Page 158 of Their Greatest Strength

A tingle rushes down my spine. “Wouldn’t that look bad? The bride and groom skipping out on their wedding reception?”

“Not if you were only gone a few minutes. Look at you, Blakely. My wife is a goddess.”

“So, you’re suggesting we sneak off and have a wedding quickie?”

He laughs lowly. “Yeah, I guess I am. What do you say, Mrs. Bateman?”

In the last eight months, Jamie has changed my life. There’s no more stress or fear. I wake up feeling cherished and excited and fall asleep settled, at peace. My life is exactly the way it was always meant to be.

This wedding was for more than the typical certificate and an exchange of rings. We already had both. Instead, we got married for nothing more than a reminder to ourselves that despite the reason behind our paperwork, what we have is real.

This is my forever guy. My greatest strength on my weakest day.

“I say lead the way.”

EXTENDED EPILOGUE

BLAKELY

SIX MONTHS AFTER THAT

I’ve taken to hockey more than I have football.

It’s the rules! Hockey rules are much easier to understand than football ones, and I’m pretty sure there’s not even half of the number of them. Sure, I don’t know what an icing is, and I always call for goalie interference, even when Jamie laughs and tells me there wasn’t any, but still.

I think it’s given my husband a bit of a complex. As of three months ago, I’ve started finding little notes around the house with football terms and their definitions. They’ve been on the bathroom mirror, his pillow when I woke up last week, and even inside of the kettle. Yes,inside. I ended up drowning it in water before I realized it was there.

He’s even got the team in on it. For no apparent reason, Chase and Jax showed up for dinner last week with a CFL dictionary and ten of their favourite football movies. And it doesn’t stop there. They turned Nate against me too.

This morning, he hid my limited-edition Warriors/Pythons Bateman hockey jersey that Jamie surprised his dad with a few weeks back and replaced it with the new alternate Pythons jersey. Even now, as I pull up the sleeves of the backup OttawaBeavertails jersey Braxton lent me, my brother smirks at me like he’s an evil genius.

Sixteen years old and confident, he’s grown so much in the last six months. Not only is he thriving at football, but his grades are incredible, and he’s made friends. Lots of them.

Jamie’s his best friend, though. The two of them are pretty much glued at the hip, and their relationship has helped Nate start to grow into the man I know he’ll be one day. The brotherly role Jamie plays in his life has given him the confidence and guidance that I couldn’t have on my own.

“I can’t believe they’re picking on you like this,” Braxton says, coming up to me with a baby girl in one arm and a little boy clutching the other from the ground.

I cock my head. “You can’t? Jamie won’t ever let me live this one down.”

“Okay, that’s fair. Maddox would probably cry if I told him that I liked football more than hockey.”

“It’s not even that I said that! All I said was that hockey’s simpler and easier to watch,” I clarify helplessly.

She sucks in a breath. “Oh, Blakely.”

“Oh, come on. You know he’s being dramatic.”

“You and I married the two most dramatic men in this entire family. This is only par for the course.”

I groan. “You’re right. So, what do you suggest I do? Pretend I was just lying?”

“Absolutely not,” Gracie guffaws, joining us. “Twist it to your benefit. Make him jealous enough that he doesn’t care which sport you prefer as long as you don’t make a show out of it again.”

Braxton nods excitedly. “That’s brilliant.”

“All done talking, Mom. I wanna see Daddy now. He’s skating!” Liam whines, tugging at Braxton.

He’s adorable in his Hutton Ottawa jersey, joggers, and sneakers. If you swap the joggers for jeans, he matches Braxton and Annie. That was probably the point.

---