Page 40 of My Fair Player

Liam froze. A rush of disbelief, then joy, and then overwhelming emotion crashed into him like a tidal wave. His knees buckled, giving out beneath him, and he dropped to the ice in a breathless, stunned heap. The cold didn’t register. The noise didn’t matter. All he could see was her.

Ashley.

His anchor in the chaos. His home in a storm. She was in the stands, hands over her mouth, eyes wide and shining. She was everything. He lifted a trembling hand and pointed at her across the sea of celebration, the noise, the chaos.You’re my everything, he thought, a vow stitched into the very fabric of his heart.

And then the world tackled him—his teammates crashing into him in a dogpile of elation and victory.

EPILOGUE

Ashley couldn’t believe it.

After months and months of practices, competitions, dealing with injuries, split lips, moments where Liam was on the verge of breaking down from all the pressures that he felt were being dumped on his shoulders, his private insecurities about how they were playing, his fears about distractions, all shared with her behind closed doors and never discussed again.

It was all behind them now.

They’d done it.

There was no way she was missing this game and had quit her job at the airline because of the importance to her. They refused to give her time off due to shortages, and it was a matter of what she decided was more vital to her – her career or Liam and her marriage— not that he would ever make her choose between the two. He’d been nothing but supportive, so incredibly wonderful for months, but as the strain on him grew and they got closer to the finish line – she made the decision on her own.

And, like always, he embraced her choices.

Standing there, she had seen Liam sink the winning puck during overtime and saw the other team’s goalie collapse onto the ice – but it was too late. The puck was behind him in the net, as a hushed awareness rippled through the arena like a volcano taking a deep breath - before exploding into a bone-shaking roar that echoed in the rafters.

They probably heard their screams all the way on the opposite side of the country.

“OH MYGOSH!” Ashley cried out – as hands grabbed her shoulders, shaking her as the other families began screaming, jumping up and down, echoing her own excitement too. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the ice as Liam looked up at her as his beloved face crumbled. He pointed at her, almost like he was giving her credit publicly, and then fell to his hands and knees. The other guys skated to him, rushing to surround him, and it was a breathtakingly beautiful display of brethren, hard work, attitude, a team, and at the heart of it all - a family.

They were all in a mound, all flopped upon each other, screaming excitedly as people, reporters, and other members of the staff flooded the ice.

“C’mon,” Jamie hollered at the families, waving her arm; her face was streaked with tears and her expression full of pride. “Let’s go – those are our boys out there celebrating without us, ladies.”

And Ashley was already making her way toward the ice, needing to hold Liam in her arms. He needed to pull himself together, know how proud she was of him at this moment, and practice his quick speech that he kept muttering this morning in the shower as he was getting ready. He’d told her last night that he knew his own mind, and during overwhelming moments, he shut down or reacted badly.

He was the captain – this was his team – and wanted the world to see him for the person he’d grown into as a result of being a Wolverine. She knew he was thinking of his agent, whom he’d fired, his ex-girlfriend who had used him (which she’d found out about later), but today, this win, wasn’t about the past. It was opening doors to the future – and another season with the Wolverines.

Ashley pushed her way through the crowd on the ice and saw Barrett Coeur do a flip, in full uniform, skates and all, before sliding to his knees, hugging his pregnant wife and son, gesturing wildly to them both. Stephen was the sweetest child who idolized his dad – and that display showed her why. He put Stephen first, making sure he was included and understood what was being said around them. As a result, Ashley and several others were taking sign language classes, proving that you never stopped learning but rather grew into something more.

Photographers were there, taking candid photos of the men, several of whom had tears in their eyes, were hugging each other and smiling with such intense joy mixed with exhaustion – and Coeur kissed her husband directly in the middle of his forehead, making Liam laugh as he blushed and shoved the playful man away.

And it was so beautiful to see.

Her husband was now standing beside Coach Starnes, nodding, smiling, and wiping his eyes, as the beloved father figure of the Wolverines was obviously giving him a slight pep-talk before the media grabbed a hold of them both. Nothing wouldn’t detract from her husband’s finest moment, not the fatigue, the insecurity, nothing.

She met his gaze, nodding proudly, and saw his smile.

“I am so proud of you,” she said openly, holding back to give him his space and his moment of glory. She knew he couldn’t hear her, but he saw her lips moving, forming the words, and that was enough. He held out an arm to her, including her, and she made her way there where she belonged. Liam tucked her against his sweaty side as he began his interview.

“Liam, how does it feel to win the Stanley Cup?” someone hollered, shoving a microphone in his face – and he looked at Coach Starnes, smiling.

“Me? Nahhh. I’m part of a team,” Liam replied, grinning. “Myteamwon – not me. I am grateful for the chances Coach Starnes has given me, that God gave me my wife to be at my side when I needed her most, to the owners who had complete faith in us and to my team because it took every single one of us, every practice, to be strong enough together to win and bring the Cup home to Quebec.”

As his words echoed in the rafters – the response from the city was telling as they began to chant, ‘WOL-VA-RINES! WOL-VA-RINES!’ over and over again. The chaos around them had no signs of slowing down as each of the men got to take their photo with the Cup, with the owner who had flown in from Scotland with his family for this moment. They lined up and took even more photos, and Coach Starnes came to stand beside her.

“Can you handle another year of this craziness?” Coach Starnes asked, leaning toward her, causing her to look at him sharply in surprise.

“Why do you ask?” she began feeling a flutter of fear in her chest. “Liam’s contract is for five years, isn’t it?”

“I know, but when I put him as the captain of the team, it was just supposed to be for this year,” he said quietly, staring at the team in the distance, still reveling in their win. “He’s probably the best captain I’ve ever seen, and I want to keep him in that spot for another year.”

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