Page 103 of Not A Chance

“Considering I plan on spending forever with you, baby, I can definitely promise to do everything I can to honor your trust,” he said and grinned.

A few tears escaped my eyes at his declaration. I quickly swept them away. He shifted me in his arms, and I realized that we’d just had this whole conversation with him holding me up.

I wiggled my body until he set me down with a chuckle.

“Wait! Don’t you have to be in Dallas in, like, eight hours?” My brain caught up to reality in this moment. Shit! What was he even doing here? He wasn’t allowed to miss games.

“I couldn’t wait to see you. I’ve felt wrong all week without you in Toronto. I know hockey made it impossible for me to be here with you the whole time, but next time something happens and you need to be somewhere, I’m coming with you. Where you go, I go, from now on, okay?” He wrapped his arms around my waist as if hecouldn’t bear any space between us.

I lifted my face to his for a kiss that quickly turned heated again. After a few minutes of making out like teenagers after curfew against the front door, he pulled back, both of us breathless.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Now, tell me the rest,” he demanded.

“Okay, okay! Can we at least move out of the front foyer for this?” I squeezed his forearms where my hands rested.

Theo grunted before he picked me up again, carried me into the kitchen, and deposited me on the counter.

“Yeah, it’s absolutely insane. Apparently, I was naïve in thinking this kind of thing didn’t happen anymore, but my parents insisted. They wanted a connection with this Fairbanks family. They’d tried setting me up multiple times before, but I never expected anything like this. I guess I’d underestimated how far they would go to get what they wanted.” I leaned back against the cabinet door behind me and waited for Theo’s reaction.

“Let me get this straight. Your parents wanted you to marry some stranger sooner than later, but you potentially chucked your inheritance—which now makes a lot of sense when you talked about your nonprofit idea—literally in their faces and walked away from your family and what was rightfully owed to you for… us?” Theo’s eyes started welling up in the corners. He tried to blink rapidly to clear it but kept his watery gaze on me.

“For us. For you. And for me.” I wiped the errant tear that rolled down his cheek with my thumb before I kissed the path where it had trailed over his skin. “The life we’re building together, be it in Toronto or wherever your contract is next year, that’s what’s most important to me. To be free of all of the stuff from my childhood that I’ve always hated and make choices about what’s best for us and myself.”

“Holy shit. We’re really doing this.” Theo’s smile was as bright as I’dever seen it. “Fuck, ten million dollars, really?” He scrunched his nose.

I got it. I really did. It was a lifetime’s worth of money.

“Yes. Don’t tell anyone, but I have ten million reasons right here worth infinitely more.” I brought my hand between our bodies and pressed it against his heart. “There is no contest, goalie. You win every time.”

“You have turned into your own worst nightmare right here, Rocky. We might as well be writing billboard messages to each other at this point.” Theo kissed me sweetly.

I gave him a faux annoyed look. “But your secret is safe with me,” he promised.

It was true. For Theo, I was a not-so-secret marshmallow on the inside.

“And about next season, I’m hoping we’ll be spending it in Amado.” His gaze held mine.

“What? What about your contract in Toronto? Are you okay? Is it your knees? Why did you pick me up if you’re hurt?” Worry raced through me that something had happened that no one had told me about.

“Easy, baby. I’m fine. I’ve got a bit of a long story for you too, but the gist is that I told my agent that this season is my last.” Theo’s face was the picture of calm.

“What? Why?” He was giving it all up? Oh god, did he think I didn’t want him to play anymore?

“I can see you freaking out.” He squeezed my waist in reassurance. “Like you, Ind, I’ve realized I have new dreams. I’ve loved playing professional hockey, but I’m at a point where for the first time in a long time, I have so much more than hockey going for me. I want to spend my time living rather than keeping up with a grind that left me constantly nursing injuries and separated from those I love most.”

I slumped in his arms in relief but couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Because you know that I’d go anywhere with you. You don’t have to retire to make me happy. I want you to have your dreams.”

“You are my dream now, baby. Buying a house together and building a life with Giz. The best part is that we can do that from Amado, which I know you miss, and I can make up for all the years I’ve missed with my family.” He brought his hands from my body to my cheeks so that I had to really look into his eyes.

His expression was confident and happy. He really wanted this.

“Okay, Theo. Let’s do it. I love you.”

“I love you too, Ind.” He kissed me quickly before he pulled back to make eye contact once more. “And, baby?”

“Yes?” He leaned forward again so that I spoke the word against his lips.

“The only person you’ll be marrying one day is me.”

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