Epilogue
Ash
There was something ironic about ending up on the San Jose Sharks.
The team that drafted Thayer and kept him until the day he retired, only to draft me two years later and bring us both home–it was poetic.
Thayer was happy to be back in San Jose, and I was just happy he came with me. We would have made it work with him in Michigan, but luckily, his borderline toxic and obsessive love for me didn’t have to stretch that far.
It was nice coming home to him all the time, but I had also been doing so for years now.
We lost the Frozen Four after I got my concussion, junior year–we lost that game to Notre Dame. I was out for the rest of the season, but by the time the next season started, Thayer had my leg fully healed up.
I was a workhorse that season and got to graduate a winner that year.
Only to get drafted to the Sharks that summer–it was beautiful, really.
My whole team knew about Thayer and me before the end of Junior year, but they kept the secret to their graves. The dean never found out, at least not until after I graduated and kissed Thayer on live TV after getting drafted.
Yes, that’s right.
As of now, I was the only one of two out NHL players.
My team was super supportive, and some of the older guys were so happy to see Thayer again.
They joked with him a little bit about how this technically made him a WAG–wife and girlfriend of a player– but they were happy that inviting the rookie out somewhere meant likely seeing their old friend again.
Our life was really settled in San Jose, and no one gave a shit about a thirteen-year age gap.
“Home!” I yelled happily, toeing off my shoes by the door–don’t get me started on how long it took to retrain Thayer to keep a no-shoes house. “We have ten minutes before we need to leave!”
“Then you need to get changed–I’m ready, baby,” Thayer chuckled, stepping out of our room in a full suit, but with his Kincaid jersey over his arm and Sharks hat in hand to change into.
What I'd give for a little more than ten minutes…
We weren’t late for the game by any means–we were late for lunch with my team before the game. It was one of the guys' birthdays, which meant dinner as a team, but I was also coming from a promotional shoot, so I was covered in baby oil and needed a shower.
Things had been going really well with Thayer and me the past few years.
My parents took some time to come around fully, but we now reached the point where they got mad at me and called Thayer to bitch.
Now, whether they expected Thayer to fix my attitude or just make me do whatever they wanted–I wasn’t sure, but it was effective.
Reed and Thayer still talked and hung out when they could, but he spent most of his time here with me, and Reed spent most of his time with his girlfriend on various trips now that he was retired.
His girlfriend, who was twenty-five and a swimsuit model…who graduated from the University of Michigan.
Yes, his acceptance of Thayer and me made more and more sense as that relationship came to light.
Once I was showered and changed–letting Thayer tie my tie because he did it better than I did…and I liked it when he did it–we were off.
I was a little annoyed that my only free time today with Thayer was going to be spent at a dinner with my team, but with my weird traveling schedule, I wasn’t going to complain.
At least I wasn’t sleeping alone in a cold hotel bed in fucking Toronto or something.
No, Calgary was worse.
When we got to the restaurant, something wasn’t right. I normally heard my team before I saw them, but there were no obnoxious, rowdy grown men ruining this nice restaurant, so naturally, I assumed we had the wrong place.
I checked my phone again, but no, it was this restaurant.
“Stop it,” Thayer said calmly, resting a hand on the back of my neck to make me look up from my phone. “Nothing's wrong–we’re in the right place.”
“But my team’s not–”
“They’re where they’re supposed to be, and so are you, baby,” he hummed, smiling at me before leading me further into the restaurant.
To a table that was only ever meant for two people, not twenty.
We sat down on either side, and I was sad to have his hand leave me, but then his foot tapped mine under the table. He offered his hand to me on the table while he looked through a menu with the other, and I was good again.
This new schedule made it hard to find time for Thayer and me.
We’d get little flashes of time and bursts of hot, I missed you sex, but very little stretches of time where I could just kind of be. I missed letting him take control all the time, and it was hard to self-regulate on the road when I was angry or upset, but it was always worth it.
And we had a really nice way of reconnecting when I’d been gone too long.
“Are you going to tell me why–”
“Shh,” Thayer hushed me, not even looking up from his menu, but holding my hand and stroking it with his thumb. “Don’t worry about it, Ash. Worry about what you want to eat–that’s all you need to worry about.”
Even now, two years later, it was easy to just roll over and let him worry for me.
It was relaxing not to have to stress about anything when Thayer was there–he made sure everything was in its place for me, and all I ever had to worry about was if I was happy.
Was he still making me happy?
Yes.
Then I was good.
Dinner was nice.
We liked a lot of the same foods, so it was always easy to find places we both liked, and I really liked this place, but it was fancy.
It wasn’t a casual dinner, so we rarely ate here.
“Ash?” Thayer asked, stealing a bite of my cake that my nutritionist would be so pissed about me ordering, but Thayer believed in letting me have whatever I wanted. “You’re still…happy with us, right?”
“Of course,” I answered quickly, stiffening up and putting down my fork because I really didn’t like where that was going. “Why–”
“I was just checking, baby,” Thayer said softly, smiling at me as he put his fork down and let go of my hand. “I just wanted to know–it would make the next few minutes really awkward if you were actually unhappy with me.”
“Wha–”
Thayer slid out of his seat, kneeling next to me as he pulled out a small box from his pocket.
My breathing caught because I was dense, but I knew what a fancy dinner, small box, and man on his knee meant. I’d spent most of my life thinking it would be me on that ground one day.
“Ash,” he started, opening the box slowly. “I really can't explain to you how meeting you two years ago rearranged my brain chemistry, but it did. You became everything to me seemingly overnight, and I have spent every day the past two years making sure you didn’t regret choosing me.”
Thayer put a hand on my leg, offering me the silver ring, tucked away in the box.
“I love you so much, Ashton,” he said softly, his eyes big and dark, locked on mine.
“And you are such a pain in the ass, but my god–I love you. I want to keep loving you and taking care of you for the rest of our lives, so will you please do me the honor of marrying me?”
My brain felt fried.
Honestly, I’d thought about marrying Thayer a ton.
I thought about it every time I got a few days at home and got to do mundane shit with him.
I thought about it when I’d go to sleep at night with his big arms around me.
I thought about it when interviewers asked stupid questions about where I saw myself in five years–I saw myself married to Thayer; maybe we had a kid, but we definitely had a dog.
Every version of my future had me married to Thayer.
So, it was a no-brainer.
“Yes,” I said dramatically, reaching for his head to pull him up to me and kiss him. I forgot entirely about the ring, but Thayer still made sure it made it onto my finger before kissing me hard a few times.
Thayer always made sure everything was perfect for me–that was why I was marrying him.
And now, I didn’t need to worry about anything else.
Ever again.