Brogan (Carolina Reapers 9)

“Evie gave the kid a damn library,” Maxim muttered, but a smile tugged at his lips. “Go on upstairs. I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”

They cleared out and I carried Skye up the stairs, Fiona following close behind.

I walked into Skye’s room and simply stared. Then stared some more.

“Wow,” Fiona remarked, her hand flying to her chest.

Wow was the right word. The entire room had been transformed into a nursery, complete with a changing table and gliding chair—a hockey themed nursery. My jaw dropped. The wall behind the crib had been done with boards at the bottom, as though the whole room was a rink. Purple and blue bedding made the crib colorful, and a delicate mobile perched on the railing. A hockey stick served as a coat rack along one wall, and above the crib, her name was spelled out in giant purple letters.

I opened the closet and found it stocked with more clothing than any one baby could ever possibly go through. Diapers. Wipes. Blankets. A tactical-looking diaper bag. They’d thought of everything.

Bookshelves ran along the boards next to the gliding chair, stocked full with what looked to be the entire children’s section of the local bookstore.

“This is amazing,” Fiona said exactly what I was thinking. “Is that yours?” She pointed to the giant jersey that hung on the opposite wall, GRANT spelled out on its back.

I nodded, but that wasn’t what clogged my throat up—it was the tiny, baby-sized jersey that hung next to it with the same last name. My name.

“Your friends did this for you?”

“We’re more like family,” I replied, staring at that tiny jersey.

“What’s wrong?” Fiona asked.

It took a few breaths before I could work my throat to answer her.

“I don’t even know if she has my last name.”

4

Fiona

“I’m shocked you texted,” Daisy teased as I took a seat next to her at the bar. “You’ve been a ghost for days.” She hugged me as I sat down.

“Totally,” Maddie agreed, pushing a vodka soda in front of me. “I haven’t seen or heard from you since Skye’s appointment.”

I took a quick sip of the drink, savoring the bubbly taste as my tense muscles relaxed. It had been a hot minute since I’d taken care of a three-month-old, and Skye didn’t pull any punches. She never wanted to sleep, and after the last few days, I was beyond in need of a little break. Luckily, Brogan understood that and had practically forced me out the door earlier.

“I still can’t believe you kept making all those faces behind his back,” I said.

“What faces?” Daisy asked, and Maddie laughed.

“She kept waggling her eyebrows or making obscene gestures whenever Brogan turned around,” I explained. “Not very doctor-like behavior if you ask me,” I teased.

Maddie rolled her eyes. “Excuse me, but when my best friend walks into my office, toting an adorable little bundle like Skye and a straight-up sex-god-looking man behind her? How could I resist?”

Daisy laughed. “I told you he was insanely hot.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s. My. Boss.”

“Which. Makes. It. Hotter.” Maddie mimicked my serious tone. She glanced at Daisy. “My nurse thought Fiona was the mother.”

“She did?” Daisy asked before taking a sip of her Cosmo.

“Yep,” Maddie answered. “She does have blue eyes—”

“Skye looks a hell of a lot like her daddy,” I said, then cringed when the girls gaped at my use of the word daddy. “Like Brogan. She looks a ton like Brogan.”

“Daddy,” Maddie drew out the word. “I’ll bet he’s one hell of a daddy.”

“If he’s anything like he is on the ice,” Daisy said. “I’m sure he’s fantastic.”

I took a few more drinks, letting the teasing banter of my best friends wash over me. I was beyond sleep-deprived, but I’d survived that more than once. It was all about adjusting, and it would be a few more weeks before my body shifted into survival mode where we slept when we slept and ate when we ate.

Brogan wasn’t so lucky. He had a job to go to, a physically demanding one. I kept reminding him that I was there for that reason—to help him get the sleep he needed so he could survive practices and such, but he was splitting himself in two. Once he’d found out Skye was definitely his, he dove headfirst into fatherhood, which surprised me since he’d told me one night during a formula heat-up that he’d never even liked kids before this.

“He’s committed,” I said. “There is something magical about watching a father become a dad,” I admitted. “And as hard as an adjustment as this is for him, he keeps surprising me.”

“I bet,” Maddie said. “How exactly is he surprising you? In the shower, I hope.”

I gaped at her, batting away her nudging elbow.

“Oh, the shower,” Daisy said dreamily, and I rolled my eyes.

“You two are the worst,” I teased. “What if I made jokes about your bosses?”