Dakota was not having a good morning. Zinny was being a pill about getting dressed. Dakota had suggested outfit after outfit and Zinny nixed each and every one until Dakota threw her hands up.
“All right, go to school naked then,” she said. “I have to make breakfast. And don’t forget Nana is picking you up today and you’re spending the weekend.”
“Can I bring Tulip?” Zinny called after her.
“No!”
Dakota hurried to the kitchen. She had to get food on the table for her child and her man in the next fifteen minutes and even though Cam was heading to the rink and then to the airport first thing today, she couldn’t just feed him cereal, even if it was made of healthy grains. Omelets were her go to breakfast and she’d gotten to where she could cook one in about twelve minutes.
Moving with the precision of a trained chef, she whipped together breakfast with a minute to spare.
“Breakfast!” she called, while moving to the next task—making Zinny’s lunch. Cam wandered in with damp hair.
“Morning, beautiful,” he said. “Is there coffee? I need it.”
“Damn it. I forgot.” There was where that minute came from.
“It’s okay. I’ll grab some before I go to the rink.” He sat and had just started eating, when Zinny came in.
“Morning, Zin Bin.”
Zinny went to him and laid her head on his shoulder. Cam glanced over at Dakota, who mouthed, “Cranky.”
“What’s wrong, Zin?”
“I don’t like what I’m wearing, but I couldn’t find anything better.”
“I love what you’re wearing,” Cam said. “You look great in blue.”
“It’s turquoise,” she muttered, sitting down and picking up her fork.
Luckily, Zinny was not a girl who dawdled over her food. By the time she was finished and had brushed her teeth, Cam was ready to go too. He swung Zinny up into his arms which made her squeal.
“Bye, Zinster. Be a good girl for Nana and Koko while I’m gone,” he said.
“I will. Don’t forget to bring me a rock.”
“I’m going to Phoenix and Dallas. You have rocks from there already.”
“Then get me something else,” Zinny said.
“Zinny,” Dakota said. “Not polite.”
Zinny heaved a sigh. “Then please get me something else.”
Cam laughed and said, “I’ll see what I can do, Zooby Doo.”
Zinny wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as she could and Cam smiled at Dakota, pure joy shining in his eyes.
“Get in the car, kiddo,” Dakota said. “I’ll be right there.”
Zinny did what she was told, apparently out of her funky mood, and Dakota got her goodbye kiss and hug.
“Play hard,” she said. “And get some sleep.”
She’d noticed some dark circles under his eyes and he’d admitted to suffering from some light insomnia in the past few days, ever since he’d returned from his last road trip, actually.
“I’ll try. Don’t miss me too much,” he replied and got a poke in the side for his trouble.
They kissed and Dakota wished they could go back to bed like they sometimes did after Zinny went to school. His tongue filled her mouth and desire surged to life in a warm wave. His arms were so strong, his body so hard and male. The place between her legs ached and—
HONK!
They both jumped at the sound of a car horn.
“My ride’s here,” Cam said ruefully.
He and Max Stone often carpooled to the rink, not so much to save gas or wear and tear on the car, but for the camaraderie. Dakota thought it was cute.
“Okay, you,” she said. “Break a face.”
This had become part of their goodbye ritual. Months ago, she’d asked if people said anything special to hockey players before games. When he’d looked at her quizzically, she’d said, “You know, like in the acting business instead of ‘good luck’ they say ‘break a leg.’ I could tell you to break a face.”
“Break a face?” He’d laughed. “You crack me up, woman. I don’t generally get into fights, but thanks.”
Of course, he scored a goal and an assist in that game, so from that moment on, she was required to tell him to break a face.
HONK HONK!
“Okay, you’d better go before Max blows a gasket,” she said.
Cam grabbed his duffle and garment bag and jogged out the garage, blowing a kiss to Zinny as he passed her.
Forty-five minutes later, Dakota got back home from dropping Zinny off at school. Except for the three dogs, she was now alone until Sunday evening, when Zinny came back from visiting Ellen. She found the prospect a little exhilarating. She wanted to do a little research into planning the wedding. All hockey weddings had to be done during the off-season, and because the best venues needed to be booked way in advance, they were probably looking at a date over a year from now.
She decided to shower first, clean up the kitchen, and then get on the computer, but when she went into the bathroom, she saw Cam’s cell phone there.
