Page 66 of Over the Line

I nodded. “Because I’ve been there myself. I wasn’t that young, but I was still too young, and I was terrified.” Pushing out a breath, I adjusted my grip on the wheel. “What I needed in that moment was support. Taylor and I were going to figure it out, but more than ever, we needed our parents to love us and have our backs.”

“They didn’t do that?”

“Not really, no. Taylor’s parents were especially furious. They hated me and were ready to disown her.”

“Jesus, seriously?” Jasmine shifted in the passenger seat. “That’s awful.”

“It was. And mine—well, they weren’t much better. They treated every little thing like a punishment. Taylor was sick? Well, should’ve thought of that. Baby keeping us up at night? Yep, this is what it’s like to be a parent. Like, in the moments when we needed it the least, they’d smack us with how we’d gotten ourselves into this situation.”

“That sounds exhausting. I mean, my parents were a bit surprised, and they were kind of worried at first, but now they’re so excited it’s almost annoying.”

I laughed. “First-time grandparents?”

She nodded. “Yep. But it’s really cute, you know? Sometimes it’s a bit over the top, but I’ll take it.”

“I’m glad they’re excited. And Taylor and I—we weren’t in a good place by the time our kids were becoming teenagers. But we did still have our heads together enough to actually sit down and talk through how we’d handle it if there was a teenage pregnancy in the house. Like we knew we’d never throw them out or force them to do anything. But how would we react, you know?” I glanced at her. “Because we didn’t want to put them through what we went through.”

“That makes sense. How did you think you would react?”

I considered it. “I mean, we knew there’s no predicting emotions. You can tell yourself all day long how you’ll feel and how you’ll react in a stressful situation, but there’s really no telling until the rubber meets the road. But we figured if we at least walked through it and thought about it, we’d be a little better prepared. We knew what we wished we’d heard from our parents, and we promised ourselves to, at the very least, do better than they did.” I chuckled. “In the end, we kind of stressed ourselves out about something that never happened, but I’m glad we talked it through anyway.”

“I mean…” Jasmine gestured at her belly before resting her hand on top of it. “It did kind of happen.”

“Nah. You’re young, yes, but you’ve got your feet under you and you’ve got a support network.” I glanced at her again. “It definitely caught me by surprise, not gonna lie, but it was never even in the same ballpark as realizing one of my kids was becoming a teen parent.”

“Oh.” She relaxed minutely. “Chris was so worried about it.”

“I know he was. I hope I’ve put his mind at ease, though.” I paused to change lanes. “I’m thrilled about it, honestly.”

“Yeah?” There was a delighted smile in her voice, and a glance confirmed it.

“Yeah.” I smiled myself as I faced the road. “I hadn’t really given much thought to being a grandfather, but now I’m looking forward to it.”

“So we’ll be able to rope you into endless babysitting?” Her tone was playful and teasing.

“Depends.” I glanced at her. “How many curse words do you think I can teach him?”

She tsked and rolled her eyes. “His dad’s a hockey player. My money is already on Asher’s first word being ‘fuck.’” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh. Sorry. I⁠—”

“It’s okay,” I laughed. “And you’re probably not wrong. But that’s where Grandpa comes in—I can teach him all the correct ways to conjugate ‘fuck.’”

Jasmine giggled. “You would, too.”

“Mmhmm. Probably.”

A few minutes later, we arrived at the arena. On the way inside, she asked, “Do you want to come sit in the spouses’ box tonight?” She gestured toward the hallway. “It’s mostly wives and girlfriends, but a lot of family members come sit with us, too.”

“Oh. Uh.”

“You don’t have to,” she said quickly. “But I know the owner’s box can be a bit empty.”

“Eh, why not?” I smiled. “If you don’t mind your boyfriend’s dad tagging along.”

“Pfft.” She waved a hand. “I don’t mind at all.”

Well, if she didn’t, then neither did I, and we joined some of the other partners and spouses inside.

I was looking forward to watching the game and to spending time with my future daughter-in-law tonight. I was, however, a little nervous about seeing Liam in the locker room later on. In fact, I decided I might hang out in the hallway when that time came, under the pretense of not adding to the crowd in the room.