Alex (Cold Fury Hockey 1)

I really don’t want to know the answers to those questions, because in the grand scheme of things, who really gives a f**k? What matters is that Sutton is mine and I’m getting ready to makes sure that’s a permanent deal.

The door to the back office area opens with a squeak and a groan, and then Sutton steps through. She’s wearing a lightweight blue linen dress that is sleeveless and silver sandals. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she is absolutely stunning. I mean, I saw her in this when she left for work today, but seeing her again…wow! Just wow!

“What are you doing here?” she asks with a welcoming smile. She steps up to me, tilting her face up for the kiss that she knows is coming. I grasp the back of her head lightly and touch my lips to her forehead. No tongue in front of Miss Minnie.

“It’s such a beautiful day outside…thought we’d grab some lunch. Interested?”

“Absolutely,” she says, grinning brilliantly, and we are out the door.

I take her hand in mine and we stroll down South Saunders Street along with all the other downtown workers out to grab something to eat. My nerves are starting to fire up and I hope my hand isn’t sweating.

When we reach Café Lina, the hostess is expecting me, but as planned, she shows not a hint of recognition. Sutton is happily chirping away about talking to Cosmo this morning, and while I’m definitely interested in how he’s doing, my mind is a bit more occupied in making sure everything goes off without a hitch.

We’re shown a table on the outside sidewalk and I make it past the first hurdle, terrified that Sutton will insist on sitting inside. If she had done that…ultimately not a big deal, but it would have made this not as perfect as it could be. I hold out the chair that will have Sutton’s back to the street and, once she’s settled, I take the other chair.

Lunch goes smoothly. I’m able to relax a tiny bit and get my head back in the game where Cosmo is concerned. He’s doing well following this latest stint in rehab and he and Sutton talk frequently. He’s even come over to our house for dinner a few times.

Note how I said “our house. ” That’s because I dumped my crappy apartment and moved in with Sutton, at her invitation, about three months ago, just as the hockey season was winding down. We made it through the first round of the playoffs, but when our star goalie, Max Fournier, went out with a groin injury, we just couldn’t hang in the second round and got soundly defeated in just five games.

I was bummed about it for quite a while, but moving in with Sutton made it better. I’ve been busy this off-season bumping up my training. Garrett and I work out together every morning, and on a few sunny Carolina afternoons you’ll find us at one of the local golf courses hacking up the grass. We both suck but are convinced that we’ll get better the more we play.

My nights, though, are the best of all. Sutton comes home from work and I’ll often have dinner ready—yes, I’ve been learning to cook…well, grill, mostly. We’ll eat on her back deck and she’ll tell me about her day at work. I’ll regale her with the dirty jokes that Garrett told me, which usually has her nose wrinkled in distaste. Sometimes we’ll just sit outside and talk for hours. Sometimes we’ll play a game or even watch TV. Nine and a half times out of ten, though, we’ll end the evening with me pounding away inside of her beautiful body and then falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Fuck, but I love this girl so much.

“Was your dad able to call you today?” Sutton asks and brings my head back into focus and away from the sex-filled images that were just clustered in my brain.

“Yeah,” I say as I motion for our waitress to come over to the table. “But let’s get some dessert first, then I’ll tell you all about it. ”

“No, thanks,” she says just before wiping her mouth and then putting her napkin on her plate.

“No, thanks?” I say with an eyebrow cocked at her. “This is Café Lina. They make your favorite dessert—chocolate ten-layer cake. ”

“I know but you’re always plying me with chocolate. I’m going to look like a hippo if you don’t stop. ”

An image comes to my mind of Sutton pregnant, her tummy round and her walk bordering on a waddle. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and I hope she wants more than one kid. But no time to think of that now. I have to get Sutton back on track with my plans today.

“Baby,” I say as I lean in close to her ear, my voice dropping low so the waitress can’t hear me. “One slice of your favorite dessert in the world isn’t going to kill you. Besides, I’ll help you work it off tonight. You can be on top. ”

Sutton’s eyes go wide, her nostrils flare a little and her mouth opens on a soft gasp. I don’t give her control often so this is indeed a special day.

“Okay,” she says with rough desire, and f**k, I want to haul her out of here right now and take her home.

Turning to the waitress, I hold up two fingers. “Two slices of your chocolate cake. ”

The cake is brought out quickly and the waitress shoots me a sly wink as she sets Sutton’s down in front of her. Then I tell her all about my conversation with my dad this morning. He’s back in rehab, but this is a good thing. He’s entering his third month and he’s committed to completing the program. He understands that by leaving early the last time, he left a lot of helpful coping skills and tactics behind that he had not had a chance to learn. Sutton and I are planning to fly up in a couple of weeks to see him.

I notice Sutton has only a few more bites left of her cake, and she’s so engrossed in what I’m saying, she’s not really paying attention.

“So we’re still a go for visiting him week after next, right?” she asks and then takes the last bite of her cake, barely glancing at it as she scoops it with her eyes pinned on me.

