“I never said yes to moving in with you!”she argues.
“You never said no either, so…” I lean over her desk and drop a kiss on her lips before I turn for the door.“See you after work, dear!”I call over my shoulder as I leave.
I hear her laugh and smile as I head out to my car.I head to practice, whistling as I walk into the locker room to change.
“Someone’s in a good mood,” Declan teases me as he laces up his skates.
“Yep!I’ve got my dream girl, and she’s moving in with me.”
“That was quick,” Logan comments.
I shake my head.“It’s not fast when it feels right.Plus, you can’t talk to me about fast.You were living with Violet before you two were even a couple.So you moved faster than I did.”
“She was my roommate!”Logan states, then shakes his head, deciding not to argue with me.
I turn to Declan.“You’re next.”
He glares at me.“Not a chance.”
I laugh.“That’s what I thought too, and then I met Olivia.It will happen the same for you.”
He groans.“You’re crazy.”
“Heed my warning,” I say in my best Gandalf impression.
“Get on the ice!”Coach calls as he heads out of the locker room.
I hurry to lace up my skates and join the team.
Practice is brutal, but I don’t mind.I can’t stop smiling.Everything seems better today, and I know that it’s because Olivia is my girl.She loves me, even if I’m crazy and impulsive.And I love her more than anything.
I never thought I would be happy about a punishment, but chugging that disgusting drink was the best decision of my life because it led me to Olivia.
When practice ends, I race off the ice, eager to get back to my girl and discuss my grand plan of us living together.
TWELVE
Olivia
Five Years Later…
Maple Creek hasa way of marking the passage of time.
Not in hours or seasons, but in what has been built and what has been saved.Five years ago, the youth center was a brick box on the brink of eviction, a dream that lived on grit and grant deadlines.Today, it’s a building with a new wing, a mural splashed across the east wall, and a name etched in steel above the entrance.The Walker–Morgan Center for Youth.
I still flush when I walk under it.CJ swears it was the board’s idea, but I know his fingerprints were on every conversation that made it happen.
He meets me at the door this morning, skates slung over one shoulder, Thunder cap backward like the years never taught him to wear it right.His hair is longer now, streaked at the temples, his grin the same reckless one that got us here in the first place.
“Board meeting done?”he asks, leaning down to kiss me quick and easy, like oxygen.
“Approved the art budget,” I tell him, holding up the folder.“The kids are voting on the next mural theme.It’s currently tied between ‘outer space’ and ‘dragons who bake cookies.’”
“Dragons in space who bake cookies,” he says immediately.“You’re welcome.”
I laugh.Some things never change.
Inside, the building hums.Kids in the new computer lab are working on coding projects.A drama group is rehearsing a play in the multipurpose room.Ezra, still our kitchen wizard, is passing out snacks to a line of teenagers who call him Chef like it’s a title.The whole place feels alive in a way I didn’t dare imagine five years ago.
