33. JT

CHAPTER 33

JT

My key turns the lock and I step into the kitchen quietly because it’s almost midnight and I’m willing to bet that Maggie’s fast asleep.

“Finally, you’re home!”

“No text, no call, no nothing. Just you creeping into the house at midnight.”

“Dinner’s cold, by the way. I hope you’re happy.”

I nearly jump out of my freaking skin when I see my roommates sitting around the kitchen island.

Pete grabs me a beer from the cooler on the floor, Ollie opens the fridge and starts digging through the questionable contents, and Mickey wraps me in a bear hug even though I saw him earlier today.

I’m tired as fuck and all I really want is to take a hot shower and lie in bed with Maggie, but from the looks on my friends’ faces, I don’t think either of those things is happening very soon.

Ollie fishes a cardboard pizza box out of the fridge and drops it on the table. I eye it skeptically, but he holds his hands up. “It’s fresh, I swear. It’s cold, though. And we can’t use the microwave because I saw sparks earlier when I was heating up a slice.”

Taking the stool next to Pete, I crack open the beer and take a sip. “So, how was everybody’s break?” I ask. Instead of answering, they all just stare at me, and that checks out. My holiday break has undoubtedly been more eventful than theirs. I mean, yeah, I heard Ollie got tossed out of a bar in Jersey for public nudity, but that’s definitely less newsworthy than the fact that Coach’s niece is upstairs in my bedroom. And that Coach and I aren’t on speaking terms. And that by the time graduation rolls around, Maggie and I will be parents.

“I heard Rosco had a merry Christmas,” I say because Ollie’s head’s about to explode and I love pushing his buttons. “Oh, and Van made out okay at Josie’s. When I dropped him off, I was a little worried, but it sounds like they managed to work things out. Anybody heard from Will? Did he and Mel survive the holidays with his folks?”

“Barely,” Mickey says, shaking his head. “Did you see his snap from this morning? They were supposed to leave this morning, but I guess his car had a flat so they packed everything into his mom’s minivan and the whole damn fam is making the trip.”

Pete lets out a whistle. “Shit. If his parents are on their way, we should probably try to clean this place up a bit.”

I look around the room and do my damnedest to hold back a laugh. There’s only one working light in this room, but that doesn’t hide the fact that this place is a total shithole. I get where Pete’s coming from, but the damage has been done. No amount of mopping or sweeping or tidying up is going to hide the fact that we basically live in squalor. I mean, there’s a toilet in the living room, the guys painted a motivational cock on the kitchen floor, and the steps leading up to our bedrooms are rotting out.

I hate the fact that Maggie has to stay here. Don’t get me wrong. I love that she’s with me, that I get to see her every day and sleep next to her at night, but this place is just nasty and there’s no freaking way we can live here once the baby comes. That’s the main reason I’m putting in as many hours as I can at the ExpressShip warehouse. The hours suck, but the money’s good, and manual labor has never bothered me. I’m trying to sock enough away that Maggie and I can get our own place sooner rather than later.

“What time are they getting here?” Pete asks.

Mickey shrugs. “Who knows. They should’ve been here a couple hours ago, but his mom and Mel found some big craft store outside of Pittsburgh, so they decided to stop. I guess they were in there for a couple hours, so they’re spending the night at a hotel, and they’ll get here around lunch tomorrow.”

Pete nods, flipping through his phone to find Will’s snap. I can’t take my eyes off Ollie, though. He’s practically shaking at this point.

“Are you guys shitting me right now? Are we just gonna sit around and yap about Will’s crazy mom and her obsession with fiber arts?”

Mickey finishes his beer and reaches for mine. “Oh, we can talk about Rosco, too. You know how his family goes on vacation every Christmas? Well, they always go with his parents’ friends, the Campbells. Anyway?—”

Ollie smacks Mickey on the arm and spits out the words he’s been holding back for ten minutes. “Holy freaking shit, Norris. Is it true? Did you get with Coach’s niece? Are you fucking stupid? Also?—”

Mickey smacks Ollie upside the head. “Fuck you, Jablonski. My best friend is not stupid. He’s in love. He didn’t ‘get with’ Coach’s niece. He’s with her. They’re dating. And her name’s Maggie.”

