Page 98 of The Captain

Then, on the final wall that wasn’t the wall of windows behind her desk, I’d installed a free-standing fireplace, bringing the room together.

“Lincoln, this is…” She walked farther into the room, looking over everything. The desk, the chair, her writing stuff, the fireplace, and finally landing on the bookshelves. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

I walk up behind her, placing my hands around her waist and pulling her into me.

She points to the middle of her bookshelf, where an empty book holder sits. “What’s that for?”

“That,” I start, stepping around her so I can see her face. “Is for your first book. When it gets published, we’ll place it right there.”

“Lincoln…” Cassie’s eyes start to water, and I pull her into me, proud of the work I did and happy she seems to like it. “I thought this was going to be a workout space for you.”

“I know that’s what you said. But the hockey gym is ten minutes away, I don’t need a gym.” I gesture around the room. “You need an office, Sunshine. You’ve got a few books to write and a fandom to build. You need a space to do that.”

She shakes her head and looks at me, her eyes taking me in like I’m a creature she’s never seen before. “How did I get this lucky?”

I smile and step closer to her, grasping her hand in mine and pulling her over to the chair in the corner. I sit, pulling her into my lap and resting there with her. The fireplace was on, giving a soft glow to the space as the sun started to set outside the windows.

“It’s not luck, Sunshine,” I say to her, looking up at her as she stares down at me with a look in her eyes that I’ll never get enough of. “It’s love.”

Epilogue

Cassie/Lincoln

“This was beautiful,” I say, staring at my surroundings. It was an absolutely exhausting day. Fun but exhausting, and I was glad to be out of my high heels and barefoot, dancing with the man who held me and my heart.

“It was,” he says, leaning down closer to me, his cheek resting against my own.

Tanner and Mick had decided to postpone their wedding until after the hockey season to give themselves some more time to get it together, and it was worth it.

Somehow, they had turned the space outside the hockey rink, which typically held banquets and other events for the players who played here, into a starry-night fantasy wedding that I would kill for.

It was absolutely beautiful.

I watched my best friend stand in front of me and vow to love Tanner for the rest of her life as Vic handed me a tissue behind my back and told me to suck it up or my makeup would smear.

I didn’t care. I was happy. Happy for them and happy for myself. I got to stare at Lincoln across the aisle, and he winked at me when he saw how emotional I was being.

Now, Mick lazily dances with her new husband as he holds her close, gazing into her eyes like she’s the most precious thing in his world, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

I spy Crew asking Joey to dance and smile to myself without drawing Lincoln’s attention to his best friend and cousin.

“Would this be the kind of wedding you want?” The words are whispered into my ear, and a shiver races down my spine.

“I don’t know,” I admit, pulling back to look at him, unable to keep a smile off my face. “How about you?”

“Well, there’s one very serious condition I have for my wedding, anything else doesn’t matter,” he says, a little spark in his eye telling me that he’s teasing me.

“What’s the condition? You have to cut the cake with a hockey stick? I don’t think that’s very sanitary, Muscles.”

He smirks and shakes his head. “Nah, the condition is that no matter what, no matter where, and no matter when, you’ll be the one I marry.”

I swallow hard, trying and failing to keep the smile off my face. “Muscles, don’t tell me you’re proposing.”

“Sunshine,” he says, whispering the words to me intimately. “Don’t tell me you’d say no.”

Blinking, I let my eyes fall shut when he leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to my forehead like he can’t help himself. “I wouldn’t say no.”

I grin at her, holding her tightly to me, and I promise myself that I’m never going to let her go. “Good.”

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