“Wow.” I pause, letting that sink in. “You chose not to defend yourself and now you’re paying for it.”
He sighs. “Yeah, I guess in a way I am. Two years later and my reputation doesn’t seem to be any better. Now I’m being forced to care about it if I want this lawsuit dropped.”
“And do you still want a family someday?”
I don’t know why I ask the question, but finding out that Boone wanted to get married, retire and have kids before hisended engagement is a revelation that’s only making him more attractive to me.
His lips curl into a soft smile. “Yeah. Eleven of them. A whole hockey team. Think I might have a breeding kink.”
I burst out laughing, and he chuckles with me, the sound deep and warm. But when our gazes connect again, I realize he’s not joking.
“You’re serious,” I say, studying his face.
“Not about the eleven kids but yeah, I am. I want a family,” he says simply.
My eyes drift to the window, where snowflakes fall silently onto the frozen surface of Brookhaven Lake. It’s beautiful, peaceful, but my thoughts feel anything but. They swirl as chaotically as the remaining tequila that’s still buzzing in my veins.
Have I always wanted to be a mother? No. But the older I get, and especially since Cain became a father, the more I’ve realized it’s okay to change your mind about the life you thought you wanted. It’s okay to say you want to prioritize your career over having a family. And it’s okay to admit you want kids when, once upon a time, you were sure you didn’t.
Now, watching Cain step into fatherhood with Rhiannon, seeing the joy Piper has brought into their lives and the sense of purpose he’s found outside of his career, something has stirred awake inside me. A quiet yearning. For that kind of love. For a family, for new traditions we never had growing up.
For the chance to mother a child the way I never was but always deserved.
It’s ridiculous that I’m having these thoughts about Boone. He’s my fake husband who I’m set to divorce in just two more months. But hearing Boone would quit his successful career tostart a family gives me hope that there are more men out there like him.
“You know,” Boone says, his voice breaking through my thoughts, “something’s been bugging me about the first night that we met.”
“Hm?” I ask absently, turning back to him. “What about it?”
His grin widens, and he tilts his head, like he’s caught me red-handed. “So, you admit that it was you in that club?”
I groan and sink deeper into the couch. “Only because I’ve been drinking and you caught me off guard with your question.”
He laughs, shaking his head. “What the hell were you doing dancing there that night? That place doesn’t seem like your style.”
“One of my old law school friends works there.”
“The one you danced with?”
I nod. “That’s her. I’d been…” I trail off. God, am I about to share this with Boone? It makes me look weak when I’m not. It makes me look lost when I have direction. I just needed to do something to shake up the monotony and loneliness.
I look up again and see his eyes steady and warm, patiently waiting for me to continue.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been feeling uneasy lately. About the way my life’s been going.”
“What do you mean?” His tone shifts, softer now, and he leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as his dark eyes lock onto mine. His brows draw together slightly, and those full lips—God, those lips—make it impossible to look anywhere else but at him.
It’s disarming, how he’s studying me, how he makes me feel so exposed. It’s not in a bad way. But it’s like he really wants to know me. And not just the surface stuff but the things I try to hide from everyone else.
And it’s hard not to fall just a little in love with Boone every time I’m around him.
I swear I read something like that in one of his old interviews. How the lovable forward center of the Mayhem makes you feel seen, heard, and safe and that’s why everyone on and off the ice loves him.
It’s true. Every word of it.
“My life has been so… scripted, you know?” I say, my voice quieter now. “My dad planned everything for me from the moment I was born. I’ve never done anything outside of the careful outline for my life. I’ve always stayed neatly within the lines of his plans for me.”
Boone doesn’t interrupt, just watches me with that intense, focused expression that makes me feel like I can keep going without fear of being judged.
