Page 19 of One Pucking Heart

The server brings us glasses of ice water and promises to return shortly for our orders.

Elena holds the menu out in front of her. “What’s good here?”

“Everything.” I chuckle. “What do you like? The calamari here is to die for.”

“Really? I’ve never had calamari.”

I drop my menu and lean over the table, my stare holding Elena’s. “You’ve never had calamari? Why not?”

She shrugs. “I guess it was never really in my budget. Ari and I didn’t eat out much, and that’s not something I’d make at home.”

“But surely your parents had to have served it at some point. I’m guessing you had some fancy dinners in that mansion you grew up in.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “My father was deathly allergic to seafood, so it was never served in our home.”

I raise a brow. “Are you allergic to seafood?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, then we’re ordering calamari as our starter for sure. If you want to dive headfirst into seafood, they have a creamy seafood linguini that is also…”

She finishes my sentence. “To die for?” She laughs. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s any food on this earth that I’d be willing to die for.”

Lifting my shoulders, I give her a smirk. “Then you haven’t been eating the right foods.”

She grins. “Alright, I’ll be popping my to die for”—she raises her fingers in air quotes—“cherry tonight then. I’ll do the linguini.”

There are times when Dr. Elena Cortez seems so far out of my league in both maturity and intellect. Then there are other times when she seems so innocent and naive to the world around her. There are so many things I want to show her and new experiences I want her to have. She may be older than me in years, but if we ignore the whole MD thing, I feel as if I’ve lived a richer, fuller life than she has. And it doesn’t seem quite fair. Elena fascinates me, and someone as incredible as her deserves to live an equally magnificent life.

I have an unrelenting desire to show her the world. Maybe someday she’ll let me.

We order our food.

“So we’re telling my father next week. When did you want to tell everyone else?”

“Well, every July, we have a blowout party for Cade’s and my birthdays. Our birthdays are both in July, and it’s in the middle of the offseason, so it's the perfect time to get everyone together. We started doing it when we played hockey for college, and the tradition continued after we got drafted to the Cranes.”

She quirks a brow. “By we, you mean you, right? Cade doesn’t strike me as a throw-a-birthday-party-for-himself kind of guy.”

She’s met the guy twice. I’m not quite sure how she can decipher that about his personality from two very quick meetings, but nonetheless, she’s right. “Yeah, they’re my thing. But I couldn’t throw a bash for myself and not include my best friend when his birthday was a week after mine. Anyway, if I were to get engaged, announcing it to my friends and family at my birthday party would be something I would do.”

“I’m sure it would.”

I narrow my gaze. “I don’t know if that was sarcasm, but I’m choosing to ignore it.”

She presses her lips in a line, hiding a laugh.

“That makes sense, right?”

“Yeah, surprising everyone with the news at your party would be something you would do. So why not? We have to do it soon, though, because we have to get this marriage thing over with.”

The server brings the plate of calamari and sets it on the table between the two of us. “We have to start wedding planning, too.”

She shakes her head. “No, Beckett. I don’t want to have a big fancy wedding. Let’s just go to the courthouse and sign some papers.”

---