So instead, I showed her in little ways how glad I was that she was here. I kissed her a lot, because that was quickly becoming an addiction. I made her coffee. Took her for lunch. Held her against me and kissed her temple while we walked Huey around the park. Helped her set up her office space, and watched Huey while she reconnected with her customers and started the huge backlog of requests. She’d come to me when she was ready for more. Until then, I’d wait—no matter how blue my balls were right now.

These couple of days at home between games had been amazing. Sure, we did conditioning every day, hitting up the gym and the trainers, but I was home by lunchtime to spend it with Huey and Nova, and most of the time Rigby too. Dev was back at work, catching up on the meetings he’d put off to spend between Nova’s thighs.

And you know what? I was happy. Which was probably a good indication that life was going to kick me in the balls.

So as I was strolling through the park with Huey and Nova, the baby strapped to Nova’s chest, I was almost ready for the other shoe to drop. After the last outing with Huey by herself, I could tell Nova was a little more hesitant to go out in public spaces.

That lady still made me righteously angry, especially because IceCaps management had refused to outright ban the bitch when I asked. Corporate said that if we banned every fan who was an asshole, they wouldn’t have enough money to pay our salaries.

My agent had told me to let it go. But fuck, it still riled me.

I was carrying a picnic in my backpack, as well as Huey’s diaper bag, and was dressed in what I liked to call incognito mode: a cap pulled down low, sunglasses and a plain t-shirt.

“You got any of those fancy little chocolate things in here?” I asked hopefully. That shit had been so freaking good. Nova was beautiful and talented.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe? You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Just then, a voice behind me made my blood run cold. “River?”

Oh shit. I kept walking, my hand on Nova’s spine to propel her forward. Maybe I could pretend I hadn’t heard.

“River, wait!” the voice yelled again, and I clenched my teeth. I looked over at Nova, who was frowning at me, even as her feet slowed to a stop.

Goddammit. I swallowed hard and turned, my face completely neutral. “Hey, Marissa.”