Page 93 of What if I Told You

“We’ll start our Tournament tonight with the Mascot Skills test,” Jim announces. “Where each of our mascots will dribble the puck from center ice to the net and take one shot. Each mascot to get their puck into the net will score one point. ARE WE READY MASCOTS?”

The crowd cheers around us as we watch on.

“Who do you think has the best skill out of all of them?” Hawken Malone asks from behind us.

The entire row of Stars players seated with me answers in tandem, “Lumin.”

The Red Tails laugh, Milo clapping my shoulders. “Nothing like true love, eh, Blackstone? You’ve trained your team well.”

True love…

I haven’t really given much thought to being in love with Ella. I mean sure, I’ve always loved her. I’ve always had feelings for her whether I wanted to acknowledge them or not, but true love? Like the fairy tale stuff?

I think Milo could be on to something.

I love Ella.

But I also think I’m in love with Ella.

No. I don’t think. I know.

I’m in love with Ella.

“Dude, I’d marry her right fucking now if she wanted to.”

Our row goes silent and I can feel every eye on me from the guys seated around me. I get it. They’ve never heard me talk like this before. They know I’ve had the hots for Ella but it’s so much more than that. This isn’t one of those situations where we have to figure out if we can do life together because we’ve been doing life together since we could walk and talk. Really, we just had to get to the point where we could let our real feelings be known and then of course…the sex.

Had the sex been bad, it may have been bad for the stability of our relationship, but sex with Ella is any fucking thing but bad.

It’s mind blowing.

Earth shattering.

Adventurous.

Satiating.

Damn. Fucking Ella is straight up fun.

She’s all I’ve ever needed in my life.

She’s all I’ll ever want.

“That’s right, I said it,” I tell them without looking at my teammates. I only have eyes for Ella right now. “I’m that in love with her. I don’t need or want anyone else. She’s it for me. So yeah, if she came up here right fucking now and asked me to marry her I’d say hell yes and fly her to Vegas right now.”

“That’s a big step, bro.” Griffin pats my shoulder. “I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

“But also, don’t make her ask you. Give her the big grand gesture and the girly proposal.” He looks out onto the ice. “Ella’s a cool girl. She comes across as the type who would like that sort of thing.”

I huff out a laugh. “You’re not wrong. She’s definitely the hearts and flowers and romance kind of girl.”

“Hey speaking of Ella,” Zeke Miller asks. “Do you guys know what this mysterious plan is for Remi and Lumin today?”

The guys turn to look at Zeke and then glance back at me like I’m the keeper of secrets but I shrug my shoulders in response. “What do you mean mysterious plan?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “But Jonah mentioned this morning that he had this plan for today’s showdown and he was going to ask Ella to be a part of it.”

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