Second Chances

Chapter 2 - Breaking the News

Though Whitney partially expected Jake to start asking her questions as soon as he started driving, instead he just flipped on the radio, a comfortable silence filling the cab. Though her mind was screaming at her to figure out what she was going to say to him, Whitney instead pulled out her phone wanting to finish her articles and send them in so that she didn’t have her deadline looming over her head once they got wherever they were going.

Occasionally though as she finished each independent thought, she peeked over at the man sitting next to her a smile gracing her face. Each street light they passed illuminated his features; the same ones she saw in her daughter every day, the same ones that were there their last night together, though he’d certainly matured at the same time. The muscles in his arms rippled as he drove and it hit her deep in the stomach, harder than she’d expected it to. Her attraction to him had never gone away and looking at him she could only hope that he wouldn’t hate her.

Just as she’d finally pressed submit on her articles for tomorrow’s papers, Jake pulled into a parking lot and turned the ignition off, pocketing his keys. Climbing out of the SUV, Whitney looked up at him as he motioned for her to join him, the two walking across the parking lot in silence. The sign above the door told her that they were at the Penguins practice facility and after murmuring to the security guard, Jake was leading her inside.

Five minutes later he was tying up her skates, as he’d always done, and they were standing in the center of a rink. It had been over a year since she’d been on skates but immediately Whitney wanted to move around, her body moving almost as naturally on ice as his did.

“So…” Jake whispered, shoving his hands in the pockets of the track pants he’d changed into leaving his suit in his stall. Coming to a stop from the circles she’d been skating, Whitney pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, sighing loudly.

“Shit...this isn’t any easier to try and tell you now than it was four years ago…” She mumbled. She could feel the energy of his stare and she skated backward for a moment before clutching her arms to her chest. After a moment of continued silence, Jake moved forward and pried her hands away from her body, instead gripping them lightly in his own.

“Whitney...what’s going on?” He questioned and the gentleness of his tone caused her eyes to fill with tears.

“A month after I started at Virginia, I...I...found out…” Her voice cracked before she swallowed hard and forced herself to look at him. “I got pregnant our last night together, we have a daughter.”

When he pulled away from her, just like she’d known he would, tears again started to fall and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him as he skated laps around the rink. She’d known for years that if she ever told him he would be upset but she still needed to explain herself so after a few minutes she skated to the edge of the rink forcing him to stop when he reached her or else bowl her over.

“Will you please let me tell you what happened?” She pleaded needing him to understand that she’d never wanted to keep it from him. The anguish on his face was immeasurable and she hated herself for not trying harder all those years ago. All she really wanted though was for him to say something.

He didn’t say anything in reply however and Whitney took that as her cue to lay it all out there so at least if he did hate her, he knew the whole story.

“I...a month into first semester I started feeling really sick and my roommate insisted that I go to student health. An hour later I was listening to a doctor tell me that I was pregnant and insisting that I had options. All I wanted in that moment was to hear your voice, to hear that everything was going to be okay.”

Thinking back to that day triggered so many memories and she brushed her hair back as she tried to work up the courage to continue.

“So I tried calling you. Probably a dozen times and every time the phone connected I was told that the number I had dialed was no longer in service. When your cell didn’t work, I tried your house and your mom picked up.” Whitney knew that she needed to phrase her words carefully for the next part because as much as she hated the woman she did understand where she was coming from and she was still Jake’s mom.

“I was such a wreck that instead of just asking her if you’d gotten a new number, I spilled out that I’d just found out I was pregnant and that it was yours.” Glancing up at him again she could see the wheels turning in his head like he was trying to figure out what she was going to say next or putting together pieces that he hadn’t previously.

“Immediately she insisted that I was lying and that there was no way she was going to let some girl kill your career by throwing a baby that wasn’t yours at you. She told me not to bother trying to contact you and if I did then she’d make sure the world essentially knew I was a whore.” While it hadn’t been phrased exactly like that, that was the gist and though her hands shook mainly because of the cold of the ice, reliving that phone call wasn’t helping. Towering over her, Jake stood speechless, his hands clenched at his side.

“I..I know I probably should have tried harder but as my roommate and parents insisted, I needed to focus on myself and the baby and the emotional stress of trying to find you wasn’t good for either of us.” She was certain now that without her parents and especially her roommate there was no way she would have made it through that first year.

Still void of a reaction from Jake, Whitney started toward the locker room just wanting to take her skates off and call an uber to take her home. She’d done all she could now and if Jake didn’t want to believe her or didn’t want anything to do with them it was his call. As she moved to open the door to the locker room itself, Whitney felt a hand reaching out for her forearm before she was tugged back into a solid body, warm hands reaching up to tangle in her hair. Blue eyes staring down into hers, Whitney couldn’t help but gasp at the emotions that flooded through them.

“We really have a daughter?” He breathed, awe tinging his question.

“We do...she’s beautiful, looks just like you.” Knowing that a question was coming about wanting to see a picture, Whitney reached for her phone in her pocket, quickly unlocking it before pulling up one that she’d taken just a few days prior.

Jake realized that she had anticipated his question and simply reached to take the phone from her, the question a silent communication instead of a verbal one. Looking at the picture it was hard to believe that all this time he’d had a child that he’d never known about, but there was no denying she was his in his mind.

“You’re right, she does look like me.” He whispered. Handing her phone back, he reached to brush his thumb over his former best friend’s cheek. She had changed so much, had been forced to when she’d found out she was having his child and there was so much that he wanted, no needed to know about the years they’d been separated.

First, though he needed to make sure she knew that there was absolutely nothing for her to be sorry about. And so, without moving his thumb from her cheek, Jake simply wrapped his other arm around her waist, tugging her firmly against him before pressing his mouth to hers in a tender kiss.

“Everything is going to be okay.” It was four years too late but the meaning of his words didn’t escape either of them as Whitney found herself giving into the kiss and the embrace of the man she’d been craving since they’d parted.
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I'd really love some comments on this. I have a few ideas but it's not as well developed in my head as my Jonny Toews story is.