Epilogue
Twenty Months Later
Something about the cool air biting my nostrils upon stepping outside made everything feel a little better.
Cameron had told me that once, too, and it had been true ever since.
We had gone through two winters together since he had first returned into my life and the third one was gathering high above us in the thick, leaden clouds that promised a heavy snowfall this afternoon.
Maybe it was the fact that I was always the most comfortable when I was on the ice.
Maybe it was the burning furnace of passion that lived in my chest and required cold air to sustain me.
And maybe it was the memory of our first Christmas together, with a thick blanket of snow outside and a merry fire in the common room, that had my heart leaping.
Cameron stepped out of the car a moment later and joined me where I was having my ideations.
With his handsome body entering my field of vision, it pulled my focus to the reason we were outside in the first place.
Then, Lizzy Jennings walked out of the neo-colonial house with a ‘FOR SALE’ sign displayed in the generous front yard.
The house was painted the lightest shades of gray with an olive green accent on the window frames and shutters.
Its dark gray roof tiles elevated the entire look.
The porch wasn’t much unlike the one at the team house where Cam and I had reconnected after three years of distance.
“Welcome,” Lizzy said with a bright smile. Her hair was cut straight above her shoulders and her attire was casual and professional at the same time. She walked right down the stoney path to the sidewalk and extended her arm for handshakes.
“Thanks for seeing us,” Cam said, apologetic that we couldn’t come here any other day than Sunday.
“Please, I know how demanding your work is,” Lizzy said to us both.
I doubted she knew the extent of it, but I appreciated hearing the words nonetheless.
It was true that playing for the Spartans was taxing in many ways, but each morning, upon opening my eyes, I had the strongest urge to shout blessings from the top of my lungs.
The luck Cameron and I had had in the drafting rounds, with the precise guidance of Jason Manning representing us, was something I never would have dared to hope for.
I knew us coming out on top of the Frozen Four that last year helped us get what we wanted, too.
It was the ridiculously happy ending to a story that nearly ended in its conception.
Our time was spread thin across practice and competitive matches, but we were together. It had taken a great deal of negotiations and Jason definitely employed witchcraft, but Cam and I had been playing for the same team for almost a year and a half. As we wanted to.
We were a team of two. We always had been. And when the Spartans gave us a chance to prove ourselves like a team, we damn well did. And the gamble paid off.
Lizzy ushered us into the house and talked of the type of wood that the pretty, white entrance door was made of. I only noticed the small, round window in the door and thought it was cute.
Inside, the space sprawled left and right with a staircase in the middle.
Lizzy stopped us there by the door and explained when the house was built, when it was renovated, what sort of power consumption was average, how it was benchmarked against other houses, and what more could be done to improve the quality of life.
After that, she suggested that we should look around and ask any questions we might have. Though fully furnished, the current owners were happy to take anything we didn’t need and offset it against the price of the property.
In truth, I couldn’t see myself excluding anything that was already in the house.
To our left was a spacious living room with a fireplace and a flat-screen TV mounted above it, a designer coffee table, and a sleek sofa and armchairs was a merger of some deep cozy-punk aesthetic brought into a contemporary setting.
To the right, a kitchen and dining room were equipped with every amenity I could ever think of needing.
After all, my cooking skills hardly surpassed microwaving a cake, but I was trying.
When Cam and I climbed the stairs to explore the smaller bedroom and the bathrooms, I took his hand in mine. “Is this for real?” I whispered.
“Which part?” he asked, pausing in the hallway toward the master bedroom. “The one where we’re buying our first home? Or the one where we survived each other for the last two years?”
I punched his shoulder for that remark, but he wrapped his arms around me roughly and trapped me in his hold.
As he bared his teeth, it turned me on pretty much instantly, but I forced myself to resist it.
Instead, we indulged in a deep, long kiss that celebrated all we had gone through to get here.
And when we entered the master bedroom, I was sold.
The large bed with tall, sleek bedposts and a see-through canopy above had an elegant headboard made up of thin wooden bars that were ideal for trapping my wrists whenever we wished to do so.
The blue accent paint paired beautifully with the predominantly white room.
Another TV was mounted to the wall across from the bed and the dark, laminated floor had a nice, small, wool carpet on the side.
An ottoman was parked in one corner of the room and a reading chair was located in the other with a contemporary lamp hanging a little to the side of it.
The walk-in closet allowed for more wardrobe than either of us had and the bathroom sported a large jacuzzi tub that promised to inspire more action than two horny lovebirds could possibly handle.
Unless they were trained athletes, of course.
Stamina was a thing you practiced.
Cameron wrapped his arms around me from behind as we both gaped at the large bathroom. “I always knew we’d have this,” he said.
“You did not.” I glanced at him and found that he was serious.
“No, I totally did,” he said. “Since we got together for real. I knew this was it. Same team. Nice house. That ring around your finger.”
By instinct, I touched the ring. My crazy, beautiful Cameron.
After the first game we won with the Spartans, Cam told me to wait for everyone to leave.
He wanted us to go back to the ice and so we did, elated with our victory and the promise we made when we joined the team.
The rink was empty and we were young and dreamy.
Our dreams were coming true day after day.
And in the magic of the moment, when we were invincible, we skated across the rink just for the fun of it.
Just for the laughs and the squeals of joy that we wished to share with one another.
In all of that, having carried it throughout the game, Cameron had skated across the rink to the middle, and fell to one knee, offering me this beautiful, golden ring and asking me to marry him.
After years of pining and more years of loss, then the best year and a half of my life, there was nothing else to say but yes. He was mine and I was his. It was written that way in the stars.
“I always knew it,” Cam insisted, tightening his hold on me. “When I told you that you would be my first in everything, this is what I meant. It’s you and me, baby.”
And it always was. My family was lukewarm about the wedding service and frosty about our drafting. His family had moved to another state without letting him know. And while they had been in touch to exchange contact information, neither side had ever truly reached out again.
But that was the thing everyone got wrong about family. Cameron was my family just like I was his. We came from groups of people with whom we had never fit in, but they shaped the puzzle pieces that we were. And we made the whole picture.
We built our family and we were giving it a home. With blood and sweat and passion that burned so bright it eviscerated everything that stood in its way.
“Stop being so adorable or I’ll have you right here and now,” I whispered, placing my hands over his on my lower abdomen.
He added a little more pressure and bit my ear for a short moment. “I’d have you anywhere, my love.”
“Lizzy’s waiting,” I reminded him.
“Is that supposed to be a turn-off?” he joked.
I laughed and spun away from him, then pulled him in for a kiss. This was it. This was the house we would live in. This was the home we would make. And he was the only person on this entire planet I would ever want to do that with.
I kissed him without mercy or pause. I kissed him like it was the last chance I had.
And he kissed me back with equal passion.
I found myself holding the lapels of his jacket like the winds would take me away if I let go. He was the monolith of safety in my life and in times of change. Together, we embarked on this wild journey and together we could make it.
Cameron pulled back and looked into my eyes, fire blazing in those loving chestnuts and a smirk stretching his lips. We didn’t need words when we slowly nodded to one another.
This was the one we would buy.
And today was the first day of the rest of our lives.