Epilogue
Cassie/Lincoln
“This was beautiful,” I say, staring at my surroundings. It was an absolutely exhausting day. Fun but exhausting, and I was glad to be out of my high heels and barefoot, dancing with the man who held me and my heart.
“It was,” he says, leaning down closer to me, his cheek resting against my own.
Tanner and Mick had decided to postpone their wedding until after the hockey season to give themselves some more time to get it together, and it was worth it.
Somehow, they had turned the space outside the hockey rink, which typically held banquets and other events for the players who played here, into a starry-night fantasy wedding that I would kill for.
It was absolutely beautiful.
I watched my best friend stand in front of me and vow to love Tanner for the rest of her life as Vic handed me a tissue behind my back and told me to suck it up or my makeup would smear.
I didn’t care. I was happy. Happy for them and happy for myself. I got to stare at Lincoln across the aisle, and he winked at me when he saw how emotional I was being.
Now, Mick lazily dances with her new husband as he holds her close, gazing into her eyes like she’s the most precious thing in his world, and I couldn’t be happier for them.
I spy Crew asking Joey to dance and smile to myself without drawing Lincoln’s attention to his best friend and cousin.
“Would this be the kind of wedding you want?” The words are whispered into my ear, and a shiver races down my spine.
“I don’t know,” I admit, pulling back to look at him, unable to keep a smile off my face. “How about you?”
“Well, there’s one very serious condition I have for my wedding, anything else doesn’t matter,” he says, a little spark in his eye telling me that he’s teasing me.
“What’s the condition? You have to cut the cake with a hockey stick? I don’t think that’s very sanitary, Muscles.”
He smirks and shakes his head. “Nah, the condition is that no matter what, no matter where, and no matter when, you’ll be the one I marry.”
I swallow hard, trying and failing to keep the smile off my face. “Muscles, don’t tell me you’re proposing.”
“Sunshine,” he says, whispering the words to me intimately. “Don’t tell me you’d say no.”
Blinking, I let my eyes fall shut when he leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to my forehead like he can’t help himself. “I wouldn’t say no.”
I grin at her, holding her tightly to me, and I promise myself that I’m never going to let her go. “Good.”
She pulls back, glaring at me teasingly. “So are you asking?”
I shake my head at her. “No. This is Mick’s day. But don’t worry, it’ll happen.”
Cassie grumbles at me and makes to pull away. I grip her tighter and let out a chuckle. “I’m not letting you get away that easily.”
“Yeah, well,” she starts, but trails off with no comeback. It’s cute that she thought I was proposing.
As if I wouldn’t make an absolute spectacle of us when I do it. It has to be more than whispered words on a dance floor.
We sway for several more minutes, letting the music take us, and I close my eyes, resting my head against hers.
This has been a long, drawn-out journey, and I couldn’t believe we’d actually made it. All our ups and our downs, our hateful words and our spirited fighting, our falling in love and making each other laugh—it all led to here.
To this moment.
The road ahead may be hard, and we would face a million challenges with each other, both with our work and our relationship.
Cassie’s book had been published, and people from all over the world were falling in love with her words, just as I had. My time playing college hockey was coming to an end, and Tanner was helping me get noticed by pro teams, and that very well might take us away from Rose Hill for a long time.
But I knew, no matter what happened, I could do anything as long as I had this woman by my side.
And I was never letting her go.
The End