“Come again?”
“In our timeline, you popped the question last night. How did you do it?”
“Really? How’d I do it?” I laughed.
“Up to you, Romeo. Anyway, I had the clubbie put something in your locker drawer. Give it to Evie tonight and make her wear it before you take her out to dinner. And pick a place you like because you’ll be there awhile. You have to drag out this date so she can properly debut her new ring,” Iain said before pausing as if waiting for me to say something.
“What? Did you ask me a question?”
“No. I was waiting for you to gripe about the fact that you have to have a long candlelit dinner. You’ve never been one for hours of conversation at once, but looks like you’re more than game for tonight.”
“What can I say? I love this team,” I smirked. “And if it cools down trade talks, I’ll do it.?
??
“Right.” Iain held his eye contact for several seconds before eyeing the time. “Well, from what I hear, the front office is pleasantly surprised by all this. You’ve got Julian Hoult and a bunch of old guys tracking your love life via tabloid, so good job so far. I just hope you can keep things this smooth and steady with Evie till past the trade deadline. Be smart with her. Or it’ll all have been for nothing.”
“Yeah, I got that, sunshine, but thank you for the reminder.”
“Anytime.”
“Alright, well I’m here to work out, not talk, so you should probably get going to whatever meeting you’re dressed like James Bond for.”
He cracked a laugh.
“Fine. Enjoy dinner tonight,” he said, turning to go. But then just to fuck with me, he stopped at the doorway and called back across the room. “And hey – congratulations on the big engagement, Maddox.”
Then as soon as all my teammates big eyes flew to me, he left.
EVIE
I was still catching up from my day when I heard Drew get home. I knew we had a public dinner scheduled tonight and while I was supposed to getting ready now, I was running late. I was flustered and still all over the place from how my morning had started.
It would’ve been perfect if phones didn’t exist. To start, I’d woken up on Drew’s bare chest, and good God, that was a hell of a way to start a day.
I was glad he didn’t stir because after lifting my cheek off his pecs, I had needed more than few seconds to just look at him.
His inked bicep bulged since he had his right arm bent and resting behind his head. His lips were slightly parted and he had his other arm wrapped around me, his hand resting heavily on my back.
I wanted to just stay there in his arms all morning, basking in the leftover glow of what happened last night.
But I couldn’t fully enjoy myself knowing that I’d woken multiple times in the night to the sound of my phone buzzing against the kitchen counter. No one ever texted me that persistently that late, so I couldn’t help but get up around 6AM and investigate.
I had braced myself for angry, bitter texts from Mike but it wasn’t that at all.
It was something much worse than immediately started my day on a frenzied whirlwind, eventually making me late for all my meetings and causing me to be still flustered now at 7PM.
“Evie?”
I had just finished makeup and moisturizing and was blow-drying my hair when Drew called up the stairs.
“I’m in the bathroom!” I called back, drying my hair for another few seconds before he appeared in the doorway. The second he did, I turned off the blow dryer and felt my first real smile of the day spread my lips. “Hey,” I breathed out, my heartbeat doing a little skip as he immediately came toward me.
I closed my eyes as he leaned in to kiss me, the stroke of his tongue melting all my stress away. At least for the moment. I was so lost in how deep he kissed me that I was only vaguely aware of him holding my hand and slipping something onto my finger.
When I pulled away, my eyes went wide.
It was a diamond. A hell of a diamond, in fact. It almost blinded me as I blinked at it.