Page 163 of Off The Ice

And then he kissed me again, slower, like we’d have all the time in the world to keep doing this forever.

“What else do you want?” He smiled against my lips.

I thought about it and knew there was only one more thing I wanted. One more thing I could ever hope for.

I looked up at the man who had seen me—all of me—and somehow was still choosing me exactly as I was. He was mine. I was his. And now, there was only one thing left to ask for.

“I want to go home.”

He was more than happy to oblige.

Epilogue

Liam

Three Years Later

It turned out that game I walked out on that night a few years agodidgo down in history.

To Boston, sure. But more than that, it was the game that changed everything for me and Cassie.

That night was the one I stopped hiding in the game and started running toward her. You could say it paid off in the long run.

“You ready, Cap?” Brody asked as we got ready to skate onto the ice for the next game in our unstoppable season.

For years, hockey was all I had. My entire life, my purpose consisted of what I could do on the ice. But now?

The game is still important to me—but I recognize it for what it is. A game. It wasn’t my world. And I knew when the time came, whether it was in one year or ten, I’d be ready to walk away.

Because my whole entire heart? They were right over in the family box, cheering me on no matter how the game turned out.

“Just about ready,” I told Brody, scanning the crowd until my eyes landed on them.

My eyes locked on her immediately. How could they not? She was the most beautiful girl in the whole damn arena.

She smiled, somehow excited enough to see me that she bounced as she waved. And even though we’d done this a million times, I still felt it in my chest when she did.

The same way it still made me giddy to see her in that jersey with the last name that now belonged to both of us.

Us and the perfect little human Cassie held up to plexiglass as if somehow baby Lily had any idea that her Dad was about to play for and hopefully secure the Stanley Cup.

“Hi, baby,” I mouthed to Cassie as I waved at my beautiful family.

And then the team was swirling around the ice, warming up for the game that I knew would make or break the spirit of more than half of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to win. I wanted to win so bad I could taste it. And I was prepared to play like hell for this game I loved, that had given so much to me in my life. This game that had kept me stable and balanced during the worst times of my life. But if we didn’t win? It would’ve hurt like hell, but my world wouldn’t end. It didn’t matter the way it used to. What mattered was my real life—the one that happened entirely off the ice.

And as I looked at my family—my beautiful wife, our gorgeous daughter, my stupid, impulsive sister beside them who had brought them both to me—I knew I had already won.

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