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“No.” Not even close. “Not since I pushed you away. I was an idiot. A fool. I wanted to protect you. But… I think I ruined everything instead.”
She feels so good in my arms, her chest flush to mine. I hold her tighter. “Stormy, please, tell me you can forgive me, that you’ll give us another chance. I love you.”
Her fingers thread through my hair at the back of my neck. “Are you going to ask me what I’m doing here?”
I blink, thinking about setting her down to give her space while we have this conversation, but instead, I walk with her a little farther around the bend to where there’s a bench and pull her into my lap. I can’t let her go. I just fucking can’t.
“Okay, gorgeous.” I search her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
Her hand drifts down to rest over my heart. “I came to fight for you.”
My throat goes tight, and I press my hand over hers, wondering if she can feel what those words do to me. If she has any idea how hard that beast in my chest is beating for her.
She doesn’t have to fight at all.“Stormy.”
“To tell you that I love you and ask you to give us a chance. Because even though you told me it wasn’t real and all we were doing was—”
“Don’t say it. Please,” I croak, pressing my head to hers. “It nearly killed me to lie to you that way.”
“I hoped,” she says softly, nodding against my head. “I tried to make myself believe what you were saying. To accept it. But I couldn’t.” The hand resting over my heart moves to my cheek. “And finally, I realized I couldn’t keep running from what I was afraid of. I didn’t know if you felt the way I did. If you’d change your mind. All I knew was that I loved you, and I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t tell you how I felt. That I want you.”
She loves me. I can barely breathe. But I have to be straight with her. “There’s a chance what happened with Jess might come out. There’s a chance—”
“Hey, if that happened it would be a nuisance. One I’d gladly accept if it means having you. But—”
“I need you to understand. Before you decide, you need to know all of it.” I swallow, shaking my head. “It’s possible that I could lose my contract, my spot on this team. I won’t be able to offer you what you deserve. What I want to give you.”
“Are you talking about money?” She pulls back to search my eyes, a frown pulling at her mouth. “Liam, first, and this is important, but I think you must have missed it…I love you. That means the only thing I need from you isyou.”
Her words knock the wind from me. They humble me.
“You have me.” I say it like a vow. I mean it forever.
She nods but gives me a bit of side-eye. Then waves a hand around the deserted hallway. “This… hockey? I want it for you. Don’t get me wrong, the seats are amazing and seeing you like this and on the ice and— Yeah, it’s fun. But you could be teaching toddlers hockey full-time, and we’d be fine. I’d want you— I’d love you if we didn’t have anything but each other.” She bites her lip, cocks her head. “That being said… Why do you think I made you kiss the prenup? H&H is averysuccessful company. I got you, baby.”
I laugh, kissing her and then kissing her again. Humming at the softness of her lips. The sweetness of her taste. The relief I feel down to my very soul.
“Wait,” she pushes back. “Your father.”
I shake my head. How the hell did I forget about him? “Shit, what did he want?”
“To give you a message.”
A million shitty scenarios flash through my mind, but then she’s patting my chest again, hushing the growl rumbling from my throat.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s actually a good message.”
I find that hard to believe, but there’s something in Stormy’s eyes that makes me want to. “Tell me.”
“He knows about what happened with Jess. He went through her phone. We can both probably guess why. He found her texts and confronted her about it.”
It’s what I’ve been afraid of. The way this guy has been with me my whole life, like he resents me so much, he’ll look for any chance to bring me down. Christ, what’s he going to do with this?
“Liam, he said to tell you he’s sorry.”
My head snaps up. “What?”
“He didn’t want to trust the message to your phone because they can be hacked. But he wanted you to know that Jess admitted there was no video. And she’s not going public with the story, because if she did… it would violatetheirprenup, and she’d forfeit her right to alimony.”
