Page 61 of Decked, Wrecked and Pucked
“I know.”
“I’m not going to ask you to come with us,” I say, even though every part of me wants to drop to my knees and beg for it.
Her chest rises and falls, and I lower my hand, pressing it flat against her heart, needing to know if it beats for me.
“I’m not asking because you already know what we want. You know we want you with us. Not for a weekend, not for this stolen time. We want forever with you, Addison.” I brush my thumb along her jaw, watching her blink back the tears building behind her lashes. “Could you walk away from the life you’ve built here for one with us? Because that’s what you need to figure out—not for me, not for them… but for you.”
Her heart thunders beneath my palm, and her eyes glaze over. But I don’t give her room to look away, not when I’ve laid it all out.
“I’m in love with you, Addison,” I whisper, finally letting the words tear free from where they’ve lived in my chest for far too long. “And if you told me right now this is what you want, we’d build a whole life around you. We’d give you everything.” She trembles, and when a single tear slides down her cheek, I lean in and kiss it away.
“I’m not here to pressure you. I’m not asking you to decide tonight, but you need to know—we’ve already chosen you. All of us. And we’ll keep choosing you, even if we have to wait.” I pause, swallowing the lump that rises in my throat. “And when you’re ready… When your heart finally catches up to the way you look at us, we’ll be right there.”
“You love me?” she whispers.
I pause, let her question settle in my chest, then brush my lips across hers.
“Yeah, beautiful. I love you. I always have.”
“I love you too.”
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
JASPER
Fuck,he’s hot.
Roman’s on stage, and I can’t take my eyes off him. That dark hair I love to tug on, the tattoos I’ve traced with my mouth, that body built for pleasure. He’s mine in ways I still can’t believe.
Then there’s Zeke, just to my left, leaning against the wall like he’s not the most dangerously beautiful man I’ve ever seen. All golden Mediterranean skin, and black hair that always falls into his unreal green eyes.
Honestly, I’ve somehow landed the two hottest men to ever exist, and I have no idea what I did to deserve them.
Then there’s Addie—the light. The one girl we’ve always wanted. She’s softness and fire, everything we didn’t know we were missing until she walked back into our lives and made it impossible to imagine a world without her in it. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known… not just to look at, but to belong to.
I’m obsessed, and not the cute kind.
No—I’m sick with it.
It lives in my bones and burrows under my skin like it’s always belonged there. I love them so deeply it hurts in a waythat feels physical, as if my body was never meant to hold this much want, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I need them desperately, wildly, and in ways that would scare anyone who hasn’t felt the kind of love that borders on madness.
It’s not healthy. It’s raw and overwhelming at times, but fuck if I care because I know with absolute, soul-deep certainty that I could never live without them.
“Without Coach Hope, I wouldn’t be living in Boston. I wouldn’t be captain of the Boston Vipers or winning championships. I might not even be standing here at all. And it’s not just me. So many of us in this room owe him more than we could ever put into words. The hours he poured into us, the way he pushed us harder than we thought possible, and the care and determination he showed to make us not just better players, but better men. He believed in us, even when we couldn’t see it ourselves.”
Watching Roman up there, talking about the game he loves and how he got here with the help of Addie’s dad, I can’t help but think back to when I used to watch him from the bench, or across the locker room, or flying down the ice.
That’s how our friendship started. Not with words, but with sweat, bruises, and a kind of respect you can only earn on frozen ground.
I was in awe of him.
Still am, if I’m honest.
No one moves like Roman.
No one reads the ice like him.
