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“Oh fuck.” Christian shook his head. He scooped me from my seat onto his lap, then cupped my cheeks between his hands and spoke into my eyes. “I am terrified of losing you. Nothing else matters. For as long as I could remember, the only thing I was afraid of was not being able to play ball. But if I had to pick between you and playing, there would be no contest, sweetheart.”
Tears slid down my cheeks as hope bloomed deep inside of me. “Did you buy this place?”
Christian smiled. “You said the time you spent here was the happiest you’d ever been. The real estate agent called me a week ago, to follow up after our visit again, and I realized that afternoon was one of the happiest days I’d had in my life, too. So I thought maybe there was some magic here, and I made an offer. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but everything became easy to see after I made that decision. I knew the Bruins would be nothing but bad memories after everything sank in, and I didn’t want my job to be heartache for you. So I had my agent put out some feelers to see who might be interested if I didn’t sign my contract. The first team to respond was New England.” He nodded. “It just felt right.”
“I can’t believe you’ve uprooted your entire life like this.”
“You gotta uproot if you want to plant your roots somewhere new.” He leaned closer. “I want to plant roots with you, Bella. It doesn’t matter where, just needs to be a place you’re happy.”
“I finally know where that is.” I sniffled. “The place I can be happy.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere you are.”
CHAPTER 32
* * *
CHRISTIAN
“You’re being creepy, Knox.”
I smiled and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “How did you know I was watching you sleep when your eyes haven’t opened yet?”
“I felt it.”
I took her hand and slid it between my legs. “Why don’t you feel this, instead?”
Bella giggled, and the sound warmed the inside of my chest. After a rough two weeks, the dark clouds hanging over us had finally started to lift. Once we’d returned from Vermont, Bella had some pretty big decisions to make. Not surprisingly, she’d handled them all with grace. She’d decided to take the information we’d found to the police so they could reopen the investigation into her mother’s death. It took them less than one week to connect the dots and determine that the driver who’d killed Rose Keating had been John Barrett. We’d known the car had been involved, but the police had finished the job.
Since the stadium gave out all-access passes to guests in the owner’s suite, everyone had to register with security. Bella was able to get the list of guests from the night her mother died from security without the police even having to waste time on a warrant. They then interviewed everyone who had been in the owner’s suite on the evening of Rose’s death. Since it had been a game against the Bruins’ main rival, and some of the guests had watched from the luxury box for their first time ever, many had a strong recollection of the night. Seven people confirmed that John Barrett had been drinking heavily, and he’d offered one of them a ride home in his antique car. The man had declined, knowing John was inebriated. After that, the police tracked down the guy who had maintained John’s cars, and he confirmed that John had told him he hit a deer and needed some work done.
Bella had filled Tiffany and Rebecca in on what had happened, wanting to give them the courtesy of a heads-up in case the news got wind of the police poking around. Of course, they didn’t believe her. But Tiffany told the new guy she was dating about what Bella had said, and he promptly sold the story to the tabloids. Everything blew up from there.
Bella tucked her hands under her cheek, and we laid on our sides, facing each other in bed. “I think I’ve made a decision about what I’m going to do with the team.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded. “I’m going to create a charity in my mother’s name and start donating all profits from the team to it. I don’t want to keep anything that was John Barrett’s, but others could really use the money.”
I smiled. “I think that’s a great idea. What about running it? Will you stay on as the team co-president?”
Bella shook her head. “I looked at the hierarchy of a few other teams, and many have the CEO holding both the CEO and president’s positions. I think Tom Lauren can continue to handle both. And I’m going to ask my grandfather if he’ll serve as an advisor to the president and also sit on the board of the charity I’ll establish.”
