Ever After Read online

  “You should go,” she said softly, reluctantly pulling away.

  “I really hate leaving you,” he murmured, his forehead pressed against hers.

  She smiled up at him, her full lips hovering near his. “I’ll be fine. Go. Play. Win.” She nudged him. “I plan to drink champagne out of that Cup.”

  He laughed, loving her more than ever. “You got it.” He took her hand as they walked through the house towards the garage. “Remember, I’ll have my phone on me at all times except when I’m on the ice, and you have Jerry’s number.” Jerry was one of the team trainers who traveled with them.

  “I know.” She nudged him again. “Karl, it’s going to be fine. The doctor said we’re all healthy, so there’s nothing to worry about. She’ll probably induce next week between games, and then you won’t have to worry about it so you can concentrate on hockey.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I love my job, but I love you more.” He kissed the top of her head and looked into her eyes. “I’ll call you when we land, okay?”

  “Okay.” She tilted her face up so he could kiss her one last time and, once again, he lingered longer than he should have. She touched the side of his face. “I love you, Karl.”

  “Love you too.” He brushed his lips across hers and then strode out to his truck; time to think about hockey.

  Lounging by the pool, Kate was bored and uncomfortable. She’d been fine until a few hours after Karl left and then she got the worst case of indigestion she’d had her entire pregnancy. That night she got charley horse after charley horse in her calves, keeping her up half the night. The next day she threw up for no apparent reason, sending her in to see her doctor.

  “Everything is fine,” Dr. Diaz had said after examining her. “Probably nerves and some side effects of the indigestion. Keep away from anything too rich or spicy, okay? As soon as Karl gets back from this trip we’ll induce. The babies are big for your small frame, and you’re at thirty-five weeks, which is great for twins. When is he getting home again?”

  So they’d made a tentative plan to induce on Friday, the morning after Karl would be getting back from Nashville. Hopefully, they would win both games so they would have a couple of extra days together. If not, Nashville would be coming to Las Vegas on Saturday and he’d have to play. Although they had a back-up goalie who could replace him, and because Kate was so late in her pregnancy they’d also brought up the goalie from their AHL affiliate, Karl was the starting goalie and for the playoffs he wanted to be there. She wanted him to be there too; she knew how much his career meant to him and was one of his biggest fans.

  Today she wasn’t feeling so altruistic about his career. Normally she felt great when she was in the pool but it wasn’t helping anymore. Her ankles were swollen and the indigestion was back. She’d slept in the chair in the family room last night because she couldn’t get comfortable, and all she’d eaten for two days was ice cream. Anything else made her nauseous.

  When the phone rang, she glanced down and smiled faintly. “Hey,” she said softly when she heard Karl’s voice.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Same,” she said.

  “It’ll all be over tomorrow,” he promised. “I’ll be home in eight or nine hours and we’ll be at the hospital first thing in the morning.”

  “I’m ready,” she admitted. “My back is killing me.”

  “I’m so sorry, baby.” He sounded genuinely miserable.

  “Just win tonight, so you have a few days off,” she said lightly. “That’s the best thing you can do for me.”

  “I’ll try my best,” he whispered. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She hung up with a smile and glanced at the time. It was 5:00, which meant traffic would be busier than usual, but she was out of ice cream and didn’t want anything else. A quick trip to the store would kill some time before she could turn on the game, so she got to her feet and pulled a sundress on over her bathing suit. Waddling to the house, she got her keys and purse and slid on a pair of flip flops. Getting into her SUV, she pulled out of the driveway and onto the street, driving past Erin, who was in her yard.

  Kate waved before turning at the corner, heading to the grocery store that was just a mile up the road. She stopped at the red light and drummed her fingers lightly on the steering wheel. Tomorrow was going to be a big day and she was focused on getting through tonight. Just a few hours, most of which would be spent watching the game, and then Karl would come home and in the morning they would have two beautiful babies.

  A boy and a girl. She didn’t know how she’d gotten so lucky. She’d never wanted to be pregnant, although she hadn’t been opposed to having kids. After struggling with her weight her entire life, she’d finally gotten to a place where she was the healthiest she’d ever been. Getting pregnant had always seemed kind of disgusting, and giving birth sounded miserable. Her friends Tessa and Erin had both done it of course, and Tessa had just had a beautiful little boy a few weeks ago, but Kate had found the thought of pushing something that big out of her private parts kind of gross.

  Karl desperately wanted children, though, and she loved him enough to do almost anything for him. One baby of their own, she’d promised him, and then maybe they could adopt a second. He’d been so happy the day she’d told him she was pregnant, a smile played on her lips just thinking about it. His eyes had misted over, and that night he’d made love to her like she was made of gold.

  The light turned green and Kate hit the gas, moving into the intersection. She saw the car running the red light in her peripheral vision and slammed on the brakes. A second later, she felt the car behind her ram into her, shooting her straight into the intersection she’d just managed to avoid. The last thing she saw was the car coming straight at her door. She screamed. Then there was nothing.

