Chapter 113: Bryn

Nolan comes home about an hour later with several bags in hand. I hadn’t Henry over to Maddox and jump up to meet Nolan before he’s halfway inside.

“Whatcha got there?” I ask excitedly.

He moves the bags behind his back so I can’t see whats inside. “I have one question first.” He says. “Do you have milk pumped and ready to go?”

I give him a confused look but nod. “Yeah a lot, why?”

He gives me a small smile and holds the bag out to me. I open one and laugh when I see some strawberries, chocolate, and champagne.

“What’s all this?” I ask even though I can guess.

It just isn’t like him to do such a clique romantic thing, and I want to hear him explain it.

“We’re celebrating.” He says simply.

“We are? And we need chocolate, strawberries and alcohol to do that?” I ask playfully.

He sighs. “Yes, we do,” I swear there is a light pink color to his cheeks.

I put him out of his misery and wrap my arms around his neck. He leans down enough that I don’t need to push onto my toes to kiss him. The kiss is short and sweet but full of emotion. He did something so sweet and unlike him that this means a lot. Not that he never does sweet things, they all do, but his thing is subtle and meaningful. This is so different that it hits me right in the heart.

“Thank you. I love it.” I say before kissing him again.

He smiles against my lips and tries to wrap his arm around me but ends up smacking me with the grocery bag making me laugh.

“I’ll take these and stick them in the fridge for now.” I take the bag and head for the kitchen.

We have all brand new appliances but I asked for something that had a more retro look to it. The cool thing is a lot of people seem to like the 50s or 70s style appliances because there are a ton of kitchen appliances with that sort of era design. I splurged on every themed item I could find, including an old-fashioned milkshake mixer. It has to be my favorite room in the whole house. Although the rest of the house isn’t finished being decorated I’m going to try and keep in a similar color scheme but a more modern style. As much as I would love to model our house like the one from That’s 70s Show, it’s probably not practical. But wouldn’t that be awesome?

There’s plenty of room in the fridge right now since we didn’t want to fill it before we went on our trip. Our trip that I am still packing for. We’re supposed to be leaving tomorrow night, and even though it’s going to kill me being away from Henry, our families convinced us to go without him. We will only be spending a weekend there now instead of a week like we originally planned, but our return tickets are open-ended so we can leave sooner if need be.

Not that I’m worried about Henry being taken care of. Jaxon’s parents and mine will be coming in to stay with him so I know he’ll be in good hands. Still, he is so little that leaving him now breaks my heart, but we won’t have another chance to do this with Maddox and Sawyer’s new schedule.

While I have the fridge open I grab the stuff I need to make my special spaghetti for dinner. I was able to find some bread and vegan butter garlic spread to put on it. I grab everything I need to make my own marinara sauce as well. It’s one of my go-to recipes that has a ton of veggies in it and is a huge crowd favorite. Also, the store we went to had this curly pasta that looked so cool, so I grabbed that too.

I get the oven warmed up and start setting up all the veggies to be roasted. While the oven heats I pull out my blender, food processor and sheet pans. All brand new thanks to the signing bonus the guys got. They wanted me to have all the best new things for the kitchen. Since I make a lot of my food because it is safer than risking eating out unless it's a vegan-specific restaurant. Sometimes places don’t clean their grills after cooking meat and will cook my vegan burger on the same surface which exposes me to the juices and fats from the meat.

The first time I went to a restaurant with some friends and asked that my vegan food be prepped away from meat products I had to be rushed to the hospital. Apparently, the owners didn’t care enough to accommodate my allergy and cooked everything in the same space. So I got used to eating and cooking at home only until a few vegan places popped up. I have noticed that LA has a ton of vegan options all over the place which is amazing. Still, nothing beats a home-cooked meal, and since we’re celebrating I think a cozy pasta dinner sounds really good!

Nolan comes jogging back downstairs wearing a plain white shirt and some grey sweatpants. I watch him walk into the living room and sits next to Maddox. He reaches across him and plucks Henry from his arms. They grumble at each other, no doubt fighting about who should have Henry next but they let it go when that same player gets another penalty. Yet another fight breaks out on the ice, and that uneasiness I was feeling earlier comes back in full force.

“Ah, he always goes in for the kill just as the puck is passed off,” Sawyer says pointing to the screen and rewinding it a bit. “See right there.”

“It looks like he’s trying to cause a distraction or prevent a play,” Jaxon says sounding more knowledgeable than when he first watched hockey.

He didn’t know anything about the sport but since then he’s just as well versed as the rest of us. How could he not be with two players in the family?

“He is and it fucking works,” Sawyer grumbles a few things I can’t understand before going silent and continuing to watch the game.

“That guy, number 17. He’s the weak link.” Maddox says a few minutes later.

“We’ll have to focus on him.” Sawyer agrees.

I watch the players a little closer especially the meathead who keeps slamming other players around. My worry had me focusing more on what he was doing rather than him specifically. Now that I've put my worry aside I notice something. He favors his right side any time there is a confrontation, he never hits with the left side of his body. Any time another player hits him on that side he whines and stumbles away. In the heat of the moment, no one seems to notice and his reaction only lasts a second.
“He’s hurt.” I blurt out.

Sawyer looks at me over his shoulder and back at the TV. “What are you seeing baby?”

“He only ever hits with his right side. Whenever another player hits him on his left side he grimaces. He must be hurt there.” I offer. “I don’t know how old the injury is but with enough pressure, it might throw him off. Of course I won’t ever reccomned playing dirty like him, but it might come in handy.”

Sawyer chuckles and shakes his head. “You’re a genius baby. I’ll let Coach know.”

I can’t help but feel a little guilty about pointing out someone’s weak spot, but this guy doesn’t care about hurting other players so I’m going to make sure my guys have a fighting chance. The oven beeps and I head back to the kitchen to put the veggies inside to roast. As soon as I close the door to the oven the doorbell rings. I jog over to answer it and am greeted by a delivery guy.

“Evening. I have a package for a Bryn Beckett.” He says reading off of the little tablet he’s carrying.

“That's me,” I say.

“Great this is for you, and if you could just sign here…” He hands me the tablet first and a small pen to sign with.

Once I’m done I hand it back and he hands me a slim white box. I’ve seen them before and they usually come from flower shops. Nolan must have ordered them for this celebration we’re having.

“Thank you,” I tell the guy.

I close the door and start to open the box. A gasp escapes me before I drop the box to the ground. The contents inside spill out halfway and I stare down at it with fear.

“Bryn! What’s wrong?” Jaxon asks from the couch.

I look up at the guys and the fear on my face has them rushing over.

“Shit. I need to make a call. Don’t touch anything.” Jaxon says before stepping away to make a call.

He must be calling for backup…we’re going to need them for this. Oh god…