by Toni Aleo
And the more he spent time with her, the more he knew that he could make the dream of having her be Mrs. Karson King a reality. After all this time, he could read her like a book, and she wanted him; she still loved him. She was everything he wanted in a girl. Successful, gorgeous, funny, playful, and special. She was his, and though he didn’t know what was going to happen at the end of the night, he had a gut feeling that it would end with his ring on her sweet hand.
And usually his gut was right.
Fighting through the cold, they made it back to her apartment, and once inside, Karson looked around the room as Lacey hung his coat and got him a drink. Since he had been too busy tearing off her clothes last night and then rushing to get to practice this morning, he hadn’t really gotten to take in her apartment. Now that he could, he was pleased with what he saw. She was clean, something he expected, and also very chic. The room was done in teals and white, with a black sectional that surrounded a huge TV. Pictures of whom he suspected were her nephews graced every single inch of the apartment. It was obvious that she loved the boys and also Rachel. What surprised him most was that there were only two pictures of her with her dad and brother. He expected a lot more, but maybe it was because she had so many pictures of her and her beautiful mother.
Lacey favored the woman to the extreme. He used to think that she looked like her dad, but when he saw a picture of her with her mother, he knew he was completely wrong. Finding a picture of them together, posing playfully for the camera, his mouth pulled up at the side. He wished he’d had the chance to meet Ashley Martin. He was sure she would have liked him, and maybe then Nate and Grady wouldn’t have been as overly protective as they were. Losing her and then almost losing Lacey to breast cancer really had an effect on the family, and he understood that. But at the same time, he wanted nothing more than to make Lacey happy. He believed with his whole heart that he could, but the Martin men did not agree.
Coming up beside him, Lacey leaned her head on his shoulder and said, “I wish you would have had the chance to meet her.”
Karson smiled. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“She was a stellar human being. I miss her so much.”
“To have such a stellar daughter, she had to be.”
She grinned up at him and asked, “How’s your mom and dad? Kacey?”
Turning, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her nose, unable to get enough of her. “Ma and Dad are great. Ma had a little skin cancer scare about two years ago, and because of it went on a crazy campaign and basically slathers every single person in sunscreen, even when it isn’t sunny.” She laughed softly as he shook his head. “She’s nuts, but we love her. Dad is good. He is coaching at the high school I played at. They come to at least ten home games a year. It’s nice seeing them.”
“I bet, and Kacey?”
“She’s training for the Olympics right now. She is praying and hoping they pick her up for the team. She wants a medal. She thinks it would be better than the fact I’ve won the Cup.”
She laughed. “It kinda is.”
“Shut your mouth!” he teased, gathering her tighter in his arms. “Or at least, don’t tell her that.”
Her eyes softened as she looked down at the base of his neck. “I wish I’d had the chance to meet them back then,” she said sadly, running her finger along his throat as it closed up with emotion. She was supposed to meet them for dinner, but he broke up with her instead. Asshole move on his part. He took a lashing from his mom, and his dad was disappointed, while Kacey called him an idiot. Needless to say, everyone loved Lacey, and they’d never even met her. Showed how special she was and how much he was a freaking idiot to let her go.
“Ma still asks about you.”
Her mouth pulled up at the side. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I think she knows how much you mean to me.”
“That’s really sweet.”
“It’s true, and you’re gonna meet them, Lacey, soon.”
“Really?” she asked, a grin tugging at her glossed-up mouth.
“Yeah, I’ll fly you out there, or fly them here, or whatever. Whatever we decide to do after tonight, I’ll make sure you meet them.”
She moved her fingers along his shoulders and then laced them behind his neck. “What do you want to do after tonight?”
Moving his lips softly against hers but not kissing her, he whispered, “I want to be with you.”
Biting her lip, she nodded. “I want that too.”
His heart exploded in his chest. For years, he had prayed and hoped to hear those words come out of her pretty mouth, and the feeling of insane completion washed over him as he lost himself in her intoxicating eyes. As much as he just wanted to stay in this fucking great moment and imagine their life together, he needed to be honest. He had to lay everything out for her before he took her words to heart. It was hard because he wanted to plan out everything—where they would buy a house, when they would get married and have a baby, but that could all not happen. She could want him now, but once she heard what her father did to them, she could either believe him or not.
He hoped she would trust and believe him, but her relationship with her dad was strong. He played the role as mother and father to Lacey after they lost Ashley. He put her through school, paid for her cancer treatment, and he was supposed to help start her business. It was going to be hard to tell her something as vile as what Nate Martin did to them, but did he have a choice?
Not if he wanted this girl for the rest of his life.
“Lacey, baby, I need to tell you something, and I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like it.”
Dropping her arms, she gazed into his eyes, worry filling her pretty green ones as she asked, “Shit. Is it bad?”
He chuckled as he took her hand before leading her to the couch. “It’s the deep crap we need to talk about before we start planning everything and figuring out things.”
Stopping him, she said, “First, I want to show you something. Come on.”
She pulled him along to her room. “I’m surprised since you’ve been basically threatening my life for this information,” he teased.
