Epilogue
Maggie walked down the street in Lincoln Park enjoying the spring air of Chicago. It was one of those evenings where you still had to wear a coat, but it wasn”t as crisp as the winter nights that were hopefully fading away.
She could see the front of Icing dimly lit by the lights inside. It was too late for them to be open, but she knew people were there. After all, she had been invited, which is also why she wasn”t coming empty-handed.
They may be celebrating something or they may not, so she brought a basic vanilla cupcake this time. No black cherry chocolate cake. It hated Charlie.
Besides, Maggie was wearing a bit of black and cherry underneath her clothes instead. She couldn”t help it. She found a cute black lace lingerie set with red ribbons and bows on so she had to buy it. It reminded her of Charlie”s favorite cake and her night with him in her bakery.
That was a month ago and Maggie told Charlie she would wait for him, and she held to that promise too. She thought it would take forever, but it sounded like the legal issues with Charlie”s cousins wrapped up quicker than anyone expected.
And yet, no one seemed to know what that meant. The team”s lawyers were tight-lipped and Noah wasn”t telling anyone anything, not even Georgia. It seemed to be bugging Georgia that she was out of the loop even though she understood why Noah wasn”t telling her anything.
The players didn”t seem to know either, at least the players that Maggie had become friends with. She was finding more excuses to be at Icing and bring in extra baked goods for their cases so she would run into Riley Rookwood or Fletcher Keris on occasion. It wasn”t hard when they were both dating Icing employees and Riley was an investor in the bakery.
Sure enough, as Maggie got close to the front door for Icing, Riley saw her through the window before she had to bobble the cupcakes to knock and get in.
”Hey, you made it.”
He smiled at her and held the door open before closing it and locking it behind her. Then he gave another check to make sure the sign was still turned to ”Closed” and no one on the street was getting any ideas about the bakery being open late. This wasn”t a normal open hours type of thing. It was a private party for only invited guests.
Riley turned back and his eyes got wide when he saw what was in Maggie”s hands.
”I know you know we make cupcakes here, but I do appreciate when you bring some extras.”
”I had to bring some for tonight to either celebrate or drown our sorrows.”
Riley gave her a tight smile and nodded towards the back of the bakery. ”Everyone is in the kitchen.”
Maggie took it as her cue to head back behind the counter and into the kitchen area where her friends were all sitting around the large prep island in the middle of the room.
Well, most of her Icing friends. Noah wasn”t here and neither was Charlie. They were the ones this group would either be toasting or lamenting with.”Oh, what are those?” Cora asked.
She came around the table and snuggled up next to her boyfriend Riley while keeping her eyes on Maggie”s box. ”What”s in there?” she said with a nod towards the box.
Maggie gave her a teasing grin and waved her closer. The other women around the table leaned in too. This reveal was going to be fun.
”Ta-da!”
Maggie pulled the lid off with a flourish. Inside, were a dozen perfectly decorated vanilla cupcakes and not one of them was smushed. But each one still had a cherry on top of it. She thought it at least needed that.
Samantha practically cackled at the sight and her boyfriend Fletcher tilted his head trying to take them in. ”I don”t get it.”
”Oh, let me tell you this story,” Georgia said before launching into the embarrassing events of how Maggie met Charlie.
She listened in as Georgia told them about seeing Maggie roll the cart in with a scowl on her face and Charlie confessing he had smashed the cake. Everyone laughed at the right parts of the story, even Maggie, who could laugh about it now. It wasn”t so funny when it happened.
But then a lot had happened between then and now. She never would”ve guessed that the man who sheepishly smashed her cake was also brooding and apologetic and a quiet fighter when it came to what he wanted. He had made it clear to Maggie that he knew what he wanted: the team and her.
”So then Maggie took down the side of the box and a cherry went rolling across--”
There was a knock at the front door and everyone turned to stare at it. They knew who was there.
”I”ll get it.”
Riley wandered out of the kitchen to the front of the store while the kitchen remained quiet as they all kept staring at the kitchen entrance. She could hear some muffled voices and thought maybe one of them sounded like Charlie”s voice.
