Victor (Chicago Blaze 3)

Victor holds his stick in the air and looks up at our box, grinning. My stomach somersaults with happiness, which I’m pretty sure it will never stop doing when he looks at me. He celebrates with the team and we celebrate in the box with a round of shots.

The game ends soon after, and I stand up. “It’ll be a while before Victor’s done. Do you guys want to come see where I work?”

“Nah, I’d rather wait here for Victor,” Dad says.

“If he has interviews, it might take an hour.”

He shrugs. “We can keep drinking, though, right?”

“I told him we’ll meet up with him at Lucky’s. You can drink there.”

Don pipes in. “Yeah, but not for free.”

“They’re not even serving beer anymore, you guys,” I say. “Let’s go.”

“I’d kind of like to stay and watch the Zamboni,” Ari says.

“The Zamboni?” I look around at all of them. “What’s with you guys?”

“Zamboni. It just sounds hot, doesn’t it?” Ari waggles her brows. “I think it’s cause it has the word ‘bone’ in it.”

I throw my hands in the air and sit back down, chalking the weirdness up to it being everyone’s first time in a VIP suite.

The door opens then, and Victor walks into the room, wearing just his white hockey pants and a team t-shirt.

“Hey,” I say, grinning and standing up. “What are you doing here?”

A guy I don’t know walks into the room behind him. Instead of answering my question, Victor comes up to me and then gets down on one knee. His hair is still wet with sweat, dripping onto the floor as he looks up at me.

I yelp and cover my mouth with my hands. If this is what it looks like, I think I may ruin it by throwing up. My dad passes Victor a small black box and he flips it open, holding my gaze.

“Lindy, you’re my everything. I know it’s fast, but when you know, you know. And I know you’re the only one for me, for the rest of our lives. So…” He eyes me nervously. “will you marry me?”

I finally let myself exhale, and as I do, streams of tears run down both sides of my face.

“Yes. Of course, YES.”

I look inside the box for the first time and see a glimmering round diamond solitaire. It’s enormous and beautiful. A fresh round of tears hits as Victor slides it onto my finger.

“Holy shit, that’s as big as a hockey puck!” Ari cries.

Apparently the guy behind Victor was there to take photos, and he continues capturing the happiest moment of my life as Victor wraps me into his arms and kisses me.

There’s another round of cheering and shots passed around as everyone congratulates us.

“He told us to keep you in the room,” Dad says, shrugging. “Ari’s pretty damn good at improvising.”

Ari grins and Victor looks confused. I fill him in.

"She feigned an interest in the Zamboni. I totally fell for it.”

Victor’s gaze is warm as he holds my hand out to get a good look at the ring.

“Perfect,” he murmurs.

I smile up at him and we share one of those long, perfect moments where our happiness can’t be contained in words. It’s in the warmth of his touch and the gleam of his eyes. It’s in the beat of my heart, which isn’t erratic like it was the first night I met him, but steady.

Steadiness is underrated when it comes to love. I’m not an actress or a model. I don’t turn heads as I walk down the street. But I’m quirky, loyal and loving. I’ll be Victor’s best friend and fiercest ally for the rest of our lives.

And as he takes me into his arms and lifts my feet from the ground, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, knowing he’ll be mine, too.EpilogueFive months later

Lindy

“I’m too pretty for manual labor,” Ari says, wiping a hand across her brow.

“Sit down and take a rest, babe,” Douglas says.

I roll my eyes at them. “You’ve only been working for like ten minutes, diva.”

“Yeah, but that garage is hot.”

“When we get all the boxes out, you can sit in the shade with me and help me go through stuff,” I offer.

Dad and Victor are following through with their plan to tear down the old garage and build a new one. It’s Victor’s offseason, so he plans to come over every day until the project is done.

Well, more like we plan to come over. I moved in with him two months after we got engaged. We’re getting married next month at Abby and Luca’s Hawaii getaway, and while I’m excited, I’m mostly chill.

The hard part is over. Victor and I found each other and worked through my insecurities and his painful past. His past will never be fully behind us, but it doesn’t define him or us.