"I did?"
"Yes Duncan, that’s a pretty big part of it."
"Huh."
Silence hangs in the air between us until I can’t take it anymore. "So?"
"So what?"
"So are you going to ask me to marry you?"
"Do you want me to?"
"Yes."
Duncan leans forward and caresses my cheek. His eyes searching mine. "Rhys Reid, will you marry me?"
My smile is so wide, forming the word is a little challenging. "Yes."
Chapter fifty-nine
Felix Fornier
The Engagement Party
"GrannyFranny,thankyoubut I’ve got it."
I am a patient man. I have had my patience tested by each and everyone of the men I shepherd through the season as their captain. I’ve had to be patient with coaches. With women.
But it might just be a spry, Scottish, octogenarian who does me in.
Granny Franny is an absolute menace.
A trail of toppled decorations trails behind her, sullying the stunning venue, because she refuses to take off her eye patch.
She insists it elevates the puffy shirt and leather culottes outfit.
Don’t get me started on the chicken she tried to bring in on her shoulder in lieu of a parrot.
"Aye, but the sign is crooked." Granny Franny says with a tilt of her head in the opposite direction of the sign.
"It’s supposed to be. They’reShipwrecked."
"I still don’t get it." She grouses as she lifts the eyepatch but still keeps the eye under it squeezed shut.
"Yeah Cap, wouldn’t ‘Crossing Swords’ have been a better theme?"
"That I understand." Granny points to Bryson.
"No, that’s not romantic."
"You know he didn’t get Rhys a ring for hisfingerright?" Bryson leans in and whispers.
"I’m aware. And it’s part of my struggle to keep this event elevated."
Duncan told me before the playoffs began that he was going to ask Rhys to marry him at the end of the season and I needed to start planning the engagement party. He connected me with Granny Franny and she connected me with Rhys’s mother, Nicola. We’ve been planning via text throughout the entire playoffs.
I managed to keep my head in the game enough to lead us to victory.
