Page 72 of Knox
I chuckled. “Nah. I knew you loved having me all up in your space. I just didn’t want to make assumptions.”
“Well, now you don’t need to assume.” He grinned. “We’re living together and getting married.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We headed for the showers. I needed one to wash the game off me, and Crew wanted one to get rid of the champagne.
As we toweled off, he checked his phone. “Got a text from Mallory. She says congratulations, and sounds like Grady was getting a little restless waiting for us so they went home. She wants to know if we want to swing by her place for a little celebration before Grady goes to sleep, but she understands if we just want to have some alone time.”
I started to get dressed. “I’d like to go see Grady. He’s an important part of the life we’re building, so he should get to celebrate with us.”
Crew leaned over and kissed me. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Once we finished getting ready, we said goodbye to our teammates and slipped out the back to avoid any reporters hanging around the staff entrance.
“So what do you think Grady’s going to say about us getting engaged?” I asked, sitting next to my fiancé in his truck.
“I’m not sure he even knows what that means, but I bet once we explain it to him, he’ll be on board with the idea.”
“And Mallory? I know she said ‘congratulations’, but once we’re married, I’m legally bound to you forever, which means being connected to Grady forever too.”
“I’m one hundred percent certain she’s fine with it. She was the one who actually got me thinking about proposing.”
I balked slightly. “Really?”
He nodded. “She suggested it as a way of showing you that you belong with us.”
A slight prickle of doubt started swirling in my mind, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what he really wanted, or if he’d felt pressured. I exhaled slowly. “You didn’t have to go as far as proposing to tell me that. I believed you when you said you wanted a future with me in it.”
He reached across the console and squeezed my leg. “I asked you to marry me because I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“That’s all I want too. We should just elope and keep living our lives,” I suggested, only half-joking.
Crew shrugged. “That’s not a bad idea. I already looked up how to get a marriage license in Oregon. There’s a three-day waiting period, but I don’t see why we couldn’t do it as soon as possible. Maybe next week during the break.”
I took a second to consider the idea. “I think I’d like that.”
My phone buzzed as we turned onto Mallory’s street. “It’s my mom,” I announced, swiping the screen to answer. “Hi there?—”
“You’re engaged!” she shouted as if I wasn’t aware. “I wanted to give you time to wrap up your postgame stuff, but I ran out of patience.”
“She didn’t have any patience to begin with.” Dad laughed in the background.
“Yeah, we are.” I smiled and glanced at my fiancé.
“I’m assuming you’re with him. Put us on speakerphone,” Mom demanded.
I shook my head but did as she asked. “Okay, he can hear you.”
“Hi, Teri,” Crew greeted.
“Doug is here too,” she explained. “We just wanted to say congratulations. That proposal on the field made me cry.”
“We’re so happy for you guys,” Dad added.
“Thank you so much.” I swallowed the emotion clogging my throat. “We’re heading over to Mallory’s right now to celebratewith Grady, but we’ll call again soon once we start planning things.”
