Boldly by Elise Faber

Chapter Six

Hazel

She was still shaking.

It had been ten freaking hours.

And she still felt like a shit bag.

She needed to refer him to a therapist who wasn’t her. She wasn’t qualified for this. She helped athletes visualize getting on the scoreboard or perfecting the ideal slap shot.

Dealing with the trauma of losing a limb wasn’t in her wheelhouse.

I am more than a fucking leg!

He was.

And she and everyone else had reduced him to that.

“Fuck,” she breathed.

Well, the first step to making it right was being here tonight. Luc had invited her to dinner at his home, and the first step was telling him that she was going to give Oliver a referral to another therapist, but that it should be up to him if he wanted to use it.

Ultimately, it needed to be up to Oliver if he wanted to unpack this all with someone.

But—more—ultimately, that person shouldn’t be Hazel.

Not when she was practically salivating over the man and off her game…and then making him feel like crap because she’d been so fucking reductive.

I am more than a fucking leg!

Guilt washed over her again—her best friend for the last ten hours—as she knocked on the door.

Footsteps on the other side.

The wooden panel opening…

To reveal Oliver.

Um…

His eyes widened, and he started to speak, but then Lexi was there, holding her baby, a gorgeous green-eyed little boy with wavy brown hair. Oliver stepped back to let her into the hall.

“Ah!” Hazel squealed, moving forward to squish the little baby’s cheeks. The infant pushing her beyond her guilt and firmly into cuddle mode. “How’s my little Noah?”

Lexi smiled, despite the black circles beneath her eyes. “Not sleeping like he’s going for a gold medal in the event.”

“Oh no.” She plucked him from Lexi’s arms, cuddling him close. “Why aren’t you sleeping, baby boy?” A kiss to his forehead, those wide green eyes on her. “Are you trying to torture your mommy and daddy?”

Lexi yawned.

Noah smiled and giggled.

The scamp.

“All right,” Hazel ordered, tucking him onto her hip. “You go run yourself a bath. I’ve got Noah for an hour.”

Lexi’s brows furrowed. “But I’ve got to order dinner.”

“Funny, I didn’t realize I had a phone that could order Udon off DoorDash.”

“I know I should have cooked—”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Oliver murmured, closing the door behind them and ushering them down the hall. “We’ll order the food. You take your bath.”

Lexi’s expression went chagrined. “You don’t know what I want.”

Hazel recited her order.

Lexi bit her bottom lip, glanced between Hazel, Oliver, and Noah. “What if he cries?”

“Honey, your house is nice,” Hazel said gently, “but it’s not a mansion. If he cries, I’ll take care of it. If I can’t soothe him, I’ll just walk up the stairs and knock on your bathroom door. Okay?”

“I—” More lip biting. “A bath does sound nice.”

“Go,” Hazel ordered.

Lexi smiled, hugged her around Noah. “You’re the best, Hazel.” A beat. “And Oliver, I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not—”

“Go,” he ordered.

Another moment of hesitation. Then she was gone, and Hazel was standing in the hall next to Oliver and cradling an adorable baby.

“Where’s Luc?” she asked as the silence stretched.

Oliver chuckled. “Passed out in his office. His dark circles had circles, so I suggested he close his eyes for a few minutes. It took approximately two seconds for him to pass out.”

She grinned.

Then remembered why she’d needed to speak to her boss and sobered. “Oliver,” she began, “I need to apologize to you.” Again. It seemed she was always apologizing to him, always messing up.

His brows drew together. “Why?”

“I…um…” She bit the inside of her cheek, sucked in a breath through her nose and released it, finding her voice, finding the words she owed him. “I upset you this morning. You are more than your leg, and what I said is unforgivable, and—”

“Haze.”

She blinked.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” she told him. “I shouldn’t have agreed to see you.” His face clouded, and she hurried to add, “Not because of you. It’s just…I’m a sports psychologist, and I’m not qualified to conduct therapy like I was trying to give you. I thought because we’d worked together before, it would be okay, but it’s not. I’m not a good fit for what you need.” Her words came fast as furious. “So, I’m going to get you a referral for someone who is qualified for that kind of therapy, and I’m going to talk to Luc and tell him that he needs to take the sessions off as a condition of your contract because that should be your choice and not something you’re forced into, and then—”

“Hazel.”

“—I’m going to give you my referral’s contact information, and then you’ll only reach out to them if you believe that you want to talk to them and—”

He stepped forward, closed the distance between them as much as he was able, considering she was still holding Noah.