She laughed as she nodded. “True, but I want to show you something. You know how you’ve said how important I am to you?”
“Yeah, you are.”
Pushing her door open, she went in first and then turned to look at him. “Well, you are the same to me, always have been. And I know I probably should have thrown away this stuff after what happened years ago, but I couldn’t let you go.”
Looking past her, confused, he saw a red and black box on her bed, the contents spread all over. Walking to the bed, he stopped short when he saw the picture of them after one of his games. He was sweaty, young, and excited, his arm wrapped tightly around Lacey’s small frame. She had her hair in a pixie cut from where it was growing out from the chemo. She was beautiful, and the way he was looking at her just screamed how much he loved her. Moving his gaze from that picture, he found another one of them at the coffee shop, her lying across his chest, reading a book while he played his DS. His throat was tight with emotion as he took in each picture, them during date night, hanging out at the frat house, just being young, crazy-in-love kids. Next were the letters, trinkets of love he gave her… She kept everything. Even the petals to the flowers he had bought her. She had loved him all this time like he had loved her, and neither of them had done anything about it.
How fucking pathetic and sad.
“I have a box of us too.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised.
He shook his head. “Yeah. I pull it out every once in a while.”
“When I thought you left without a word, I took it out and was about to let you go but then found the note.”
“Thank God,” he said, pushing their love story to the side so he could sit down. Taking her hand, he brought her down on the bed beside him and laced his fingers with hers. He loved how perfectly their hands fit together, and
as he gazed at her hand, he couldn’t help but imagine the engagement ring on her finger. It was going to fit her flawlessly, and he was half tempted to pull it out of his pocket and give it to her.
But thankfully before he could do that, she said, “Tell me what you had to say in the living room.”
Looking deep in her eyes, he prayed that when he exposed her father that she would still love him. That she would still want to be with him and make a life with him. Yeah, they hadn’t said that’s what they were going to do, but damn it, it felt right. He felt it in his bones, and they were going to be together from that moment on. It was such a powerful feeling, but it could all go to hell if she didn’t trust him. He hoped to God she would, but to be sure, he had to make sure that Nate Martin did what he was supposed to do. Maybe then, if she did kick him to the curb, and while his heart was breaking, he would know that at least she had her business from all his pain and heartache. That it would be sort of worth it all.
“First, tell me something,” he said slowly.
“Okay?”
“This may seem like it’s out of left field, but did your dad pay for the start-up of your business?”
Her head fell to the side as she eyed him. Then very slowly, she nodded her head. “He did. How did you know that?”
That was good. He wanted that, but what he didn’t want was the way she was looking at him. Like he was about to tell her something horrible, which he was, but it made his stomach uneasy. His nerves were eating him alive, and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he had already thrown that out there. She knew he knew, so there was only one thing to do and that was to tell her the truth.
“Because he said he would.”
Lacey was confused and really didn’t understand why her father was being brought up at that moment. Who cared if he gave her the start-up funding for her business? Why did Karson need to know that? It wasn’t that she minded that he asked, but it was, as he said, out of left field. And also why the hell would her dad tell Karson, the man he hated more than life itself, about it? He would rather gouge out Karson’s eyes than tell him anything. So what gave?
“What? I don’t understand.”
He nodded, moving his hand from hers. He ran his fingers through his hair as he let out a long breath. Looking at her, his eyes were sad, and his lips set in a nervous line. Something wasn’t right, and her stomach dropped at the sight of his discomfort.
Biting the inside of her cheek, she prepared herself for the worst as she watched him take in another deep breath before letting it out slowly. His shoulders moved and dropped with each action he made. Shaking his head, obviously having a mental battle with himself, he looked back at her and she urged him on with her eyes.
“What’s going on?” she asked softly, moving her hand down his arm and lacing her fingers with his. “Tell me.”
As he stared at her, she could see the love in his eyes but also the regret. She hated that. Yeah, he fucked up and left, but they were together now, and they were going to make up for lost time. She believed that. She believed and loved him. They had their whole lives in front of them, and together, it would be a life they’d both dreamed of. Yeah, she may be jumping ahead, but it felt right. They felt right.
Everyone had that one person who left a huge imprint on their heart. Sometimes they lost that person, or it didn’t work out and they went their separate ways, but the whole time, they wondered “what if.” Hell, Lacey had done it for nine years, and now she had the chance to start all over with the love of her life. There was no walking away from that. She had loved him since the moment she met him and didn’t plan on stopping.
He was her evermore.
Clearing his throat, he met her gaze again and said, “This isn’t easy to admit, and I don’t want you to think I am passing the blame. I’m not because it is as much my fault as his. I should have been stronger and believed in us, but I was scared.”
“You’re making me nervous, Karson. Just tell me,” she urged, her heart thumping her in her chest.
“The day I broke up with you wasn’t by choice, and I think you knew that…still know that. After practice that morning, your dad called me into his office,” he said slowly, testing her reaction, but Lacey stayed stone-faced, watching him. “I thought it was to talk about the following day, and he did mention it, but then he said that I had to break up with you.”