Then he walked into the kitchen with Noah behind him, both of them looking serious and stoic. Maggie worried it was going to be bad news and maybe everyone else did too because no one said anything for a second or two that felt like an eternity.
”Well?” Georgia finally asked.
A smile started to spread on Noah”s face, giving away their end game.
”I got the team,” Charlie said.
There was a cheer that went up somewhere, maybe a ”woo” or two echoing off the stainless steel appliances. Maggie didn”t care though. She wasn”t really paying attention to that.
Instead, she practically launched herself at Charlie, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in the crook of his neck. She could feel his hands on her back pulling her close against him.
Finally.
This stupidity with the team was finally over and there was no more stress or doubt that Charlie Westmore owned the Chicago Otters.
Maggie wasn”t sure how long she held onto him but when she pulled away, he seemed to be just as dazed as she was. There was a glimmer in his eyes though that she had never seen before like he could be happy now.
She put her hand up and caressed his cheek. ”Congratulations.”
”Thank you.”
It was reverent and quiet and yet still loud enough to be heard over the celebration in the room. His eyes were still on her though, hopeful and radiant. This was definitely the end of something and hopefully the start of something else.
”Can you please stop making those puppy dog eyes at my team owner for about five seconds so I can congratulate him?”
Maggie turned and gave Riley a teasing smile. ”As you wish.”
She could barely get out of the way fast enough before Riley gave Charlie one of those bro hugs followed by Fletcher.
”Can we let everyone know what happened?” Riley asked.
”Let them know,” Noah replied.
The players sat down and started texting people while Cora started doing the same. ”I told the other hockey girlfriends I would tell them if I heard anything,” she explained.
Everyone else was busy talking to each other that they didn”t seem to be paying that much attention to Charlie, who was the star of their party tonight. But Maggie saw him. Maggie was still looking at him when he leaned down and kissed her. It wasn”t a big deal, just a little peck, but it was enough to let her know that he belonged to her. They would sort out this whole relationship thing now that he didn”t have to worry about the team.
”So,” he said seductively.
”So.”
Maggie hoped he was about to ask her to get out of there and head back to his place and forget all of these people and this crazy bakery.
”What”s in the box?”
Oh well. They had plenty of time to enact her plans.
She quietly nodded toward the table and slipped her hand in his to pull him closer to the box.
”Well, I didn”t want to curse you so they are not black cherry chocolate.”
Charlie let out the best laugh she had heard in a long time and it was even loud enough for Riley and Fletcher to look up from their phones. They both had smiles on their faces as they watched Charlie grab a cupcake from the box and look at it.
”Don”t hog the food, boss,” Riley said as he stood up and stretched across the table to get one.
Maggie watched as Charlie took a bite, his lips wrapping around the chocolate. She wondered what she would have to do to get those lips on her again later. Again, there would be plenty of time for that, she had to remind herself.
”So how did you do it?” Riley asked between bites.
”I grabbed a cupcake and took a bite,” Charlie said with a stupid grin.
Riley rolled his eyes. ”No, I meant how did you get the team secured.”
The owner nodded, his smile fading a bit but not much. ”I had to give them some money to go away.”
”Two hundred million.” Noah put his hand on Charlie”s shoulder. ”His cousins suck, he”s only a millionaire instead of a billionaire, but Charlie officially owns the team.”
”The Otters have some pretty amazing lawyers if it only took two hundred million for them to leave the team alone.”
Charlie shrugged. ”My uncle made it very clear in his will that the team belonged to me. The money is just to make sure my cousins won”t try to pull this crap again and I get the Otters.”
The phones on the island started beeping as the news spread and everyone started reaching for them to answer questions or respond to other players. Everyone except for Charlie who was back to checking out Maggie.
”I hope you don”t mind being with a millionaire instead of a billionaire,” he said jokingly.
”I just want to be with you.”
It sounded more serious than she wanted it to, but Maggie wasn”t going to try and hide that or shy away from it. She meant it. The hockey team and the money were nice, but it was nothing compared to who Charlie had become to her.
And when he leaned down and kissed her again with those lips that tasted like her chocolate icing, she could tell that Charlie felt the same way about her.