When we’re alone, Lane takes my hands and kisses me on the forehead.
My breath catches, then releases like a stone skipping over water, but it doesn’t sink. It rises like hope with the help of the butterflies in my belly.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said, about the promise you made to your father. And you’re right. He said never todatea hockey player.”
The butterflies crash land. It’s over just when I got the courage to try for real.
His mouth curves in a subtle smile—the same one that first caught my attention across the crowded ballroom on New Year’s Eve. “But there was a loophole of sorts becausemarriageis a completely different game, and we already jumped into the deep end. It can only go up from here.”
Rise.
I press my hand to my chest. “That’s not what I expected you to say.”
He joins me on the rink and reels me closer, placing my arms over his shoulders. Relief flows through me.
“Nina, we could look at this as being messy and complicated and without guarantees, but I want you. I want us. I think together we can turn messes into tidy spaces, complicated into simple, and talk to Lucian Little about guarantees.”
I tip my head back and laugh. “Are you sure?”
“I am sure.” He nods with confidence and the light in his eyes is just for me.
Letting out a shaky breath, I ask, “Even if your career doesn’t go the way you planned? Even if the media keeps speculating about my motivations? Even if we have no idea what we’re doing half the time?”
“Especially then. I’m sure that I love you. I’m sure that those kids love us both. I’m sure that whatever we’re building together is worth everything we’ve got.”
Cheeks warm, a smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. I cannot believe what I’m hearing, but deep down, I’ve known all along and feel the same way.
“If I could give you back your hockey career, I would. If I could bring down the stars so you could experience life as an astronaut, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But I can give you me, slightlydamaged with an old injury and a tendency to turn any available surface into a home for my keys, phone, and wallet, but you get the better part. The honesty, safety, and adoration. I’ll give you all the good inside me.”
Happy tears burst free and I’m laughing at the same time as we press our lips together. When we kiss, it’s a seal of promise and forever and the kind of love that I never thought possible for myself.
It’s generous.
Tender.
Trusting.
Whole.
Lane cups my face in both hands, as if memorizing the feel of my skin beneath his palms, while at the same time leaving his fingerprints all over me.
I’m his. He’s mine.
His breath hitches when I brush my thumbs along his jaw.
This kiss is different from the others—less tentative, more sure. Like we’ve both finally stopped questioning what this is between us and started embracing it instead.
With his mouth on mine, warmth builds and expands all the way through me like holding hands on a winter walk. My arms wind around his neck as I rise on my toes to meet him, eager and giving.
There’s something profound in the way he kisses me back, like he’s pouring all his spoken and unspoken feelings into this single moment. I can feel his smile against my lips and I hope he can feel the joy radiating from me in waves.
Lane’s hands slide into my hair, and he draws me closer until there’s no space left between us.
The kiss deepens naturally, unhurried but intense, full of all the things we haven’t said yet, but both seem to intuitively understand.
I think about how we started—two strangers accidentally bound together by a hypnotist’s prompting—and maybe some hockey team shenanigans. How impossible it seemed that anything real could come from what I surely believed was a mistake.
But this is real.
