“She is not pregnant,” I say before everyone freaks, “not that I would care.” I look at her and she gives me a not right now look.
“I just want to say thank you to Matthew’s family for being so welcoming to me.” I look over at them, smiling. “And then you have my family.” She glares at her father and her grandfather. “You two.” She points at them. “You have not been so kind or welcoming at all.” Her father says something and she holds up her hand. “Now, I don’t know how you want to hear this, but I want you to listen. He is my choice.” She points at me.
“Thanks, baby,” I say happily, but she whips her head toward me.
“Not now.” I roll my lips, holding up my hands. “He is my choice, and I am his. Which means that I’m going to do life with him. I’m going to move in with him. I’m going to share my life with him. My good days and my bad days. I’m going to have babies with him.” She looks back at Uncle Matthew. “Not now, but eventually. I am doing all of this, and if you don’t respect that, then you don’t respect me, and if you don’t respect me, then I won’t have it in my life.” Hazel gasps. “So you have a choice to make. You can be in my life, and by that, it means you will be nice to him and treat him with the same kindness and respect his family treats me with, or you can be out of my life, which means that come holidays, we aren’t going to be there.”
“Now hold on a minute,” Reed starts, “it’s just that—”
“It’s nothing, Reed,” Hazel hisses at him. “Did you listen to a word that she said?”
“We had no choice. She said she had an announcement to make,” Reed says, earning himself a glare from Hazel. “Fine.” He holds up his hand. “We’ll be respectful.” He looks at her. “Happy?”
“It’s a start,” Sofia says.
“I would like to say something.” I hold up my hand and see my father and my uncles just shaking their heads, telling me it’s not a good idea, but I’m only going to get one shot at this. “I’m sorry for what I did to Sofia,” I apologize, looking at her and putting my arm around her and pulling her to me. “And like I told her, I will spend forever making her not regret giving me another chance.” She slips her arm around my waist. “And I hope that you all give me another chance to prove myself to you and to her.”
“You do not have to do that,” Olivia says. “Sofia is the only one you need to prove that to, and if she has chosen to have you in her life, we have to believe that she knows what she’s doing.” She glares over to her husband. “That should be enough for us.” Her eyebrows go up. “Right?”
He glares back at her. “Before you agree to anything,” my uncle Matthew says, and I want to groan, “you should tell them what you are about to do.”
“What he’s about to do or what he just did?” Max asks, standing next to Matthew, his eyes on Casey, who just stares at them, and it looks like he’s smirking.
He doesn’t back down like most people who try to go head-to-head with my uncles. “Interesting.” That is the only thing Casey says.
“I think it’s safe to say we both have our sources.” My uncle Matthew puts his hands in his pockets. “Better they hear it from you, don’t you think?”
“What is going on?” Sofia whispers as she looks over at her grandfather, who avoids looking at her. The guilt is now written on his face and I can’t even imagine what it is that he did. Whatever it is, it must be bad.
“Casey Barnes,” Olivia says, her teeth clenched together, “what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” he deflects, turning to my uncle Matthew, “yet. But I’ve decided to buy a hockey team.” I don’t even have time to process what is going on until I hear my uncle Matthew.
“Oh my God,” I hear Hazel say at the same time I feel the air drain out of the room.
“Not just any hockey team,” my uncle Max declares, “none other than Matty’s team.” He points at me.
The blood must drain from my face because I’m shocked “What?” I say almost in a whisper. As soon as the shock fades, which is seconds later, it turns to anger. Pissed, I’m so pissed now.
“You bought his hockey team?” Sofia asks, looking at her grandfather, her own face going pale.
“It’s not his team,” Casey states, “he plays for the team. I own it.”