Page 73 of Their Greatest Strength

“Did you not tell your sister anything about me, Nate?” Jamie asks, parking the SUV beside another similar one on the driveway. “Aren’t I your favourite player in the history of ever?”

Nate scoots closer to the front and pokes him. “Hey! Don’t blame me. Isn’t it your job to brag about yourself?”

Oh, he has been. He just decided to leave out everything about his family.

Jamie turns the engine off and twists in his seat to face us. Humour lines his expression, but he doesn’t laugh like I expect. He’s too zoned in, taking my lack of knowledge as an opportunity to teach me.

“A job I’ve failed but will fix right now. Starting with no, my parents didn’t win the lottery. My dad was in the NHL for a long time and built my mom her dream house before retiring at forty. My ma owns a non-profit ballet studio that gives lessons to those who can’t afford them.”

I grab onto the last bit of his explanation. “Why did she choose to do that?”

“I bet if you asked her that, she’d love to tell you all about it.”

“Is that my segue, then? Asking about why she cares about poor people?”

Jamie chokes on air, bewildered. I clamp my lips shut and let my brother try to pat Jamie’s back from the seat behind him. It doesn’t work, and instead, Nate just slaps at Jamie like he’s got a limp wrist.

“Jesus, Bandit. You fucking kill me sometimes,” Jamie wheezes.

My cheeks flush. “I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“I’d suggest maybe not wording it like that if you do choose to ask her about it.”

As if I’ll be risking mentioning that at all ever again.

“Should we go in now?” I ask, desperate to get out of this vehicle.

He turns it off and snags his keys from the cup holder. “Of course we can. But let me open the door for you in case we already have an audience.”

I don’t argue because he’s right. This isn’t a hug on the sidelines at a football game. We’re about to introduce our relationship to his parents. The two people who know him best.

With my hands in my lap, I wait for him to get out and round the hood. Nate follows suit once Jamie pauses at my door and quickly opens it up.

He offers me his hand, and I stare at it for a beat before taking it. It’s steady and warm, the way it always is.

With a backward shove, I close the door behind me and go to head for the house when suddenly, Jamie’s closing in. Lips parting on a silent question, I’m unable to evade him as he crushes his chest against mine and lifts our hands to his sternum.

I can feel Nate’s eyes on us. Who knows if Jamie’s parents are watching too. That doesn’t make me pull away from him the way it would have weeks ago.

His attention is so fierce, the kind that makes you feel like the only person in the entire world who matters to someone. Like you always have every ounce of their focus.

The constant glide of his thumb over my knuckles is just another reminder that he’s as aware of every point of contact as I am.

Leaning down, he lowers his voice. “There’s something I want to give you before we go inside.”

“Another gift?”

“In a way.”

I hold still in waiting. It’s almost impossible to see himmoving, but I feel the shift of his thigh against mine and the pull of the tight muscles in his chest as he digs into his pocket.

When he glides something cool down my ring finger, I trap a breath in my throat and slowly, carefully, drop my eyes to my hand.

The size of the square diamond on the silver band is . . . is hard to believe. It’s surrounded by so many smaller ones that glitter just as bright. Dreaming of an engagement ring was never something I did. I didn’t have any idea of what I would want when that time came, yet this isn’t what I would have expected in a million years. Even from a ring that I’ll be returning.

“Do you like it? I would have had it for you at the game, but it wasn’t ready yet,” he murmurs.

“It’s stunning, Jamie. It’s too much. I’m not the girl for this?—”

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