"You and I both know Cassie wouldn't want this for Liam."
That was his father's retort? Seriously.
Roan didn't know anything of the sort. Not to mention, his father didn't know the first fucking thing about what Cassie had wanted. He hadn't bothered to be there for her.
Not that any of that mattered anymore. Roan was raising Liam, and no one could do a damn thing to change that. He wouldn't allow it to happen.
Roan found Cam and Gannon staring back at him, concern glittering in their eyes.
"I have to go."
Without waiting for more nonsense to spew from his father's mouth, Roan hung up the phone.
"What did he say?" Cam questioned, his eyes soft.
Roan took a deep breath. "Thanks to all this bullshit, it looks as though he wants to fight me for custody of Liam." Even as the words came out of his mouth, a red haze filled Roan's vision. "And this is all Seg's fucking fault!"
Cam moved toward him quickly. "Relax. You can't take this all out on him."
"No?" Roan snapped his mouth shut when the word came out as a roar and scared Liam.
The little boy's chin quivered, and Roan was instantly lifting him out of his swing. "I'm sorry, little man," he whispered, hugging Liam tightly to him. "It's all good."
And it would be. No way would he let his father win this battle. Roan would give up everything in this world for Liam. Everything.
Including the only man he'd ever actually loved.
IT TOOK SOME TIME TO get going the following morning.
Seg had been hard-pressed to get out of bed, not wanting to let go of the dream he'd had. It had been about Roan and Liam. The three of them had lived happily ever after.
Or as happily ever after as they could, considering all the shit going on around them. In his dream, Roan had forgiven him completely, agreed to marry him, then allowed him to adopt Liam. They'd moved into Seg's house, his mother had come down for the wedding, and they were gearing up for the honeymoon.
Seg wished like hell it hadn't been a dream.
Because he knew life didn't stop for wishes, Seg had forced himself out of bed and stumbled to the shower, life coming front and center. Life being that he had to face his teammates this morning while being completely uncertain how they were going to react to the shit storm Seg had created.
After he took a shower and downed a protein bar, Seg went to practice like he always did. He kept a smile plastered on his face despite the nervous tension coursing through his body. He was damn glad he and Roan had managed to somewhat fix things last night, because having to worry about that along with how his teammates would react to him would've been too much.
"What's up, Seg?" Rush smacked him on the back when they passed in the locker room. "You ready to kick some serious ass tonight?"
Seg offered a chin nod and a smirk. He was ready, all right.
"Yo! Seg!"
He turned to see Patrick Benne staring over at him from where he was lacing up his skates.
"You ready to dish out a little payback? We owe these guys an ass whoopin' tonight."
Well, there you go.
No one seemed to give two shits about the fact that Seg had announced to the world that he was gay. That or they were pretending it hadn't happened. Surely they weren't oblivious to the fact that there'd been a handful of news crews in the parking lot. If he had to guess, they'd been asking his teammates what they thought of the gay man they had to work with day in and day out.
Either way, Seg would take it. He didn't want things to be weird. He was ready to move forward, to put the past behind him and find a way to pave the road for his future. His future being playing hockey and working things out with Roan. Those were the only two things on his mind right now.
Taking a seat on the bench near his locker, Seg toed off his shoes. He looked up to see Mattias Valeri watching him closely. He cocked an eyebrow in question, but Mattias turned away, grabbed his bag, and disappeared.
Okay, so not everyone could be happy about the news.
Seg glanced around the room.
Kaufman was standing in the corner talking to Evans, the rookie defenseman. Rush was sharing a couple of pointers with Locke, who was likely going to be in goal tonight. Benne was chatting on the phone, grinning like a fool. Coach was chatting it up with Cullen Crosby, the defenseman Seg was currently paired with.
No one was paying any attention to him.
Taking a deep breath, Seg decided to go forward as though nothing had happened. In truth, nothing had happened, other than his secret was now out. But that didn't make him a different man. He was the same guy who'd come into this locker room hundreds of times before. He needed to focus on morning skate and get his mind in the right place for tonight's game. He didn't have time to second-guess himself, or anyone else, for that matter.