An Unexpected Life (Carolina Rebels 3.50)

“Momma?” Stella pats my arm from her seat on the other side of me. “Can we go to the playground after this?”

Yeah. This is why the girls don’t get pampered but every blue moon. They are too quick to ruin their nails. However, I don’t say no.

“Do y’all want to go shopping first?” Lizzy asks. “Marco said I could buy you each something.”

That’s the perfect thing to say to them. Once our nails are done, we head to the mall. The girls want a new stuffed animal and it takes an hour for them to pick the right one and to pick out accessories for them. Then, we go to the playground. Lizzy and I take a seat on a bench facing the girls.

The urge to tell her keeps growing stronger and stronger. I even feel guilty for wanting to wait, considering how she rushed to my house and told me. The circumstances are a bit different, but she was trying to get a handle on it nonetheless.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

She straightens and glances over at me. “For your news?”

“Yes.”

“Hit me with it.”

“First, let me say, when Dr. Floyd told me, I had a meltdown. I panicked, fainted, and kept saying I needed Scott. He had to get someone to pick me up from the doctor’s office, so I wouldn’t have to sit there until he could get to me. I didn’t really snap out of it until after I talked to him.” I take a deep breath. “If things happen accordingly, you’ll be an aunt a week after you give birth.”

“Oh my god, Sylvia! Congrats!” Lizzy pulls me into a hug. “I’m so happy this is happening for you.” When she releases me, tears are in both of our eyes. “It’ll all work out. I refuse to believe that after all this time, you would get pregnant only to lose the baby. It’ll work out.”

I nod and search for the girls, who are in the sandbox now. “That’s what we’re hoping.”

Lizzy grabs my hand and squeezes. “Thank you for telling me. I’m assuming you’re keeping quiet for a bit?”

“Yeah. I feel like I need to do that, but I had to tell you. Meredith knows because she came to pick me up from the doctor’s office, but no one else does. I’ll understand if you tell Marc.”

“You ought to,” she says with a laugh. She came to me once, wanting me to keep something from Scott, and I told her there were no secrets between us. She told me, and I told Scott. It was something concerning his brother, so I thought he should know anyway. She was going to lose that one even had I agreed at first. “We’re in this together, Sylvia,” she adds quietly.

A smile tugs at my lips. “I’m pretty sure we were supposed to be sisters.”

“We were definitely supposed to be family,” she agrees.

At some point, I’ll tell my actual family and our friends, but for now, it feels so good that Lizzy knows. We have our moments, but aside from Scott and the girls, she’s the next most important person in my life. She’s had her weak moments in life. It’s only made her stronger. I’ve always thought Lizzy was a strong person. It’s good to have her by my side for this.

My body relaxes for the first time in what feels like months. I can do this. My body can handle this. In roughly T-minus twenty-nine weeks, I’m welcoming a baby into this world.

Preseason games are a bit crazy. You have the regular guys who are trying to warm up for the season, but aren’t getting too much ice time because the last thing anyone wants is to get injured during a preseason game. Then, you have these fresh, young guys with baby faces who are trying to earn a spot on the team and the coaches are watching them with the eye of a hawk looking for its prey, seeing what they need to work on.

So far, these guys need a lot of work. One is cocky as hell, yet he isn’t playing well enough to live up to his attitude. I hope they send him back to where he came from sooner rather than later. There’s one guy who has good instincts, but lacks the confidence and is like a deer in the headlights on the ice.

“Trust yourself and act,” I tell him as we skate down the ice to chase the puck.

Poor kid blushes.

We’re all disconnected, to say the least, but I manage to tally a goal and so does our captain, Brayden Hayes, and EJ Bertuzzi. Even so, we lose five to three.

“Sing for us, Captain!” someone shouts after the game.

“Where can we put in requests?” someone else hollers.

“All of you motherfuckers can shut the fuck up!” Brayden glares around the room. He’s been a grouch since Marco showed us the videos of him singing karaoke at a bar earlier this month. When asked why he did it, all he said was to get laid, but he wouldn’t divulge more than that. “I was forced! It was for sex! Leave me alone already!”

“Was the sex good at least?” Z asks.

Brayden curtly nods once. “Not sure it’s worth this shit, though.”

“It’s worth, as in it is? Present tense? You’re still seeing her?” Marco asks.