by Kat Mizera
The game was rough, both teams scoring one on top of the other. With two minutes left in the third period, the Blizzard was up six to five, and Aaron had faced a whopping forty-nine shots on goal. The team from Minneapolis hadn’t let up and he was all but standing on his head to keep the game close. The other team’s goalie was as well, but Aaron couldn’t lose tonight. It was too much of a statement about what was on the line in his personal life. A loss was unacceptable.
He blocked the next shot, watching Jake skate the puck back in the other direction. He glanced at the clock. One minute thirty-eight seconds were left and both teams were changing shifts now. He breathed in and out, watching the play on the ice. They were coming at him again. Jesus, were they ever going to let up? He was confident in his abilities, but this was intense. One mistake could change everything and he didn’t want to be the reason why.
Then he saw her.
She was standing behind the bench—how the hell had she gotten the people whose seats were there to move?—hands above her head as she clapped and cheered on the Blizzard. He snapped his attention back to the game.
She was still here.
She was standing somewhere she knew he would almost definitely see her.
She’d known he needed her. Known he needed her strength to get the win. She always fucking knew.
The puck smacked his glove in the webbing, between the thumb and fingers, the impact driving his hand back a few inches. The sound was subtle but the feeling was heavy, even though a puck only weighed about six ounces. He’d stopped it, though, and play stopped too as the players got ready for the next face-off.
Forty-two seconds on the clock.
Kane drove the puck down in the other direction and, with thirty-one seconds left in the game, scored on the empty net. Aaron let out a sigh of relief. Could the other team score twice in the time that was left? Yes. Was it likely? Hell no. He could breathe again.
He stole a glance in Sara’s direction but she wasn’t looking at him. She was cheering for Kane, her smile bright. God, she was beautiful. He was a dumbass for letting his thoughts wander, but tonight was an exception. An exception to his focus, an exception to his norm, the one exception to every fucking thing: Sara.
He pumped his fist as the final buzzer sounded and he practically flew off the ice toward the bench, but she was gone and he caught up to Sergei.
“Where’d she go?”
“Don’t worry, buddy.” Sergei just smiled.
Aaron skipped the post-game press conferences and headed to the showers. He was exhausted but revved up too. He’d played a good game, but now he had something even more important coming up and he was nervous as hell. Whether it had been intentional or not, Sara had been there for him, like she often had at games the last two seasons. She’d been a part of him for a lot longer than he wanted to admit, and now he had to fix what he’d broken. What they’d broken, because although he’d done the breaking up, she’d kept something incredibly important from him.
He got dressed relatively quickly and then paced back and forth until the other guys started coming in too.
“You okay?” Jake asked him. “You look a little flushed.”
“I’m good. Just nervous.”
Jake pressed a bottle of water into his hand. “Drink. You played hard tonight.”
Aaron downed half the bottle of water and then put on his jacket. Since they were on the road, they had to wear suits when arriving and leaving the arena, and in this case, it would include going down to the family lounge. They didn’t always get a lounge on the road, since they rarely needed it away from home, but Gage was in on the plan to get Aaron and Sara back together so he’d made it happen.
“Ready?” Sergei and Jake were flanking him.
“I feel like I’m headed to my execution,” he said. “It’s not supposed to feel like this, is it?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sergei nodded. “When I was getting ready to walk out on the ice after Dani’s team won the gold medal, I thought I was gonna puke. No joke.”
“Same the night Whitney’s grandmother invited me to her birthday dinner when I knew I was going to have to beg and grovel to get Whitney to come back to me.” Jake nodded.
“Okay, then I’m doing good, I guess.”
The three of them walked down the hall and Logan, Kane and Miikka fell into step with them.
“You guys look like you’re getting ready to make a boy band music video,” Logan said, laughing.
Jake reached out and cuffed him on the ear. “Someday, you too will fall in love, young Jedi, and we’ll be there for you. Until that day comes, shut up and show a little respect for your elders.”
“Yes, sir.” Logan trailed behind them still grinning.
They walked into the room and Aaron immediately zeroed in on Sara. She was standing off to the side with Laurel. A moment later he heard barking and a big yellow ball of fur came running in his direction, jumping up with her paws on his chest.
“Ruby!” He grinned, rubbing her head and petting her as she barked with excitement.
Then Ruby spotted Sara and took off toward her, jumping in an excited circle as Sara knelt down to hug and pet her.
“Hey, girl,” she cooed. “Did you miss me? I missed you too. I did.”
It was now or never and Gage gave him a little nudge so Aaron took a step toward Sara. She looked up and their eyes met for the first time in what felt like ages. In reality, it had been about a month, but it felt like so much longer and he absently reached down to pet Ruby again, his eyes never leaving Sara’s.
“Hey.”
She stood up. “I, um, have to get Ruby home.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“I’m not sure what there is to say. I asked you the only question that mattered last time I saw you.”
