6. Jake

"You're really fine waiting to get back home till tomorrow?" I ask Caroline. We're in the lobby of a Four Seasons, and the woman behind the counter is finishing our check-in.

"It's okay. Grams and Edgar may be obnoxious, but they've covered for me a ton by now. They can handle things for a night. And I'll give all my guests a discount for the trauma. Everybody will walk away happy."

"I could ask Jesse and Andi to swing by," I suggest. "Just to make sure things are going okay."

"Really, it's fine."

The private jet triggered a maintenance alarm shortly after we landed. When I called to set up the return flight as we'd planned, I was told by a profusely apologetic mechanic that the replacement part wouldn't come until tomorrow morning. They offered to set us up with first-class tickets on a commercial flight home, but I didn't want to drag Caroline and Walker through all that nonsense.

So, a hotel for the night seemed like a reasonable backup plan.

"I wasn't thinking when I booked this," I say on our way to the elevator. "I just got the one room since, well… But I realize now we could've tried to get separate rooms."

"It's okay," Caroline says. "If we're going to be selling this story, we should probably take the easy steps like sharing a room. After the scene we made outside Tiffany's, I wouldn't be shocked if people know we're supposed to be a couple now."

"Do you have enough stuff for Walker to make it through the night?"

"We're good," she says. I've got his fold-out crib, just in case. Now you see why I packed so much?"

I grin. "Never doubted you for a second."

My phone has been vibrating up a storm in my pocket, but I've mostly ignored it. Between picking out the ring back at Tiffany's, the bad news with the plane, and just generally trying to navigate this weird-as-hell situation we've found ourselves in, checking texts hasn't been high on my priority list.

I finally steal a glance while the elevator climbs to the top floor. I've got texts from almost every guy on the team, including several rookies and newer players. The first text is from my little sister, though.

Andi: You better answer my calls, asshole. WHAT THE EFF? ENGAGED? I need deets. All the deets. Call me or else.

The text ends with a gun and a mind-blown emoji.

Apparently, the news is out. From a quick glance, it looks like the entire team knows I'm supposedly engaged. So much for the soft launch with the fake dating plan.

Jesse: We need to talk. Now. Answer my fucking calls, asshole.

I grimace at that one. Considering Caroline is his sister, I imagine Jesse is thinking about kicking my ass. I can't entirely blame him. I did punch him when I found him on his stupid-ass vibrating waterbed with my sister four years ago. But he had it coming. This situation is totally different.

Liam: Congrats, man. I have to admit I had no clue. It's big of you to step up for that kid. I'm happy he'll have a dad in his life, even if it's not his own. Also, there's something I want to tell you in person. Most of us are heading to Frosty Harbor tonight to celebrate with you guys. Maybe we can meet for a beer tomorrow if you have time?

I'm guessing he wants to discuss the retirement announcement. Just thinking about it sours my mood again.

Carter: Broooo! That baby isn't even yours! Big dick energy, FR FR.

Carter simply follows his text with dead-faced, crying emojis. I'm not really sure what that means.

Maddox: Hear me out… She's a cancer, and you're an aries. I'm not saying it can never work, but I AM saying it might not be the best idea. You sure about this?

I roll my eyes at that one. Maddox is always on about some superstitious thing or the other.

Nolan: Nice, dude. I've been rooting for you two to figure it out and admit you're crazy about each other forever. Welcome to the club. I'll make you guys a badass cake with Mia to celebrate. Tell me when you two can make it to Taste, and we'll set you up with a five-course mealon the house.

I look over and see Caroline is reading texts, too.

The elevator dings, and we step out into the hallway.

"What are you going to say?" I ask, assuming it's her friends bombarding her like my teammates.

"What should I say?" she asks. She looks a little frazzled, which isn't like her. "Andi sounds like she's about to die of excitement. She texted me like eight paragraphs about everything she wants to do now that we will be married to each other's brothers. Mia's talking about all the meals she wants to make for the wedding. Paisley has apparently already started baking up a storm for us."

I nod. "The guys seem kind of excited, too." I don't mention that Maddox is worried about our star signs not lining up. I'm sure he'll come around.

"Are we really going to tell them it's all a lie?"

"What else would we do?" I ask.

"We could… just let them enjoy it for a little bit?"

I stop outside the door to our room and gently set Walker's carrier down beside me. He's awake now but happily sucking on his pacifier and looking around at everything with wide-eyed curiosity. "That seems like a bad idea."

