Romancing the Grump (Appies, #4)

by Jenny Proctor

I need him to know how much I appreciate that he’s trying. That he’s willing to be vulnerable, to risk love. I need him to know that I believe with my whole soul that any sacrifice I have to make to love him will be well worth the reward of having him love me back.

“I love you too,” I whisper against his lips. “I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit, but I love you. And I believe in you enough for the both of us.”

“I don’t deserve you. But I’ll spend every day trying to live like I do.”

“I’m saying I’d take you over anyone.

“Did I tell you I finally figured out what enforcers do on the ice?” He narrows his gaze, like he can’t quite tell if I’m joking or not. “You did not,” he says slowly. I shrug, like I fully expected his answer. “Okay. Just checking.” Nathan freezes, holding my gaze before the brightest, most beautiful smile stretches across his face. Then he throws his head back, eyes closed, and my very grumpy, perfectly imperfect, love-of-my-life hockey player starts to laugh.

his hand gripping a tiny black box. He picks up my hand and flips it over, dropping the box into the center of my palm. “I’ve had it since June,” he says. “Three months after we started dating for real.” He shakes his head and lets out a little laugh. “The guys said I should wait until we’d been dating a year, but that felt way too long, so I was trying to make myself wait until Christmas.”

“Summer, there are a lot of things that I owe to you. You taught me what it means to be a partner—to love and to be loved. You’ve made me a better friend, a better brother, a better son. You’ve made me more patient and more forgiving. I know it’s only been eight months, but I feel like I’ve done more living in those eight months than I did in the eight years before. You woke me up, Sum”—he grins here—“both literally and figuratively, and I would love to spend the rest of my life making you happy. Will you marry me?”

“Of course I’ll marry you. Yes, yes, yes!”

He was a grump when he finally left the Appies to play four seasons with the Hurricanes, winning his own Stanley Cup ring the last day he was on the ice before his retirement. He was a grump when we moved back to Harvest Hollow so he could accept a coaching position with the Appies, when our oldest started high school, when we finally sent our youngest off to kindergarten.

But he is also a thoughtful, passionate lover. A patient father to our three girls. A devoted husband. A brilliant hockey coach. And he’s mine.