Chapter 27

Tyler

We don't say much in the car. It seems we're both pretty beat.

If I tried to recap the events of the last few hours, my head might just blow off.

To top everything off going badly, we run into her ex in her mom's driveway!

The fucker didn't look like he had much to say for himself from where I was standing.

The only thing now we need to address is the stalker thing.

I prompt her on it when we're halfway back to her place.

"Babe, that was a lot," I say as I reach for her hand and give her a squeeze.

"It was," she sighs. "And I need to talk to my sister."

"Soon." I nod. "Let's just take a breath. We both need it."

"Can we go back to Mercer?" She asks.

I glance at her. "You want to go and stay there?"

"Yeah. I think it would be good for us to get out of the city. Don't you?"

"You still want to be near me?"

She glances at me. "Ty, you're worth all of this that we're going through. I've never felt this way before. It's scary what's unfolding, but I'm willing to see where this takes us."

"You're beautiful. I meant every word I said to your parents. I also believe you're too good to me, Cindy. And if you want to walk away now, I can accept that."

"I don't want to walk away. I meant what I said too."

I don't know how it can be possible she's not heading for the hills, but I'm glad about it.

"Why don't we grab some things from your place and we'll head out there?"

"That sounds good."

I'm stunned but pleased she wants to be there with me. Thank God she has some time off work. I don't know how she would be doing any of this and going to the stadium right now. It's a lot on both of our parts.

"Cindy, your mom said something that disturbed me quite a bit this afternoon."

"What part?" She scoffs sarcastically.

"The college stalker?"

She pales a little and shifts in her seat. "Oh. That."

"Oh, that? It doesn't sound like a small thing, baby. The worst part is, I may have accidentally overheard your dad on the phone talking to your mom when I was going into his office a while back."

She stares at me. "You overheard him talking to my mom?"

"He said something about a stalker in college, yes."

"Oh my god. And you're just telling me this now?"

"It was before we started… shit!" I run a hand over my head. "Nothing I say is going to be right at the moment. But yes, I overheard the back end of a conversation. And since I heard it, I've felt protective towards you, more than normal."

"Like meeting me outside the stadium after I finish work?"

"Yes, that." I nod.

"What else?"

"Tell me what happened first."

She shakes her head. "Have you been looking out for me without my knowledge?" She asks.

I sigh heavily, giving my answer away. "Before you say anything, I used to grab coffee every morning anyway from the corner coffee shop and I'd see you arrive at work."

It sounds better saying it like that.

"Yeah, you mentioned something before about noticing me in the corner cafe?"

"Yes, but I meant while I was in the cafe. There's a great view of the stadium staff"s entrance from the window."

Her eyes grow wide. "You've been hanging out there watching me?"

"I was drinking coffee," I interject. "But yes, the highlight of my morning was seeing you walk into work. That's all."

"That's all!" She cries. "My god, Ty."

I can't tell if she's angry or not. Her tone isn't leaving much to be desired.

"Baby, please don't be mad, I wasn't stalking?—"

"I'm not mad."

My eyes meet hers and I see something I never expected to see. Lust.

Fuck. She likes it? This is something I didn't expect.

"Cind, tell me what happened in college?"

She sighs and presses her lips together. "I didn't have a stalker, Ty. The campus had a weird prowler, and he tried to grab me one night when I was getting into my car after I stayed back late on campus. He snuck up from behind and tried to grab me. Luckily I had pepper spray on my keyring. I don't know what would have happened otherwise."

"What happened after that?"

"I reported it to the Police and they arrested the asshole from the security footage on campus. He was a janitor apparently, and had been harassing girls on campus for months."

"I'm so fucking sorry that happened." I feel angry too about what could have happened if she hadn't had that pepper spray.

"My parents went over the top protective after that. My mom wanted around the clock security. She couldn't get it into her head that it was just one of those things and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I can see how they'd be even more protective of you after that."

"Not siding with them, are you?" She attempts to joke.

"Not at all. I'm glad you told me."

"I was going to, eventually. I wasn't expecting Mom to blurt it out like that today."

"And you're really not mad about me, umm…"

"Stalking me?" She bites her lip.

I open my mouth to protest, but she pulls my hand towards the waistband of her sweatpants and shoves it underneath, guiding my hand down to her pussy.

My fingers glide over her slit as she opens her legs slightly, and I reach down to feel how slick she is.

"Does that feel like I'm mad about it?"

