I knew she would. I’m also happy that Henry has everything under control over there and is communicating with Raelynn about it. We get Bree settled in for the night and then lay on the couch on our sides. The tips of my fingers walk from Raelynn’s shoulder to as far as I can reach down her leg. I’m happy she’s happy. I’m happy things are working out. That we took the risk and that it’s been worth it. I think the best of us is yet to come.
“Elias?”
“Hmm?” I hum absentmindedly, wondering if she’ll let me have her right here on the couch.
“I started writing after Henry left me,” she says. My fingers pause at her hips and I look down at her since I’m propped up by my elbow. “I’ve always been good in school when it came to writing, but after I told him and my parents about Jackson and everything that happened...” Her voice trails off as she takes a few deep breaths. “I needed an outlet to stay sane.”
Her inhale this time is shaky. “At first, I wrote like an alternate reality. A fictional version of my life that I wished would’ve happened instead of what did. Then, other stories started coming and I wrote those instead. But it was still an outlet, an escape when life got hard, and it was private. I was going to tell you about it eventually. Once I felt like I do now.”
Out of all of that, there’s one thing that interests me the most. “How do you feel now?”
“At peace and secure with who we are and where we’re going, all of which I’m not sure I’ve ever felt before. But once it hit me, I realized this is what I was waiting for.”
I smile. I can’t help it. Raelynn has finally settled in with me and our relationship. She’s finally truly comfortable and believes in us. “About time,” I mumble, teasing her.
She rolls onto her back to show me she’s rolling her eyes at me. She fists my shirt in my hand and a slow smile lights up her face. “Are you done?” She glances toward the TV. “I think we should celebrate the fact that I’m jobless and officially living with my boyfriend.”
I laugh. I want to ask her if she’s settled on what she wants to do about the jobless part, but not right now I don’t. My hand slides back down to her legs and slips underneath the dress she still wears. “How do you want to celebrate?” I ask.
She grabs my neck and pulls me down for a kiss as her answer. I shift us so I’m on my back and she lies on top of me. Just as I’m pulling her dress up, she leans back.
“Quick question.”
“What?”
“Why haven’t you invited me to the charity event? Sylvia said you’re supposed to.”
I stare at her for a moment. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now. Really?”
“It just popped into my head,” she says with a shrug.
“Hadn’t thought about it much with everything going on.” And that’s almost a lie. I haven’t thought about it at all, actually. “Do you want to go with me, Raelynn?”
She slides her hands from my neck to my shoulders, shifts her legs to straddle me, and sighs. “Do I have to? Seems kind of daunting.”
I laugh. She wants to know why I haven’t asked her to an event she isn’t sure she wants to attend in the first place? I lift my head so my lips can meet hers. She’s too cute to not quit talking and start back on the path we were on. A path where my hands lift and lift until she sits up to remove her dress. A path where she smiles as I flip us over, her fingers curl into my hair as I kiss along her collarbone.
“Shirt, Elias,” she whispers her demand.
I quickly pull it off and get back to enjoying her body with my hands and my mouth. Off comes her bra and soon after, her panties. I tease her with touches, licks, kisses, and sucking. She squirms and sighs and moans and pulls my hair until she eventually says, “Elias, I love you, but if you don’t stop teasing me, you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”
I laugh as I finish shedding my clothes so I can give her what she wants.
“Everything better?” Brayden asks as we change into our gear for the game today.
I nod. “Much better.”
“Good.” He frowns and I follow his gaze to see Collin Kessy sitting, hunched over, and half-dressed.
“What’s wrong with him?” I ask.
Brayden’s gaze snaps over to me. “Nothing.”
He’s lying. He looks concerned and Collin doesn’t normally act like that, not that I’ve seen at least. The guy’s chest is clearly laboring. His brother looks back and forth between him and everyone else in the room to see if someone notices Collin’s odd behavior. I’d definitely say something is wrong.
Collin suddenly stands and walks as fast as he can out of the room. Cal gives Brayden a look before he follows after him.
“You sure nothing’s wrong?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he replies. “I’ll be right back.” And then he follows the same path as Collin and Cal.
Obviously, whatever is happening isn’t any of my business. I hope it’s nothing serious. And it must not be because he goes through our stretches, plays a game of soccer, and warms up with us. However, the usual Kessy chemistry doesn’t exist today. Not at all. It’s almost painful to watch those two on the ice.
Collin runs into Cal once. He makes one of their famous no-look passes, and it goes straight to the stick of our opponent, nowhere close to Cal. He gets more penalties than he normally does. Some for hooking, some for slashing, and one for tripping. Collin even scores on Savage. It’s a terrible mishap. He stands in front of the net, tries to slap the puck away to the left of the net, but it goes straight past Savage’s skate and into the net.