I pick up Mickey’s empty beer can and touch it to the pilfered one in his hand in a silent gesture of cheers. This guy always has my back, and I know that won’t change even after we tell the team our good news.

Because it is good news. I’m honestly excited to become a dad, but we haven’t made the big announcement yet. It’s not something I wanted to drop in the group chat. I want to tell the guys in person. It’s a good thing break is over in a couple days, though, because our secret won’t keep for long. Maggie’s tees and hoodies might be oversized, but they won’t hide the swell of her belly for much longer.

Ollie’s eyes are bugging out of his head. “You’re dating Coach’s niece?”

I nod as Mickey shoots him a look.

“Maggie, I mean,” Ollie corrects. “You’re dating a girl named Maggie, who happens to be Coach’s niece?”

“Yep,” I say, grabbing a slice of cold pizza and taking a bite. “She’s staying here for a bit. And she’s upstairs waiting for me, so…I’ll catch you guys later.

I’m halfway up the stairs, and I can still hear Ollie bitching. Skipping the top two steps because they made an awful sound when I walked on them earlier today, I hop onto the landing and unlock my door.

Maggie’s curled up in a nest of blankets like I knew she would be. What I didn’t predict is that she’d be nearly naked.

Holy goddamn, Maggie’s beautiful. Even more so now, to be honest. She’s got a bra on and…well, the unmentionables I’m never allowed to name, and she looks so good that I take the world’s quickest shower before climbing into bed next to her. She stirs and lets out a little moan, and I wonder for a moment if her dreams and my thoughts are the same.

I don’t get the chance to find out, though, because my phone buzzes. I fumble it in my hand for a second, trying to silence it, but when I see the name on the screen, my blood goes cold, and all thoughts of cuddling Maggie leave my brain.

Griggs : Did you hear the good news? Curt’s parole hearing was moved up. Looks like you better make plans for a little family reunion.

I’m naked from head to toe, but I still break out in a cold sweat.

Griggs: You don’t feel like talking? That’s fine for now. But you can’t stay quiet forever. You’ve got some questions to answer, Jax.

I slip out of bed and back down the hall to the bathroom, where I step back into the shower. I let the warm water run over my body while I try like hell to calm my mind. How is Curt up for parole? The last I heard, that was a longshot. And I don’t have any answers, not ones they’ll want to hear anyway.

I’ve already said everything there is to say. I said it at the police station, in my lawyer’s office, and in court. I’d been hanging around Curt and his buddies for years, but I was always on the outer fringes, mostly because I’m a few years younger than they are but also because hockey kept me too busy to get into any real trouble.

And Curt got into real trouble all the time. It started out as stupid shit, like lifting stuff from the convenience store down the road, but it quickly escalated. By the time I graduated high school, they were breaking into homes in the nicer parts of town, stealing anything of value and pawning it. The money they made went to two different places. It either funded Griggs’ drug habit or Curt’s favorite pastime, which included betting on anything from horses to sports to the freaking weather. Seriously. I must have been about fourteen when I saw him take a bet on how many inches of snow we were gonna get.

The night of my graduation, Curt and Griggs offered me a ride back to the crappy little apartment we shared. I accepted, and I wasn’t shocked when we stopped to pick up Griggs’s girlfriend. I figured we’d head back home, have a couple beers to celebrate, and I’d hit the sheets before Griggs and his girl started getting loud and before Curt started getting belligerent.

But my cousin and his best friend had other ideas. We pulled up into a nicer neighborhood, and the three of them hopped out of the car and told me to stay put. When I realized what the fuck they’d done, I was pissed as hell. And nervous as fuck. I knew if I stuck around that I’d be risking my hockey career and everything I’d worked so hard for.

