Page 43 of The Captain's Curfew
He catches my hand and kisses my knuckles before returning his focus to the road."You’ve got that look."
"What look?"
"The one you get when you’re about to change my life."
I stare at him.
He doesn’t mean it seriously, but he’s not wrong either.
Because that’s exactly what I’m about to do.
We eat on the patio of our favorite little café.The sun is warm, the town is buzzing, and Logan is relaxed in a way I rarely get to see.Sunglasses on.Arm slung over the back of my chair.Smiling at something I said five minutes ago.
I sip my coffee, my heart pounding.
"Hey," I say softly.
He turns to me."Yeah?"
I take a breath."I love you."
The words are light.Simple.Effortless.Like they’ve always been true, and I just needed to say them out loud.
His expression doesn’t change right away.
But then he sets his coffee down, leans in close, and brushes a kiss against my cheek."You just wrecked me, sunshine."
My heart skips.
He pulls back enough to look into my eyes."I love you too."
I smile.A big, ridiculous, heart-swelling kind of smile.
He laces our fingers and holds them on the table for everyone to see.
No more hiding.
No more fear.
Just us.
And the kind of love that was worth every risk we took to find it.
THIRTEEN
Logan
Five Years Later…
The roarof the crowd shakes the boards beneath my feet, the kind of noise that used to rattle my bones and fill every empty space inside me.Now?It hits differently.Feels like a closing chapter.
Because this is it.
My last season wearing a Maple Creek Thunder jersey.My last few games before I hang up my skates for good.
I glance up at the box seats like I do every damn night, and there they are—my whole damn world, packed into that little corner of the arena.
Violet’s standing, waving like an absolute lunatic.She’s still wearing my jersey—this year’s, the one with the captain’s C stitched on the chest—and her smile is so wide it makes my chest ache.
