Once we’re off the ice, Trinity gives me a hug, “Congratulations, girl,” she beams. “And that ring? Woo. He did well.”
In fact, pretty much everyone I pass on my way back to our seats congratulates me or gives me a high five or tells me they want to know how I snagged a professional hockey player.
When I slide back into my seat, I pull Laddie onto my lap and hug him tightly.
Well, at least for a minute, until Talia nearly yanks my arm off my body so she can look at my ring.
“Oh my God,” she shrieks, pulls my arm back and forth like she’s trying to restart my heart. “Let me see it—let me see it—let me see it.”
“Tal!” I gasp, swatting at her. “You’re going to dislocate my shoulder!”
She does not care. She is pawing the ring like she plans to marry it herself.
The game starts, the crowd roars, but my face is still tomato-red from the proposal spectacle that I never in one million years imagined being part of.
Laddie, meanwhile, is staring up at me with big, puzzled eyes.
“What happened out there, Mama?”
I clear my throat. “Oh… um. Dad asked me to marry him.”
His eyes widen. “You’renot alreadymarried?”
“Nope,” I say, showing him the ring now that Talia has stopped manhandling me. “We did things out of order.”
“What’s outta-odor?”
I laugh. “Out of order,” I correct him gently. “It just means we didn’t do things the way people normally do them. But that’s okay. We love each other, and we love you.”
I turn to Talia, and she’s crying and rolling her eyes, and how does someone even do that at the same time?
I lift my lip in annoyed disbelief. “What iswrongwith you?”
She sniffs dramatically. “That was so cheesy it broke me. These are tears of pure mortification. Foryou.”
I laugh and shove her shoulder while she fans her face with a nacho menu.
“You’re the absolute worst. I can’t wait until you move to Tucson.”
She puts an arm over my shoulder and leans in. “Hey. I’m actually really happy for you. I know I haven’t always been Liam’s biggest fan, but… I know he loves you. That much is crystal clear. And honestly? That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. For you to be cherished. For Laddie to be loved.”
I meet my sister’s sincere gaze and give her a tiny grateful smile.
And as we settle in for the game, everything feels new and right, like we really are stepping into a new future, full of promises.
37
EPILOGUE - LIAM
“Ready, Liam?”the pastor asks, poking his head into the small anteroom where I’ve been pacing for the past fifteen minutes.
I nod and follow him out to the dais, where I take my place for the ceremony.
The tuxedo’s custom-made, so it’s not that it doesn’t fit. It does. When I tried it on for Emma, she’d nearly ripped it right off of me; she’d thought it was too sexy. It’s just that this church is hella hot. Between the heat, the staring, and the fact that I just want to marry Emma already, I feel like a sausage in a pressure cooker.
Emma’s parents, Miguel and Joanna, sit in the front row, on either side of my mom, Mary. She’s frail and looks significantly older than her years, but she’s been clean for several years, and her doctors thought she was well enough to travel to Boston for our wedding. That alone feels like a miracle.
Teammates from Chicago and Boston are here, as are some of Emma and Talia’s friends from their respective workplaces. There are even a couple of our old high school friends.
