Page 243 of One Winter Knight
Fiona
Love you. See you soon.
Me
Love you, too.
The idea that I’d have my family and my pack watching me play made me giddy.
Yep, it was game time.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Fiona
Hale, Dusty, Saoirse and I grabbed food in the family room. They even had sushi today. Nice.
I saw the woman with the baby, Muriel, and sat down with her. Hale followed me. Saoirse and Dusty went to sit with Tegan, Verity, and AJ. But Saoirse positioned herself so she could see me.
“Sammy is wearing a little jersey. I can’t get over the little jerseys,” I gushed. Oh, I wanted one… and the baby that went with it.
“They are pretty adorable. Are you looking to start a family soon or are you waiting?” Muriel asked, bouncing baby Sammy in one arm as she ate.
“I hope we can try during the off-season. It seems like a heat during the season might be hard to manage,” I replied.
“Yeah, unless you can work with your doctor to make sure you go into heat during the All-Star break, it can be pretty difficult. Not that I had to deal with heat, but just the whole making sure he was home for baby sex was more than enough.” She laughed. Muriel was a beta.
“I can imagine.” I nodded.
“Getting pregnant during the off-season could mean you’d givebirth during the next season. There are pros and cons to both having the baby during the season and having a baby during off-season. I had Sammy right at the beginning of this past off-season, but you might want to talk to some of the other moms–like Patrice,” she remarked.
“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that,” I said.
“Patrice, come sit with us. Fiona needs to know about the pros and cons of baby timing,” Muriel waved her over.
Patrice sat down with her daughter. The little girl was wearing a cute dress in Knights colors. Absolutely adorable.
Her son was playing with Atticus’ twins. They had little hockey sticks and were running around. So sweet.
As she went through the pros and cons, I got a lot of concern through my bond with Hale.
I squeezed his hand. “We should take your schedule into consideration, too. Maybe you can ask somebody what's the best part of a PhD program for babies?”
Hale nodded. “That sounds good. Summer probably? Especially since that matches up with Carlos’ off-season.”
We finished eating and went to watch the warm-ups.
“Do you really want kids that fast?” he asked softly. “I mean, I know you want a bunch, but in six months?”
“It was just a thought.” I pulled him to me, resting my head on his chest. We were both wearing our jerseys with Carlos’ number on it.
More relief came through the bond. “Okay. I know I’ll be in a different place in six months. It’s just a lot in this moment.”
“I know.” Now that he said it, it made sense. I hadn’t actually really thought about how his degree might impact things. “Do we need to wait until you're done?” How long was a PhD?
He shook his head. “Not at all, Puddin’. Plenty of people have kids while getting PhDs. It’s just a lot to consider, given I’m not even sure where I’m going.”
“We’re right here,” I assured. That all had bothered him, a lot. But Carlos and I had been helping him figure out the cost of keeping his place by his university, train passes, and all of that.