"Is it, though?" Caroline squints and tilts her head as she asks.

"Yes," I laugh.

"But is it?" she repeats.

I push the room door open, pick up Walker, and wait for Caroline to go in. "Yes. It's a bad idea. We pretend it's real, and everybody is happy at first. But what happens after the wedding when we split? We're just putting off the bad part until the end."

"I thought that was the plan the whole time?" she asks.

"Well, sort of," I admit. "But seeing their reactions and how excited they are… it feels different."

"You said yourself that the team needs to think it's real. Can we really tell all our friends and hope it never gets out to anybody? Even if they keep the secret, don't you think it will be a little obvious that they're all faking being happy for us? Can you picture Carter trying to act?"

"No," I admit. "He can't even act like an adult half the time."

"See?"

I give her a long look as she sits down and idly runs her palms over the plush white comforter. The room is beautiful, with huge windows and views of downtown, but she hardly seems to be paying attention right now. I can't say I blame her. We sort of just dropped a nuclear bomb on our social circles.

"You sure you're not pushing so hard for this because you're enjoying pretending we're engaged?" I ask. I mean it to come out as a tease, but part of me honestly wonders. Part of me is enjoying it, too, if I'm being totally honest.

I know I'm not the kind of guy to settle down with a woman. But I can't lie. There's something I enjoy about pampering Caroline and going through the motions I'm enjoying. We picked out a huge ass ring at Tiffany's. It wasn't the biggest, but she seemed to take the selection process very seriously despite trying to act like it was stupid. Ultimately, she seemed to love what she picked, and I was surprised by how much I liked letting her get exactly what she wanted. I'm even looking forward to being the one to slide the ring on her finger when it comes in. As part of the act, of course.

Caroline is giving me a dirty look.

"What?" I ask.

"I'm just trying to think about what's best for everyone," she says, sounding defensive. "I don't want us to go through all this trouble for nothing. If the secret gets out and Peter catches word, maybe it screws up the contract. If your people find out, maybe it screws up your contract. I know it's not perfect, but maybe it's a secret we need to keep. For now."

I give her a long look. "Alright. Yeah. I guess you're right. But I don't like lying to my teammates."

"They'll understand once we can explain our reasoning. And if anybody gets too close or sniffs us out, we'll just bring them into the fold. Only on an absolutely-need-to-know basis."

"If you say so," I say. I pause, sniffing the air. Something foul hits my nostrils. "I think Walker may have… taken a shit."

She laughs. "Babies do that. Do you want the honors?"

I can't help flinching a little. "You want me to change his diaper?" I ask.

"If we're going to fool anybody, you probably should look like you know how to care for a baby. It's going to be suspicious if you can't."

I steel my nerves. I can do this. I've played in the Stanley Cup finals. I've faced off against some of the most badass athletes on the planet and come out on top. I can handle a poopy fucking diaper. "Alright. Let's do it," I say firmly.

She gives me an amused look and unclips Walker from the carrier, lifting him up, kissing him, and rubbing her nose against his. He giggles at the attention as she carefully lays him on his back on the bed.

"The diapers are in that bag," she says, pointing. "Side pouch."

The hotel staff already brought our stuff up to the room, so I find the diaper bag in the closest and bring out a diaper. "Do I need baby powder, or something?"

"Walker doesn't seem to need it. Just get that package of wipes."

"How many do I get?"

"The whole package," she says with a little humor twinkling in her eyes.

I push down a slight jab of fear at the certainty that I'll need so many wipes. How much poop does this baby produce, anyway?

"Oh, and grab that," she says, pointing. I pick up what seems like a washable little baby-changing blanket. It's slick and covered in dinosaur print. "Put him on top of it so we don't get poop on the bed."

I narrow my eyes. "Why would poop get on the bed? Isn't it just going to stay in the diaper?"

I don't like how she's grinning, but I do as I'm told and put him on the little mat.

Walker is looking up at me with a similar expression to his mom. It's like they're both in on it and enjoying this.

"Now what?" I ask.

"You take off the diaper and figure out what you're working with."

I brace myself, then unstrap the little side straps on his diaper. When I pull it down, I reel back and grimace. "Holy Hell," I exclaim. "What are you feeding him?"

Walker seems to think I'm playing around because he starts bulging his eyes and kicking his chubby legs like crazy.

"Hey!" I say. "Quit playing around, kid. You're going to get poop everywhere."

Walker doesn't care. He's trying to flip over now. I'm pretty sure he's not supposed to even be able to do that, but he's certainly trying.

