Page 81 of Perfectly Wedded

“He can’t concentrate,” Rourke says.

“We think it’s Sloan’s fault,” Tate says.

“His shots are off,” Lucian adds.

“I’ve heard most problems start in the bedroom,” Leo says, like he’s the expert. “You need a marriage counselor?”

“No!” I say, the irritation rising in my chest. “This has nothing to do with my marriage!” I skate away from the guys.

Leo frowns. “Why are you so touchy? We’re trying to help you.”

“Oh, is that why you’re making up problems for me? You’re trying to make me feel better about myself?”

Leo frowns. “No, why would I do that?”

“Ignore them,” Brax says. “I’m sure whatever it is can be solved by hitting the weight room.”

“Can’t,” I say. “Sloan asked me to come home right away and finalize some of the wedding plans with Jaz.”

Leo grimaces. “I thought you lucked out not having to go through the misery of wedding planning?”

“Well, somebody’s wife was pretty ticked she didn’t get to go to our Vegas wedding.” I give my brother a pointed look.

“Don’t look at me! It’s not my fault the woman loves weddings,” Brax mutters. “Plus, Mom was fully in support of the idea.”

“She won’t admit it, but I think Sloan needs the full wedding experience,” I say, heading off the ice. “If we don’t have it, she’ll always regret not having a real wedding. It’s one of those things girls dream about from the time they’re little, starting with the proposal.”

“Where did you propose?” Tate asks as all the guys circle around me on the bench.

“We went to the gala, and it sort of happened,” I say, unlacing a skate.

Leo stops. “Wait—what do you mean itsort of happened?”

“I said,‘Let’s get married in Vegas’and then we did.”I glance up and notice all the guys are staring at me. “What?”

Brax’s eyebrows rise. “You skipped proposing?” He shakes his head. “Dude, that’s bad.”

“Not on purpose,” I say. But I realize the mistake I’ve made. I once read an article about babies who go straight to walking and bypass the crawling stage. Sometimes they have to loop back to the part they skipped, just to connect all the dots in their brains. And I wonder if this is Sloan’s issue too. We’ve done everythingbackward and have skipped parts, without her realizing how much she needs it. That’s why it’s hard for her to trust me, to believe this is it between us and I’m not leaving.

“You said you want her to have the full experience,” Leo says. “And girls get into proposals.”

I frown. “But she already has the ring. How am I going to propose without it?”

“Does she ever take it off?” Tate asks.

“I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe?” Now that I think about it, I can’t remember if she’severtaken off the ring. This could be a problem.

“Just wait for her to remove it, then steal it,” Rourke says. “It’s that simple.”

“I don’t know about this,” I say, running my hands through my hair. “Seems risky.”

“Then let us help. Team effort,” Lucian the captain says, then puts his hand in the middle for a team huddle. “We’ll make sure she gets a proposal to remember.”

The guys join him, hands stacked on top of each other.

I look around and my stomach flip-flops. Then I add my hand to the pile.

This could go very right. Or very wrong.

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