"Worth the wait?"
"Every second."
I look at the ring on my finger, simple and elegant, and exactly what I would've chosen if he'd asked. The pendant rests against my chest. His father's wolf, now mine. Soon I'll have his last name too.
Maya Anderson.
It sounds right.
"When do you want to get married?" Jackson asks, playing with my fingers.
"I don't know. Maybe next year? Give us time to plan, figure out what we want?"
"Or we could elope. Vegas, courthouse, whatever you want."
"Your mom would kill us both and hide the bodies where no one would find them."
"Valid point." He grins, pulling out his phone. "Next year, then. Big wedding, whole family, Emma crying through the entire ceremony."
"She's going to be insufferable about this."
"Absolutely. She's already texting me ideas. Look." He shows me his phone, and Emma's sent fourteen messages in the last ten minutes, all about venues and themes and whether Sofia'sold enough to be a flower girl by then, complete with links to Pinterest boards she's apparently already created.
"We created a monster," I say, scrolling through the messages.
"We did."
But I'm smiling because this is my family now. Emma, Chase, and the kids. Diane calling from Calgary with congratulations I know are coming. Jackson's teammates, who've become friends, welcomed me without question. The messy, complicated, beautiful chaos of people who love each other through good and bad.
When I arrived at Emma's house with nothing—no job, no hope, no will to live. I was drowning in trauma, ready to let go, convinced there was nothing left worth fighting for.
Now I'm here. Engaged to the man I've loved since I was too young to understand what that meant. Working as a nurse again, saving lives, making a difference. Living in an apartment with Jackson, where we can be as loud as we want. Planning a future that includes marriage and maybe kids and growing old together, doing crossword puzzles and arguing about whose turn it is to do dishes.
"What are you thinking?" Jackson asks, studying my face.
"That I'm happy. That not long ago I wanted to die, and now I want to live forever with you. Want to see what the next fifty years bring."
His eyes are wet, tears threatening to spill. "You're going to make me cry."
"Good. Payback for the ice proposal that nearly killed me."
He laughs and pulls me against him with both arms wrapped tight. We sit here in the quiet arena, the ice gleaming under the lights, and I let myself believe in forever, in happiness that lasts, in love that survives everything thrown at it.
Because I'm Maya Rivera, soon to be Maya Anderson.Survivor, nurse, fiancée, and finally, after everything—alive in all the ways that matter.
EPILOGUE ~ 1 YEAR LATER
JACKSON
The venue is small and intimate. A historic mansion on the outskirts of Hartford with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking gardens that Emma spent three months obsessing over. Twelve chairs arranged in two rows, white flowers everywhere, late June sunshine streaming through the glass.
I'm standing at the altar with Chase beside me as my best man, hands shaking worse than they did when I proposed on the ice. Worse than any playoff game, any championship, any moment in my entire life.
"You good?" Chase asks quietly.
"I'm a complete mess."
"Good. You're marrying the love of your life. You're supposed to be."
