Epilogue
A Year And A Half Later
Though I could move easily on the ice, I was not a dancer.
Gray, on the other hand, had danced half the night away.
But it was a pleasure to watch him. He knew all the moves regardless of the era that produced the songs.
He could do a mean boogie, but he didn’t shy away from jumping up and down, throwing his head left and right, to some Lady Gaga and the twenty-tens melancholy.
He also sat with me, but I could see him itching to get back to the dance floor. Later on, I found that I had to push and nudge and urge him, but it was well worth the smiles on his face when he got into the groove.
I wasn’t the only graduate here even though we put together a private party.
Sawyer, Beckett, Caden, and Jordan had all graduated this week.
The five of us, with Gray’s endless encouragement, booked the place to give all our friends a treat for the end of an era.
And until this very moment, as I swirled the martini Gray had insisted on me having, I had been too busy with planning to truly face the weight of this moment.
As I looked around, the love of my life was dancing with a big smile on his face.
His blond hair was a little tousled with sweat, and his face was flushed.
He’d never looked prettier. At my table, Sawyer and Noah sat together, as did Caden, Beckett, Jordan, and Asher.
The graduates of the past few years either sat at the table next to mine or danced near Gray.
I saw Sebastian and Tyler, and to everyone’s huge delight, our guests of honor and hockey royalty in the making, Riley Brooks and Cameron Martinez showed up.
That was Beckett’s doing, considering his closeness to Cam and Caden’s friendship with Riley.
Our old captain and his nemesis-turned-partner were gaining prominence, not just for their talent, but also for very publically being boyfriends on the same NHL team.
Our teammates were here, too. Phoenix, Oliver, Carter, Maddox.
They all came to the party to see half the team leave.
And it made my heart so freakishly big to be surrounded by the very people who had defined the last four years of my life.
Especially the one dancing in the center of the crowd.
Coaches and assistant coaches had stopped by but decided to leave a little earlier.
And in the time that followed, I grew more aware of all the changes that were ahead of us.
The Titans would go on without us. It was only natural.
I wondered if they would ever have a lineup as loyal and dedicated as us, then knew for sure that they would.
They had been a team long before any of us had joined.
And they would continue to forge great players to fill up the ranks of the NHL for years to come.
My prospects were getting better every day. The process was moving along smoothly and Riley Brooks’ own agent picked up me together with Nate Partridge’s glowing reference. It had filled me with the sort of pride I couldn’t keep away from my face.
A hand covered mine on the table and snapped me from my musings. I looked to my left and found the pink-cheeked boyfriend I loved more than life looking at me. “Are you alright?”
“He’s having an emotion,” Sawyer said. “Don’t distract him.”
“Or you’ll kick my ass,” Gray said, mock-saluting.
“Dude,” Sawyer said in an exasperated tone. “It’s been eighty-four years. Drop it already.”
Gray had forgiven him the very same day the incident had taken place.
Apparently, it had been enough to show him that I still cared.
Sawyer had done a great deal to smooth things out after the show Gray had put for everyone in front of the team house, stripping down emotionally and literally in the freezing cold.
The same loyalty he had given me in my toughest times was extended to Gray now.
My boyfriend grinned and shook his head. “Oh, Price. If you think I’ll ever stop milking that guilt cow, you’ll have to kick my ass to make it happen.”
Sawyer clenched his fist. “I am tempted.” But Noah squirmed and took Sawyer’s hand.
He whispered something in Sawyer’s ear that made my best friend seem dazed for a bit.
The corners of his lips ticked up, but he pulled on his signature scowl, turned his and Noah’s hands around so he was the one doing the holding, and got up.
Noah followed and I shut a mental door on them both because some things simply didn’t need to be imagined.
“And that, my love, is why I’m pretty sure Cupid made me,” Gray said with a proud smirk.
Riley Brooks swept in with Cam trailing him.
Even in a good mood, Cameron Martinez looked like he was ever so slightly bristling.
Riley, on the other hand, grabbed a chair for himself and sat in it backward, leaning over the back of the chair and clasping my boyfriend’s shoulder. “A year of captaincy left, huh, Reed?”
“You know it,” Gray said. The two had faced off on the ice in Gray’s freshman year, just before Riley had graduated. “Then it’s hopefully the NHL.”
Riley grinned at that. “Are you following in our footsteps?” He gestured at Cam, who sat like a normal person and smirked a little.
The question was for both of us, but Gray answered first. “To play on the same team? Oh no. We’ve been fighting each other in the rink for three years. I don’t think we know how to cooperate out there.”
Riley laughed at that, but I had to agree.
