Sophia
One Year Later
I sat in oneof the chairs on Dad and Kennedy’s private beach after everyone except our immediate families had left for the evening. Alyssa and Jia had been the last to go, trailing Rickles—who’d become Leo’s closest friend on the Bruins—and his new boyfriend.
The rows of white chairs with ocean blue ribbons on the back were still set up in the sand. Leo had chosen the color for our wedding, saying that he wanted it to match my eyes and the water. It seemed only fair for him to pick since he had such a good reason. Plus, he’d agreed to my location preference without a second thought.
Leo was in a lounge chair by the pool, still in his suit pants and shirt, though the jacket and tie had disappeared immediately following our exchange of vows. He bounced Izzy on his lap, smiling at her asshe giggled. I couldn’t wait to watch him with our kids someday. We still wanted a lot of them, and we’d probably have one of our own soon enough. I had no intention of waiting until he retired to start our family, not with all the people around to support us.
Izzy had been changed out of her white frilly flower girl dress and wore an ocean blue sundress that matched Elena’s maid of honor dress perfectly—Aunt Kat and Elena had made sure of it since Aunt Kat had overseen all wedding decorations and Elena had made Izzy a dress from the same fabric currently adorning the chairs. Izzy’s head was covered in blonde hair, just like the twins had been at her age. She was almost a year old and growing quickly. No matter how often I was able to come and visit her, it always seemed like time was moving too fast.
Leo and I had survived our first year of his NHL career, and while it had been exhausting in so many ways, it had also been exciting and fulfilling. I wouldn’t have given it up for anything. Watching Leo excel at the sport in a way few who came before him had made me so proud of him, and I was absolutely his biggest fan.
Dad sat down in a chair next to me, looking dapper in a blue, button-down shirt and khaki shorts. “Izzy loves your boyfriend.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Dad, he’s my husband now. And you really should have been calling him my fiancé for the last year.”
Dad chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “I know. Butboyfriendmade it sound less like you were going from being my little girl to his wife. I needed the year to get used to it. But I’ll give him the title he’s earned now. He treats you better than I ever could have asked for, even if he does keep you in Boston half the year.”
I smiled sadly at him. “I’m still your little girl, Dad. Plus, I think you’re going to have your hands full with that little girl.” I pointed to Izzy who was still smiling and bouncing with Leo.
Dad shook his head. “He’s stolen both of my girl’s hearts, hasn’t he?”
I laughed. Dad had chosen the song we’d danced to earlier. The patio had been cleared off so it could be used as our dance floor and under twinkling white lights, after sunset, Dad had tried not to cry as he’d spun me around to “Yours” by Post Malone. He wasn’t successful, but that song made all our guests tear up—especially the dads.
“Don’t worry. You’ve got a while before you have to share her with someone else too,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder and leaning into him.
He put his arm around me and we watched the waves hit the beach for a few minutes before I said, “I wish I’d asked you to read my book before it comes out.”
He lifted his arm off my shoulders and turned to face me. “Soph, I’dloveto read your books. I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”
“Really?” I asked. “I kind of assumed you’d want to stay far away from them since I actually wrote my own spicy scenes.”
He cringed. “Maybe we can read each other’s work and flag chapters that should be skipped. We can always give a short summary of key developmental points in the spicy scenes to save ourselves the agony while supporting and helping each other.”
“I love that idea,” I said. “But I’ll need to redact a lot—at least from the book based on me and Leo.”
He grimaced and laughed. “I’d need to redact a lot too, so maybe it’s better if we just do that without further comment.”
“Fair enough,” I said, looking toward Leo one more time. He and Izzy were gone. “Now that Aunt Kat and Uncle Eric’s book is out in the world, what are you going to write about next?”
My first two books were both scheduled to release in the next year from two different publishers. The romantic thriller editor hadn’t been interested in my hockey romance, but the market for hockey romance was strong and it sold for a much larger deal than I could have imagined. Turns out being the fiancée of a professional hockey player gave me a lot more credibility than I probably deserved.
As far as I knew, Dad hadn’t been working on anything since publishing his third book. “I’ve been thinking about the story of how Leo’s parents met for a while. He told me about it last summer when you were here, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said. “They have a really good story with the whole tragic-love-during-a-war backdrop thrown in too.”
Dad nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “Are you going to use it?”
“No,” I shook my head. “It’s too weird to write about parental figures.”
He chuckled. “So, it’s fair game? If they’re willing to let me tell it?”
“If we’re both going to pull from real life, let’s set one rule: you can have your generation, and I get mine. Whatever Elena, Isaac, Ian, and Izzy have for adventures, those are mine. Oh, and him too!” I pointed at Jace who was in the pool with the twins and Koa.
“Fair enough, Soph,” Dad said as Leo started approaching us. “Hey, here comes your boyfriend,” he teased.
I shoved his shoulder and he stood up, gesturing to his seat. “You might as well take my seat too, you’ve already taken my little girl.”