"Fuck, Cindy."

"Yes, we need to do that. Hurry, Tyler."

I can't even fucking believe after the day we've had we're going to actually forget everyone and everything for a second, all the bad shit going on, and just think about ourselves. Maybe fucking her is the best thing for both of us right now.

I grin and step on the gas.

* * *

She plops Henry down on the floor as soon as we get inside to grab her things and he scoots off up the hall to grab a drink from his water bowl.

I'm barely in the door before she's on me, grabbing me by the shirt and ripping it off over my head.

I haven't seen this side of her, and I have to say, I'm loving forceful Cindy who takes what she wants. She rips her shirt off too and pushes me so I fall back against the wall. I reach out to pull her to me and our lips collide.

"Ty, I need you so bad."

My hands cup her breasts as our tongues collide like the best game of hockey I've ever played. She unhooks her bra and lets it fall, pushing down her sweatpants so she's just standing in her panties. She reaches for my pants and pushes them down, letting my hard dick spring free. It's been hard since she had that look on face when she knew I'd been watching her from the cafe. It's not the reaction I expected. She told me she wished I'd approached her sooner than I did.

The truth is, I never thought someone like Cindy would be interested in me. She knows what a lot of players are like when it comes to all the adoring women we all get to meet, puck bunnies and all. Plus, my past reputation when I was younger left little to be desired.

"I need you too," I breathe, tugging her two beautiful peaks, while one hand slides down to her panties where I cup her mound. "I've fucking missed this."

"I've missed this too." She grabs my dick and strokes it while our mouths can't keep up with our kisses. It's hot as fuck and I know we're gonna do this hard and fast.

I pick her up by the waist as she wraps her arms around me and I walk with her, still kissing, to her bedroom where I throw her down and revel in watching her tits bounce.

I reach down and pull her panties off and throw them over my shoulder, shoving my sweats and briefs all the way off in one movement.

I roll on a rubber and crawl over her in a second, and because I know she was so turned on just before in the car, I don't hesitate to line up and push into her in one movement.

We both cry out loudly. I don't want to be gentle with her. I'm praying she lets me fuck her like a maniac.

Her hands are on my ass, encouraging me, as her lips find mine. It tells me everything I need to know. "This is gonna be fast, baby. You okay with that?"

"I want it as hard and fast as you can," she breathes, tracing my tattoos over my shoulder blades as I move in and out of her. She's already meeting my thrusts.

I bend one of her legs by the knee and hold my hand against her shin to get as deep as I can. My hips move in and out of her wildly. I love looking down at our connection and seeing my cock disappear inside her.

"Ty, that's so good. Ohhh."

"Yeah, you want it like that?" I grunt.

"Yes!"

"And you liked me watching you before we met, baby?"

"I loved it!"

"Tell me what else."

"It turned me on hearing it. You made me so wet in the car."

"You know I fucked my hand every day after seeing you?"

"OH, TYYYY."

I slide my hand between us as we pick up the pace, my hips rocking against her even faster. I can't last like this, so I hope I get her off quickly. I flick her clit as she cries out. "Yeah, you like the thought of me doing that to myself?"

"Yesss!" she wails.

"That I came all over myself thinking about you?"

"Ty!"

"Did you touch yourself after we met?" I grunt.

"Yes."

"What with?" It's getting hard to think, but I love hearing what she did.

"My bullet."

"Fuck, Cindy."

"I saw stars thinking about you," she pants.

I push into her harder. Her bed is protesting and we're making so much noise it's a wonder the whole street can't hear us. Henry must be outside doing his business, cos he hasn't come scratching on the door to see what the commotion is about yet. Thank God.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to come, Ty."

My fingers between us are rubbing frantically at her sweet spot as we go hard and no sooner than she said it, she's wailing out my name as her body shudders and pulls my orgasm and I pulse a few moments later, shooting my load inside her. I'm as loud as usual, but I know she loves it.

"Holy shit." I pull back to look into her eyes in my aftershocks as she clutches me for dear life.

I'm reminded again that we have such an incredible connection between us, and nobody upon nobody is going to break it.

"I love you, Ty," she breathes as I stay seated in her for as long as possible before we have to break apart. And I plan on doing this all night once we get to Mercer and shut away from the world. Fuck the papers. Fuck our exes and anyone else who tries to get in the way of us. I'm not going to let it happen.

"I love you too, Cind. So fucking much."

