“Wait . . .” Colton turned to look up at the jumbotron in the middle of the arena. “No way.”
The cheering got louder and my face felt blazing hot. I couldn’t stop laughing, both from nerves and the sheer joy of it. I was willing to make a fool of myself for Colton. When he looked back down into my eyes, he started to laugh too. “Ice Crew Kiss Cam?”
I nodded. “I think they’re waiting on us, Cap.”
He turned so we were stomach to stomach, pulled off his helmet, latched his arm across my mid back, and lifted me to kiss him.
Colton Jones, in all his smelly hockey gear, in all his patience and optimism, in all his pain and waiting, kissed melike he meant it—and I knew he did. His stick and helmet clattered on the ice as he let them go to kiss me harder. When he started to slip me tongue, I pulled away to his laugh.
“Colt!”
He just beamed. “I love you so much. I love your ribbon.”
“I know. I wanted to show everybody how much I love you.”
“You’re shaking,” he shouted over the roar of the crowd.
“I’m nervous!”
“No need to be nervous, baby. I love this. Love you. Let’s give ‘em what they want.”
He kissed me again, while his teammates whistled and banged their sticks on the wall, as did the opposing team.
And I savored the experience, a watershed moment. The end of an era of pain, and the beginning of the life I always wanted with the man who waited.
A love that, despite the universe’s best attempts, was untouchable.
EPILOGUE
VIOLET | TWO SUMMERS LATER | HOVLAND, MINNESOTA
“Come on,sweetie. Not even a sip of margarita? The sour might help your stomach.”
Colton’s mom sat in the pool chair next to mine on their deck facing Lake Superior. I sat with the family’s designated lake house puke receptacle in my lap. Every family has their own. For the Joneses, it was a popcorn bowl. The margarita near my face smelled like poison.
I was wearing a lightweight white sweatsuit, trying to avoid both the sun and the heat.
It was my third day in a row of feeling like absolute shit. I was on my first of a two week stint at the lake house in northern Minnesota.
“No thanks, Janice,” I said, eyes and mouth watering with the urge to hurl again. “It’s just a stomach bug. Just has to run its course.”
“Well, at least we got you out in the sun. Bake it out of you.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I grumbled.
Colton and his dad stood by the grill, which Colton hadcarefully arranged to be downwind from my perch. They were cooking up their catch from the morning’s fishing expedition, which I skipped in favor of sleeping through some of my sickness. Colt’s eyes were worried watching me. His dad was still talking to him when he started to walk my way. When he got to my side, he sat on the edge of my pool lounger.
“How you doing, baby?” He patted my cheek and leaned in to deliver a soft kiss.
“Don’t kiss me. I’ll get you sick.”
Colt kissed my forehead, air puffing from his nose into my hair. “I’m not worried about it.”
“Where’s the closest Wendy’s?” I asked.
Colt’s lips twitched. “Already looked it up. Four hours, forty-two minutes.”
“Dammit,” I moaned. “I’d probably just bring it right back up anyway. Best not to lose the joy of Wendy’s.”
