Page 198 of The Head Game

“Must’ve been something about Haler,” Nico said with a snort. “That’s about the only thing he ever gets worked up about.”

“Yeah, I know you said he got into it with a fan recently over a sign about Hale’s drinking problem.”

“Ugh, total scumbag move,” Nico said. “Who the fuck gives a guy shit about addiction? That’s low. Felix did the NHLPA program, he did his time with the Black Bears, he did his court-mandated volunteer work. What the fuck else do they want from him?”

“Pretty shitty of them,” August agreed.

“But it’s good to have him back,” Nico said. “At least there’s one less hole in our D-corps.”

“Think it’ll be enough to snag a playoff position?”

“Ugh, I don’t know,” Nico admitted. “It’s not impossible we could claw our way up to a wild card spot but it’s not looking great.”

“Well, there’s what, a month left to go?”

“Yeah. Guess we’ll see.”

August glanced at the screen again to see Jonah down on the ice, held in place by two linesmen and still shouting at the opposing player who was being led to the penalty box by a referee. “Looks like it’ll be an interesting rest of the regular season though, eh.”

“Seriously.” Nico grinned. “You know, I just had an idea. We should totally do some role playing. I’ll be a hockey player and you can be a referee, pinning me down to the ice …”

“Nico!” August glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot but most of the other people in the box were either watching the game or talking to the person next to them.

“What?” Nico widened his eyes. “It’ll be fun.”

* * *

“Good game,” August said, standing and stretching. “I had fun.”

“Me too,” Nico said, fingering the ring in his pocket.

August glanced around at the otherwise empty suite. “I don’t know why everyone else left before it was over. We won.”

“Aww, I love that you said ‘we’. You’re an honorary Fisher Cat now!”

“Ha. Guess I did,” August said with a smile. “You ready to go?”

“Well, before we go, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Sure.” August smiled. “But if the question is ‘do you want to have sex in the arena?’ the answer is no.”

Nico was too nervous for jokes.

It was stupid to be nervous.

They were already engaged. August had said he wanted to spend his life with him. But Nico still wanted to make it official. Like … really official. He wanted to make sure he didn’t miss out on any experiences.

Including proposing and meaning it, in a forever kind of way.

“So yeah, it’s not that,” Nico said, clearing his throat.

Well, it was now or never.

He dropped to one knee, pulling a simple white gold band out of his pocket and looking up at August.

“Augustus Ward Manning, will you do me the great honor of being my husband? So we can promise to love, cherish, and annoy the shit out of each other for the rest of our lives?”

August laughed, cupping his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask.”

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