Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

CAULDER

There's nothing better than waking up to Lo. The sun is bright through the open curtains, but I still slept through much of the morning. My night table clock says it's nearly noon. I'm not surprised. It's been weeks since I've slept the entire night. Weeks since I've slept more than a handful of hours at a time.

I needed the rest. I feel almost brand new when I open my eyes. I'm a bear finally waking up from a long hibernation.

We're tangled with the blankets wrapped around us awkwardly, both between us and tangled within our legs. It feels like I'm tied to Lo, which makes me laugh sleepily.

"Did we move around a lot last night?" I ask.

Lo kisses along my jaw softly. "No. We rolled a few times before we fell asleep, though."

I hum, nuzzling my nose into his soft neck. His fingers reach into my hair, massaging my scalp. He smells so good. So fresh. So much like my Lo, just how I remember him. But better. Also… my body wash?

Pressing my lips to his neck, I roll us so he's on top of me. Then drag my teeth over his sensitive skin and suck gently on his neck. Lo rolls his hips, rubbing our chubbing cocks together.

And then the doorbell rings…

I freeze, eyes opening. That was my imagination, right?

"Are you expecting company?" Lo asks.

"No," I say, frowning. "Maybe if they don't think I'm here, they'll go away."

"Mmm," he answers. "You parked in your driveway last night. Did you walk somewhere?"

I huff. The doorbell rings again.

Sighing, I try to push Lo off me, but we're still tangled within the blankets. We're laughing as we try to pull ourselves free. When I finally get my feet on the floor, the doorbell rings for a third time. Hanging my head back, I sigh with exasperation.

Grabbing a pair of shorts so I'm not answering the door naked with morning wood promising to pop up, I march down the hall and throw open my front door. Half my team is standing outside.

Frowning, I ask, "Did we make plans that I forgot about?"

"You've been forgetting plans a lot," Three says, narrowing his eyes.

"Not intentionally. I get calls and more shit is dropped in my lap and… then I just don't feel like going out," I admit.

Creed reaches for my arm and squeezes my wrist. "We know. But we're worried about you."

"We're also not convinced you're eating," Meddy adds. "So we brought food." He raises the casserole dish in his hands. Several others around him do the same. "We're going to eat. Consider this an intervention."

"That's unnecessary," I start, but Ethan is already making his way by me. "I'm going to eat," I insist, but it's too late now as my teammates make their way inside.

"Do you always walk around with a flag in your pants?" Asael asks.

I scowl at him. "Yes. I really?—"

"Who are you?" I hear Sacha ask from down the hall.

With a heavy sigh, I let my head fall back. Fuck's sake.

"Lo?" Jakub asks.

"Hey, Bozik."

Great.

"Come in," I mutter and shut the door with a snap. I make my way through the big bodies of my teammates until I reach Lo leaning against the wall in the hall. In his underwear. Also tenting. My cheeks heat.

"Would you believe that his car broke down?" I ask.

Snickers fill the room behind me. Lo's smile widens.

"I've been wondering who to text to make sure Caulder's eating," Lo comments, his eyes scanning over my teammates. They were my friends once. Now I'm not so sure! Ugh. "Pretty much anyone on the team. Good to know."

"How long have you been here?" Creed asks, voice still filled with surprise.

"Less than twelve hours. Late flight," Lo says.

"No, I mean?—"

"Couple months," Lo interrupts. "Since the All-Star Games."

"It's only been two months?" I ask, shaking my head. "Jesus."

"This last month has been hell for you," Creed says, wrapping his arm around my waist briefly and giving me a one-arm hug. "I bet it's felt like it's never ending."

I nod, feeling that fatigue creep up again. Lo's smile has softened now as he looks at me. When he looks at me like that, my heart races. I leave the gaggle of my teammates and join Lo. He wraps his arm around me, pulling me into him. My cheeks heat.

"You, uh… know everyone?" I ask.

Lo shrugs. "More or less."

"I'll quiz you later—Jakub, Ethan, Creed, Three, Meddy, Asael, Astor, Phalyn, Lucas, and Sacha. This is Lo, Laurent Duval."

"Interloper," Sacha calls out. "Sleeping with enemy!"

Lo laughs.

"You really didn't need to do this," I tell them. "Lo being here aside, I am eating."

"Forgive us, but we don't believe you," Meddy says, continuing through my house. I see the light in the kitchen turn on, and my teammates follow him. "To make sure you're eating, we brought you food and we're having lunch with you. We made enough for Lo too."

Lo kisses my temple. "You have some great friends."

"I would normally agree, but I'm not sure I can right now." I turn my body into him, pressing my determinedly half hard cock to his thigh.