“Then I have one for you,” he blurted out.
“What is it?”
“Why did you move from your seat to behind the bench at the end of the third period?”
She licked her lips. “Um, I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
She arched her brows. “What?”
“You know damn well it’s because I needed you to be somewhere I could see you. Because that’s where you always stand when I need a little extra strength, when I can use a tiny bit of extra support at the end of a rough game.”
She didn’t say anything.
“But you lied just now, right? You said you didn’t know why you did that, even though you did.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m having a tough time figuring out where you’re going with this.”
“You lied just now to protect yourself, because you didn’t want to admit to anything that might make you vulnerable.”
38
She glanced around the room and noticed they were alone. Where the hell had everyone gone and what was he babbling about? “What—”
“And that’s exactly what I did when you asked me if I’d ever loved you.”
“What?” Her eyes snapped back to his and the look she gave him was meant to bring him to his knees, but it didn’t.
“We got our wires crossed,” he said quietly. “I… I thought you needed to be here, in Minneapolis. I thought you didn’t tell me about this program at the school because you were afraid I’d break up with you if you left me. So I did it anyway, thinking it would force you to go, to do what you were meant to do without worrying about me.”
“But how did you know about it?” she asked. “I didn’t even tell Dani.”
“I found the letter.” He pulled the crumpled paper out of his pocket.
She shook her head as she glanced at it. “I thought I threw it away.”
“It got mixed up with some bills and stuff.”
“You found it on Christmas Day?”
“Christmas Eve.”
“And you thought breaking up with me would make me leave Anchorage to come here?”
“Well…it worked.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I’m so sorr
y, babe. I thought this was what you wanted and I didn’t want to keep you from your dreams.”
Regret and frustration and a dozen other emotions rocked through her so fast, with so much intensity, she started to cry.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Please don’t cry.”
“This isn’t my dream anymore,” she sniffed. “You are. Being with you is my dream.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. But you have to know, babe, when you asked me if I’d ever loved you… I lied. I thought I was doing the right thing by letting you go, but I’ve been in love with you for a long time. In denial about it for most of that time, but in love with you all the same.”
She couldn’t look at him. Not yet. “You hurt me when you said that. I thought everything we’d shared had been a lie.”
“Nothing has been a lie. Not the friendship, not our first hook-up, not when I found you after the earthquake, and sure as hell not after I asked you to move in with me.”
Their eyes finally met and locked for a long, intense moment before she buried her face in his chest.
“I want to come home,” she whispered.
“You do?” He pulled away so he could look into her face. “But why? We can do this. I promise. If you want me to try to get traded, I already talked to Gage about it. It probably won’t be to Minneapolis, but maybe—”
“Stop. No.” She put a finger over his lips. “God, this is such a clusterfuck. We have so much to talk about.”
“Come back to the hotel with me?”
“I… Yes.” She smiled weakly. “After I kill Dani.”
He chuckled. “You should be giving her a medal. She gave me the cold, hard, icy, frozen-out treatment. Like full-on, that girl didn’t say two words to me that weren’t work related from the day you left.”
She chuckled. “She’s nothing if not loyal.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
“What do we tell everyone? They must be dying out in the hallway.”
“That we have a lot to talk about.”
They made hasty excuses and caught a taxi back to the hotel, even though Gage had a limo and the team had a bus. There were still a ton of unanswered questions and so much to work out, they needed the time and privacy to talk. Sara was having a hard time believing this was really happening, that he was here and they were together. Getting back together. It was a lot to take in, but she refused to let go of his hand and he seemed pretty intent on touching her the whole ride to the hotel.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said, taking her hand as they walked through the lobby.
“Is Coach Riser going to make you skate laps tomorrow for not riding back on the bus?”
“Probably.” He shrugged. “It’s okay. You’re worth it.”
“Oh, Aaron, someone could have dropped me off and—”
“And we wouldn’t have been able to cuddle and hold hands in the back seat of the taxi.” He unlocked the door to his room and let her walk in ahead of him.
“I’ll concede that point.”
“So.” He took of his jacket and loosened his tie. “Where do you want to start with this mess we’ve made of everything?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about explaining what changed between when you got the rejection letter and when you got the offer for this special program you’re in now?”
She sat on the edge of the bed and leaned forward, forearms on her thighs. “No matter where I was in life, I wanted to be somewhere else. In college, I wanted to be in grad school. In grad school, I wanted to be in veterinary school. When I was playing hockey, I couldn’t wait to be done. When I stopped playing, I wanted to go back. Nannying, working at the clinic—everything was always a stepping stone.” She paused. “What changed was us. For the first time, I had something that I didn’t want to end. I stopped caring about the next degree, the next job, the next move—I just wanted to be with you, in our new house, with our new dog and our foul-mouthed bird. I was content. I wasn’t stressed. I was happy. And I finally, finally, after all these years, realized that I liked the idea of running a business.