He’s an absolute hazard out there. I’ve never seen the Kessy twins anything but composed out on the ice, but Collin falls apart. So much so that Coach Mike begins to double shift some of us to replace him so he can sit on the bench.
Collin looks absolutely distressed over his performance after the first. Cal seems disturbed by it. Like what I’ve seen at least once before, Brayden nods his head toward the door and he and Collin both stand and walk out. I don’t know what they do out there or why they leave, but it seems Collin could definitely use some words of wisdom from the captain.
Coach Mike gives him an opportunity to redeem himself in the second, but he nearly scores on Savage again when trying to clear the puck. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but it’s not good. We manage to play okay throughout the rest of the game, but we can’t slip a puck past their goalie. Savage plays awesome, making sweet saves, too.
We lose two to zero, one of their guys scoring late in the third. Not a fun day in the office, that’s for sure.
Afterward, I walk up to the box to meet Raelynn, Bree, and Jackson. As soon as Jackson sees me, he runs over and I bend to catch him.
“Sorry you lost, EJ.”
“It happens, J-man. We fought hard, that’s all that matters.”
I just hope whatever Collin’s going through gets fixed and fast, for his sake and ours.
Monday, Henry, Raelynn, and I sit together in the very facility I practice in. Why? Because this place does more than let us practice here. This is where I brought Jackson to skate and today is his first lesson. Bree struggles in Raelynn’s lap to get down, but every so often, she tries to navigate over to Henry. It seems she has developed a slight interest in him and she’s beginning to get pissed that she isn’t allowed to crawl on the floor or go to Henry.
Henry notices, though, and he glances to me after Bree pounds on Raelynn’s shoulder in anger. “Can I?” he asks.
“Yeah, sure.”
Raelynn gives Bree what she wants and she immediately claps both her hands on his cheeks and giggles.
“I can’t believe y’all signed my son up for this,” Raelynn whispers with a shake of her head. “That I approved.” She looks at me. “What if he gets hurt?”
Henry is the one to answer her. “He’s a boy. He’ll get hurt at some point with or without this. Trust me.”
Raelynn frowns, more so when I add, “He’s right. This will be good
for him. It’ll expand his world.” She can’t say no to that. And this will most certainly do that. He’ll make new friends, learn new skills, and so much more that he’ll remember for the rest of this life.
“He’s having so much fun already, too,” she points out.
I’ve most certainly never seen a kid so invested and having an absolute blast at their first lesson. And it hits me then that this is my new life. Being with my girlfriend, my princess, J-man, and even with Henry, hanging out with this family of mine. A family. That’s doubled in size, more if I keep counting Henry since he’ll forever be around because of Jackson.
Even more surprising is that this feels fantastic. I’m happier than I’ve ever been.
“Raelynn.”
She looks up at me with a slight smile. I dip my head and kiss her softly.
“What’s that for?” she whispers.
“Because I love you.”
At this time last year, Bree hadn’t quite entered my life yet. And to think of how much my life has changed and with her turning one next month, it’s insane. One thing is for sure, though, I can’t wait to see what my life will look like in another year’s time.
Acknowledgements
Thank you, Kristalyn Thornock. You’re my favorite.
Thank you, Angie Wells, for being a beta reader for me! I’m grateful for your help.
Thank you, Shannon Page, for editing my work. It’s always such a pleasure to work with you!
Thank you, Robin from Wicked by Design. You provide me with covers I’m proud to show off.
Thank you, Julie from JT Formatting. You know how much I love your work!
Thank you, reader, for taking the time to read this story. I hope you enjoyed it.
Lindsay Paige is the author of multiple Young Adult, New Adult, and Sports romances. She also enjoys writing books with characters who deal with anxiety and depression, issues which are close to her heart. Lindsay is a North Carolinian who loves watching hockey, sharing puns, having conversations with her miniature Schnauzer, re-watching episodes of MASH, and living her dream of writing books for a living.
If you would like to hear news before anyone else, interact with Lindsay, and have a place to discuss her books with fellow fans, join Lindsay’s League on Facebook.
Author Links:
Website: lindsaypaige.com
Twitter: twitter.com/lindsaypaige11
Facebook: facebook.com/authorlindsaypaige
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lindsaysleague/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorlindsaypaige/
Lindsay has written the following books/series:
Bending Under Pressure
Bold as Love series
Bracing for Love series
Carolina Rebels series
Don’t Panic
Sanity series
Without a Doubt
You Before Me
She has cowritten the following series:
The Penalty Kill Trilogy
Oh Captain, My Captain series
The Ninth Inning series
Coming Soon
Stay tuned because the next Rebel to get a book will be Collin Kessy! His book will tentatively release in fall 2018.
The next book by Lindsay Paige to release will be in the Hearts in Carolina series and will feature Brent Murphy (Kayla’s father) and Jamie Alexander (a college student). This book will release in the summer of 2018.
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