Page 32 of Puck, Marry, Thrill

“I’m growing on you, Snack Cake… aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are.”

* * *

The next morning dawned cool and bright, sunlight glinting off the streets of Quebec City as Jamie stood outside the glass doors of the Wolverines’ front office. Her breath clouded in the air, her heart pounding beneath the thick wool of her coat. She’d barely slept the night before, nerves and anticipation churning in her stomach like a blender on high speed. This was it—her shot at something new, something big.

When she stepped inside, the warmth hit her first, followed by the hum of quiet activity. A security guard smiled and pointed her down a hallway. Moments later, Jamie found herself seated across from the team’s head coach, her hands pressed tightly in her lap to stop them from shaking.

The interview itself? Five minutes. Maybe six. She had expected questions, challenges, maybe even skepticism. Instead, she got a grin and a nod halfway through her presentation.

“You’re husband was right. You’re exactly what we need,” Coach Starnes said, flipping the folder closed and extending a hand.

Jamie blinked. “Wait… I’m hired?”

“Welcome to the Wolverines, Mrs. Salas. We’re lucky to have you both.”

Just like that, it was done.

A few words, a handshake, and her world shifted.

As she stepped back out into the brisk morning air, Jamie exhaled slowly, a smile spreading across her face. She was the new social media account manager for the Wolverines—Quebec’s brand-new professional hockey team.

Kenneth’s fresh start was also hers.

And it had only taken saying ‘I Do’ to change her entire life.

9

JAMIE

It was an ordinary street,on an ordinary day…

And yet, to Jamie, it felt like she’d stepped into the pages of someone else’s story. She stood frozen on the sidewalk, her eyes wide as they roamed over every detail around her—each tree, each house, each sound. The wind brushed past her cheek like a whispered reminder that this was real, but it still didn’t feel that way. In her mind, a quiet, wry narrator seemed to take over—announcing scenes as if this moment had been choreographed and staged, the way actors hit their marks on cue.

That was how it felt. Unreal. Surreal. Like a play she hadn’t auditioned for.

This was her life now.

Her new home.

A husband she barely knew stood at her side—warm, solid, and impossibly kind. And his child, now her child, too, in some strange, legal twist of fate, ran excitedly across the lawn as if it were Christmas morning.

“Look, a purple flower…”

Jamie blinked and looked where Zachary pointed. There was, indeed, a bloom bravely pushing through the patchy lawn, and her heart squeezed at the wonder in his voice.

“Look, this is like a castle…”

She followed his gaze again. The house was stunning—intimidating, even—with bricks that stretched in thick, bold lines to form a tall, arched porch. A modern-day castle. She could already imagine it dressed up with straw bales and pumpkins come October or wrapped in twinkling lights for the holidays. Her hands twitched at her sides with the urge to decorate it, to make it warm… to make it hers.

“Ha ha, I found a river that goes around the castle…”

She looked up at Kenneth just in time to see him grin and correct gently, “The moat? No, son, that’s the French drain that leads the water away from the house.” He ruffled Zachary’s hair with an affectionate chuckle. “But it can be our special moat.”

Jamie’s heart did a slow, unexpected tumble in her chest.

Their special moat.

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