“So what do you say, Wild?” He grins as I throw my arm around him. “Did I earn the ‘Wild King’ title?”
I tap the back of his helmet. “You earned it, Storm. You and Max barely let them near the goal. Good work.”
“Thanks. You know you’re going to get the series MVP.” He looks up at the stands. “Your wife is waving to you.”
I look to Mia’s seat. She smiles at me.
Our moment from before the game hits me in Technicolor. Because being with Mia is what I need. I don’t need any more MVPs or great stat lines. And right now, I can’t wait to go home and celebrate in private with my wife.
Epilogue
Declan
Mia and I remarry in front of the same people we married in front of the first time.
This time, it’s technically a renewal ceremony. But it feels real. And this time, I don’t have to hold back how happy I am to be marrying her.
Cam says to me afterward that nothing was different.
“True,” Jamie Beth says. “You two still looked like you wanted to rip each other’s clothes off.”
They’re right.
I liked Mia then, and I like Mia now.
But they’re also wrong.
I hadn’t opened my heart back then. I’d cracked open the door, but I hadn’t opened all of me. I could have stayed guarded and protected myself like I learned to do as a little boy and perfected as a professional athlete.
But meeting Mia changed me.
Suddenly, feeling halfway wasn’t enough. I wanted to feel all of it.
But only with one woman.
Mia Carroll Wild broke down my barriers. Because she gave me a shot.
A brooding hockey player who knew nothing about the world of marriage and love.
She believed in me.
She risked her heart by opening up to me.
And then, I risked too.
So now, we get to be Mr. and Mrs. Wild for real. And forever.
“Mr. and Mrs. Wild sounds good,” I say to her.
“Sounds perfect,” she says.
* * *
“You’re next,” I say to Luke later that night on his back porch.
“Not even close,” he says. “I’ll be the last Wild man standing. Plus, I’ve got the ranch to focus on.”
“A ranch isn’t the same thing as a relationship,” I tell him.