"Go get some clothes on," Astor says. "There's a time for that."

"You mean when we were in bed before you showed up uninvited at my door?" I ask. "Yes, there was a time for it."

"There will be time later," he says, shrugging. "We're making you plates. Hurry up. No stuffing sausage or anything."

"I used to like them," I mutter again and turn down the hall. Lo follows, now wearing his smirk that I've come to love so much.

"They're good people," Lo says.

I chuck off my shorts as I step into my room, hearing the catcall since I'm still mostly visible from the other room. I flip them off but don't bother shutting the door. My clothes are in the closet anyway.

Lo joins me, pulling me against him and kissing me softly. "I'm really glad they dropped in on you, Caulder. I've been worried about you not eating."

"You don't need to be," I insist but stop trying to pull on my underwear and lean against him. "I admit the first couple weeks were rough, and I probably didn't eat a lot. But I'm eating closer to normal again."

"Still. I love that someone is here to take care of you when I can't be."

I twist to look at him. Our eyes meet and last night's conversation floods my mind. "They are. You have friends like that too, right?"

"Yep. Some good friends."

"Okay good."

"Stop fucking and get your asses out here!" Three calls.

"Do not think I won't come in and drag you out," Sacha adds. "You will eat, Caulder Haines."

I sigh and step away from Lo. We dress and return to them. Astor hands me a plate right away and Three hands one to Lo. Then we're crowded around the living room floor. It's a hodgepodge of different foods that mostly don't work together, but it's really good.

"So… you come out and show up with a boyfriend all within a couple of weeks," Ethan says.

"Yeah, about that. This isn't something we're making public," I explain, glancing at Lo.

"Your boyfriend is still inside closet," Sacha guesses.

"Yes, but for the same reasons I was. It's not fear or shame or whatever. It's attention where it shouldn't belong."

"We get it," Jakub says. "Really. I was there not long ago."

"Are you going to keep it hidden like Jakub and Ethan did?" Creed asks.

I shrug. "For now, yeah." This isn't something we've actually talked about. But Lo told me when we met that he hasn't shared his sexuality with anyone connected to hockey in any way. I understand that to mean he doesn't want to make it known now, either.

"For now," Lo repeats and it sounds a lot more temporary than when I said it. "Definitely not the right time to let the world get wind of this and listen to the crazy pregnant lady somehow twist this to be a result of her bullshit too."

"Saying someone is your boyfriend doesn't prove you're gay," Three mimics.

Astor snorts. "You sound uncannily like her, dude. How many of her videos have you watched?"

"Enough," Three says. "It drives me crazy that we're not supposed to comment."

"Right?!" Ethan agrees.

"I have given to temptation," Sacha admits. "Once, maybe twice. But I delete comment soon after."

I lean into Lo's side as we eat quietly, listening to my teammates bitch about the pregnant lady and then moving on to something else. It's hockey gossip for a while as they talk about Max having a kid that no one knew about, despite the kid being a year old. How has he kept that from the media?! They talk about Winnipeg's new owner coming back from his Christmas vacation in the mountains married to a man in January. That was wild to see that spread all over the news.

Sacha announces that he got a star tattoo on his hip to show solidarity to Felton Badcock and he's offended no one's noticed yet.

"Why you not look at my crotch area?" Sacha says. "Notice Caulder hard at door but not tattoo on my hip! Russian dick area not as interesting?"

"Do you really?" Creed asks. "And before you get offended, I only look at my husbands' dicks. No offense."

"You have pass," Sacha dismisses Creed as he gets to his feet and shoves his pants down enough to show us his star.

"That's awesome, man," Asael says.

"I thought about getting on ass cheek but this how I can be confused for Benny Bop," he explains, laughing as he takes his seat again.

Lo looks at me, amused. I wonder if this is how his team is.

Before I'm halfway through my plate, my phone rings. Since it's Rigo, I decide to answer. Lo takes my plate while I stand with my phone in hand and take a few steps away as I answer.

"Caulder," Rigo greets.

"Hi," I say. "Please tell me there isn't something new I need to worry about now."

He chuckles. "Not at all. I just forwarded you an email. Take a look."

My stomach flutters with nerves and I'm immediately regretting eating something as I pull my phone down and start clicking around on my screen. His email is the most recent one received and I click on it. There's an attachment and I open it.

It's a whole lot of official boxes with letters and values my gaze just scans over since I don't understand them. My eyes snag on ‘Combined Paternity Index: 0 to 1' and then ‘Probability of Paternity: 0.0000%.'

