“But would you?” Phillip asked.

Erik shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Phillip paused as he shook his head. “Hey, Shea,” he called, causing Erik to whip his head around. “Does your dick get stiff when you see other girls?”

Shea made a face of disgust as he shook his head. “What kind of question is that, Anderson?”

“It’s a good one. You are a married man. I need to know if when I get married, I’ll still have that problem.”

The guys all laughed as Shea shook his head. “No, I love my wife; she is enough for me.”

“Liar,” Lucas said, throwing a sock at Shea. “We are men, and we live, breathe, and think sex every chance we get. If you don’t get hot when you see a hot piece of ass, then you aren’t a man.”

“I don’t agree. I think that my fiancée is enough. I don’t even have to look at another female,” Tate answered.

“There is a difference from not having to look, to having a pair of perfect tits in your face,” Karson King, a defenseman, said. “No man can look away from that; if he can, then his woman has him pu**y-whipped and I commend them.”

“Yup,” Lucas said with a nod. “I have the finest wife ever. Nice tight ass, great tits, and man, a mouth that can bring me to my knees, but when I pick my son up from school and his teacher gives me this look, I swear my c**k goes so hard, man,” he said with his eyes closed, making some of the guys laugh while others shook their head. “Ah! I just want to smash something, but it goes away before I even get home. I don’t want her; I want my wife. It’s not a big deal as long as you don’t act on it.”

Erik didn’t know who to believe. All he knew was that he was in trouble because he was worried that he was on the brink of f**king up and hurting Piper, which was the last thing he wanted. He thought he loved her, he thought they were moving forward, but with one glance down a girl’s dress he suddenly didn’t know what to do.

With a heavy heart, Erik started to suit up. He had no clue what he was going to do but he knew that he needed to figure it out. The baby was coming soon and it wasn’t fair to anyone if he couldn’t get his shit straight.

Man, he was f**ked.

* * *

Piper threw her pencil down as she leaned back, stretching her back out as her little man kicked and moved through her. She loved these moments, treasured them, but she did not like the moments when she was cringing with pain from those stupid Braxton Hicks. The night before was horrible; she had been hurting all night and didn’t get much sleep. She was so scared that the Braxton Hicks pains were actually more. She was afraid that she was starting labor and was going to have her baby on the living room floor, because everyone told her not to worry, those pains were not a big deal. She had even called Harper and then Elli to ask them, and they said the same thing, that it happens and Piper was fine.

Something was off, though, something didn’t feel right, and that made her nervous. Moving through the house, she made her way to the back room, where Dimitri would sleep. The walls were a beautiful teal color with black trim. All Dimitri’s furniture had been set up, his crib looking pristine in the middle of the room because she hadn’t hung his letters yet.

Looking at the mural she had been working on since they had come up with a theme she had to admire how perfectly it was coming along. A team of whales playing a team of dolphins in a backyard game of ice hockey; under the ice were schools of fish and sharks cheering them on. It made no sense and was totally unrealistic but Erik had loved it. It was sweet and each of the little whales had all of their friends’ jersey numbers, including a number for Dimitri.

Even though she would love to have Dimitri in her arms, she needed him to wait. Hopefully, he wasn’t like his daddy, impatient as hell. She wanted him healthy and perfect. When she brought him home from the hospital she would rock him to sleep in the beautiful black rocking chair that Alla had sent her. She needed her body to be strong and to hold her baby just a few more weeks. She prayed for that, because things weren’t ready yet.

* * *

Letting out a pent-up breath, she reached for Dimitri’s letters. She was going to glue bright teal and black ribbons on them before Erik got home to hang them.

Piper was putting a ribbon on the second i in Dimitri’s name when she heard the front door open, which got Stanley barking. She smiled as she hollered out, “Hey, babe, I’m in the baby’s room!”

“Okay,” she heard him say.

She listened as he moved through the house and was surprised that he didn’t come straight back to the nursery. After a while, he finally did and she could tell he had had a hard day. Leaning against the door he looked over at her as she continued to glue.

“How was camp?”

He shrugged, looking extremely tired. She felt horrible for him, wanted to come over and hug him, hoping to make it better.

Taking in a deep breath before blowing it out, he said, “Fine.”

“That’s good. Was it nice to see everyone?”

He gave her a quick nod. “Yeah.”

Well, doesn’t he have a lot to say? she thought with a smile. He must have been more tired than she thought and who could blame him? She was exhausted and she hadn’t skated all morning like he had.

Looking up at him, she asked, “Do you still want to help me hang these letters?”

“Sure,” he said as he moved into the room, grabbing the hammer and nails before getting started. Since he obviously didn’t want to talk, Piper didn’t say anything either, as they hung the letters. She could tell that he was upset about something or maybe just worn-out. Did he not have a good day? Did something happen?