"What is he doing?" I ask.

"He loves getting his diaper changed. It gets him a little hyper. You should probably start using those wipes. Oh, and I usually–"

Warm liquid hits me in the face. It happens so fast and unexpectedly that I don't move for a solid two seconds. Caroline is laughing her ass off because I'm getting peed on.

The little bastard is peeing on my face.

I fall backward, nearly knocking over the nightstand as I wipe at my face. "Oh God," I gasp. "He pissed on me. He pissed on me."

Caroline moves in, expertly wiping away all the poop, removing the diaper, and putting on a fresh one while I'm still on the ground in a state of shock.

She looks back at me and tosses a clean wipe my way. "Can you handle cleaning yourself up, or do you need my help for that, too?" There's an edge of satisfaction in her voice like she knew I was going to show my ass when I tried to do this.

I take the wipe and smear it across my face, shaking my head. "I… did not expect to fail so badly at that. But you didn't warn me he would fight back."

She laughs. "Honestly, it's kind of refreshing to see you do something badly. You're always so good at everything. But everybody sucks at being a parent on their first try. It's a learn-on-the-job kind of thing."

Being a parent. I don't know why, but that phrase hits me in a strange way. It makes my stomach flutter a little, even though I know she meant to say "pretending" to be a parent. "Yeah," I say. "Well, thanks for not rubbing it in. Too much," I add with a grin.

"You may want to change," she says, looking at my shirt.

I look down and see I've been splattered from the stomach to the face with piss. I can't believe such a small human can produce so much piss and shit, but I guess that's all he can really do at this stage in his life. And if you're only able to do one thing, you're probably going to do a pretty damn good job at it. Good for you, kid.

"Yeah," I say. "I'm going to just grab a shower while I'm at it." I glance around the room and motion to the couch. I also didn't think to make sure I got a room with two beds. "I'll get them to send up some blankets and pillows. It's already pretty late, so I may just turn in once I shower."

"Okay, yeah," Caroline stretches and yawns. "Walker wakes me up all night, so I'm always ready for bed. It's kind of nice to be away from the bed and breakfast for a night. I can skip my nightly rounds and cleaning and just pass out."

I dig out some clothes and pause at the door to the bathroom. Caroline is bent over her suitcase to pick out some clothes to sleep in. I've been doing a pretty good job of it before now, but I can't help staring at her ass as she bends down. She's still just wearing those jeans, but I can see the outline of her panties through them. My brain does an admirable job of calling up several memories of what she looks like naked.

I feel myself stiffen at the memories of her taste and the scent of her skin–the way she moved under me and felt with my hands on her. The feeling of her walls tight around my cock.

I also can't help calling up the memory of the kiss at the BB in front of Peter. I was only doing it to screw with the guy and sell the lie a little. But damn. It had been one hell of a kiss. I spent more time than I'd like to admit thinking about it on the plane ride, too.

I push it all down and let the door click behind me.

Bad idea, Jake.

I told myself from the start to keep this platonic. We're just former lovers doing a favor for each other. Caroline and I closed the door on romantic possibility already, and I don't need to imagine what it would be like to open it again, even if it's just a crack.

I undress and get in the shower, letting the warm water wash over me.

I take my erection in my fist and pump my hand up and down, thoughts of Caroline filling my head. I think of the way her lips were always colder than mine at first but warmed up quickly. I think of the sound she used to make when I'd first slide my fingers against her or how she liked it when I pinned her wrists down on the bed.

Fuck.

I finish quickly, clean myself up in the warm water, and try to sort through the tangle of thoughts that threaten to take hold of me and never let go.

I walked in on the conversation between Peter and Caroline, overheard them, and acted before I stopped to think. My history with Caroline made me want to protect her. It was only after the fact that I realized I could also stand to benefit from this arrangement. And it's only now that I realize how quickly this could get complicated.

My attraction to Caroline never wavered. Not one bit. I just felt the emotional push she gave me when she found out she was pregnant. It came right around the time of that bullshit scandal with Sophie Gray, too. I was pissed at the world for multiple reasons, and finding out the woman I was hoping to call my own eventually let a guy knock her up was the last thing I wanted to hear.

And now look at us…

I shake my head and shut off the water. I have a bad feeling this won't be the last time I have to fuck my hand to get her out of my head. But I'll do whatever it takes to keep Caroline in the realm of fantasy. Losing her once hurt enough. I'm not about to put myself in a position to go through that again.