I reluctantly let him go and took his hand as he led us outside to the bench across the street from the café. We sat down next to each other and turned inward.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I said, elated to see his face and hear his voice again. It only highlighted how miserable I’d been for the last two weeks. “How did you know where to find me?”
He stroked my cheek. “I can’t believe you were coming back to me.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, pressed a few buttons, and handed it to me.
I looked down at a text message from more than a week ago.
Elena:This is Elena Kahale. I know you and my sister didn’t want to break up, and I think one day you’re both going to change your minds and realize what you gave up. I’m putting my money on you figuring it out first, hockey boy. So, when that day comes, I’ll break my sisterly bond and tell you where she is. No questions asked. Save this number and don’t let me down, Leo.
She’d sent the text shortly after I’d let her read what I’d written about Leo and me. The message had been left unanswered until the middle of the night last night.
Leo:I’m sorry about the time, Elena, but I’m on my way to Oahu. Where can I find her around nine in the morning?
Elena:Oh, hockey boy, you better not be late. She’ll be at Kennedy’s café in Waikiki.
Leo:Thank you, Elena. Really.
Elena:If you’re even a minute late, call me first. I’ll find her.
Leo:Thanks. You might not be so evil after all.
Elena:Oh, I am. But I’m looking forward to being your evil little sister. Welcome to the family, bro.
My eyes welled with tears, and I handed the phone back to him.
“Can I go first?” he asked, slipping it into his pocket.
I nodded, heart pounding.
He took my hand, his blue-gray eyes captivating me just like they always had. “Sophia, I love hockey. I’ve loved it my whole life and I’ve wanted to play pro for as long as I can remember. But the way I feel about hockey is not even close to how I feel about you. None of it matters without you. I can live without hockey if that’s what it takes to be with you, but I can’t live without you. I know I have no right to ask you to move to Boston and away from your family to watch me live my dream. But I’m dying there without you.” His voice cracked and he took a deep breath.
“If you tell me that you want to be here in Oahu, I will renege on my contract without a second thought to spend my life with you. I’ll move to this island and never skate again and I will be happy with you. But if there’s even a chance I can have youandmy hockey career, I’ve got to at least ask the question. Either way, I’m yours, Hawaii.”
I grabbed his face and pressed a deep kiss to his lips before letting him go and taking his hands again. “Leo, I don’t want you to give up hockey to be with me. I have a pretty good idea of what I’m getting myself into and I have no expectation that this is going to be easy. But I was on my way to Boston to tell you thatyou’remy home. Not Oahu.You.I want to be wherever you are. Forever.”
“You were?” he asked, eyes glassy.
“Yes. I never should have come back here,” I said. “I thought this was where I needed to be, but I need to be with you so much more.”
He grinned and shrugged a backpack I hadn’t even noticed off his shoulders. “Alright, I’m glad to hear you say that,” he said, his confident, easy-going tone returning, filling my chest with hope.
“I know the research we usually do together is sexual, and we should keep that up”—he opened the backpack and pulled out a small stack of papers—“but I was up all night on the plane doing a different kind of research.” He scooted back, spread the papers on the bench between us, and pointed to a calendar with his hockey games listed and several different colors highlighting various weeks.
“This is my schedule for the upcoming season. I’ve highlighted all the stretches where I’m home in green—those are for us, in Boston. I’ve highlighted all my long stretches on the road of five days or more in yellow—those are what I call,Hawaii weeks. I’ll be traveling with the team, and you should use the opportunity to fly here. My mom has already approved endless jet use if it means I stop crying on heroverpriced couch and give her grandchildren someday. But you’ll have to fight with Aunt Lavi about the whole destroying the planet and wasting money thing.”
I snorted on a laugh, happy tears rolling down my cheeks. Leo smirked and kept going.
“The purple ones are short trips away. I think you should come with me for those, but if you want to come here instead, I’ll have the jet ready for you. And if you want to stay in Boston, my family’s your family Sophia—they’ve reminded me of that to the point that I think they might like you better than me—and they’ll be there if you want company. When the season is over, we have about twelve weeks or so that we can spend together in Hawaii before we’d have to go back to Boston for training camp. Then we’ll do it all again next year and the year after that. But in a decade or so, my NHL career will be over, and I think Hawaii would be a beautiful place to retire and raise a family with you.”
He shifted the papers to expose one with several Oahu real estate listings.
“So, I also pulled these,” he continued, getting more excited as he spoke. “These are the current listings in Oahu, and I thought we could look at them. I’ve got a bunch of cash from my shares in the family business, and we should use it to get a place here in addition to a place in Boston. That way, when we come back for the summer, we have a house to make our own. And when you visit during the season, you can stay there if you don’t want to stay with your parents.
“I know we want a half a dozen children, but we can figure out the timing on that. I’ll never ask you to take on that responsibility while I’m playing if it’s too much, so if we want a family sooner, I can retireearly—”
“Leo,” I cut him off and kissed him again, letting my body melt against his. “I love you so much. I was going to tell you that I’d live in Boston forever and I would have been happy if it meant building a life with you. But this”—I gestured to the papers falling onto the ground as I pressed myself closer to him—“this is the best research you’ve ever helped me with. We can make this work. You can have hockey, and I’ll still see my family regularly. But what really matters to me is that we have each other.”
