"Emma knew?"
"Everyone knew. Chase helped me pick the ring. Emma insisted on being here with the kids. Mom wanted to fly back, but I told her we'd video call later so she could see your face."
"You're ridiculous."
"You love it."
"I really do."
He kisses me again, slower this time, despite our awkward position on the ice, and I taste the future in it. Marriage. Forever. Building a life that's messy and beautiful and ours.
Eventually, we manage to stand, wobbling and holding onto each other. We skate back to the edge, me clinging to Jackson the entire way, convinced I'm going to fall again, and Emma's here waiting.
"Let me see the ring," she demands, practically bouncing with excitement.
I hold out my hand, fingers trembling. The diamond catches the arena lights, throwing tiny rainbows across the ice.
"It's perfect," Emma says, voice thick with emotion. "You're perfect. Both of you."
Chase pulls Jackson into a hug, clapping him on the backhard enough to make him stumble. "Congrats, man. You actually pulled it off."
Ethan wants to see the ring, too, so I crouch down to his level. He touches it with one careful finger, eyes wide.
"Pretty," he says.
"Very pretty," I agree.
"You marry Uncle Jack?"
"I'm going to marry Uncle Jack."
"Okay." He accepts this with the easy adaptability of a toddler, already distracted by something else across the rink.
We head to the family room. The Wolves have one for players' families during games, comfortable couches, and a big TV. Emma's brought champagne and cupcakes from the bakery down the street, the fancy kind with buttercream flowers.
"I can’t believe you planned this whole thing," I tell Jackson, settling onto the couch beside him.
"I had to do it right."
"On the ice. Where I can't skate and nearly died multiple times."
"Seemed poetic. Where I taught you, where we had that moment before everything went to hell." He pulls me close, arm around my shoulders. "Full circle, you know?"
Emma raises her glass, standing despite Sofia sleeping in her other arm. "To Maya and Jackson. Who are stubborn and stupid and perfect for each other."
"Hear, hear," Chase adds, raising his own glass.
We toast, the sound of glass clinking filling the small room. Ethan tries to steal a cupcake before we've finished toasting, and Chase has to wrangle him. Sofia wakes up crying, and Emma begins to feed her. It's chaotic and loud and everything I never knew I wanted, this family that chose me when I had nothing left.
Later, after Emma and Chase take the kids home withpromises to celebrate properly this weekend, Jackson and I sit in the empty arena.
"I can't believe you proposed on the ice," I say, leaning against him in the stands.
"Well, it's where everything started."
"Everything started in Emma's kitchen when I arrived broken and ready to die."
"No, we’re both wrong. Everything started eight years ago, when I realized I was in love with my sister's best friend." He touches my face, thumb tracing my cheekbone. "Took me all these years to do something about it."
