Chapter 72 Everett
EVERETT
I’ve been to a handful of weddings over the years, but nothing comes anywhere close to how incredible today has been.
Watching Parker and Linc’s hands tremble as they clutched each other throughout the entire ceremony, seeing the smiles on their faces and the tears in their eyes as they promised to love and care for each other for the rest of their lives, it hit me in a way no other has before.
I’ve always been sitting in the crowd, wondering why. Why bother with the stress that planning a wedding causes? Why spend all the money just for one day, and mostly for everyone else?
But today, it all made sense.
Watching Linc and Parker celebrate the love they’ve found together with everyone important to them, it was like the most obvious thing in the world.
It never ceases to amaze me how the arrival of one person—okay, two—in my life has changed how I see everything.
My life is no longer just about me. I am no longer number one. And I love it.
I love everything about the life we’re creating together.
For the first time in my life, I’m excited about something other than hockey and partying.
I’ve forgotten what it’s like to go out at night and not return until sunrise, barely remembering what happened just an hour ago, and I am more than okay with that.
Now, you couldn’t pay me enough to drag my ass off the couch and away from the warm body that will be tucked into my side as we watch something on the TV, or simply watch the sun set as we talk about our days, our hopes and dreams for the future.
Hailee might have come up with a plan to turn my life around, but I didn’t think it would do anything. I certainly didn’t think it would lead us to this moment right here.
I twirl Bea around on the dance floor, spinning her back into me, close enough that her bump gently hits my stomach.
“Who knew you’d be such a good dancer?” she teases, gazing up at me with a twinkle in her eye.
“I thought you’d have figured that out the night we met,” I rasp, loving the way she shudders as my breath races down her exposed neck.
“Nah, I was too busy trying to fight off your gigantic ego.”
A laugh bursts out of me. “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but it hasn’t gotten any smaller.”
“Don’t I know it,” she deadpans. “I’ve just learned how to ignore it.”
“Charming,” I chuckle before my thoughts take a sobering turn. “I can’t believe our summer is almost over.”
“I know,” she says sadly, her eyes turning glassy. “It’s gone so fast. I’m going to miss you when you’re on the road.”
“You’re telling me.” My hands slide to her stomach.
There really is no hiding this bump now.
The world knows that we’ll be welcoming Baby Donnelly in the new year.
And, of course, there are plenty of people online with an opinion.
But we’re slowly getting better at blocking out all that noise.
All that matters is the three of us. We know the story of how we came to be, and we know how we feel.
That is all that matters. “I’m going to miss so much. ”
“I’m going to be bigger every time you return.” She sounds horrified by the idea, but in contrast, I’m excited. Knowing that I’m going to get to see how much our little one, and in turn, Bea, has grown is just one of the many reasons I’ll be excited to return home after a series of away games.
“You just keep telling that little one that he’s not allowed to arrive on his due date,” I remind her.
It’s right in the middle of a road series, and the same day as a game in Boston.
The thought of not being there and leaving her to deliver our baby alone is already giving me so much anxiety, and we’re still months away.
I just…I want to follow through on my promise to always be there for her and our baby, and I hate the thought of falling at the first hurdle.
More than a few times, I’ve woken up in a cold sweat. The images of me running through an airport on the other side of the country as she’s here alone and in pain are so clear that even standing here now, they make my heart rate increase.
“Everything will be fine,” she assures me, her small hand cupping my jaw. “You’ve already got Sienna, Casey, Freya, and Hailee on call, and ready. If the worst happens, I’ll be surrounded by the fiercest of women who will cheer me on all the way.”
I drop my forehead to hers, my eyes holding hers hostage.
“I just want to be there.”
“You will. You’ll be right by my side.”
I nod, wishing there was a way to make it happen.
As we stand there locked together, swaying to the music, surrounded by other couples celebrating, three little words that I’ve been fighting for quite some time now dance on the tip of my tongue.
I never meant to hold them back; I guess I was just scared that I was the only one feeling things this deeply, this terrifying.
I know it’s bullshit. I can see how Bea feels every time she looks at me.
Every time she touches me. I was just being a pussy.
But then I had an idea, and suddenly, everything flipped on its head, and it’s taken every ounce of self-control I possess to keep the words inside.
Pulling back, I slip my hand into hers. “Come for a walk with me?” I whisper.
“A walk? Now?”
I glance over my shoulder at the darkness outside.
“Yep. Right now.”
“O-okay,” she says, confused but willing to humor me.
My steps falter as we step off the dance floor, and my eyes land on the table our group commandeered earlier.
Only one person sits there now, and he looks like he has the entire weight of the world on his shoulders.
