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“My mom always told me that these things don’t come easily, that you have to work for the love and the life you want. The hard parts are challenging, but we get through them, and everything else with you feels natural, and I … I want to work with you. I want to build a life we love.”
“Carter’s still coming to terms with the fact that he loves someone more than himself and Oreos. Ollie’s struggling to admit to herself that she’s in love with the world’s most arrogant, controlling, annoying man.
Before I can agree, Alannah whips across the ice, leaps into midair, and slams her lanky body against the glass in front of me. “I’m gonna score a goal for you!” she shrieks. “What about me?” Jeremy asks. “You gonna score one for your old man?” Alannah scoffs. “Get lost, Dad. There’s a new man in town.”
Alannah scores two goals and gets an assist, and like she’s got my DNA, she points at me after both goals before winding up her arm and pretending her hockey stick is a guitar and she’s rocking out to a wild solo.
“Can I show you something, Ollie girl?” I whisper against her lips. Of course, Carter. What do you want to show me?” Leaning my forehead against hers, I lay her wet hair over her shoulder before kissing her lips once more. My next breath rocks me to my core, and yet not as much as my next words do. “I want to show you how much I love you.”
love you so fucking much, Ol, I don’t know what the hell to do with myself. Been screaming it at you inside my brain every time I look at you for the last two weeks.”
It’s really fast. But I’m super fast. At, like, everything, so it only makes sense that I’m super fast at this too. I’m a fast learner, so obviously I would nail this down quickly, but just because I did it fast doesn’t mean I did it sloppily. I do things exceptionally well, as you know.”
“I’m going to be really good at loving you, Ollie. I promise. Nobody will ever do it like I do.”
love you so much, Carter.” “If I had to choose between you and Oreos for the rest of my life, I’d choose you every day, always.”
“I’ve made so many mistakes in my life. So many. But you, Ollie? You’re the first thing I’ve done right.”
“Annoying you is my favorite thing to do, right after loving you.
scary to think that losing somebody can absolutely crush your soul like that, that you’ll spend the rest of your days living out your life, waiting for the moment you can be together again.”
All I want to do is thank him. Thank him for letting me know him, the real him. Thank him for choosing me to be the person he does this with. Thank him for loving me, for opening up to me, for being everything I need and then some.
Ollie Girl, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, lived my life a little too carelessly, in ways that people didn’t approve of. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Because I was waiting for you. Waiting for a love that would walk into my life and blow my whole world up. I want to celebrate every Valentine’s Day & birthday with you. Love, Carter
“I think I look hot. I’d make one helluva DILF, wouldn’t you say so, Ollie girl?”
“You look like you wanna have my babies.” “Psssh.” I scoff, waving him off. “Is that a hell-yes scoff?” “It’s a your-baby-would-absolutely-destroy-my-vagina scoff.” “Hm. Sounds like a hell-fucking-yes to me.” Hell. Fucking. Yes.
“Speaking of dogs, when are we having babies?” Carter rubs his eyes. “That makes no fucking sense, old man.” “Well, stepdaddy Carter is all the hot gossip lately.”
“I love you so much, and I know it’s soon, but fuck, Ollie, I just really love you. When I’m gone, all I can think about is cuddling you on the couch, or falling asleep with you in my arms, or you walking around the house in the morning wearing nothing but my T-shirt with your sleepy smile, your curls trying to escape from your messy bun. When I get off the plane, you’re the first person I want to see. And
I want you to be my baby-doggie mama.” “Baby-doggie mama?” “And eventually real-baby mama. I love you, Ollie, and what I want more than anything is to make a home with you. Say yes.” “Say yes? Is that a demand?” “Obviously.” I bite back my smile. “Okay.”
But there are so many reasons you’re a good partner, Carter. You’re fierce and loyal. You’re patient and kind and the most passionate person I know. You never give up, and you’re so proud of me all the time, and it helps me be proud of myself. I’m a more confident person than I was six months ago because of the love you show me.”
“I thanked him for bringing me another family, trusting me with loving them. I thanked him for raising the man I love, and for bringing him to me.” Her hand glides along my jaw. “I thanked him for you, Carter.”
“You know,” Hank chuckles, ruffling Dublin’s fur. “He’s a half-assed guide dog, but he sure is a damn good friend.” Reaching into the backseat, I give Hank’s hand a squeeze. “Dublin will always have a home with us.”