“Um…” she whispered before soldiering on. “And then I’m going to stick with counseling players about staying calm during a game or getting on the scoreboard and leave any coaxing out of trauma to the professionals.”

That was the point she ran out of steam.

“You done?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Good.” He shifted, put his hand on her back, and coaxed her forward, leading her into the kitchen almost as if it were his house instead of Lexi and Luc’s. “First, thank you for apologizing. That was unnecessary but appreciated. Second, I’m the one who should be asking for your forgiveness. I shouldn’t have yelled, and I certainly shouldn’t have walked out like that. I—”

He hesitated long enough that she found herself filling in that blank.

“It’s a big change, what happened to you,” she whispered. “But it’s not my change. It happened to you, and you’re allowed to feel the way you feel. But more than that, what happened to you doesn’t define your life. You’re not Oliver James because you overcame something. You’re not Oliver James despite something. You’re just Oliver James, and that’s enough, and it should be enough for everyone around you.”

She’d been talking for long enough to have reached the kitchen, to have sunk into a chair at the table, cuddling Noah close.

She did that talking, not realizing that Oliver had dropped his hand from her back and was standing there, staring at her.

Intentlystaring at her.

Then he blinked and started moving again, his face going placid as he moved toward her.

Then kept moving toward her.

Not stopping until he was just inches away.

His fingers brushed her cheek, so lightly, so quickly—the slightest flash of a movement—and then he sank into the chair opposite her and pulled out his phone.

For a moment, she thought he was just going to sit there and chill on his phone while she held a dozing Noah, and for few minutes, that was what he did, tapping away at the screen, eyes on the device.

She stood. “I should go check on Lexi, make sure she didn’t pass out in the tub.”

Fingers on her hip, stalling her. “I’ve got Luc and Lexi’s order. What do you want? I’ll put it in before you go check on her.”

“For what?”

A flicker of humor. “Udon. You came over for dinner, right?”

Oh, right.

“Um…” Her eyes drifted away. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll watch Noah for a bit and then go home and eat.”

“Hazel.”

Her gaze slid back to his, unable to stay away.

“What do you want to eat?”

“I—” A breath. “You don’t need to pay for me.”

“You can get the next one.”

Next…one?

“I—”

Noah squawked.

“Food, babe.”

“I—”

“And not just for him,” he said, standing up and scooping Noah out of her arms, moving toward the fridge and pulling out a bottle with a practiced ease that told her this wasn’t the first time he’d taken care of the baby for Luc and Lexi. He used one hand to screw a nipple on the bottle, plunked it in the electric warmer, and then paced back and forth, bouncing Noah in his arms.

The man looked good with a baby.

Damned good.

Strong arms dwarfing the little guy, big hands cupping Noah’s back, the baby’s head covered in downy hair, Oliver’s kissable mouth moving as he murmured to the baby, warm but indistinguishable words rumbling across the room, transfixing Hazel as she stood there watching the pair.

The bottle warmer turned off.

Oliver checked the milk, plunked the nipple into Noah’s mouth, and then turned to face her.

“Babe.”

She blinked.

“Food.”

“Um…what?” she breathed.

He smiled at her, and it was so fucking gorgeous that she just blinked again.

Then he was in her space again, and he smelled good and was gorgeous and…was right there. “Go check on Lexi, babe. I’ll order you something.”

“What?”

His fingers on her cheek again. His scent still in her nose, but his words processed, albeit slowly. “You. Lexi. Bath. Me. Food.”

That trickled into her brain.

And then all she could think was that God, she needed to get it together if he was speaking to her in Caveman.

A breath.

Another.

Then she whispered, her cheeks no doubt bright red, “I’ll go check on Lexi in the bath.”

Spinning, she all but sprinted from the kitchen and hit the stairs.

God, she hoped that Lexi hadn’t drowned in the tub while Hazel had been making an idiot of herself in the kitchen.

Moving quietly, she knocked on the master bedroom door, and when Lexi didn’t answer, moved inside, intending to avert her eyes if Lexi was getting out or if the tub came in sight and her friend was naked inside it.

But she didn’t get that far.

Lexi was still completely dressed…and passed out on the foot of her bed. As though she’d sat there just a second, her hands having gone to the button of her pants, but she hadn’t made it further than that before slipping into sleep.

Poor exhausted woman.

It was enough to make Hazel want to get her tubes tied.

If she hadn’t just cuddled the adorable Noah, she might be tempted, just purely from viewing the pure exhaustion on her friends’ faces.

Now, however, she pushed down her pity (and her thoughts of permanent birth control) and tugged the covers down, folding them over her friend.

Then she tiptoed out of the bedroom, closing the door behind her.