“I didn’t know I needed an occasion to take my girlfriend out to dinner?”
“You don’t. It’s just its Friday night, and you’re actually not at a game, so I figured it would be the perfect night to eat in and watch a movie.”
“Are you trying to distract me?”
“From what?” I questioned, confused what making dinner at home and watching a movie would actually distract him from.
“From asking you something,” he said, his expression shifting from a playful one to something a little more vulnerable.
I looked at him, heat rising in my body. “About?”
“About us, the future,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the team and then back to me. “Coach pulled me aside yesterday, said that the team’s talking about contract extensions, four years, possibly five.”
“Evan, that is amazing!” I squealed, wrapping my arms around him, hugging him.
“It is. I told him I needed to talk to you about it first.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, because four years is a long time, and because I need to know if that is what you want? Staying here, building something a little more permanent.” He said quietly, “Because I also need to know if you see this going where I see it going?”
I could feel my heart hammering in my chest, and I swallowed hard. “Where do you see it going?” I questioned.
Evan glanced over his shoulder again, looking at the guys. I could see Nightly, Kells, and Cromwell all nod at him, urging him to tell me whatever it was he wanted to say when he turned his attention back to me.
“Everywhere. Marriage, a house, maybe a couple of kids someday. Assuming you want them, of course. Every single thing I used to be afraid of doesn’t seem to scare me anymore. Not with you, anyway.”
“Evan….”
“Look, I’m not asking you to marry me right now. Not over the boards at a hockey rink. When I do it, I’ll be doing it right. I just need to know if this is what you want. Am I what you want?”
“You are probably the only thing I am sure about. I want you, three years, thirty years, or for however long you’ll have me.”
“How’s forever then?” Evan said, smiling at me.
“I’ll take it.”
“Evan, let’s go!” Nightly yelled from the center of the ice.
Evan glanced over his shoulder at them, waving. “Look, I have to go. But after the game?”
“Marino’s, and then home,” I said.
“God, I love hearing you say that.”
“Good, because I love saying it.”
“Love you,” Evan said, keeping his eyes on me as he pushed off the rails, then turned and skated out toward the team.
To think we’d come to this point from where we had started. A man who had been hiding an injury, who had walls a mile high and hid every vulnerable piece of him as if it might kill him, to this, two people who were not only in love with each other but also had a bright future together.
I pulled my phone from my back pocket as I watched the team assemble and sent Evan a text.Score a goal for me, and I’ll make it worth your while later.Then I tucked my phone back into my pocket and sat down, observing and making my notes while thinking about later tonight and the possibility of forever.
