Page 46 of Accidentally in Love

I shrugged and rubbed the back of my neck. “When we conceived Peanut.”

She shook her head. “That’s not true. You worked the booth at the Arts Fest.”

She got me there.

I shrugged.

“Do you even know how to relax?”

“Of course, I do!”

She smirked at me. “Do you know how to relax and not obsess over the next beer you want to make?”

I grumbled.

She laughed. “Try to. I have to grade some papers.”

“Okay. I think I’ll watch the hockey game.”

She made a face.

“What?”

“If by relaxing you mean ‘get mad at the Bulldogs because they suck’ sure!”

I laughed. “I don’t know. Noah Kennedy has been on fire lately.”

She nodded. “True, but nobody else is doing jack shit out on the ice.”

“Except Metzy,” we said in unison and laughed that we were both such goaltender apologists. I loved that this woman could talk hockey as much as the next guy.

I took a beer out of the fridge, and when I turned around, she had slunk off upstairs. I thought she would be up there grading papers for the night, but she came down seconds after I turned the game on. She snuggled up next to me on the couch, with the throw blanket over her and a stack of papers in her lap. I put an arm around her, and we sat together in companionable silence. It felt so natural, like watching hockey while she graded papers was something we did together every night. If this was a glimpse into our future, I wanted it.

She shifted around a couple of times to get comfortable. “You okay?” I asked.

“My back hurts.”

I reached over and rubbed her back for her.

“Oh my god. Thank you.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

She put her papers to the side and shifted to look at me. “Nolan, you’re doing too much for me. I love the support, but…”

“But what?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t want you to sacrifice everything for me.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion.

She gestured to the Christmas tree, fully decorated and lit up in the corner. “I love that you took the effort because I love the holidays, but I don’t want to force you into anything. It’s why I said no when you first proposed. I didn’t want you to think I baby trapped you.”

I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You didn’t baby trap me. I know we didn’t plan for it, but I want this.”

“Why?” she asked. She pulled her hand away as if I had burned her. “You specifically told me you would never get married again.”

“Avs, I failed Kath. I never wanted to fail anyone else ever again. I definitely don’t want to fail you.”