“That woman is terrifying.” Robbie nodded. “But I’m grateful to her, because I didn’t—” Long, warm fingers curled around Finn’s own. His heart stuttered. “Finn. I swear I didn’t realize I was hurting you. I never wanted to do that. I’m so sorry.”
Finn could’ve said a hundred things to that. He could’ve given his own apology, for jumping to the worst possible conclusion and letting himself mope about it instead of asking for clarification; he could’ve saidI forgive you.
He said, “Where is it?”
Robbie blinked. “Where is what?”
Nowwho was being dumb? “The ring!” Maybe it was too soon to wear it as a ring. “The necklace! You can’t just dangle a proposal in front of me like that—”
“It’s in my locker,” Robbie blurted. “I was going to—but then you didn’t seem like you really wanted to talk, so….”
So they’d ended up practicing instead, when they could’ve sorted out the misunderstanding two hours ago and moved on to the celebratory sex.
Well, at least Finn knew how to make the best of this situation. He tugged Robbie to his feet and dragged him toward the locker room. “Open it.”
With a fond, somewhat dumbfounded look, Robbie opened his locker and withdrew a small rectangular box from the side pocket of his bag. He turned toward Finn, opened the hinged lid.
A sturdy platinum chain looped through a matching ring: a thick band engraved with a chevron pattern that reminded Finn of the marks skate blades left on fresh ice. The centre chevron was inlaid with diamonds.
Robbie was right: it was perfect.
Finn nodded at it, swallowed the tightness in his throat, blinked back the joy and happiness and relief and everything else. “Now ask me to be your boyfriend.”
Robbie’s lips twitched in a small smile. “Babygirl….”
That uncontrollable animal sound escaped Finn’s throat again. “Oh my God, just put it on me and get me out of here before I get fired.”
“Can I behonest?” Robbie asked in bed later, sprawled out on his back with Finn on his side next to him. “My heart’s not really in the competition anymore.”
“Well, shit,” Finn said, smiling the smile of the incredibly well-fucked, if Robbie said so himself. “Here I thought you were going to say you should’ve got me pearls.”
Robbie laughed and poked him in the side. “Don’t tempt me, babygirl. You’d look beautiful in them. Both kinds.”
Finn caught his hand and gave an unrepentant grin. “Salt- and freshwater?”
“Three kinds, then. Brat.”
“I know what you mean, though.” Finn sighed contentedly and rolled onto his back. “With the trial and Sawyer and us….”
“Lots going on.” Robbie was never going to get tired of the way his ring looked around Finn’s neck. He’d probably go fully feral once he moved it to his finger. Robbie looked forward to it.
“Lots of important stuff,” Finn clarified. He turned his head on the pillow. “You know… I’m contractually obligated to be at the arena for practice and filming a certain number of hours a week.”
Robbie raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t tell where this was going. “Yeah…?”
“But it’s, uh, a significantly lower number of hours than Ihavebeen spending there.”
Was Finn saying what Robbie thought he was saying? “We basically already won the thing anyway. We beat Chad. I got you….”
“When you put it that way, there’s really no point continuing.”
“Except the contractual obligations.”
“Exactly.” Finn paused. “So did you have something in mind, or…?”
“I have a couple ideas. I mean, I hate to throw out Stef’s perfectly good choreography….”
Finn waved that off. “She’ll understand. Especially if we let her help with Plan B.”
