Page 120 of The Closed Off Captain

He smirks. “The ring and the knee would suggest that I am.” He stares into my eyes. “I don’t want to do life without you by my side.”

I can’t even process this, but I know what my answer is. “Then don’t,” I tell him simply. His smirk widens into a full-blown smile.

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s an absolute yes!”

He pulls out the ring I wore before, the one he had designed just for me, and slips it onto my finger. Then he stands to his feet and pulls me in for a kiss. As soon as his lips hit mine, I hear the shift in the crowd and hear Gunner’s teammates. When I pull back smiling, his teammates have gathered around us, whistling and cheering; and the crowd has picked up on it too. Gunner smiles sheepishly at me. “I thought everybody would be too busy celebrating to notice.”

“It’s fine. Let’s give them something more to celebrate.”

He grins and takes my hand and lifts it up in the air, earning a roar of approval from both the audience and his teammates.The guys gather around us, offering their congratulations. I congratulate each of them on their win as well.

The rest of the night is a blur, and it takes hours for us to get out of there. Of course, the party continues afterward at a restaurant the organization rented out for the night. There are awards handed out, speeches made, and coaches and players honored. It’s an amazing night, one I will never forget for many reasons.

When Gunner and I leave hours later, we walk hand-in-hand to his truck, exhausted but fulfilled in absolutely every way. I smile at the summer breeze and soak it in. “Will you go with me to Grandma May tomorrow so we can tell her? I mean, she will already know because of the spectacle on the ice; but I want to show her the ring in person.”

He squeezes my hand. “Of course.”

I look down at my ring in the light of the parking lot lights. “It’s gorgeous, Gunner.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He squeezes my hand again.

“When are you thinking of getting married?” I ask as he opens his truck door for me.

“Next month?” he asks.

I laugh. “Wait, are you serious?”

He shrugs. “Kind of.”

I wait for him to walk around the truck and climb in. “You can’t be serious. There’s no way we can pull off a wedding in a month.”

“Okay.”

“I mean, right?”

He reaches over and takes my hand in his. “Chloe, I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Tomorrow wouldn’t be soon enough for me, but I’ve waited this long. I can wait a little longer.”

My mind whirls. “We can’t pull it off that soon. I need a dress. We need a venue, a preacher, cake, invites, rings, bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girl, tuxes...”

“Or we could do a small ceremony at Grandma May’s nursing home for just the three of us and my mom and brother,” he interjects.

I fall silent and let his words settle. It’s actually a really good idea. I’ve never really been one of those girls that dreamed of their wedding their entire life—mostly because I didn’t see myself marrying. Well, until Gunner ruined that for me. The idea of not having the pressure of a big wedding, of trying to pull everything off on top of classes and everything else I have going on, is a pretty good thought. I think about it the rest of the way to his house. When he parks, neither of us make a move to go in. I turn to him. “It’s actually a really good idea.”

He faces me. “Only if you want that. If you want a huge wedding with all the bells and whistles, we can have that too.” He kisses my hand. “I just want you to be happy.”

“Well, I’ve never needed bells and whistles to make me happy.”

He smiles. “You don’t have to make a decision tonight.”

I didn’t make the decision that night, but it started that night. And the next day, when Grandma May hugged me so tight, I thought I might cry, I knew that Gunner’s idea was the right one. So almost a month later, to the day, I stood next to Gunner in a white summer dress in front of Grandma May, Greyson, and Gunner’s mom while a preacher led us through the vows. And when Gunner kissed me, it was as his wife. He wrapped his arm around me as we turned to face our family. We cut a small cake and celebrated in the gazebo out on the nursing home lawn.

Of course, the team wouldn’t hear of not celebrating with us. So, we have a venue booked for tomorrow night to celebrate with pretty much the entire Green Thunder organization. And then itwill be off to Hawaii for Gunner and me. I have no idea how he got it all booked so fast, but I’m so excited for it.

“Okay, you two,” Grandma May says. “It’s time for your dance.”

“Our dance?” I question.

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