“After the fundraiser for the clinic, I pitched all these ideas to Dr. H about how to get the clinic in the black and he was interested. I could still be his tech, work with the animals, but also run the business part of it, which was something I was good at. That’s why I majored in business in the first place. I could have picked English or humanities or something, but deep down I knew I wanted to be in the business world, I just didn’t know exactly what field. And once you gave me the option of being nothing but…me, Sara, the part-time nanny, part-time vet tech, I was happier than I’d been as anything else. Your love, your strength, gave me the guts to stop running towards the next goal and enjoy the things I already had.”
“And I pushed you right back into the world you wanted to get away from.” He groaned softly, sinking down on the edge of the bed next to her. “I’m really sorry about that. But why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“We were legit busy. The team hadn’t been playing well so you were thinking about your game, we were moving, the holidays were coming… There was so much going on. I thought we’d move into the new house and have a romantic dinner on a night when we had a little downtime, and I could tell you about everything.”
“When I found that letter, I thought you were giving up your dreams because of me, and I wasn’t going to be that guy. I didn’t want that for you.”
“The dreams were a complicated mix of insecurity and some misplaced need to do it all, reach some level of success that wasn’t clear to me. I kept changing my mind, which was a huge red flag, but I kept ignoring it. Until we got together. I can’t explain the relief I felt the minute I made the decision to stay with you in Anchorage and not worry about anything else. To work with Dr. Harjo and help Dani and Sergei. It was so nice, so real, all the stress just melted away.”
“I love you,” he said quietly. “And I want whatever you want. If you want to stay here, we’ll make it work. I can get traded to a team somewhere in the continental U.S., so it won’t take a full day to fly to see each other. I can live here in the summer and—”
“I don’t want to stay,” she whispered. “I miss our life in Anchorage. Our friends. The new house I can’t wait to live in with you. And vet school is hard. Not too hard, like I could do it if I really wanted to, but I don’t. I knew it back in December when Dean Winters called to offer me a place here, but now that I’m actually doing it, I’m absolutely certain this isn’t how I want to spend the next three years of my life.”
He was quiet for a minute. “What about this,” he said, dropping to the floor and getting on one knee as he pulled something out of his pocket. “Would you consider doing something like this for the next three years and beyond? It’s not as romantic as I’d originally planned, but we spend way too much time overthinking things. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Epilogue
“Tweet, tweet, motherfucker!”
Aaron rolled over in bed and glared at the big red bird. “Did we seriously leave you out again last night?”
“We had sex for like a hundred hours,” Sara muttered, burrowing deeper into her pillow.
“Fine.” Aaron swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulled on a pair of sweats and reached for Merlin. “Come on. Let’s get some breakfast.”
“Come back to bed,” she called out sleepily.
“Don’t you ever get enough?” he teased.
“My fiancé is extremely hot,” she said, drifting back to sleep.
He chuckled and took Merlin back to his cage, which was set up with his play area in the eat-in part of their kitchen. Unlike Ruby, who liked to sleep, Merlin was up with the sun. Ruby, on the other hand, slept until he or Sara came downstairs and greeted her. Merlin wasn’t on board with that, though, so instead of staying in bed with his gorgeous fiancée, he was down here feeding a cranky macaw.
; They’d been back together and living in the house for nearly three months now. Things were better than he’d ever imagined, and their wedding was set for late July in Minnesota. It was the one concession she’d made to her parents and since he didn’t have much family he was close to, he didn’t care. Her happiness was his priority and from what he could tell, she was pretty damn happy. They both were.
“Can I go back to bed now?” he asked Merlin as he spied yesterday’s stack of mail.
“Tweet?” Merlin just looked at him.
He quickly thumbed through the mail and saw an envelope from his attorney. Yes! This was what he’d been waiting for. He and Sara had agreed they would discuss everything from now on, to avoid any further miscommunications, but surprises were different, and this was a surprise. He opened the envelope and removed the papers inside. Yup. Exactly what he’d been waiting for. He bounded back up the stairs and slid beneath the covers next to Sara. She’d fallen back to sleep but he nuzzled her neck, running one hand along her warm, silky skin.
“Why are you trying to seduce me?” she mumbled.
“Because you like it?” he chuckled.
“Later.”
He let the sheaf of papers drop on her back. She didn’t move at first but then she opened one eye. “What are you doing?”
“Nothin’.” He shrugged.
“Aaron.” Now both eyes were open and she turned over, fumbling to get her hand out of the sheets and blankets so she could grab for the papers. “What are these?”
“Read it.”
She rubbed her eyes and rolled onto her back, trying to focus on the papers in front of her. “Aaron, what… I don’t know what this is. It looks like a partnership agreement with Dr. Harjo but I haven’t spoken to him about anything like this.”
“No, but I did.”
“You did?” She turned to him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I bought half his business. Well, you did, but I paid for it. You just have to sign the papers.”