He’s going to be so pissed when he realizes, she thought. She slipped it into her back pocket, and decided to postpone the shower on the slim chance that he came back home for it. She was finishing up breakfast clean-up when his phone quacked. For some strange reason, he’d assigned a duck quack to signal an incoming text. She thought it might be him, but then realized, no. He’d text her phone, not his. Because her hands were wet, she decided to get the last couple items into the dishwasher, but his phone kept quacking. Someone apparently had a lot to say.
Exasperated at the constant quacking coming from Cam’s phone, Dakota got up to mute it. In hindsight, she should have endured it because the screen showed a snippet of the texts that had been coming in and one word jumped out at her as if it had been highlighted.
Prenup.
It took a moment for her brain to process that word, but when it did, a shiver ran through her.
She touched the screen to refresh the display and unfortunately, she hadn’t been imagining things. The text bubbles reappeared. She read them again as her mouth went dry. There were three partial text bubbles.
Sorry I couldn’t get back to you right away on the prenup matter. I’m on…
…more complicated than people think. There’s a lot of preparation involved…
…couple is different. It’s best if you and your fiancée come into the office…
For a moment, she couldn’t think. Her brain had crashed.
As she read them a third time, emotion welled up inside her. She’d been in a fairy tale romance that had suddenly turned into an ugly reality show. Cam had been talking to a lawyer about getting a prenup behind her back.
Still, she’d jumped to conclusions before with him and ended up regretting it, so she got onto the Internet and looked up prenuptial agreements. Nothing she saw on the various websites reassured her. Seemed like the main reason couples got prenups was to protect assets.
She’d thought protecting her and Zinny was his number one priority. Now, it seemed as if he was also interested in safeguarding his money. From her.
She almost laughed. Her life had gone completely topsy-turvy. Ellen, once the bane of her existence, wanted to give her a half a million bucks, while Cam, the man who said he loved her, was trying to make sure she didn’t make off with anything.
Ellen was planning for the eventuality of her death. Everybody died. Cam on the other hand was planning for the end of their marriage, as if it, too, was an eventuality. The very thought of ending it before they’d even said their vows made her physically sick.
She was drowning in both fury and despair. She didn’t know whether she should cry her eyes out or pick something up and throw it against the wall.
She did know she needed to talk to someone about this. Ellen was out of the question. She’d just reiterate everything she said about athletes such as Beau Regal, that they were capricious and not particularly loyal, especially when it came to women.
Natalie. She’d talk to Natalie. They’d become friends over the past few months. As the wife of an NHL player, she’d probably have some insight into the matter. Maybe prenups were de rigueur in the hockey world. Yeah. She took a deep, shaky breath. Maybe this was something all NHL players did as a matter of course. If that was the case, it lessened the blow considerably.
Feeling a lot better, she grabbed her keys and headed for the door. Natalie might not be home, but Dakota didn’t care. She needed to be out of this house for a little while. The drive would do her good.
She was just about to start her car when her phone rang. Because it wasn’t a number she recognized, she let it go to voice mail. Ended up it was Cam using a teammate’s phone to call her.
“Hey, it’s me. I left my phone on the counter, but don’t worry about it. I’m going to try to survive without it until I get home. If you really need to get a hold of me, call Paul. I miss you already. Love you.”
Just like that, the tears that had been threatening finally burst forth. They came from what felt like deep within her and she let out a sob that she otherwise wouldn’t, had anyone but her been around. Unable to hold it in anymore, she gave herself over to the pain and anguish. It ripped through her like a hundred serrated knives. She hadn’t really thought she’d ever hurt as much as she had when Rose and Thomas had died, but she’d been wrong. Rose and Thomas hadn’t had a hand in their own deaths. The blame was squarely on the drunken idiot who’d caused the crash. No. This was something Cam was orchestrating himself, which made it a thousand times worse.
She started thinking maybe she should break off their engagement. Marriage was something that should be entered into with optimism, with love, and with a commitment to make it work, for better or worse for richer or poorer, for God’s sake. She shouldn’t marry a man who didn’t trust her. That wasn’t something a strong woman did. A strong woman didn’t devalue herself by setting for a man who didn’t appreciate or understand what he was being offered.
But Dakota didn’t feel like a strong woman at the moment because despite this almost businesslike betrayal, she still wanted him.