  2

  They still had a long series ahead of them, but Karl was grateful for a win so he would have a few extra days to spend with Kate and the twins before he had to head back to Nashville. They had a better record than the Sidewinders, which meant the series would start and possibly end in Nashville, which would be hard all around, but not impossible.

  “Great game, man!” His best friend and teammate, Drake Riser, patted Karl on the head.

  “Sixty-two saves.” Toli Petrov grinned at him. “You were on fire!”

  “Let’s talk in a week and see how I am after a few days of midnight feedings.” Karl laughed.

  “That’s why you have nannies,” Drake chuckled.

  “And a wife.” Tore Brekken, one of the younger guys on the team, had a smirk on his face.

  Karl rolled his eyes. “Someday you’re going to have a wife, and she better not hear you say that.”

  Tore looked confused. “But isn’t that her job? To feed the baby and stuff?” He looked so genuinely perplexed the older guys had to laugh.

  “You’ll see,” Toli told him. “Women carry the baby for nine long months—the last thing they want to hear is how they have to take care of everything once the baby comes too.”

  Tore frowned. “But then who would feed the baby? Men don’t have breasts.”

  Toli nodded. “True, but not all women breast feed. If they are, that’s different, but even then, they can pump and—”

  “Pump?”

  Toli burst out laughing. “We’ll talk again if you ever find a girlfriend.”

  Tore grinned. “I have many.”

  Toli nodded solemnly. “I know, buddy. We all did at your age.”

  Still laughing, Karl glanced at his phone and saw he didn’t have any calls from Kate. Hopefully, she was relaxing and getting ready for tomorrow. He pulled off his mask and set it on the bench just as Drake looked at his phone. He made a strange sound and Karl glanced up.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. I got a weird text from Erin.” Drake called his wife, his heart slamming as he thought about her text: Kate. Accident. Emergency.

  “Oh God, Drake.” Er
in’s voice sounded hysterical when she answered.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, his voice guarded as he walked out of the locker room and into the dressing area for a little more privacy.

  “It’s Kate. There was an accident.” Erin took a deep breath. “They had to do an emergency C-section and—” Her voice broke.

  “Honey, what is it?” he asked softly, leaning against the wall.

  “She’s in a coma.” Erin broke down and Drake closed his eyes, steeling himself.

  “How bad is it?”

  “She has a head injury—they don’t know how bad it is. They’re getting ready to do surgery to reduce the swelling.”

  “The babies?” He glanced up as Toli stole up next to him, worry on his face.

  “They’re okay, but Kate…” Erin choked on a sob. “It’s bad, Drake. Karl has to come home now.”

  “We’re on our way. I love you.” He hung up and turned to Toli.

  “What’s happened?” he asked knowingly.

  Drake swallowed. “It’s Kate.”

  “What about Kate?” Karl came around the corner and frowned at them. “What’s going on? Did the babies come?!”

  “There was an accident,” Drake said slowly, walking towards his friend.

  “What kind of accident?” Karl chest tightened painfully.

  “A car accident…” Drake looked at him. “You need to get home.”

  Karl’s face turned white. He wasn’t sure what happened next. He heard Drake telling him Kate had been hurt, that the babies had already been delivered and that she was in a coma, but he couldn’t seem to move. Everything was in slow motion, and a loud buzzing in his brain made everything foggy. It felt like he was underwater, drowning, and he leaned against the wall for support. Someone pulled him towards the showers; he tried to swat at them when they started taking off his equipment, but he couldn’t seem to control his arms.

  He was vaguely aware of being shoved under a cold shower and someone throwing a towel around him. Afterwards, he thought Drake buttoned his shirt for him, but he couldn’t be sure. It was weird no one spoke when they got on the bus. They’d just won a big game; why was everyone so serious? He tried to ask Toli, but nothing would come out of his mouth.

  “Shock,” he heard someone say. He wanted to scream, tell them they were full of shit, but he couldn’t. His mouth, his body, everything was just frozen.

  Karl listened in confusion as the doctors explained to him what had happened to his wife. Major trauma. Swelling of the brain. C-section. Two babies, a boy and a girl, born thirty minutes after she’d arrived. He couldn’t remember how much they weighed, but he thought they were big for twins. Beside him, Toli and Drake asked the questions he couldn’t seem to articulate: Did the surgery help? What were they going to do now? Did they need to bring in a specialist? What about a second opinion?

  Karl finally looked up, his eyes red from worry and tears he didn’t know he’d shed. “Is she going to die?” was all he could whisper.

  The doctor looked at him sadly. “I don’t know, Mr. Martensson. Her injuries are very, very serious. We’ll know more in the next twenty-four hours.”

  And that was that. Four days later, they still didn’t know anything except she was stable. There was brain function, but she wasn’t waking up and didn’t seem cognizant of anything going on around her.

  “Do you want to see the babies?” Drake asked him for the tenth time.

  “No.” Karl managed a harsh whisper. “I can’t see them until she does.”

