Page 51 of Puck of the Irish

“Eh, he turned out alright, I guess.” I narrow my eyes and she chuckles. I lean in to give her a quick kiss and let the feel of her lips on mine calm my racing heart.

Here goes nothing.

I pull the door open and step aside, gesturing for her to go in first. She keeps her eyes on me for a moment as she walks through the door, but then she turns to look inside and freezes.

“AJ, what…”

I put a hand on the small of her back and usher her further inside so we can close the door against the chill outside. The entire place is empty, save Sean behind the bar who inclines his head to us in greeting, and Erica, who’s standing in the middle of the room and gesturing to the small table along the back wall. Almost every other surface is covered in arrangements of lilies and roses and peonies—her favorite flowers—and twinkling lights.

I usher her to the table while she stares around the bar, speechless. My heart is thundering my chest, but I feel good. Better than good. I help Nat out of her coat and Erica takes it with a warm smile, holding her hand out for mine next. Nat settles into her chair and I slide into the one across from her.

“Drinks?” Erica asks.

“I’ll, uh, have a rum and coke please,” Nat says, still very much confused.

“Guinness. Thanks, Erica.”

She nods and heads off to hang up our coats and grab our drinks.

“Ok, what exactly is happening here?” Nat asks, leaning towards me.

“This is our Valentine’s Day, Nat.” She blinks and I lean my elbows on the table. “There’s so much pressure to do a big thing on the fourteenth, but I didn’t want to wait until then to—” I stop talking when Erica comes back, leaning away a bit so she can set down our drinks and a basket of cheese curds. Nat smiles and I grin. I know my girl and her love of all things fried cheese. She grabs one and pops it into her mouth, lips curling up while she waits for me to finish. I take a long sip of my drink and then a deep breath. I let it out slowly.

“I didn’t want to wait until then to bring you back to the place that it happened.”

“The place that what happened?”

“The place that I fell in love with you.” Her lips part as she inhales sharply. “In this bar, at this table, I knew I was done for, Natalie. I knew that night, before we even went back to my place, that I was a goner.” Her eyes water but I don’t stop. I don’t think I can now that I’ve started. “You’ve been one of my best friends, you know me better than almost anyone else in the world and aren’t afraid to call me on my bullshit when I need it most.” She huffs out a laugh as a tear escapes from the corner of one eye, slowly rolling down her cheek. I’m really fucking hoping that’s a tear of joy. I reach over and grip her hand, running my thumb in slow circles over her smooth skin. “You make me laugh even when I don’t want to. You make me feel like I’m more than just a name on the back of a jersey. You…you’re everything, Nat.Everything. I love you. I’minlove with you. And I really fucking hope you love me back because I’ve never done this before and I’m admittedly feeling a little vulnerable.”

She laughs again, smiling through the tears. She reaches across the small table and grips the front of my shirt, pulling me into a kiss that makes my heart stutter and my blood turn to straight fire.

“I love you too,” she whispers against my lips. I feel like my chest may crack in two from the eruption of pure fucking joy that her words send through me. My lips curl upward and I kiss her again, cradling her cheek with my hand. I really wish there wasn’t a table between us right now and that we weren’t in a fucking bar. Maybe this was a terrible plan after all.

Nat pulls away first and when I meet her gaze, we both smile like idiots.

“I can’t believe you planned all this. Did you practice that speech?”

“Not at all. I had a whole other one written that quoted Shakespeare and Celine Dion and shit, but I decided to just go off script instead.” She snorts and tosses a cheese curd at me. I catch it and pop it in my mouth, giving her a huge smile. God this might be the best day of my life.

We eat and drink and laugh and dance…and possibly hook up in the storage room. It’s all fucking perfect, every single minute of it. Jax picked up the Maserati not long after we’d gotten here and Jerry is waiting outside for us when we finally stumble back out into the snow. We barely keep our hands to ourselves in the car, but don’t make it past the entry way once we’re finally back at my place. What feels like hours later, we’re sprawled out in front of the fire place in the living room. I’m not exactly sure when or how we made it from the foyer to here, but this is where we’re spending the night because I don’t think either of us can move a muscle.

Shep and the crew have Zamboni, thank God, so the only thing I have to worry about for the rest of the night is finding the strength to grab pillows and a blanket from the couch a fewfeet away. I grunt as I heave myself up, grab the goods, and settle back down beside a nearly comatose Natalie. I throw the blanket over us and maneuver the pillow under my head, tucking Nat’s against my chest.

“That sounded like it was difficult,” she mutters.

“It was a Herculean effort, I’m not gonna lie. I think you fucked me into near immobility, Natalie Morgan.” She snorts and snuggles in closer to my side.

“I think this might just be the greatest night of my life, Thirst Trap.” My lips curl at the corners and I sigh in pure, utter contentment.

“Ditto, Nat. Ditto.”

Twenty-Two

NAT

Everything is stilla little surreal but I’m leaning into it full force. That night at Delaney’s had been…perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect. I never would have thought that Anthony Rizzo would be the king of grand gestures but my God, he aced his first attempt with flying colors. The fact that he’d done it daysbeforeValentine’s Day instead ofonit and avoided the cliché of it all made it all that much better. Our first official Valentine’s together was a nice, lowkey affair of pizza, beer, and a fun new set of restraints that attach to the bed. It had been one hell of a night.

I’ll hand it to him. He’s really rocking this whole relationship thing like a pro seeing as it’s his first one. I know that it’s all a bit crazy and fast, but I can’t quite make myself care. It feels too right to worry about if anyone else thinks we’re moving too quickly or thinks we’re insane.

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