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“Until you, there was only hockey. I didn’t think it was possible to want anything more, to love someone …” He trails off, closing his eyes, and when they open again, his stare is unwavering, blatant need and desire running rampant, making those eyes shine like the emeralds they are. “The way I love you is inexplicable. It’s so much more than just wanting to be with you but needing to more than anything. I need you, because without you, something will always be missing in this life, just out of reach. Because you make everything better, and everything makes sense. You’re all the best parts,
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“All I’m doing when I’m away from you is counting down the minutes until we can be together again. There is no other option for me than a life with you. I know it’s soon, but I don’t need time to tell me what I already know, that a forever with you can’t come soon enough. Be my forever. Officially, because forever is all you’ve ever been to me. So … marry me, Ollie girl. Say yes.” “Are you asking? It sounds more like you’re—” “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
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“Why are you crying?” I ask, catching the tear with my lips. He doesn’t answer. Not me, anyway. “She said yes!” Carter scoops me up, clutching me to his chest as he springs to his feet and spins me around. “She’s gonna be my wife!”
He’s looking awful cute and shy as he punches in the new code to the front door: 1215. “December fifteenth,” he says, pink creeping up to the tips of his ears under the porch light. “The day we met.”
I trail my fingers over the frames littering the hallway wall, filled with photos of us and all the amazing people in our life. I turn back to this incredible man, catching him staring at the word scrawled in wood hanging overtop of the photos: family.
“The florist called it ‘Hello Sunshine.’” He scratches at his temple, eyes bouncing between the flowers, me, and the floor. “You’re not playing shy right now, are you? Not Carter Beckett. Not possible.” He grins, pulling me into him. “I wanted you to feel like you were home.” “I’ve always felt like I’m home with you, Carter. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we have.” “I want to give you everything.” The words are quiet and sincere as his hands trail up my back, fluttering over my zipper. “Absolutely everything.” “You’re all I’ve ever needed, I promise you.”
“I was so afraid, Olivia. Terrified. Watching you walk away from me and not being strong enough to stop you in that moment, to be honest with you, to ask you to be patient with me so we could work through it together … I didn’t feel like I deserved you. You deserved more than me. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be the person you deserved.”
His eyes shine with appreciation, overflowing with love. “I thought I lost you forever and I … I …” Fear steals his words, and he shakes his head ever so slightly. He blinks, and a tear rolls down his cheek. “I won’t ever lose you, Ollie. You make me better than I was before.” I don’t believe that, not for one second. This man on his knees before me was always the man I know now, the one I love so endlessly. I think he was just cautious about who he shared all these special parts with. I’m so lucky and grateful to be the person he chose, the one who gets to see him, know him, all of him. “I
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“I love you.” He kisses the tears that fall freely from my eyes. “And I’m gonna love you for the rest of my life, and after that too.”
“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.”
I don’t want to wait because I don’t want a life where you’re not in it. My world only spins so beautifully because of the way you’ve opened my heart and made me feel like myself again. I didn’t know who I was anymore after my dad left. All I was was tied into being a hockey player, a leader. That’s all I knew how to be. Until you showed up and reminded me I was capable of so much more, that I had so much to offer. So, fuck me, I wanna marry you right now, but that seems unrealistic and definitely impulsive—we should probably invite our family and friends—and there’s a week in November where
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Every venue is gorgeous, of course, but my favorite thing is the way his face lights up as he talks about each one, what he likes best about them and which one he thinks I’m going to like most, his hands moving wildly while he speaks.
“Ah. So we can put forever on hold for another round of fun?” “Forever started the second you said yes on midnight all those months ago, the second my lips met yours for the first time. I have every intention of spending the rest of my life the way the year started, with me loving on every bit of your sassy little body. Everything begins and ends with you and me and the way you make my heart pump wildly and my stomach do flippy-floppies.”
“Thank you for choosing me, Ollie girl. I couldn’t have imagined a better life.”
“You’ve known each other all of eleven months, and it’s overdue?” Garrett shakes his head. “Fuck me, if I ever become as pussy-whipped as you …” I give Adam a look and he does exactly what I need him to: elbows Garrett in the ribs.
“Describe her to me,” Hank whispers. “She’s … she …” I squeeze my eyes shut for the briefest moment, because I don’t wanna miss a second of this. “I can’t. I’m sorry.” There are no words. She’s like … waking up on Christmas morning when you’re three years old and you finally understand what it’s all about. She’s the moment the rain stops and the sun comes out, lighting up the sky with color, and everything smells new and fresh. She’s the first skate on a frozen lake, surrounded by snowy mountains and pine trees and the freshest breath of air. She’s rolling over in the middle of the night,
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That’s probably why I only let her get three quarters of the way down the aisle before I take off, running toward her while our guests gasp with surprise. But Olivia? She doesn’t look surprised. Not in the slightest. “Impulsive and impatient,” she murmurs,
“Ready to get married?” She slips her hand into mine, our fingers tangling, and hits me with that tender smile I love so much. “Ready.”
“You are absolutely spectacular tonight, Mrs. Beckett.”
“I think I can’t possibly love you more than I do right now, but tomorrow you’ll prove me wrong, like you do every day.” I hold her close as I whisper the last few words of our song in her ear and cop one last feel before we take our seats at the head table, and Olivia dabs at her eyes throughout every course as we listen to speeches from our friends and family. It’s when Hank’s halfway through his speech that she really starts to lose her shit.
Ireland and I couldn’t have kids, and I may not have met you until I was halfway out the door, but the second you walked into my life I knew you were special. You filled a hole in my heart that nobody else could, and I know for damn sure that my Ireland would’ve loved you, and that your dad is looking down on you today, proud as all hell of the man you’ve become. Olivia … my God. I’m glad I can’t see. I can hear you sobbing, and seeing that would break my old heart.”
I’ve never known a pair more perfectly suited to each other. The way you work so hard to make yourselves better, to be better together, a true team, it’s inspiring. I don’t have to wish you all the happiness in the world, because I know you’ve already found it.” Hank lifts his glass. “To a love that only grows stronger with age and never ends.”
“You’re fucking beautiful when you cry. Your eyes turn soft and melty, and they get the prettiest flecks of green and gold in them.” I hike her dress up as delicately as I can, shimmy her white lace panties down her legs, and hoist her up on the counter. “Plus, you’re such a softie, and I find great pleasure in that. Such a stark contrast from the tough girl you pretend to be.”
She touches her lips to mine. “If your love was all I had for the rest of my life, that would be more than enough.”
A server comes by with one last tray, offering a glass of champagne to Olivia. “Oh, no. No alcohol for her.” I place a protective hand over her belly. “Isn’t that right, little mama?” “Carter!”
My eyes fall over her face, the expression that only seems to grow more outraged by the second, to my hand on the tiny swell of her little belly that you can only really see when she’s naked, the one I can never seem to take my eyes off of at home, and finally, out to the crowd, our family and friends, their shocked but happy faces. Because I just told all two-hundred-and-fifty of our guests that my wife can’t drink alcohol.
“You had one rule tonight.” I did. One rule. Don’t tell anyone about the baby I accidentally put in my wife over the summer. And I thought I could do it. Really, I did. Cara and Jennie are cackling because they knew I couldn’t. I catch Adam sigh, slipping a bill to both Garrett and Emmett, who look about as smug as I normally do.
And I lift my shoulders in a shrug that’s anything but innocent. “Oops.”