It takes longer to comprehend the paragraph in plain English following that I have to read at least half a dozen times before the meaning registers.

The alleged father is excluded from paternity in the following systems: FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, CSF1PO, Penta D, F13B, Penta E, Penta C. These results indicate that CAULDER HAINES is not the biological father of the unborn fetus within the womb of FELICIA BENEDICT.

Chills run along my body. I feel them all the way down to my toes and along my scalp, making my head tingle. I bring the phone back to my ear. "It's…"

"Negative. There isn't even a blip of possibility. Whoever the lookalike was, they weren't related to you at all."

My eyes close as relief washes through me. "What now?"

"I'm sure Alexandra already has this information as well, so she'll be in touch with how we'll proceed. I understand that you just want her to go away, Caulder, but have you thought about a defamation lawsuit?"

I sigh. "What do I have to do? What's my part?"

"Nothing right now. Alexandra has already been gathering everything she needs as this woman digs herself a very deep hole with evidence all over the internet. I'm curious to know if she really plans to open this document on a live feed. We have someone monitoring her account already, so we'll know if and when she does."

"But what do we do with this—the test? Are we going to make a statement or something?" I ask.

"Nope. Unnecessary. As you've been saying all along—it's no one's business. Besides, she's going to be making the world aware all on her own."

I take a deep breath. "Okay. Uh… Before we file that thing, can I see it? Before I make a decision?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Fine, okay. Thank you for calling me. I feel like you were just holding my hand as I read those words, Rigo."

"Hand holding athletes is my official job title," Rigo deadpans.

I grin. "Yeah, well. Thanks. Really."

"You're welcome. Really."

I hang up and just stand there. Staring at nothing. It's over. The proof that I didn't fucking touch her is now tangible. It's over!

It's not over, of course. I have no doubt that she's not going to let it be over. But for me, the world will know the truth. It's real and I hold it electronically in my hand.

I jump when Lo's hand lands on my forearm. I'm not sure how I'm looking at him, but there's concern bright on his face. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close. Relief makes me sink into him. I feel heavy.

Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hug him, and he holds me securely in his arms. "What happened? What do you need, babe?"

I shake my head, feeling the hysterical laughter bubble inside me. "It's over," I whisper. "I have the results. It's a 0% match. I'm not the father."

He laughs. "Of course, you're not."

"But now she's going to see that. Everyone will know. The results prove she's lying. Everyone will see she's lying, and they'll leave me alone."

Lo squeezes me. I'm so fucking glad he's here. This is good news, but I still need him like it's bad news.

"Did you say the results came back?" Ethan asks.

I open my eyes and realize I'm still standing in the living room. I hadn't actually moved far, so half my damn team is looking at me.

Laughter bubbles out this time and I close my eyes, turning my face into Lo's neck. "Yes," I say.

"Can I call her hoebag slut now?" Sacha asks. "She bad person."

"The thing is, she believes what she's saying," Meddy says. "I've watched her account since the first video went viral. She fully believes what she's saying. There's a post from the day after our Philly game and she even tells the ‘story' of how she hooked up with a hot hockey player from Buffalo."

"Not me," Sacha says. "No. I might give dick try. Can't get dick pregnant."

Ethan snorts.

"I'm betting even then, she thought it was Caulder when it was just a hookup story," Meddy says. "I'm not sure she intended to be malicious, even if she turned into a Class A drama queen bitch."

"You're going to sue her ass, right?" Three asks.

I sigh, picking up my face and resting my chin on Lo's shoulder so I can look at my team. "I don't know. All I've wanted since this started was to make it go away."

"I want you to show her there are consequences in the world when you tell lies," Lo repeats what he's told me many times.

"I'm with the interloper," Asael says. "Even if what Meddy says is true and she didn't intend to be malicious, the fact that she went about this the way she did definitely needs a lawsuit for damages. Even if they're just your own mental damages."

"Yes. You've looked like hell this last month," Three adds. "You were gray for like eight days. I'm pretty confident I could bench you now, bro."

I roll my eyes, sighing in exasperation. Though, I don't doubt that he's telling the truth about any of that. I've lost eight pounds and muscle mass sucks to try to get back. I've been sick to my stomach, not sleeping, and definitely feeling listless and shitty.

"My lawyer is getting everything together and then we'll discuss it," I tell them.

"For now, let's fatten you up again," Meddy says. "Eat. Don't make me call Bianca."

I laugh, closing my eyes and resting my head against Lo's. "Love you," he whispers.

My eyes open and the only one still looking at me is Creed. He smiles, bowing his head, but keeping his eyes on me. Watching me with Lo. Knowing how I feel without me having to say it.