  “Karl—” Erin started to speak but Drake squeezed his wife’s arm in warning. She glanced at him questioningly, but didn’t say anything else.

  Erin, Tessa, and several of the other wives had been taking turns holding the babies, feeding them, and spending time with them in the nursery. But he couldn’t. Not without Kate. He didn’t want these children if they cost him the love of his life.

  Tuesday morning, five days after Kate’s accident, Anya Martensson strode into her daughter-in-law’s hospital room and held out her arms to her son. He fell into them like a child, clinging to her. Her oldest child had always been special to her. The product of a summer romance gone wrong, Anya adored her tall, talented, handsome son. Though she’d always joked he was her favorite, deep down he truly was. She loved her other children, twins Emilie and Sebastian, but Karl was different. An incredible mixture of her and his biological father, he’d grown up strong, athletic, smart and kind. He was as sweet as he was good-looking, and watching him become one of the top goalies in the NHL was a source of pride for her.

  When he’d married beautiful, curvy, and successful Kate Lansing, she’d been overjoyed he’d found a woman worthy of him. They got along equally well, and she’d been over the moon when Kate announced her pregnancy. News of the accident had rocked her to the core, and despite the turmoil in her life back in Sweden after separating from her husband of twenty-eight years, she hadn’t thought twice about getting on a plane to the U.S.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she soothed, holding him tightly. She had been declared cancer-free just months ago, after a long battle with breast cancer, and was finally feeling like herself again.

  “Mom, it’s been five days,” he rasped in anguish. “No change at all!”

  “Shh, I know.” She held him tightly. “You have to be strong, my darling boy.”

  “I can’t do this,” he choked out.

  “Karl?” Ken Lerner stood in the doorway, watching the son he’d met less than two years ago sob against a woman he recognized even after twenty-eight years. Damn, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. He cleared his throat.

  “Dad.” Karl looked up, swiping at his face. He felt his mother stiffen and reached for her hand, cognizant of what this meeting must be like for her.

  “Hello, Ken.” Anya turned to look at the man she’d loved for more years than she could count and somehow managed to hold out her hand.

  He took it slowly, gazing down at her. “Hello, Anya.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom, I didn’t think—” Karl started.

  “It’s fine, darling.” She touched his arm. “I’m a big girl—you worry about Kate.”

  “I can go,” Ken said quickly.

  “Of course not.” Anya shook her head. “Karl needs both of us, now more than ever.” She looked over at Kate, sleeping so peacefully on the bed.

  “Would you like to go see your grandchildren?” Ken asked softly.

  She nodded. “Yes, I’d like that very much.” She glanced at Karl; Emilie had told her he refused to see them. “Do you want to come with us, sweetheart?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ve told everyone: I won’t see them until she does.”

  Ken started to say something, but Anya took his arm and smiled. “Let’s go see them then, and we can catch up.”

  The fog Karl had been in momentarily lifted as he stared at his parents, who had never been in the same room together in his lifetime. His mother seemed perfectly at ease walking with him, as if he hadn’t left her alone and pregnant while he went home to his wife whom he’d just discovered had cancer. They’d eventually divorced anyway, but Anya was married to the man that had raised Karl by then, and Ken had opted to let her be. He hadn’t known he had a son, though; Anya had never told anyone except her husband, William.

  3

  In the hall, Anya looked up at the man she’d loved so deeply once upon a time and realized he still made her heart beat a little faster. Mentally shaking her head, she continued to look at him.

  “Tell me the truth—how bad is she?” she whispered.

  “Honestly, she’s no longer critical. Everything is healing; she just doesn’t seem to wake up.”

  “So she’s not brain dead?”

  “They don’t think so.” He sighed. “This has been an absolute nightmare. I haven’t known Karl very long, but my understanding from his friends is that he’s coming undone and it’s not like him.”

  “It’s not
,” Anya said. “But Kate is his life.”

  “The babies are beautiful,” Ken said after a moment. “Little girl with dark hair and big blue eyes, and a little boy with blond hair and what I think will turn to brown eyes.”

  Anya cocked her head. “He hasn’t named them?”

  Ken’s mouth turned grim. “No. He won’t have anything to do with them.”

  “I’ll work on him,” she said softly as they arrived at the nursery.

  Baby Boy and Baby Girl Martensson were awake, one being fed by Tessa and the other by Erin. Anya’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at the beautiful babies, nestled comfortably in the arms of Kate’s two best friends. She couldn’t prevent them from sliding down her cheeks and she covered her mouth with her hands.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Ken said softly, sliding an arm around her and pulling her close before he realized what he’d done. A sob escaped her and she buried her face in his chest.

  “You left me,” she whispered, clutching his shirt, emotion overwhelming her for a million different reasons.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered back, lowering his head so he could brush his lips across the top of her head. “I came back but you looked happy…”

  “What?” Her head snapped up and she gazed at him. “You came back?”

  “You were pregnant with the twins, I assume,” he said. “I saw you in the square, with your husband and friends. You were laughing—you looked happy. I didn’t know you’d had Karl. Why didn’t you tell me?”