* * *

We ride the shit storm of the press over the next couple of days. Of course, they have the photo of me and Stacey next to the photo of me and Cindy, so I look like an even bigger asshole.

We were quick though, because of Angelique's suggestion to us later that day to put in writing to the board of the Hawks about our situation and the fact we have only just started dating. Neither of us want to jeopardize our jobs, and getting in before the less than flattering news article came out was a smart move. We technically only made things official in Miami, and that wasn't even that long ago.

I contact Stacey again the next day, as I can't wait any longer to get this paternity test out of the way. Her doctor advised an amniocentesis paternity test would need to be done, it sounded invasive and I was tentative at first, but if we go through the birth and the baby turns out not to be mine…What then?

I honestly don't know if I trust Stacey at this point because she seems so wishy-washy about everything. I mean, she still took all this time to even tell me she was pregnant.

She tells me she'll be okay with it and we meet at a hospital outside of the city on Wednesday morning to take my sample required for the results, which we're told should come back within five business days, sometimes it can take longer. Stacey looks pretty worse for wear and we don't even speak that much. I'm still getting over everything that's happened just lately.

"This week has been a shit show for both of us," I say. "Especially with that newspaper article.

If there's anything you need to tell me, you need to do it now."

"It wasn't great for me either having my information splashed around in the Seattle Times," she says on the way out. I escort her to the car at least. Cindy is waiting for me around the corner where I left her and Henry at the coffee shop.

She spoke to her dad last night, and he definitely has had the influence of Angelique for sure, as he didn't yell or curse once. I'm hoping he's coming around to the idea sooner rather than later. If he's still pissed off at me by pre-season training, I may need to emigrate.

Cindy is also insisting I wait for the results before I get too carried away with planning the rest of our future with all the baby stuff in mind. Stacey has given me no indication that I should be worried about that. As far as I'm concerned, it's a done deal. She told me she hasn't been with anyone else.

I'm just lucky, as well as glad that Cindy even wants to be a part of it.

"I'll talk to you in a few days," I say to Stacey before we leave the hospital.

She reaches out to hug me and I let her because she definitely looks very down and I don't want to add to her or the baby's stress. "Okay." She smiles weakly.

I guess I should have sensed then something was wrong. Something very wrong…

Not even something I could conjure up in my wildest dreams…

* * *

I'm in bed with Cindy when I get the call. We've been at it at my place in Mercer for a week. I've been shying her away from going anywhere while the media settles down, but she's going to meet my parents tonight and we're both pretty excited about it.

"Mr. Peterson, it's Doctor Calhoun."

"Hi," I breathe, trying to sound normal and to act like I've not just been making love to my girl in my huge king sized bed all afternoon. "You have the results?"

I sit up and swallow, waiting for him to drop me with it.

Cindy and I are staring at each other.

"Yes, I have the results." He pauses and then sighs. That action alone causes my heart to stir. Cindy and I have been talking about this conversation over the last few days.

I'm mentally preparing for the baby's birth, plus the things we'll need to get for her arrival. I'm sure that's a whole other ball game, but whatever Stacey needs in all of this won't be a problem. "And I'm sorry to say…"

The words blur. I immediately scrunch my forehead in confusion. My pulse quickens and I shoot upright in bed, turning away from Cindy to perch on the edge of the mattress.

I'm sorry to say what?

"Dr. Calhoun?"

"I'm sorry, but you're not the father, Mr. Peterson."

The silence is deafening for a moment.

What the hell did he just say?

"It's Tyler," I manage. But I've no idea why I say that, or what is even going on right now.

More silence hangs between us, then I have to clarify in case I'm dreaming. "What did you just say?" I ask.

"You're not the father, Tyler. I'm so sorry."

"Dr. Calhoun, are you sure?"

"The tests are ninety-nine point nine percent accurate."

My mind goes hay-wire… what the fuck?

Stacey lied to me? Why the hell would she do that?

I feel Cindy shift next to me and place her hands on my shoulders while I try to take in what the doctor is telling me.

The baby isn't mine?

I swallow hard as my mind swirls and my fists ball up at my sides.

"If you'd like to come in next week, we can discuss the results in more detail."

I can't form any words as my head drops to my hands and I feel my heart shatter just that little bit more. How could she do this to me?

"Tyler?" Dr. Calhoun's voice echoes on the line, but I'm somewhere else and I need to fucking talk to Stacey.

