Page 171 of Face Off
“I can’t go to Montreal. Brooke is pregnant, and her whole family is here.” Every single pair of eyes settles on Seymour, andhe grins. “Oh, right. Surprise! I’m going to be a fuckingdad,” he says, and the room erupts into cheers.
“God, I’m going to miss this chaos,” I whisper, and Maverick laughs.
“Are you sure? I’ve heard rumors that Toronto is a little more subdued. They won’t have the bond we do, and they definitely won’t have a Grant or an Ethan.”
“Six months ago, I would’ve been grateful for some peace and quiet. I’m used to it now, though, and I love the noise.”
“I love you,” he murmurs, then he kisses my forehead.
“Whoa. What the fuck was that, Cap?” Connor blinks, and everyone’s heads turn our way. “Why are you kissing Emmy?”
“Yeah. So.” Maverick rubs the back of his neck, and his cheeks turn pink. “We’re, uh, dating. And not in a casual way. It’s more of anI love youway? Which I know I’ve never experienced before and I’m still kind of figuring out the ropes so I don’t fuck this up, but I’m happy. We’re happy, and we wanted you all to know. You’re our family, and we don’t want to keep it a secret anymore.”
“Emmy,” Grant whispers. “Blink twice if you need help. I’ve always wanted to be a hero.”
“Touch her and die, Everett,” Maverick says, and I’ve never heard something so hot in my life.
“I love him too,” I tell them. “I didn’t come here expecting to fall for another hockey player, and I certainly didn’t expect for it to be Maverick. I’m glad it was him though, because he’s picked me up in a way I’ve been searching for but haven’t wanted to admit for a long time. I’m not the same person I was when I got to DC, and I think that’s a good thing. All of you have played a part in that change, and I can’t thank you enough for opening your hearts to a prickly woman who just needed to learn to trust again.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Ethan wipes his eyes. “Are you determined to make me cry tonight, Emmy?”
“We love you too, Em. Not in the way Cap does, obviously, but you’re always going to be a part of us. That’s not going to change just because you’re five hundred miles away,” Riley says.
“You can be prickly around us all you want,” Connor chimes in. “God knows we already deal with Liam’s prickly ass. What’s a little more?”
“Thanks, guys.” I rub my hand over my chest and smile. “I hate that I have to leave, but this isn’t goodbye.”
Maverick turns his cheek and buries his face in my hair. “Enough with all this sad shit. We’re going to be here next week and the week after. Emmy will be back soon, and even though it might feel like everything else is changing, this isn’t going to change. Grab a beer, turn on Madden so I can watch Grant get his ass kicked, raise a toast to Seymour being a goddamn father, and let’s have some fucking fun the rest of the night.”
Everyone moves around the living room, filtering to the kitchen and out to the balcony. Grant and Ethan fight over a controller, and Liam pats Seymour on the back, a rare smile sneaking onto the goalie’s face when he looks at a sonogram photo.
It hurts to leave a place I love so deeply with people I care about, but I know there’s always going to be a spot for me.
I rest my head on Maverick’s chest and stare at his phone as he thumbs through his social media accounts.
“You have five hundred unread messages?” I ask.
“Yeah. I don’t want to look at them.” He yawns and scratches his cheek. “Most of them are phone numbers or photos fromwomen. Opening them seems like an invitation, and I don’t want there to be any blurred lines or mixed signals when it comes to the communication I have with fans.”
“What kind of photos?”
“Use your imagination, Red.”
“Does that actually work?”
“It used to.” Maverick shrugs. “That’s embarrassing to admit, but it’s the truth. Validation, remember? They gave me what I wanted, and I gave them what they wanted.”
“How did you pick who to answer? There are eighteen messages just from tonight from women in DC. Did you open them all and pick the hottest one?”
“Sometimes. Men are visual creatures, Em. You know it doesn’t take a lot to get us going, and when I was a guy in my mid-twenties who could buy anything I wanted, a picture of a nice rack and the promise of a blow job was enough to do me in.”
“And now?” I ask.
He’s never given me a reason not to trust him, and I’m still going to trust him from five hundred miles away. I want to hear it, though. The selfish part in me wants to know it’s me and me alone for him.
“And now I don’t need any of that shit. I’m happier at thirty than I was at twenty-four, and back then I thought I was on top of the world. I could open all five hundred of those messages, and none of them would bring me the satisfaction that you do right now, Red. You look fucking divine in my shirt, and I can’t wait to take it off of you.” He tosses his phone onto the pillow and rolls on top of me. “My password is the same as it was when we used my phone to search up vans for your dad, and it’s never going to change. I have a past, but I have a future now too, and that future is with you. If you ever feel uneasy, I want you to look at all those unread messages and know that you’re enough, baby.I’ll take a night in with you over a night out with anyone else any day.”
“Wait a second.” I hook a leg around his waist, and his hand skates up my thigh. His thumb brushes over the front of my underwear, and I arch my back off the mattress. “Your password is 3669.”
