Prologue
BILLIE
BLOCKBUSTER TRADE SENDS JAMES BROTHER TO SCENTED SCORPIONS
Not even an hour since Paxton was given the news, and it’s already making headlines in the hockey world. The urge to hurl my phone at the wall races through me, but I resist the temptation. A door closes from deeper in our house, and then Paxton wraps his arm around me, palming my stomach. He turns my phone’s screen off before burying his face in my shoulder. He breathes deeply as his lips run along my shoulder, carelessly moving my loose shirt out of his way. His cypress scent surrounds us in a sudden wave. The tension slowly eases away from my body, my shoulders relaxing. I lace my fingers with his. His purr rumbles through his chest, and I can’t help but relax completely into him. He takes my weight without complaint, his arm tightening around my waist.
My phone buzzes with a new text. Paxton pulls me tighter against him as I swipe open the message from Marley.
We’ll be there by one. Dani has extra tape and boxes. You know when the truck is coming?
Friday.
Two days to pack up our entire lives. I close my eyes and breathe carefully through my nose, not willing to cry about it yet.
My phone vibrates again.
Still no word on if they have a partners group? The Scorpions are known to be unattached.
Paxton kisses just under my ear.
“The coaching staff gave me a couple numbers for you,” he murmurs. “One of the coaches has a daughter in her early twenties. There are a couple other omegas, too, but they’re newly together with players. The coach’s daughter offered to help you settle in.”
“When do you have a home game?” I let my voice wobble with the emotion I’m keeping locked under my sternum.
“Thursday.”
Over a week. He won’t even be in town when I fly out there and figure out where we’re going to be living. It’s harder to swallow the tears this time.
A sudden move is always on the table when you’re engaged to a professional hockey player—especially to Paxton James, one of the best wingers in the entire league. Add to it that he’s in the final year of his contract and hasn’t been offered any kind of extension here in LA… Well, we knew going into this season we probably wouldn’t be staying in California.
It doesn’t make it any easier now that a trade is happening, though. At least he gets to skate with his brother again. They’vebeen hoping to do that since Paxton went up for the draft a year before Rhett.
“You’re staying with Rhett?”
Paxton hums. “Yeah, he said we can stay there as long as needed. He gave me the garage code in case you want to use it.”
I have no desire to stay with his brother, one of the most prominent playboys of the entire league.
“Maybe.”
An alarm on his phone goes off. He silences it but doesn’t drop his arms.
“I love you,” he says, kissing the crook of my shoulder. I hiss as he bites down enough to bruise the skin without breaking it. “I’ll see you next week.”
Chapter One
CARYS
“So more amaranthus than this one,” I say, double checking what we’ve decided over the last hour of our meeting. “With a couple splashes of purple calla lilies to add just a bit of color. You need three bridesmaid bouquets, your own with the waterfall edge along the front, and then for your centerpieces we’re doing short but full, and you’ll need about twenty of them.”
The woman across the small table nods and tucks her highlighted brown hair behind her ear, a light flush darkening her cheeks.
“That sounds perfect,” she says, her voice still hesitant.
I jot down the notes and then tape in the examples she brought in, making sure everything stays together in her order file. I notate the date of her wedding and then the date I’ll need to have the flowers ordered from the vendors to make sure everything gets delivered in time. It’s a bit outdated to use paper files, but I learned my lesson when I was in the middle of the Colorado Rockies without internet access and had to do everything by memory.
While I work, I run through my practiced speech about deposits and delivery windows and timelines for any additional changes. The young woman nods through it all and then offers me her credit card without comment.
