Page 75 of The Sweet Spot

“She did say there was a chance that someone could go after me, knowing that the sexy hockey player might have deeper pockets than my very shallow ones.”

“I don’t care,” I said matter-of-factly.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t like that. I don’t want you opening yourself up to being Mr. Moneybags because of my mistake. We could wait another year and a bit for the statute of limitations to run out.”

I thought about that for a second. A very short second. “I want to get married this summer.”

“And if someone finds out and sues me?”

“Let them. I’m sure we can talk to Jan about ways to protect you and me from this. And if I have to, I’ll hire all the best lawyers to defend you, but seriously, if someone sued you for eating risotto made with chicken stock instead of vegetable stock, did it kill them? What could they possibly sue you for? A few thousand dollars? Meh.”

She watched me, the corners of her lips quivering just a little.

“I love you, Brandon Warde.”

“I love you, Wolseley Douglas.”

She finally let me put the ring on herfinger, and it fit perfectly, and when we got home, we started planning a wedding.

“I have made a big decision,” she said as she snuggled into me on the sofa. We were watching a movie that neither of us were interested in.

“Should I be scared?”

“No. I don’t think so. Since we have established that we’re having kids, I don’t want them to look back at our wedding photos and wonder why their mother’s hair was neon pink. So I’m going to let it grow out a bit and have a Marilyn Monroe look with reddish hair that’s closer to my natural hair color. What do you think?”

“You know you don’t have to conform. You can show up to our wedding with whatever hair color you want.”

“It’s not really conforming. I’ve thought about going that hair color route for a while. You know, to mix things up.”

“I love the idea. And since we are making decisions, I thought maybe you could move in here permanently?”

“That thought has crossed my mind. It would make life easier for me, and I’d be able to sleep in a little later. But I should probably let Tangi and Ethan know. They may not want the condo vacant.”

“The trade deadline is around the corner. I’m sure someone will snap it up from him for a few months.”

“Ooh, good point. I also talked to Jill about their wedding date. She said they are planning for mid-August, so we can get married the first week of July. And I love your idea of something small. I’ve always hated big weddings, but maybe because I had to cater to them. They were always nightmares. Bridezillas and ghoulish grooms.”

I kissed the top of her head. “I’m good with just close friends and family. I know that my little brother mentioned thewedding to my parents. When they apologize to you, I will consider sending them an invitation.”

She looked up at me with her big brown eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk it out with them? Put this behind you?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not giving in to them. I did that my whole life. Asking them to apologize to you isn’t a hardship. If they can’t do that, I don’t want them at the wedding. It’s that simple.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that when I don’t want to meet my birth mother. But Craig gave me all the info he got from her, so at least I have that.”

We were silent for a while, both staring at the TV, but I was sure she wasn’t watching it, just like I wasn’t watching it. My brain was thinking too hard. In four and a half months, we were going to get married. To think I hadn’t even known her a year, yet I felt like I’d known her all my life.

“When your hockey career is over, I’d like to open a restaurant again. In a city we know that we’ll be living in permanently. And I don’t care where that is, by the way. I’m open to anything.”

“I’m open to anything too. I’m happy to live in Minnesota, here, Siberia, wherever you want to go. Just not Regina.”

“We have lots of time to figure that out.”

I squeezed her tight. Yup. We had our whole lives ahead of us, and we would be together.

Epilogue

Wolseley

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