“I’m so glad he managed to come, but—”
“I know,” Bea agrees. “I wish there were more I could do to help.”
“Me too.”
I look over as someone makes their way over, and I find Hailee with two drinks in her hands.
She lowers one in front of Monroe, but if he notices, then he doesn’t look up or acknowledge her in any way.
As annoying as our overexcitable rookie can be, seeing him like this is just wrong.
I’d give anything to watch him bounce across the room as if it’s the best day of his life, instead of struggling because he’s just experienced his worst.
“Come on,” I say, tugging her in the opposite direction. I have no doubt that he’ll still be there when we get back.
The second we step outside, the warm late summer air hits us, and I take a deep breath as my stomach knots up.
“Did you have a plan in mind?” Bea asks as I lead her down a gravel track illuminated by solar lights.
“Kind of,” I confess. “The lake is at the end of this trail, and I thought it might be nice to take a moment under the stars.”
“Take a moment?” she echoes.
I kick myself for sounding like a douchebag.
“You know what I mean. Today has been a lot. I just want to sit with you and only you for a few minutes.”
“It’s weird, isn’t it, how you can miss someone when they’re standing right there?” Her words reassure me that she understands exactly how I’ve felt today.
As Linc’s best man and the bride’s brother, I’ve been needed in a million and one places for jobs and photos, and it’s only now I’m getting to spend some time with the beautiful girl who spent the whole ceremony sobbing, exactly as I thought she would.
I hated being so far away from her, even though they were happy tears. I wanted to be beside her for all of them.
“Yeah. But I’m right here for the rest of the night now. Parker is Linc’s responsibility from here on out.”
“Oh wow, that’s pretty,” Bea breathes as we find a corner that reveals the still lake beyond, the reflection of the full moon and the stars rippling on its surface.
I stop beside her, gazing down at her.
“Yeah, most beautiful view in the world.”
Bea’s breath catches before she rips her eyes away from the lake and looks up at me. “Rett,” she warns.
“It’s true. Everything in my life got a whole lot more beautiful when you walked into it, sweetheart. I didn’t realize I was living in black and white, but you brought the color, baby. So much that it blinds me some days.
“I’ll forever wonder what I did to deserve to spend my days with you, planning a future with you, laughing with you.”
A wobbly smile spreads across her mouth as her eyes flood with tears.
“You were never just another puck bunny to me, Bea. The second I saw you, I knew you were more. You mesmerized me in a way no one else ever has, and you still do every single day.” My hands shift to her stomach.
“Watching you grow our little human has been the greatest honor of my life, and I just know that watching you become a mother is going to blow all that out of the water.
“Leaving you in the coming weeks is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I know it’ll be worth it, because every time I go away, I’m going to get to come back and make you mine all over again.”
Swallowing my nerves and the giant lump in my throat that threatens to steal my words, I pull out the box that’s been hiding in my pocket all evening and sink to one knee.
“Oh my god,” Bea gasps.
“Bea, you have—”
“No,” she cries, making me sit up a little straighter. She tugs at my arm as if she wants me to stand back up, but I don’t. “You don’t need to do this. It’s okay. I don’t care about the trust fund. Everything you’ve done. I don’t need it. We don’t need to fake this anymore.”
My brows pinch. “There’s nothing fake about this, Bea.”
“Oh,” she breathes, her hand coming to her lips as she stares down at me. “Y-you’re down there because you want to be?”
I can’t help but laugh at the confusion on her face.
“I’m down here because I love you, Bea. I’m down here because I can’t imagine my life without you.
I’m down here because I want you to have our baby as my wife—or at least my fiancée—so that we can all have the same name.
But mostly, I’m down here because I want to be yours, and I want the world to know that Beatrice Donnelly owns every single inch of me. ”
Tears drip from her jaw, her entire body trembling.
“B-but it’s Parker’s day,” she argues, briefly looking back at the building we walked out of not so long ago.
“She was okay with sharing a little bit of the spotlight with her new sister.”
A sob erupts, and I use the moment to flip open the box in my hand, showing her the ring that I’ve had hidden for a few weeks now.
“That’s…that’s huge,” she blurts.
“That’s what they all say.”
Laughing, she reaches out and smacks my shoulder lightly.
“Sorry,” I mutter as I pull the platinum oval diamond halo engagement ring from its cushion.
“What do you say, Bea? Do you think you can put up with having me by your side for the rest of your life?”
“Yes, Rett. Yes,” she cries, holding out her trembling hand so I can slide the ring onto her finger. “And I love you too,” she sobs before I gather her in my arms and hold her tighter than I’m sure I ever have before.
Mine.
Beatrice, soon-to-be Donnelly, is all fucking mine.