Dread filled her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She’d always suspected her dad had something to do with Karson leaving, but she couldn’t accept that he would devastate her like that. He was supposed to love her, and breaking her into a billion pieces by taking her love from her didn’t express that. Looking deep in Karson’s eyes though, she knew it was the truth. Her daddy, the man who was supposed to love and protect her no matter what, had done everything to separate them.
“I didn’t want to, I hope you know that. But he brought up the fact that your cancer could come back, that I wouldn’t be able to support you and all your bills since you wouldn’t be getting the schooling for free, and that the medical bills would be beyond my pay grade. So I tried to say that I would convince you to stay home and finish school while I got established in the NHL. I figured we’d be fine, but then he threatened my career.”
Her heart hurt as she blinked through her tears, her gaze locked with his. “He did?”
“Yeah,” he said sadly, looking away. “He said he would pull me out of the game the following day, and I had to play—all the scouts were gonna be there and shit. So I did what he wanted, but I swear, Lacey, it never felt right, and I promise I regret it with everything inside me.”
She could only nod as her heart broke in her chest. Her father had not only ruined her by taking away her true love but also threatened and ruined Karson. He knew how much hockey meant to Karson and knew how to twist and turn his arm to make him play by his rules. It was disgusting and just wrong. Who intentionally hurts people like that? What was the big deal? They would have been fine, but he wouldn’t even allow them to try.
“As soon as I got to Tampa, I knew I fucked up and tried so hard to get ahold of you. Grady wouldn’t let me talk to you. I tried calling Rachel, but she wasn’t having it, and then finally, I decided to just fly up here and convince you to take me back. But then my coach bumped me down to the fourth line, and I knew that your dad had something to do with that.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed as she shook her head, completely infuriated with her father. She had no doubt that he did do that; he was hell-bent on keeping them apart.
“I know you are probably disgusted with me. I am too, Lacey, I promise, but it was my rookie year, my career, and how I was going to support you when I convinced you to take me back? But every time I went to get you, something held me back. The fear of rejection, your dad, so I just stopped and watched you from afar like a coward. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I am.”
Taking in a deep breath, she wiped her face free of tears as she shook her head. “I’m not disgusted with you, Karson.”
“You’re not?” he asked, surprised.
“No, I am disgusted with him. Your career was everything to you. You hoped and dreamed of being in the NHL. I understand that.”
“But I should have fought for you; you are my hopes and dreams. I don’t need hockey—I need you.”
She smiled, cupping his jaw in her hand. “Karson King, as much as I want to believe that I come first, I can’t compete with your love of hockey. I know that, love that about you, that you are so driven. You are hockey.”
“But I’m not complete without you,” he answered, covering her hand with his. “I hate what I did, I do, and I promise I am going to do everything to make it up to you.”
“Being mine is all I need.”
“I’m yours, Lacey. All of me.”
“That’s all I need.”
“Is it? What about your family? They are going to freak and probably try to ruin me.”
“I don’t care. They will deal b
ecause I love you, and I refuse to be without you, not since the moment our lips met in that cab.”
“Really?” he asked, his eyes clouding with emotion.
Love.
He loved her. Completely. She could see that, so with a nod, she said, “Really. I love you. So much, and nothing else matters but us. Everything else will fall into place as long as we are together, loving each other.”
His eyes searched hers as a small grin pulled at his gorgeous lips. “You believe that?”
“Wholeheartedly,” she swore, running her thumb along his jaw. “I believed it then, I believe it now. We are soul mates, Karson. We are meant to be together, and together we are complete.”
“Then marry me.”
Everything stopped. Her heart, her breathing, everything. All she could do was stare at him. Surely, she just heard him wrong.
“Say what?” she asked, a nervous giggle escaping her lips.
He eyed her and then asked, “Did I just read that wrong?”
“Read what wrong?” she asked, her body trembling. “No, wait, Oh my God, okay, just say that again, ’cause I think I heard you wrong.”
Still eyeing her, he asked, “What did you hear?”
“That you want to marry me, but really? You do, oh my God, you do!” she said, her heart pounding so hard against her ribs that her chest shook. “You asked me to marry you!”
He smiled as he nodded. Standing up, he reached his hand in his pocket, pulling out the little blue box that meant one thing. He’d shopped at her favorite store in the world. As he dropped to his knee in front of her, everything inside her went still as her eyes basically bugged out of her head.
Was this fucking happening?
Opening the box to a gorgeous round diamond that was in a diamond-encrusted, twisted band, he held it up to her and said, “I bought this today. After nine long years without you, I decided that I couldn’t go even another day without you as my wife. I love you, Lacey. With every single fiber in my body. You say I am hockey, but I don’t think so. I am nothing without you. I need you beside me, cheering me on and supporting me. I honestly don’t know how I made it this long without you because these last two days have been heaven with the taste of you on my lips. It would be an honor, a pleasure, and a gift from above if you would be my wife, Lacey Martin. I know this is crazy and insane, but like you said, we are meant to be together. We are soul mates—complete only together. So what do you say? Will you marry me?”
