Page 112 of Lucky Shot
I nod. “My first was with Chicago in 2010. My second was with Pittsburgh in 2016. Honestly, I thought I should have retired then. Go out on top, right? But we’re always chasing the Cup. Just one more.”
Pretty sighs. “Yeah. I don’t even care what team I’m on; I’d love to win at least once.”
“You’re still at the start of your career, Pretty. You will.”
He gives me a demure smile that brightens his face. “Your confidence in me is cute.”
I chuckle. “So, yes. I’m ready to retire. One more year. Then you know what I’m going to do?”
Pretty shakes his head, his eyebrows once more knitted together as he looks at me with big brown eyes.
“I’m going to be the proud boyfriend of my hockey player and support him in every little thing he does,” I tell him. Pretty inhales. With my lips pressed to his, I ask, “Do you know why I know I’m not going to resent you when I retire next year?”
He shakes his head a little. His hand in mine is a vice grip.
“Because I’m already feeling a little resentful towards hockey because it’s going to be the thing that keeps us apart for months at a time. I’m ready for the next chapter in my life, Pretty. And that’s 100% you.”
“You don’t have to keep saying those things,” he says, breathless. “I’m already madly in love with you. I already worship you. Stop trying to make me putty.”
I chuckle, pressing my lips more firmly to his and kiss him deeply. “I love you,” I murmur against him. “This is the only thing I want going forward. I’m done making hockey the center of my life. That’s your rightful place.”
“Seriously,” he says, a whine in his voice. “God, I need to step up my sweet talk or something.”
Grinning, I hug him against me. Wrapping him up in my arms as tightly as I can. Pretty sighs. “It’s still so unreal that this is happening,” he says quietly. His fingers tangle in my hair, absently moving against my scalp. “Two months ago, we were nobody to each other. Now you’re just… everything. I don’t think I can breathe without you.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit. Your sweet talk is totally on par.”
I feel him smile as he turns his face into my neck. “You don’t think it’s completely crazy?”
“I do. I’m constantly musing how ridiculous it is that we would still be moving around each other indifferently if not for that game. Never knowing that the person we’ve been waiting for was literally inches away at times.”
“Less than that. You held me while I was freaking out at the gala. Ugh. How stupid that I didn’t figure it out then. I should have known. Because even then, I knew I was safe and that you’d protect me while I got myself together. I didn’t have to worry about anyone looking at me or talking to me. Demanding something from me. There have been exactly zero people I’ve ever felt that way with outside of my parents.”
“Something was trying to tell us in the weeks prior to us revealing our identities,” I agree. “So many times over the start of the summer when we’d talk or cross paths at an event like the gala, I’d think that there’s far more to you than what you show the world. I could actually like you. And then… I just walked away.”
“Why did you?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure. At the gala, it was because of Pretty. But before that? I think the answer is still you, even if neither of us understood that it was you. Not that any of that made any sense at all.”
Pretty presses his lips to my neck and lets out a long, contented sigh. “No, I get it. We were being pulled in the same direction but didn’t know that the direction was toward each other.”
“We can mull over this for a long time and probably never come up with an answer.”
“Let’s mull over other things for now.”
I smile and shift us so we’re lounging on the couch seating. “Have something in mind?”
“Yes. Do you want to get married?”
Laughter makes me shake. “You’re not into taking things slowly, huh?”
Pretty picks his head up and looks at me with horror. “NO! I don’t mean right now.”
I laugh more and kiss him. “Yes, I definitely want to get married. You?”
He nods. “Yes. I… want to wear a dress.” His cheeks redden and he averts his eyes for a minute. “Would you hate that? Not that I’m assuming you want to marry me. I mean this more hypothetically.”
So goddamn cute.
