Page 81 of The Cupcake Cottage

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“Maverick, will you marry me?”

Maverick’s heart swelled at the earnestness of Daisy-Mae’s request. She looked relaxed for the first time since she’d stepped into his house earlier. His absence had been weighing on her, and she’d had those fears his mom had suggested. He felt like a fool for not noticing it. He’d quickly become caught on that treadmill, thinking he was doing all of this for them and that itwould be okay to get insanely busy so soon in their relationship—inanyrelationship. That they had already built a foundation strong enough that they wouldn’t hit potholes that jarred the doors right off their vehicle.

She wasn’t going to let him quit hockey, but she needed him to back off accepting so many deals. Most of that income would go to taxes anyway. So why was he busting himself to go get them? Because Louis thought it would elevate the team.

He almost shook his head at himself. The team was important, but not more important than his relationship.

“For real,” she said. “Let’s elope.”

“But you hate the idea of eloping.”

“I know.”

“Your opinion has changed?”

“No, but if we have to wait for things to slow down in order to plan the wedding we want, it’s going to take usyears.”

“Years? What if I retire or say no to more deals?” He’d signed a flurry of contracts over the past several weeks, afraid they’d get yanked back if he hesitated or public opinion turned again. He’d be consumed with extra work for quite a few months, but maybe he could spread some of it out a bit more to give himself and Daisy-Mae more time together.

“You’re not retiring, Maverick Blades, number 53, captain of the San Antonio Dragons. Not yet, anyway. I can handle the time commitment problem, as long as I know you love me and that you’ll start making me a priority and say no to things sometimes. Plus, saying no will make you more desirable because you’ll be less available. You know what they say about playing hard to get?”

He laughed, pulling her into his arms. Their blanket had attracted most of the vegetation from the knoll already, making it a pretty nice barn blanket for the cats. But he didn’t care. He’d buy another one. This moment was worth a lot more.

“You know, there’s this old law on the books here in Texas,” he said.

“Where we declare we’re married in public three times and poof! We are?”

“Think it would hold up?”

“Maybe we could put a little more effort into our wedding than that.”

“Okay.” He brushed her cheek with his thumb. “How about we elope? We sneak off for two or three days?”

“You don’t have that kind of time off during the season.”

“I’ll skip some practices. Can’t skip a game, though.”

“Yeah?” She was perking up. She liked this crazy plan.

“We’ll leave right after a game and then arrive back just in time for another.”

“Where would we go?”

He shrugged. “Where do you want to go?”

She smiled, dreaming.

“Then we’ll have the summer to pull together plans for a real wedding before training camp. Maybe a fall wedding? September before the season officially starts?”

She nodded.

“We’ll hire Cassandra to do most of the work because she knows us enough to figure out what we’d like. We’ll have a Monday morning wedding planning date where we deal with decisions. We don’t need to taste cakes or prance around town. We’ll keep it simple.”

She laughed. “Simple?”

“Are you going to be a Bridezilla?”

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