I nod assent to her question but then shoot a pointed look at her plate. “You scarfed that down. ”

She grins at me guiltily and then looks down at her empty plate. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, and Sutton’s eyes fill with tears as she stares at the crumbs she left behind. Because the plate has a message for her. It’s a very simple question, really.

It says, Will You Marry Me?, and I can’t help but hold my breath until I get the answer.

Her eyes lift to mine and a single tear escapes. I smile at her softly and wipe it away.

“Yes,” she says as she nods. She stands up quietly from her chair and my heart is beating so hard, I’m sure everyone walking by on the street can hear it. Walking up to me, Sutton turns her body and sits down on my lap. My arms go around her waist as her face tucks into the crook of my neck.

“I love you,” she says with so much happiness in her voice, I almost start crying. “Being your wife would make all my dreams come true. ”

I hold her for a few seconds and try to get my raging emotions under control. I listen to her breathing and smell her sweet shampoo. We share a quiet moment together…just me and her.

Finally, I give her a little push to sit up on my lap so she looks at me. “We need to go ring shopping. I want you to pick out what you want. ”

Grinning at me in excitement, she says, “This weekend?”

“Nope. Now,” I tell her and turn her around in my lap so she looks across the street.

Finneman’s Jewelers is directly across from where we sit, and Sutton’s jaw drops open when she sees the huge banner that is displayed. It wasn’t there as we walked up to the restaurant earlier, but it was surreptitiously hung while she was eating her cake by the wonderful owner, Mr. Solomon Finneman.

The banner says, Closed to Public—Private Ring Viewing

Sutton turns her head slowly to me, her mouth still hanging open. I push my finger under her chin to close it. “Careful…a bee might fly in there. ”

“We’re going ring shopping now?”

“Yup. You can pick out any ring in the store that you want, although I’ve had Mr. Finneman pull several that I like. But completel

y your choice. ”

“Right now?” she says, still in bewilderment.

“I did just ask you to marry me and you said yes, right?”

“Right,” she affirms.

“Then let’s go,” I tell her as I stand up, gently setting her feet to the ground. I don’t need to pay as I had arranged all of that ahead of time with the restaurant. Instead, I step up to the iron rail that separates the outdoor seating from the rest of the sidewalk and step over it. No problem for my tall frame. I lean over and pick up Sutton, careful so her dress doesn’t ride up and lift her over to the other side.

I grab her hand and we wait for a break in traffic, completely jaywalking our way over to Finneman’s. She still has one more surprise and this is going to be my favorite by far.

As we step inside, Mr. Finneman is waiting for us. He’s impeccably dressed in a charcoal gray suit with a bow tie. He’s a third-generation jeweler, or so he told me when I came in to see him yesterday to make sure everything was set and to pick out some of my favorites so he could display them together.

“Miss Price…Mr. Crossman…welcome,” he says and motions us up to one of the glass cases. “I understand you’re going to be picking an engagement ring today?”

Sutton nods with a dopey smile on her face, and if I had to guess, I think she might be a little addled in the brain over all of this. She steps up to the case, where Mr. Finneman pulls out several velvet displays with rows upon rows of diamond rings.

“No,” Sutton says as she holds up a hand. “I only want to see the ones that Alex liked. ”

Putting my hands on her shoulder and my lips near her temple, I tell her, “Sutton, you can have any ring in this store. You may not like what I picked out. ”

“Yes, I will,” she says firmly. Then raising her eyes to Mr. Finneman, she reiterates. “Just the ones Alex likes. ”

Mr. Finneman gives her a gracious smile and his eyes are sparkling. He pulls out the velvet display that has the rings I chose. There are seven in all and none of them has a price tag under five figures. Oh, well! I haven’t spent a damn bit of my money on anything nice in six years, so it’s about time to splurge a little.

“Oh, Alex,” Sutton says in wonder as she looks at the rings. “These are all so beautiful. They’re too much. ”

“There’s no such thing as too much, where you’re concerned,” I tell her and kiss her on the head. “Now try each one on. ”

She picks up the very first one and slips it on her left ring finger. It looks stunning there—three-carat oval in an antique setting with diamonds surrounding the center stone. It’s set in platinum, but then again, all of them are. Sutton’s not big on gold jewelry, so I figured she wouldn’t want a gold ring.

Holding her hand out, she admires it. Then she turns to look at me and says, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to choose. These are all just spectacular, and a little overwhelming. ”

Smiling at her big, I say, “Well, then, I guess you could use some help. ”

On cue, the door behind the glass case opens, which I know is the door to Mr. Finneman’s office, and out walk Penny, Jim, and Glenn. Sutton’s mouth opens again, but this time she closes it quickly, only to open it again and say, “Oh, my God. What are y’all doing here?”

Her family comes out from behind the case and then it’s all hugs and kisses and tears. Her mom starts crying pretty hard and Jim is patting her shoulder. He turns to me, sticking out a hand for me to shake. Glenn just leans against the glass case, checking out the rings.

Sutton turns to me and throws her arms around my neck. “You are too much. ”

“I’m not done yet,” I tell her and then turn our bodies around toward the door that her family just came out of. It opens again and her best friend, Shelley, walks out.