Page 56 of The Cupcake Cottage

“Right?” Her friend knew her, knew how to sort through what was real and what might be just her inner freak outs.

“You both have some serious boundaries.”

“We do?”

“Maverick hardly dates. You date, but never let yourself get all starry-eyed. Right now you’re totally starry-eyed.”

“But what if it’s just a crush? Or I’m infatuated that an NHL star chose me?”

“Girl, you’ve known him as a star since the day he stepped on the ice. And you’ve been dating him for how long now? Two months? Your eyes are only getting starrier. They’d be flat by now if it’d only been a crush. You’d be complaining about him interrupting your work all the time with thoseneedytexts and flowers and coffee.”

“He’s not needy!”

“See?” Violet crossed her arms, looking smug. “Hate to break it to you, but you two are the real deal. This big fake thing was just so you nutters could get over your hang-ups and get to the lovin’ part of things.”

“But Leo still needs—”

“We have our own plan. And Landon is fine. While you’ve been busy making goo-goo eyes at Maverick, we’ve all been busy, too.”

“Doing what?”

Violet just smiled.

** *

Maverick knew what a beautiful woman Daisy-Mae was, but it wasn’t until she was on his arm at the gala and was receiving lingering second glances from other men that he truly felt it. If they only knew how genuinely special she was, they would fight him for her.

He planted a kiss on her temple, feeling like the luckiest guy on the planet. “I love you,” he whispered.

Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked up at him so full of happiness he wanted to get down on one knee and propose to her right then and there.

“I love you, too,” she said, nuzzling closer.

He closed his eyes for a second, locking in the moment, the feeling of having his love returned.

“We should go home,” he said. Reporters were swarming the ballroom, but tonight he wanted to escape for entirely different reasons. He wanted to have Daisy-Mae all to himself and hear her say those three sweet words over and over again.

“Why?”

“I’m greedy and selfish and want you all to myself.”

She laughed, that warm smile lighting up his world.

“Maybe we should be good and go look at the auction items,” she suggested.

“I don’t plan on buying anything, do you?”

“No, but I feel like we’re supposed to.”

“Then we shall.” He reminded himself that there would be many more dates and moments in their future.

They walked along the tables of items. Everything from autographed hockey sticks to exotic weekend getaways to artwork. Daisy-Mae studied everything, but he noticed she paused the longest in front of a hand-knit blanket made with about eight different colors. It would have taken a long time to create, and the current bid to beat was already over four hundred dollars.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, moving on. The next item was a signed jersey. His. “I have one of these.” She gave him a private smile, and he understood why princes and kings gave up kingdoms for the women they loved.

“You can have as many as you like.”

“Although, come to think of it, mine isn’t signed.”

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