Page 197 of Slap Shot

“We brought you breakfast.” He walks into the room and Lucy scoots over so he can join us on the bed. “Lucy and I made pancakes and bacon. With a side of mashed potatoes because they’re your favorite food.” He sets the tray in my lap, and I notice two cards next to the plates. “Happy Mother’s Day, Maddie.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, wiping under my eyes. “How early did you all get up to do this?”

Early!Lucy tells me.

“We were in the kitchen by six thirty.” Hudson wraps an arm around me, pulling Lucy and me close. He’s gotten more open with his affection lately, and I like that he’s showing Lucy the right ways to be treated. “I let you sleep in so you didn’t see our surprise.”

“It’s the best surprise ever.” I grin and open the card from Lucy. There’s a drawing inside, a heart made of her handprints and what must be a whole bucket of glitter. “Wow. This is beautiful.”

We made it in art class at school.Ms. McNair told us to write our favorite things about our moms,and I wrote how much you love me.Lucy taps the card, and I see her list also includes things like my long hair and the cookies I bake.I said I have the best mom.

“You’re so sweet.I love you, Lucy.Thank you for making me a mom.”

I love you too, Mommy. I’m going to go play with the doggies.

She slides off the bed after giving me another hug. Her little legs take her down the hall, and I glance at Hudson.

I don’t miss the way his shoulders seem heavy, how he almost hangs his head. There’s a smile on his face, but it’s strained. I reach over and take his hand in mine.

“I got you something,” I say, and he frowns.

“You gotmesomething? For Mother’s Day?” he asks.

“It’s small.” I lean to my right and rifle through my bedside drawer. I find the package I’m looking for and hand it to him. “You told me your dad used to buy your mom flowers whenever she had a hard day, so I got some seeds for you. I thought we—sorry, you—could build a flower bed on your balcony and plant the seeds. You could have flowers whenever you want, and it could be like your mom is here with us all the time.”

He takes the seeds and runs his fingers over the letters on the packaging. “You… you did this for me?”

“I’m sure today must be hard for you, and I wanted to do something to make it less hard.”

“I—” Hudson closes his eyes and lets out a breath. He clutches the seeds like they’re the most important things in the world to him, and when he glances at me, a tear rolls down his cheek. “Thank you,” he whispers. “This is perfect.”

“I’m so glad you like it.” I take his hand and run my fingers over his knuckles. “There’s something else I want to say to you.”

“I love you,” he says all of a sudden, and I freeze. “I love you so much. You and Lucy are the greatest things to ever happen to me, and I… I love you so much ithurts, Maddie, to think about my life without you in it. I… I can’t hold it in anymore. I know I said I’d be patient, but you need to hear it and?—”

“I love you, too,” I blurt out, a sob escaping me with the four words. “I love you so much, and I’ve loved you for so long. Even when I didn’t know what the feeling was. You’ve done so much for me and for Lucy and… I just want to make sure you’re sure. That this is really want you want, because there’s not going to be a wedding. There aren’t going to be more kids. It’s going to be the three of us, and I want to know if that’s enough.”

“Enough?” He takes the tray from my lap and shoves it on the bedside table. “Sweetheart. You areeverythingto me. I wantyou, and I don’t give a shit about anything else.”

“You’d be okay without a wedding?”

“I don’t need one.”

“What if you want to be a dad one day down the road?”

“Lucy is a gift, and I’d be a lucky guy to be in her life as a father figure.”

“No one’s loved me in a very long time, and I’m not sure it’s going to be easy with all my baggage,” I whisper.

“Loving you is easier than anything I’ve ever done. It’s like breathing. Something that comes naturally, because I don’t have to think about it. You’re just… there. Perfect and wonderful and mine. Made for me, I think.”

I think he was made for me, too.

I’ve dreamed about what would’ve happened if Clark and I stayed together. If we worked out and he didn’t run, but in every version of that dream, I come up short of a happy ending. We would’ve split up eventually because of something else.

When I think of Hudson and me fifteen years down the road, I think of how happy I’ll be. The ways he’ll make me laugh and all the ways he’ll show me how much he cares.

It’s the most perfect image. True romance and everything anyone could ever want in life.

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