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I look past her to see her husband, and my jaw drops. It’s fucking Shea Adler, the captain of the Nashville Assassins, and everything inside me freezes. If that’s Shea Adler, then this is Elli Adler, owner of the Assassins.
Oh, I’m gonna kiss Claire.
Reaching over, he shakes my hand and then smiles. “So we heard you’re gonna be the first woman in the NHL?”
“That’s the plan,” I say breathlessly. “I was actually speaking with your uncle at our little fundraiser back in November.”
“Oh, I know, he told me all about you! We’ve been watching your game. We were at the game when Jude’s brother got hurt.”
Oh, God.
“Bad hit for him, but man, can you take some hits of your own,” Shea says with a nod, and I unfreeze. They don’t think it’s my fault?
Breathing in deeply, I nod. “Yeah, I’m as tough as they come.”
“And you can shoot, you’re fast, and man, we really like your game,” Elli says very adamantly as she talks with her hands. “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
“Me either,” Shea agrees. “We were really looking forward to meeting you.”
“Wow, I’m a little speechless here,” I laugh, a little overwhelmed as I look away.
When I look to the side, I see Jayden walking in with Jace beside him.
And he looks perfect.
With his hair brushed to the side, his face clean-shaven and his suit fitting him effortlessly, I let out a dreamy sigh. Looking back the Adlers, I know I need to stay and talk. This could further my career, and I need that, but I need to talk to him more.
“Don’t be speechless! You have to talk to us!” Elli giggles when I turn to look back at her.
“I’m so sorry, but can you excuse me real fast?” I ask, and she nods, but when I go to get up, Jace has a mic and Jayden is grinning at him like he is a dork. “Or not.”
“Announcing my brother and his gorgeous new wife, Jude and Claire Sinclair.”
When the room erupts in applause, Jude and Claire enter. But Claire isn’t wearing her wedding dress that I saw her in earlier. No, she has on a white silk cami dress thing that I highly doubt is proper wedding attire, but then Jude’s changed too into a thin white tee and his slacks.
“She changed,” I mutter, and Elli leans in to me.
“Yeah, they are going to dance. Isn’t it sweet? She’s a dancer and wanted to do something special.”
“Oh wow,” I say as I turn my attention back to the couple.
When the music to Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” starts, I sit back and watch as they slowly walk toward the dance floor, hand in hand, and then they are dancing. Now, I sat through a dance team tryout and I saw some great dancing, but holy crap on a cracker, Claire can dance. Like really dance. She moves around Jude effortlessly, her body looks like its fluttering, and Jude, he’s there catching her and lifting her like he’s been doing it his whole life. When they join up, moving in perfect unison, the room loses it, hollering and cheering them on.
But I’m in awe.
They are so in love, so perfect, and fucking hell, that’s how I feel about Jayden. I’m not saying I want to dance around like they are, but I want to be on that level with him. The level where I can just fall and know he’ll catch me. The level where I don’t question his motives, his love for me, and that he loves me, no matter what.
I’m there, I’m ready. Now I just need to tell him that.
As the song ends, Jude lifts her up, looking up at her with all the love in the world before he lowers her into his arms, his mouth connecting with hers.
“I knew they were gonna get married the day I met him,” Elli says beside me.
“Really?”
She smiles as she dabs at her eyes. “You always know when a man loves a woman; it’s in the way they smile. But unlike me, Claire went for it while I fought it off,” she says with a wink as Shea cuddles her in his arms.
“The best love is the one you fight for, though,” he says against her cheek, and tears sting my eyes.