I also knew that Griggs and Curt would happily let me take the fall if it meant they got off scot-free.

So I ran. I ended up at the graduation party of a kid I’d gone to school with. By the time I got home the next day, the apartment was empty, and five minutes after I made it back, the police were waiting to talk to me.

I don’t know what Griggs wants me to say or what will happen if Curt gets out early. But I know one thing: I have to keep them the hell away from Maggie and the life we’re building together. Those two ruin everything they touch, and that means they’re not getting anywhere near my girlfriend or our baby.

My feet pound the pavement as I turn the corner and see the hockey house in the distance. That place is an eyesore even from here.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Griggs’s message since I saw it late last night. I thought a run would clear my head, but all it did was give me an hour to replay the text on a loop in my head.

The driveway is full since classes start in a couple of days, and everyone is trickling in. I see Josie’s SUV, so I’m guessing Van’s back. Dean’s car is here, too, and there are a few more I don’t recognize. My instinct is to sneak in the back and head upstairs to Maggie. I haven’t seen her or kissed her since I left for work yesterday, and as crappy as it sounds, I know I’ll feel better when I can just hold her in my arms. It won’t solve all my problems. It won’t double my bank account or make Griggs and Curt go far, far away for a long time, but it will ease my mind.

What does not ease my mind is the fact that Mickey and Deano have turned our staircase into a freaking ski slope. Plywood boards line the steps and glisten with vegetable oil while guys wait eagerly at the top for their turn on the slopes. Some kid I vaguely recognize from the soccer team tosses his saucer on the makeshift slope as he lets out a yell and belly flops down onto it.

What the hell is wrong with half my freaking team?! This little stunt has disaster written all over it.

I’m on my way to talk to Van when my whole world shifts. In painfully slow motion, I watch in horror as the steps collapse. They just fall apart right in front of us. There’s noise and dust and chaos, and I feel light-headed and terrified as I hear myself scream, “Maggie!”

I race toward the stairs that aren’t there anymore, but I don’t get very far. There’s literally no way up to my room right now, but I have to get there. My whole world is in that room. If she’s still sleeping in my bed, holy shit she must be terrified. “ Maggie! ”

“JT, what the hell—” Dressed only in one of my t-shirts, Maggie stands in the doorway of my room and looks on in horror as she realizes that the crash she just heard was her only way out of there.

“ Oh, fuck !” I hear Mickey curse as he herds everyone back down the hall, probably figuring they’ll all be a lot safer the further away they are from this mess.

All I can do is watch as my best friend races across the unstable landing and reaches his arms out. “Hop on, Cinderella,” he says, calm as hell, like they’re both not standing on literally shaky ground right now .

Out of fucking nowhere, some guy produces a ladder and I belatedly remember that today is the day Van’s uncle and cousins are coming to take a look at our place and offer some help.

We’re so far past help at this moment. But I can’t worry about the future of the hockey house, I just need to worry about my future, and that means Maggie and our baby.

Maggie looks back into my room for a quick second and I know she’s trying to calculate if she has enough time to throw on some pants or a giant hoodie. The ground they’re standing on lets out a groan, causing Maggie to leap into Mickey’s arms. He catches her with ease, and she clings on tight. They make it to the ladder, but she doesn’t loosen her grip. Mickey’s not fazed. He holds Maggie as he descends the ladder like it’s the most normal thing in the world to carry someone to safety in the midst of a mess. I do not understand how his brain works, how he has moments of utter clarity amidst a background of chaos. But right now, I don’t care. I rush toward them, peeling my girl from my best friend’s arms.

She latches onto me, causing her shirt to ride up for just a second.

Mickey looks at me, then at Maggie, then back at me. I can’t help the grin I’m wearing, just like I know Mickey can’t help opening his mouth and letting the words fly out. “Holy fuckballs! We’re having a baby!”