"Yes, I'm here. I'll be in touch next week. Thank you for your time."

He says something else, but I hear nothing because my mind is spinning. Eventually, the line goes dead.

I turn my head to Cindy. "She lied," I mutter as I stand up and start to pace. "It's not my kid, Cindy."

"Oh, Tyler."

I run my hand over my face as I walk back and forth, unsure of what to do next.

I feel fucking sick to my gut.

"I need to call Stacey."

"And they're sure?" She whispers.

"It's ninety-nine point nine percent accuracy."

Cindy buries her face in her hands for a moment while I grab my cell and dial Stacey. She lifts her head, watching me with worried, wide eyes. She looks on the brink of tears, too.

Of course, there's no answer. I can only assume that she knows the news as well, and now she's dodging me. Luckily, I know where her friend's place is that she's been staying at, closer to the hospital. And that's where I need to be.

"I have to go," I say, picking up my clothes off the floor and quickly redressing.

"Tyler, I should come with you."

"Not a good idea." I shake my head. "I need to confront her alone."

"You don't have to do anything alone, Ty."

"I need to think, babe." I dip my head down to give her a quick kiss and give Henry a pat in the doorway who's just appeared. Striding out to the kitchen to grab my keys, I'm out the door before Cindy can even get dressed. I hear her call after me, but this is something I need to do alone.

I try Stacey's cell a squillion times before I even get to her friend's place. I've no idea if she will be there, but I don't know what else to do because I don't have Stacey's home address. My heart is beating a million miles an hour and everything I thought I knew about Stacey comes crashing down.

No one is at her friend's place, unless she's hiding, of course, and that well could be true. I find myself sitting in my car on the side of the road with my head in my hands again. I don't know how long I sit in the sheeting rain.

Cindy is worried. I know from the messages she's sent me in the last hour.

I glance down at my cell buzzes.

Stacey.

I swipe to answer.

"Tyler…"

"Where are you?" I grunt.

"You obviously heard the news from Doctor Calhoun." She sounds about as grave as the doc did. I don't know what game she's playing now, or whether she's practiced this too, but it's not going to wash this time.

"Why do you think I'm driving all over town looking for you? Yes, he called me. He said the baby isn't mine. Not that you wouldn't already know that."

She bursts into tears and I wait for her to say how crazy and absurd that is.

How there has been no one else like she told me, and they've got it wrong.

But none of those words come out of her mouth and my heart sinks even deeper.

I was just getting my head around becoming a father and coming to terms with it. Now it's been wrenched away from me with no warning. I'll never forgive her for this.

"I'm so sorry, Tyler."

"So it's true?" I balk, incredulous.

"I had a one time thing just after we broke up. I didn't tell you about it because I didn't for one second believe I could get pregnant from a one-night stand!"

"You said you'd been with nobody else but me!" I bellow.

"Ty, I didn't do this on purpose. You have to believe me!"

"I don't have to believe anything. Did you really think I wouldn't find out? What if we'd waited and I'd been there for the birth?"

"If I wasn't certain it was your baby, do you really think I'd have gone to get the paternity test done with you?"

Fuck knows what she thinks and I'm through with trying to figure it out.

"You're disgusting. Do you know that? How could you do this?"

"I honestly thought…"

"When you fuck with people's lives, Stacey, you really do a number on them, don't you? And because I have plenty of money and you know I'd do the right thing, you thought you'd just tell me I was the father without even knowing. I bet you were never going to adopt the kid out, were you?"

"Tyler, please! I know you're angry, and I'm just as shocked, believe me!"

"I don't believe anything! Not one word that comes out of your mouth, and I don't want to hear anymore lies. Goodbye, Stacey. We're done."

I hang up the phone and throw it across the car. I feel sick to my fucking stomach.

I don't even feel the tears behind my eyes until they're falling. I press my palms to the back of my eyes and try to get a grip on myself.

My friends may say it's a good thing, and that I dodged a bullet, but why does it feel like I've just had my heart ripped out of my chest? I went to my goddamned parents for fuck's sake and asked them to help me raise my daughter I didn't know was about to be born.

Now there is no daughter…

This feels like torture, the worst kind. I don't know how someone could be so cruel.

I swipe a hand over my face unsure of what to do next.

I know I need Cindy, more than ever before but I can't go home feeling like this.

I need to let off some steam first. I don't want to go home angry and take anything out on her.

So I call Jay. He lives close by, hopefully he's home and will know what to do.