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He snorted. “Yeah. Just like everybody else today.”
“Can you blame them?” I whispered miserably and finally looked at him.
He was smiling. “No, I guess not. It was a surprise to most people.”
“Not Jones.”
Sebastianshrugged.
I waited for his smile to fall and for bitterness to take over his face. He just gave up his career for me. But his smile never faltered, that pure, bright grin permanently affixed to him.
Maybe … maybe he was okay with this. Tentative hope bubbledup in me.
Still… “You didn’t have to do this. I was already on my way to beg you to takeme back.”
His face scrunched in confusion, but he waited for me tocontinue.
“I know I said I couldn’t date you if you were my teammate, but I was wrong. I should have realized earlier that it doesn’t matter what the press or anyone else says about us because I love you. I love you and I don’t want you to hate me for making you give up hockey. I can’t take that.”
I watched through slightly watery eyes as his entire face lit up again. Suddenly, he lunged forward and pulled me to him. I happily went.
One hand on my waist, he held my face with his other hockey-mitt of a hand. “Do you mean that?”
I was trapped in his shining eyes and nodded as much as I could with his palm restricting my chin. Then Sebastian’s lips were on mine, and I clenched at the front of his sweatshirt, holding him as close to me as I could.
God, I missed this. I missed him.
“I love you too,” he whispered against my lips, and the tears I had been holding back finally fell.
I slumped against him and buried my face into the crook of his neck, hiding my wet cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’mso sorry.”
He tried to tug me back to look at me, but I clung to him and wiped away my tears on his collar. “About what, sweetheart?”
“I was too late to stop you from retiring.” If I had just talked to Drew earlier. If I wasn’t so stupid. If I had found him beforepractice.
“I didn’t retire for you, Riley.”
I let him tilt my face up. “You didn’t?”
Sebastian smiled sheepishly. “Well, a little. But not completely. Not by alongshot.”
“T-then why?”
“Because I’m tired, Riles. Tired of hockey, and I have been for a while. I’ve lost my love for it. If I ever had any for it in the first place.”
That didn’t make any sense. “What do you mean? You’re an amazing player.”
He sighed and the scar on his lip puckered. He leaned away slightly, dropping his fingers from my face. I copied him but slid a hand over his chest, down his arm, and grabbed a hold of his forearm, not ready to completely let him go when I just gothim back.
“Yeah, I am a good player—”
“Really good,”I cut in.
His lips twitched. “Really good. Hell, I was a prodigy from the second I put on skates, but that didn’t mean I loved hockey. I mean, sure, I liked it just fine and I had fun when I was playing. But the more pressure that got put on me, the more I just wanted to quit. Except I couldn’t. My only friends were my teammates, and my entire life had revolved around hockey for years. I didn’t have any other interests, so I just stuckwith it.”
“And you ended up inthe NHL?”
I was astounded. It took a tremendous amount of dedication and passion to make it to the major leagues. Sebastian just rolled on in without the overwhelming passion that all the other players had. Holy shit. The amount of pure talent he had was overwhelming.
