Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
The buzzer sounds.
We won!
We're going to the conference finals.
The arena loses its mind. Fans are screaming, jumping, hugging strangers. My teammates dogpile at center ice, everyone shouting and laughing. Someone dumps a water bottle over my head. Jake is crying as he hugs each of us.
"We did it!" Connor yells, his young face split in the biggest grin I've ever seen. "We actually did it!"
But I'm not celebrating yet.
I skate away from the pile, toward the section where Ivy is standing. She's pushed her way to the glass, her small frame somehow making it through the crowd. Her brown eyes are wide, mascara slightly smudged from happy tears, her straight black hair falling around her face.
She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
I drop to one knee on the ice.
The crowd noise shifts. Confusion, then realization, then a collective gasp that ripples through the entire arena. Cameras swivel toward me. The jumbotron switches from the final score to my face.
I pull the ring box from where I tucked it into my glove, flipping it open.
Ivy's hands fly to her mouth. Tears stream down her cheeks.
I can't hear myself over the noise, but I mouth the words anyway:
“Will you marry me?”
For one endless moment, she just stares. Then she's nodding frantically, saying something I can't hear but can read on her lips:
“Yes. Yes. Yes.”
The arena erupts again, somehow even louder than before.
Security helps her onto the ice. She's wobbling in her sneakers on the frozen surface, and I catch her before she falls. My hands shake as I slide the ring onto her finger. It fits perfectly.
"I love you," I say against her ear, the only way she'll hear me.
"I love you too." She pulls back, and her smile is radiant. "You're insane. You know that?"
"You're marrying me anyway."
"I am." She laughs, and the sound cuts through everything else. "I really am."
I kiss her, right there at center ice, in front of twenty thousand people and every camera in the building. She kisses me back, her hands fisting in my jersey, and nothing has ever felt more right.
My teammates surround us, whooping and congratulating. Riley is somehow on the ice now, crying and hugging Ivy. Rowan is grinning. As we finally skate off the ice together, me basically carrying her, I can't stop grinning like an idiot.
"Mrs. Hawthorne," I murmur into her hair.