There was something magical about the rivalry we got to experience on the ice and something deeply erotic about us settling the score in private.
As much as I loved him and wanted him to win all the trophies and accolades, the drive to win a game against him had become an integral part of our relationship.
Gray felt the same. It had never gotten between us.
My fingers found my bowtie and I fixed it by instinct.
Gray had untied his, the top two buttons of his shirt undone and revealing inches of flesh I loved looking at.
He glanced at me and said he’d be right back.
I stayed with the boys, but I longed to follow him wherever he went.
He still had his senior year left, which meant our lives were about to get complicated.
In a few months, he would need to dive back into the college routine of studying, drilling, conditioning, and playing.
Hopefully, I would be playing by then, too.
The questions dangled unanswered whenever we talked about it. But one thing remained certain. No matter where life takes us, I will never let you go.
I searched the room for Gray and spotted him speaking to the DJ. The young man with a modern buzz cut and headphones around his neck gave Gray a thumbs up. The music, which had been dancy for the most part, morphed into something familiar.
An old joke from the early days of Gray relentlessly courting me and one of our guilty pleasures, the tune lifted my heart.
We had gone down the rabbit hole of old favorites on too many nights, gathering the gems for our private playlist. The entire room faded into dimness, and only Gray remained in the colorful lights of the laser beams and the retro disco ball.
People parted between us and my handsome boyfriend stood with his arm outstretched to me.
I was not a talented dancer, but the steady beat of ABBA’s I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do was easy to catch and hold. Especially when Gray awaited, his hips swinging to the rhythm.
He approached me across the dance floor as something divine lifted me off the chair and pulled me toward him.
It was stronger than me. It was stronger than any physical force.
The attraction that never wavered and never stalled drove me to him in the best of times and the worst of times. He was my beacon of light.
We touched and magic swirled around us.
Gray wore his happy smile and I was lost in his beautiful eyes.
We melted into one another as the song took us to a place of nearly impossible happiness.
Gray set his hands on my hips, and I placed mine on the sides of his ribcage, then moved them further around until they rested on his shoulder blades.
He mouthed the words of the song and I knew he meant them for me. He loved me; he wouldn’t deny it. And I felt such closeness to him now. I had never wanted to hold anyone like this.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” he said. “Because I am. So much, Avery.”
Our brows touched. We pressed our heads together and wrapped our arms around each other. The music changed again, playing another classic with a similar beat, although I couldn’t recall the name. Gray had always known his music history better than me. “I’m proud of you, too, Gray,” I said.
“I know that everything is changing,” he said, leading me on the dance floor. It was easy to follow. He made everything so simple and beautiful. “But we’ll make it work. I’ll make it work for us.” He smiled encouragingly. “Our schedules never aligned perfectly, but we always did our best.”
“And we’ll keep doing our best,” I assured him.
He pulled his lower lip between his teeth and shot me a cheeky smile. “I was thinking,” he said. “Even if you have to be on the move, you can have a base here in the city.”
I nodded.
“And an apartment is such a better fit than your boyfriend’s dorm room, huh?” He laughed, and I knew where he was going with this.
“But we don’t know if I’ll be here two days a week or seven,” I said.
He shrugged. “I say we go for it. I’ve found a few places we can look at. If you stay in Detroit, great. If you get drafted elsewhere, you won’t be leaving before fall. And even then, you’ll come back. It’s just one year.”
And it was. I was determined to bridge this year any way I could. I would be with him. Everything else was secondary. “You found places?” I asked, unable to hold back my smile.
He gave a slow nod. “I wanted you to know how much you mean to me,” he said. “There’s nothing I won’t do to keep us together.”
My throat closed with an abundance of emotions that sparked to life within me.
I pulled him closer still and pressed my lips hard against his.
The fluttering in my stomach had never passed.
I couldn’t kiss Gray without falling in love with him harder and deeper than ever before.
Every touch we shared was an extra bond between us, every kiss a promise.
We belonged to one another in all the ways. There was nothing he didn’t know about me or I about him.
Distantly, I heard someone wolf-whistle and I felt Gray’s smile under my lips. We kept it going, slow and passionate, loving and tender. Then we pulled our heads back and gazed into each other’s eyes.
“I love you, Gray,” I said.
“And I love you, Avery.” His grin broadened as he said the words. Then, as the music changed to something more upbeat, fire burst to life in his eyes. His movements became wild and unpredictable, but he pulled me into the beautiful whirlwind of adventure.
We danced the night away. We danced our shoes off. We danced with each other until I forgot that I couldn’t dance at all.
The truth was, there was never anything I couldn’t do when Gray was the one helping me do it. There was nothing we could achieve so long as we were together.
Forever.