Hot Puck (Rough Riders Hockey 2)

“He hit you,” Beckett finished, barely able to keep his fury in check.

Eden nodded and took a deep, shaky breath, then blew it out the way a sprinter would after a hard run. As if it had taken all her energy to get that much out. Her hand was shaking. And Beckett ached to take her in his arms, but his own hands were clenched so tight, his fingers had gone numb.

“I should have left him sooner.” Her eyes closed on a look so agony stricken, Beckett saw the next blow coming, and he couldn’t do anything about it. “But my parents adored him. And I’d finally found a window of approval in their eyes.” She shook her head. “I waited too long. I was packing my things when he came home early from a business trip. We got in the same old fight over the abortion. To get him off my back, I told him it was too late to have one. He was livid. I’ve never seen anyone so angry. He…backhanded me across the face, and I fell down a flight of stairs…”

Her voice faded into anguish, and Beckett couldn’t take it. He dropped to his knees, covered her thigh with his hand, and squeezed gently. Then waited while she pulled herself together enough to go on.

“The placenta was damaged,” she said softly, “and the baby died.”

“Eden…” He had no words and ended up pressing his face to her arm.

“I was over five months along, so even though she’d passed, I had to give birth to her. And they let me hold her after. She was a little bigger than my hand.” Eden opened her hand, palm up. “Her feet reached my wrist. And, God…” She closed her eyes. “She was perfect. So utterly perfect.” She opened her eyes and the slightest smile played on her lips. She even had hair, this wispy little crown of blonde…” She covered Beckett’s hand with hers and curled her fingers around it, her gaze distant. “I named her Summer, because she was due in July.”

After a moment, when she didn’t go on, Beckett lifted his hand to her head and pulled her into him. He kissed her hair. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

She nodded. Another quiet stretch passed before she said, “Lily was sitting five rows down from me and Gabe at the game. I kept trying to ignore her, but I couldn’t. She’s so small and blonde, and God, she’s radiant… I kept thinking how Summer would be two years old now…”

He pulled back. “God, I wish I’d known my sister planned to bring the girls tonight. The team saves a certain section for family tickets.”

Eden didn’t meet his eyes. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d found a way to deal with it and move on. But I obviously haven’t. And Lily…she’s too…” Pain etched her brow. “I’m not ready…”

“Hold on.” He took her chin between his fingers and lifted her head until her gaze met his. “You don’t have to make that decision right now. And you didn’t really get to know her. I have yet to meet someone she doesn’t instantly wrap around her little finger, including every damn member of my team.”

A smile quivered on Eden’s lips but disappeared within a second. “You’ve worked hard to get her to a good place, Beckett. I don’t want to do anything to mess that up.”

He threaded one hand into her hair. “You won’t. You can’t. My family and I have created the strongest base she could ever need. She’s solid and secure and happy, even with all the turmoil in her background. Even with my crazy schedule. She’s not that fragile. And neither are you.” When Eden’s gaze lifted to his, he said, “You are one of the strongest women I know. And you don’t have to move forward alone.”

She sighed but didn’t resist, giving Beckett hope.

He glanced at his watch. “Why don’t you come pick her up with me?”

She gave him an intensely skeptical look.

“It would really help me out with my sister,” Beckett said, begging a little. “She was so pissed when I met up with her after she’d gone after you.” He winced, remembering. “If the girls weren’t with us, I’m pretty sure she would have decked me.”

Eden huffed a surprised, amused “What?”

“She said I should have told you about Lily. Told me I screwed up something that could have been special. She really liked you.”

“She couldn’t. We talked for two minutes.”

“You make big impressions in a short amount of time. Think about our first two minutes together.”

That got the stress in her expression to soften, and the first real smile he’d seen all night lightened her face. “There’s my girl. I knew she was in there.” He kissed her forehead. “What do you say? Come meet my family?”

“I don’t think—”

“By now, Sarah’s probably got my parents all pissed off at me too.” He lifted his brows and gave her his best hopeful plea. “Come on, be a lifesaver, baby.”

“I can’t. That’s too—”

“Hey, we agreed we’ve got a thing here.”

“I think we agreed we both wanted this to be a thing, not that it actually is a thing.”

“This is definitely a thing. And when people have a thing, they meet family and friends. So meet them. If it doesn’t turn out well or you feel weird or Lily still causes you more pain than pleasure after you’ve spent some time with her, then we’ll, you know, call off our thing. And you can say you tried. Really tried.”

She got a pained look on her face. “Your family’s going to think I’m—”