Chapter 42 #2
I personally thought she’d make a great one.
She knew what she was talking about, and she could be a huge help to young skaters out there wanting to be just like her when they got older.
A few networks also reached out about her being a commentator at competitions in the future.
She hasn’t made it official yet, but I knew my girl.
She’d kill it at whatever she put her mind to.
Plus, who wouldn’t want to be coached by one of the most medaled figure skaters?
“Are you excited for the next season?” Landon asked.
“I am. We may not have made it to The Legacy Championship last year, but we have some new players coming in that have potential.”
Last season, after we won back-to-back titles, we lost the Conference Championship game. All we needed was ten more points and we would have been back defending our title, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Instead of spiraling about it and letting the pressure to be perfect weigh me down like the season before, I took the loss and made a promise to myself to make it all the way next year.
Emmie wasn’t the only one who spent the last year growing.
Wyatt smirked into his beer. “Look at that. Mateo finally matured.”
Landon barked out a laugh, even Steven chuckled.
“Don’t say things you can’t take back.” Landon joked.
I flipped them both off. They’d all be bored stiff without me.
I spent the next half hour talking shit with my brothers and Steven before I caught sight of Emmie standing in the kitchen, talking with my mom and Lydia.
We were leaving tomorrow. One more night in this house, one more day with everyone, and somehow I’d barely had her to myself this entire trip.
Leaving the three on the patio, I headed for the back door. The second I stepped inside, I went straight for Emmie and caught her wrist.
“C’mon.”
She barely got out a surprised laugh before I tugged her out of the kitchen and around the corner to the spare bathroom tucked off to the side. I urged her in and shut the door behind us.
“Did you just pull me away from having a conversation with your mom to bring me into the bathroom?” Emmie asked, eyebrows raised.
“I did.” I took a step toward her, not that there was much space anyway. “I haven’t seen you much since we’ve been here, I miss you.”
“You know…” She ran her hands up my chest and draped them around my shoulders. “You could have taken me up to your old room and made out with me.”
I huffed out a laugh. That actually would have been a great idea.
“How about we do that after dessert?”
Emmie laughed, going up onto her toes to press a kiss to my lips. I reached down and grabbed her ass, hoisting her up while turning so I could sit her on the counter. I angled my head to deepen the kiss, pressing a palm to her lower back to bring her closer.
Kissing Emmie was all-consuming. I was an addict waiting for my next fix.
I pulled back before continuing to pepper kisses down her neck.
“I can’t wait until we’re back home where I can bend you over the counter and fuck you any time I want.”
Staying at Landon and Lydia’s house was smart in theory since they had the most space, but the lack of privacy was not ideal. Especially when Kai decided to fling the bedroom door open and jump on the bed every morning at six a.m.
Emmie hummed. My hand ran up her spine until I reached the back of her head. I threaded my fingers through her hair at the base of her skull and tugged, extending her neck so I could nibble at the spot that made her squirm.
“I want to hear those little noises you make when I tease you. The way your toes curl.” I gripped her hair tighter, the cutest little moan leaving her lips in response. She quickly stifled it. “The way you scream my name when you come all over my cock that’s buried deep inside you.”
I grinned against her throat as she tilted her hips to rub against the front of my shorts. I knew for a fact she was aching to come. This morning while everyone was busy getting ready, I snuck into the shower and edged her until she was almost there, then slipped out to get ready myself.
“Don’t worry baby, I plan on filling that tight pussy as soon as we step through the front door tomorrow,” I promised.
I pulled my mouth away from her neck, a groan of disappointment falling from her lips. I pecked them once, twice, and let go of her hair.
“As much as I’d love to fuck you right here in this bathroom, neither of us are exactly quiet enough for that,” I joked.
“You really are such a tease,” she grumbled against my lips.
“Want me to remind you of the time you had me sitting on the bed, unable to touch you as you made yourself come, only then to tease my cock for another twenty minutes?”
Emmie chuckled. The heat in her eyes was almost my undoing. “Oh, that was a fun night.”
“Uh huh.” I brought her in for another kiss. This time it was slower, more controlled. Like we had all the time in the world.
I was so engrossed in her that I didn’t hear the door clicking open until an all too familiar voice spoke.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” Trevor said.
I dropped my head into the crook of Emmie’s neck, groaning. Her fingers threaded through my hair as her body shook with a laugh.
“This seems quite familiar…doesn’t it, Mateo?” Tasha added. I didn’t have to look at her to hear the amusement in her voice. The two of them had smirks on their faces.
The fact I walked in on the two of them just like this nine years ago wasn’t lost on me. Fuck me. Talk about a full circle moment.
I turned my head enough to see both of them standing in the doorway to the bathroom. “You’re going to go tell everyone about this, aren’t you?”
Landon grinned. “Oh, how I’ve waited for this moment.”
I closed my eyes. “I hate this family.”
Emmie laughed against my chest.
Dinner blurred together, everyone talking all at once and over each other. The kids were up and down in their seats, eating a few bites before running off to play with Tucker. It was chaos, but my favorite kind.
There was no lapse in conversation, someone always having something to say.
As I predicted, Trevor waited until we were all seated at the table to tell everyone he and Tasha walked in on Emmie and me in the bathroom.
It resulted in every single person teasing us to no end.
Karma for doing the exact same thing to them years ago.
Emmie took it all in stride. She squeezed my knee under the table, laughing along with everyone else. I loved that she fit in with my family so seamlessly. She was easily welcomed into the fold since day one and belonged.
Watching her talk with Landon, all I could think about was how much I loved her. How being with her changed my life forever. A few years ago, I would have sat at this table alone, feeling left out, watching from the outskirts as everyone found their person.
I hadn’t realized how much that affected me until Emmie. Until I had my own person to lean against, to talk to and laugh with.
When Emmie leaned over to take a bite out of my sacred cake, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not when she flashed me that smile of hers.
The ring box in my pocket burned through to my leg. I’d been carrying it for a while now, waiting for the right moment to propose. To ask Emmie if she would spend the rest of her life with me. Truth was, she’d own mine for years.
I thought about proposing here, with my family around, or back home in Buffalo with her dad there, but that didn’t feel big enough for how much she meant to me.
Only one place felt right. Cold air, bright lights, fresh ice. The sound of blades carving across the rink where a girl with fire in her eyes crashed into my life and never let go.
When I asked her, I wanted it to be there. Where everything that mattered to me first began.
We might have ran into each other in front of Alessandro’s and then again at the practice facility, but the rink was where things truly started. Where I met the love of my life. I hadn’t known it at the time…or maybe I did and just didn’t know exactly how it would all pan out.
I looked around at everyone. Remembering how they’d all fallen in love. How I’d spent years wondering if something like that would ever happen for me.
Turns out, falling was how I found everything.
Dedicated to the most perfect pup that ever walked this earth. His time was cut short, but he will forever be in these pages. Love you, my Tucker boy.