A Lie for a Lie (All In 1)

I can’t believe he’s managed to convince my mother to come out here—on a plane. Once again my heart does that fluttery thing, and this time I allow that feeling to spread instead of trying to keep it contained. I can see in his expression and actions that he’s serious about making this work. He wouldn’t have spent the night taking care of us or offered to fly my parents out to visit if he wasn’t. Since he’s come back into my life, our lives, he’s proven time and time again that he sincerely wants both of us. Last night was a true testament to how committed he is. Little by little he’s erasing his lie and earning my trust with everything he does.

“I would never kick you out of your own house—that’s just silly. It would actually be great for my parents to see us together.”

“Like a family?” RJ looks so hopeful.

I nod as I smooth my palm over Kody’s silky hair. “Thank you for taking care of us last night. It means a lot, RJ—and for convincing my parents to get on a plane and come visit. I’m warning you, though, they can be a lot to handle.”

“I think I’ve got your mom covered.”

“Yeah, well, she’s the easier of the two to win over.” But I’m hoping that when they see the way he cares for me and Kody—and how much I care about him—they’ll come around. That he’s willing to face them and the choices that have brought us to this point tells me everything I need to know.CHAPTER 24

HOUSEGUESTS

Rook

It’s been a very, very long time since I met the parents of a woman I was dating. Like, all the way back to high school. And this isn’t just a regular meet-the-parents scenario, because the reality is I’m not a regular guy. Being a professional hockey player in Chicago is like being Britney Spears in Vegas. It’s not the low-key image I painted of myself when I first met Lainey, and that lie is going to be a huge issue with her parents. Which I can understand.

Lainey seems to want to pack the entire contents of Kody’s bedroom, so I finally admit that I’ve already converted one of my bedrooms into a nursery and she just needs the basics.

Lainey stops stuffing a bag with clothes and diaper cream and gives me an incredulous look. “When would you have time to set up a nursery? You’ve been here more than you’ve been home the past couple of weeks.”

I shove my hands into my pockets. “I ordered a bunch of stuff and had painters and a decorator come in.”

She sits down on the edge of the bed, looking tired again. “It’s not easy to get used to the fact that you can afford to hire people to do all these things for you.”

“I’ll work on conditioning you slowly. In the meantime, can you let me take care of this? We don’t have to pick your parents up for another five hours. You spent a good part of yesterday reenacting that scene from The Exorcist into the toilet bowl. You might feel better, but you’re not really in any kind of shape to be doing much other than lying around, getting better.”

“We’ll pack Kody’s bag. Then I’ll lie down.”

I’d like to argue with her, but I can see that she’s not going to be able to relax until his bag is packed too. And I know without her having to say another word that she doesn’t trust me to pack it without her supervision.

I force her to take a seat in the rocking chair, from which she calls out all the things he’ll need. I don’t bother to tell her I have almost all the same things at my place already.

After a few minutes she stops calling out items. I look over to find her passed out in the chair. I leave her there while I change her sheets, then carry her back to her bedroom. Since we’re all underslept, I use one of her nursing pillows to surround Kody and set him in the middle so he’s flanked on either side, and the three of us have a nice long nap.

When Lainey wakes, I run her a bath filled with Epsom salts for the aches and pains while she nurses Kody. Lainey looks significantly better than she did twenty-four hours ago, and she’s ready for a trip to the airport.

I’m a bit of a mess, still wearing my shirt Lainey sprayed with breast milk and Kody spit up on earlier. I’m also still unshaven and unshowered. At least I have a jacket to cover the shirt stains, and my ball cap covers my hair.

We head down to my SUV, which already has a baby seat installed, and load all the bags. I park at the airport, and Lainey straps Kody to my body with the straitjacket carrier. She wanted to wear him, but I thought the extra weight and exertion wouldn’t be good for her. It’s impressive how quickly she can manage to get four hundred yards of fabric wrapped around me.