“A skort? What the fuck is a skort?” “A contraption for horny little shits like you.”
“You know, I always knew there was someone out there for you, but I couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect match than that girl back there. You’re a teddy bear for Ollie.” “I love her.”
“True love doesn’t wait for anything and it sure as hell doesn’t follow a timeline.”
“One day, I’m gonna ask you to marry me. You’re gonna say yes, because that’s the only acceptable answer; no isn’t an option.” He nips my bottom lip, his hand dancing down my arm, leaving goose bumps in its wake. “And then I’m gonna marry the fuck out of you in front of our family and friends, and you’ll be Mrs. Beckett,
“We can do it! This is it! This is the team! My fucking team! My boys! I love this fucking team, so get your asses out there and let’s bring this fucking cup home! Let’s fucking do it, boys!”
“Come here.” He brackets my chin in his hand. “Thank you.” “For what?” “For making me feel like everything is within my reach if I work hard enough. This is amazing. Everything I dreamed of as a kid.
And I think the exact same thing I thought back then: we were slow dancing in a burning room. That’s all we’ve been doing. Pretending the inevitable wouldn’t happen. That this all wouldn’t go up in flames.
answers? Something’s not working inside me, a connection that’s been severed at the mere thought of a life without my best friend. My hands won’t stop shaking, my heart racing.
She’s everything, my girl, and there isn’t a way I could love her more than I do. My thumb hovers over the folder affectionately labeled My Pumpkin, but I can’t do it.
My forever is a person. It’s wide chocolate eyes that peer up at mine, and dark, silky curls that slip through my fingers. It’s a small hand in mine that warms my entire body, a smile that gets my heart thudding a little bit harder, a little bit faster. It’s the ears that hear all my dreams and the arms that hold me up when I’m tired, when I forget how to stand. It’s the lips on my jaw, my cheek, my hand, the ones that whisper my favorite I love you, that promise me a lifetime against my skin. I don’t know everything. All I know is I just chased my forever down the driveway.
“She’s coming back,” I whisper, but the words are fractured, broken, just like me. When I blink, when a single tear rolls down my cheek, she flings herself into my arms. “You have to fix this,” she cries. “Carter, fix this!”
Cara sinks to the edge of the bed, a small velvet box in her hand. She pops the lid, examining the sparkly diamond inside, the ring she helped me design for Olivia back in May. I picked it up last week, and I spent hours hiding it while Olivia was at work, choosing one spot then changing my mind five minutes later, picking another I thought might be better.
“That’s not possible.” I rest my forehead against hers, my eyes shutting as I brush my thumbs over her cheekbones, feeling her warm, damp skin. “There is no me without you, and I won’t stop until it’s fixed.” I gather her wet curls in my hand and stroke my fingers down her face. “Do you still love me?” She places her hand on top of mine. “I’ll always love you, Carter.”
I want to be next to my person instead of feeling so lost without him. I want us, together and forever. I want the answers I deserve, and if he’s having trouble finding them, then I want to help him look. “I want to show him what he’s been showing me all along. That we’re stronger together.”
love you because you’re funny and snarky, sarcastic as all hell, and the night we met, you told me to go fuck myself.” He ignores the way Cara shrieks his name. “You’re also kind and soft, sensitive and sweet, the best auntie, and a teacher I would’ve died to have in high school. You’re not just my girlfriend; you’re my biggest cheerleader and my best friend.”
“Demanding? That’s because I am. I refuse to be without you. Absolutely refuse, because that’s the last place either of us belongs. You’re mine. My best friend and my lover, my only version of forever, and I don’t intend on ever letting you go. My only intention is to legally bind you to me for the rest of our lives.”
“I fell in love with you on this balcony. I fell in love with the way you slept peacefully next to the fire. I fell in love with the way you gazed with wonder at the sky, the millions of stars. I fell in love with the way you opened up to me, let me see you and let me show you me too. I fell in love with the way we laid here, your body wrapped in mine, all the times we’ve made love here, and when I asked you to make this house yours. I fell in love with you over and over again, and I keep doing it every single day, right here on this balcony.”
Everything begins and ends with you and me and the way you make my heart pump wildly and my stomach do flippy-floppies.” “Flippy-floppies?” “Fucking flippy-floppies, Ol.”
“Millionaire” by Chris Stapleton. Olivia thinks I picked it because I’m a millionaire. I picked it because if all I had was her and her love, I’d still feel like the richest damn man in the world.
