After a few attempts to make it around the rink, we take a break. I end up wrapped in his jacket in the stands, and we sip champagne from plastic cups.
“This is nice,” I say quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I lean into him. “Better than some fancy party.”
He grins, then his expression shifts—softer, more serious. “I love you, Izzy.”
“I love you too,” I whisper.
He kisses me again, slow and deep, like we have all the time in the world. And maybe we do. Maybe that’s the whole point.
Behind us, voices spill in from the hallway leading to the rink. I scramble off Jack’s lap as Ethan, Sloane, and Annie’s laughs echo around us.
“You two are so cute together,” Sloane shouts, cupping her hands around her mouth. “I can’t stand it.”
But then someone else steps through the door behind them.
Someone who looks exactly like Ethan and Jack, except taller, broader, with a mustache.
I freeze. “Is that?—?”
“Nolan,” Jack breathes, and he’s already moving, pulling away from me to scramble down from the bleachers.
Jack crashes into his oldest brother with a hug that’s more of a tackle.
Ethan is smiling. Which he very rarely ever does unless it involves Sloane. And Annie has her camera out, recording.
“Everyone’s home,” she sings. “Me and my brothers.”
Jack steps away, hands gripping Nolan’s shoulders. “How long are you here for?”
“A few weeks, maybe. Tried for Christmas but got called out for another fire. A big one.”
Everyone is watching Jack and Nolan, but I’m focused only on his brother. He looks exhausted, sounds it too.
Jack reaches behind him to grab my hand and pull me forward. “Izzy, this is my brother Nolan. Nolan, Izzy.”
Nolan extends a hand, and his grip is firm. “You have any idea how much trouble this guy causes? Not too late to change your mind.”
“I know,” I say with a big grin. “But I’m keeping him.”
The rest of the night blurs together in the best way. Ethan produces more champagne and snacks from somewhere, and we toast to new beginnings and brothers coming home. Ethan and Jack race each other on the ice as the rest of us struggle to keep up. Annie takes photos until Sloane pries her phone away.
Just after midnight, Jack and I end up at center ice, just the two of us again.
Jack pulls back enough to smile at me. “Ready?”
I glance over my shoulder at the chaos surrounding us, then back at him. “Always.”
We stand together, his arm tight around my waist.Love doesn’t always leave,I think.It can stay too. All you have to do is choose each other, over and over, even when it’s scary. Especially when it’s scary.
“Hey,” Jack murmurs against my temple. “About that moving-in thing…”
“Ask me tomorrow.”
“Is that when you’ll say yes?”
