Hot Puck (Rough Riders Hockey 2)

“Oh no, Daddy,” Lily whispered, her eyes round and worried. “She’s crying.”

More laughter from around the stadium.

Beckett chuckled and pulled a small box from somewhere beneath his uniform. “I think those are happy tears, baby.”

Eden’s gaze held on the tiny square black box, and her stomach triple-flipped like a damned gymnast. Then she looked at Beckett. And he was grinning. Grinning in that affectionate way that told Eden he did indeed love her with everything he had. Everything he was.

Holy shit.

Holy. Shit.

Lily took hold of the box, and Beckett helped her open it. The gorgeous diamond band sparkled up from a bed of black velvet, taking Eden’s breath. She lifted her hands and tented them over her mouth, shaking with emotion. “Oh my God.”

Her whisper shivered through the stadium.

Beckett held Eden’s eyes when he asked, “Will you stay with us forever, Eden? Will you marry us?”

Lily looked up at her with the same loving, longing expression as her father and said, “Will you marry us?”

Emotion overwhelmed her, and when she tried to answer, she got caught in a mini hyperventilation episode. It took her several excruciating seconds filled with fluttering hands and tearing eyes before Eden could control her voice well enough to rasp out, “Yes.” She took another breath and repeated, “Yes, yes.”

She crouched and wrapped her arms around them. “I love you both, so much.”

But her words were drowned in the crazy applause raising the roof, so Eden turned her head and kissed Beckett. As much as she wanted to devour him in front of everyone, she was well aware of the families in the audience, not to mention his own daughter right there.

Their daughter now.

When she pulled back, Beckett took the box from her hand, pulled out the ring, and slipped it on her finger, then kissed her again. “I love you, Eden.”

The three of them pushed to their feet together. Beckett held Lily in one arm and used the other to lift Eden’s arm overhead to a raging crowd. She grinned at Lily, whose smile was so bright and so pure, it swelled Eden’s heart.

“These women,” he yelled to the fans, “make me better in every way. They make me stronger, tougher, and faster. Who’s ready for round three, Rough Riders fans?”

The rumble that erupted through the building shook the floor like an earthquake and made Lily cover her ears.

With a grin and a kiss, Beckett handed Lily over to Eden and skated backward toward the tunnel leading to the locker room. Eden stepped back behind the wall with Lily in her arms and was greeted by Beckett’s parents, sister, and nieces with more hugs and more love.

Across the ice, Beckett punched a fist in the air, yelling, “Unleash—”

And the entire stadium joined him with “The fury!”