes it happened that way, but I had enough pull in the industry to have at least a little say in where I went unless the team planned to unload me to the first taker. I didn’t think that would be the case, though. If anything, they were looking to dump Keegan as quickly and quietly as possible. My biggest hope was that when it all shook out, the core of the team would remain intact. Including me.

“Uncle Wes, Aunt Hadley’s on the phone with the boss bitch and Benny’s crying.” Annalise marched into the kitchen with her hands on her hips.

“You know better than to use that word,” I told her, mentally grimacing as I dried my hands. Hadley’s boss had been on a tear lately, and we’d probably used the B-word a few too many times, but I had to nip it in the bud no matter how funny it was to hear that word coming out of Annalise’s mouth.

“Sorry.” She dipped her head and I reached down to tweak her nose.

“It’s okay, Anna Peas. But don’t let Aunt Hadley hear you use that word—she’ll probably put you in the corner.”

Her lips turned down. “I don’t like the corner.”

“I know you don’t, so don’t use that word.”

“Okay.”

I took the stairs two at a time to grab Benny, who’d been napping. I’d just finished putting the lunch dishes in the dishwasher while Hadley got on a conference call with the editorial team of the magazine, and I didn’t want Benny’s crying to reach her down in Ben’s study.

“Hey, big guy.” I lifted him and held him against my chest until he settled down. “Did you have a good nap?”

He nestled into the hollow of my shoulder and I put him on the changing table, grabbing a diaper so I could put a fresh one on him. I’d done this a lot the last few months, so it was second nature now, and it occurred to me that I’d fallen into the role of father to these kids a lot more easily than I’d thought I would. I didn’t think about what I had to do anymore; I just did it. It was a hell of a lot simpler now that I didn’t have to rush off to work every day, though, and I hoped Hadley didn’t have to work until midnight again, like she had last night.