“Stay safe over there, and we’ll do this again when you come back.” He looked over his shoulder at Ember. “The ice is empty for an hour or so if you want to spend a few minutes.”
“Thank you for everything. This has been a dream come true.”
“It’s been our pleasure.” He nodded once and took off for the locker room.
I opened the door to the player’s box as Ember approached with a bag thrown over her shoulder. She stepped inside and swung the bag down. “Huh,” she said, sniffing. “It doesn’t smell nearly as bad in here as I’d always assumed.”
I laughed. “Skates?”
She nodded, unzipping the black bag and taking out her CCMs. “Luke told me I could sneak out there after you were done so I didn’t make an ass out of myself in front of those players.”
“Please, you’d hardly make an ass out of yourself,” I countered as she tied up her skates, pulling them extra tight.
I ditched my helmet and gloves and picked up something entirely more precious. Holding out my hand to December, I opened the door to the ice, and we skated on. “This is amazing!” she said, laughing as she took in the enormity of the arena.
As she spun around to face me, stopping with a precision she hadn’t had a couple of years ago, it hit me—right here, under these lights that played with the colors in her hair—this was exactly what I’d been waiting for, the best moment of my life.
It was about to get even better.
Chapter Seven
EMBER
The ice was a little bumpy under my skates, but that was to be expected after a dozen NHL players had dug it up for the last hour or so. Man, I owed Luke big-time. But the look on Josh’s face when he’d realized why we were here, the utter radiance that shined from him as he skated onto the ice when they called his name…they were worth every single second of coordination this week.
Pulling it off had been a miracle, and I couldn’t have been more grateful to give him this. After all, he’d already given me so much.
He skated toward me, and I paused, blown away with everything that was Josh. His hair was sweaty, water dripping down his flushed cheeks from dumping his bottle over his head. It was high school and college all jumbled together to make this magnificent man in front of me. I’d never loved him more.
“I’ve gotten a little better since that first date, huh?” I asked with a flirtatious smile, skating backward just because I could.
“You’ve always been perfect.” That grin was enough to melt me despite the temperature of the ice.
“Did you have fun?”
“Yes. I can’t believe you did that for me.” His eyes were warm, letting his love for me shine.
“It’s your dream.”
He shook his head and took my hands in his much warmer ones. “No. It used to be my dream. And as hard as I worked for it, and as difficult as it was to let go when I got wounded, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me. This”—he glanced at the empty seats and bright lights—“has been more than I could have ever imagined.”
“I’m glad. You deserve it.”
“The jersey, the game, hearing my name, it was amazing. But what made it perfect was seeing you against the glass like we were in high school again. Remembering every time I told myself not to get close to someone as good as you are. Thinking back to that day in college when I told you I was going to chase you. Feeling the warmth of your hand over mine seeping through the glass during the championship. Recalling every time I wanted to kiss you, hold you, tell you how much I love you. I have that now, and you, December, are what made this perfect, because you are all that matters to me now.”
My heart caught in my throat, but as I leaned up to kiss him, he sank down—skates and all—onto one knee. My pulse ceased, and then pounded through my veins, tears already stinging my eyes as he held up a ring. “Josh,” I whispered.
“You are my dream now, December Howard. You are everything to me. My heart beats for you, my soul is only whole when you’re near. You’re my home, my shelter, my wildest fantasy, and I cannot imagine a future where you’re not mine, because I’m yours in every sense of the word.”
He paused, and we both hung suspended in that moment, where it didn’t matter that we were at center ice, or that he was deploying in three short days. The entire world stopped, ceased rotating because our love demanded it, and we were the only ones who could command it to start again.
“I love you, December. And I know we said we wouldn’t do this because of the deployment, so I’m asking you to do it in spite of it. I’m asking you to not marry me right now. Not rush it, not jump because we’re scared of what this next year might bring. I’m asking you now because a love like ours transcends any war, any event, any measure of time. The way I feel about you right now, that’s never going to fade. It’s only going to grow stronger, and I can’t wait to feel how much I love you in ten, twenty, fifty years. So please do me the honor of becoming my wife, because you are the gravity in my world, and while I might be the pilot now, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it’s your dreams that fly. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” my heart cried out, echoing through the arena. “Yes, Josh, yes.” The ring blurred in my vision as tears welled in my eyes, and he had it firmly on my left hand before I could blink them away.
“Thank you, God,” he said, his head thrown back in absolute relief. Then he surged to his feet, took my face between his hands, and brought his mouth to mine.