Chapter 15
Ellie
“We’re doing it backwards since you’re already married,” Xander says to Camden. “But we couldn’t let you go without a proper bachelor party since you threw us one.”
Xander turns to me. “We invited our ladies to join too, so you wouldn’t be stuck with just us dudes.”
A petite woman with strawberry blonde hair comes up to me. Her smile is warm. “You must be Ellie. I’m Sophie, Xander’s fiancée.”
She pulls me into a hug, then she introduces me to all the other ladies—Dakota, Bella, Maya, Ingrid, and Madeline. They’re all significant others of Camden’s teammates.
“It’s so great to meet you all,” I say, quietly hoping I don’t mess up their names.
I’m a little nervous them since I don’t know them, but I’m also excited. I don’t have many close friends because of all the years I spent in and out of hospitals and because of how much I work now. It’ll be fun to go out with a group of women my age.
“Thank you for planning this,” I say to them.
“We’re happy to,” Ingrid says as she and Maya unload a bunch of wine and champagne flutes onto the kitchen island. The guys unpack a bunch of beer and liquor too.
Ingrid pops some champagne bottles open and pours us all champagne. The guys stand around the kitchen while sipping their drinks. The ladies and I head to the living room to sit and chat. They all fuss over Gus, who’s loving the attention.
I find out that Ingrid, Sophie, and Madeline work for the team, while Maya, Bella, and Dakota have careers outside of hockey.
When I find out that Bella is the owner of one of my favorite coffee shops in all of Denver, I gasp.
“I am in love with your cafe! Best coffee I’ve ever had,” I say.
She beams. “Oh, I adore you for saying that.”
And when I find out that Sophie is a doctor, my jaw unhinges.
“No way. You look like a college student,” I say.
She just chuckles. “I get that a lot.”
“My best friend is a genius,” Dakota says. She wraps her arm around Sophie and hugs her. Sophie flashes a flustered grin and shakes her head.
“It’s true,” Dakota says. “She went to medical school when she was a teenager.”
“That’s amazing,” I say.
“Aww thanks,” Sophie says. “But Madeline’s the amazing one with her Olympic bronze medal.”
My jaw drops. “Wait, I knew you looked familiar. You’re Madeline Macer, the figure skater.”
She smiles. “That’s me.”
I spend the next few seconds fangirling, but she’s a good sport about it.
“Do you still figure skate much now that you’re retired?” I ask.
“A little. Most of my time is spent training these guys.” She nods at Camden and his teammates, who are all talking loudly about their fantasy baseball teams.
“Best skating coach ever,” Ingrid says with a bright smile before turning to me. “I just have to say, when I heard that Camden got married, I thought it was a joke. But when the guys said that he married his childhood friend, it made total sense.”
Dakota nods. “Totally. It’s so sweet and romantic to think that all these years, Camden was waiting for you.”
I smile, despite the guilty feeling that pings through my chest. These ladies are all so kind and welcoming. I hate lying to them.
But I have to because if they find out that our marriage is fake, we could get into serious trouble.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to get married as soon as we did,” I say.
“But when you know, you know,” Maya says sweetly, then turns to Dakota. “You know, Camden and Ellie kind of remind me of you and Sam.”
I turn to Dakota. “Really?”
She smiles, her cheeks flushed. “Sam and I were friends for like five years before things between us got romantic. Not childhood friends, but I totally understand how being friends first can lead to a relationship.”
“There’s really nothing like falling in love with your best friend,” Ingrid says.
She looks over at Del, who’s frowning at something Xander is saying to him.
When he catches eyes with Ingrid, his hard expression eases and the corner of his mouth quirks up in a small smile.
She blows him a kiss, and he winks at her.
“So.” Maya bumps Ingrid’s arm. “Should we tell Ellie the plans for tonight?”
Ingrid’s face lights up. “Yes! Okay, so we planned a fun outing for you. Hope that’s okay.”
“Of course it’s okay. I’m honestly so blown away that you’d go through all this trouble. You guys barely even know me,” I say.
Being the kid who was always sick made it hard for me to make and keep friends for very long. I was often at home sick or going to doctor’s appointments or in the hospital. Most of my friends moved on and found other kids to hang out with.
As an adult, I’ve spent most of my time working to pay off my medical debt, so I haven’t had much luck maintaining a social life.
Ingrid pulls me into a side hug. “It’s no trouble at all. You’re part of the group now.”
They all nod along. I smile, heartened at how they’ve welcomed me.
“So first, we thought it would be fun to take you shopping for wedding guest dresses since you’ll be coming to all our weddings this summer,” Ingrid says.
“Oh, are you sure? I don’t want to invite myself to your weddings at the last minute. I’m sure you already have the seating and catering set. I don’t want to mess that up.”
They all shake their heads.
“You’re absolutely coming to our weddings,” Sophie says.
That warm feeling swooping through me once more. It feels so good to be included, to be welcomed into this friend group.
“And after shopping, we’ll take you to this great little place that has the best gourmet sandwiches in the whole city,” Dakota says.
“That sounds perfect,” I say.
“And then we’ll take you for a fun little surprise outing after that,” Bella says.
When we finish our wine, I head down the hall to my bedroom so I can change before we go out.
I throw on a sundress and sandals, then head out of the room.
“Oops, sorry!” Sophie says when she almost bumps into me. Her brow furrows slightly when she looks past my shoulder into my bedroom. “You keep your clothes in the guest bedroom?”
Crap. I didn’t even think about that…
If Camden and I were married for real, I’d have all my stuff in the master bedroom.
I try to keep my expression light as I scramble to think of a believable excuse.
“I have so many clothes, I keep some of them in here.” I try to laugh. “The closet in our bedroom isn’t big enough.”
Sophie chuckles. “Oh, I can definitely relate. Ninety percent of our closet is my clothes and shoes. Poor Xander.”
We walk back into the living room, and I let out a slow breath, relieved at how smoothly that went.
I make a mental note to be more careful.
This won’t be the last time we have people over, I’m sure, so I need to think about where I put things like my clothes.
Maybe I should keep some stuff in Camden’s bedroom just in case people ask about it.
I put out enough food and water for Gus so he’ll be set for the next few hours at home. The ladies and I walk over to the guys to say good-bye. I notice they’re all kissing and hugging, so I walk up to Camden and kiss his cheek, hoping no one gives us a hard time for not kissing on the lips.
He flashes a lopsided grin and pulls his wallet out of his pocket, plucks out a black credit card, then hands it to me.
“I heard they’re taking you shopping,” he says.
I shake my head. “It’s okay. I can pay for it.”
Camden wiped out my debt. He’s letting me live in his house for free. He’s letting me use his medical insurance. He doesn’t need to pay for my clothes too. That’s way too much.
Ingrid playfully grabs my shoulder. “Oh, come on, Ellie. Let your husband spoil you.”
A teasing look flickers in Camden’s eyes. “Yeah. Let me spoil you.”
I bite back a smile as I take his credit card, then follow the ladies out the door.
Sophie and Dakota offer to drive, so I hop in Sophie’s car with Ingrid.
Ingrid twists around from the front seat to look at me. “Rule number one of being a hockey wife or girlfriend: let your man spoil you.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Okay.”