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“I’m not good at speeches, but I just want to say thank you to everyone for being here. It means more than I could really ever say. A lot of people in this room have become my family.” Glancing at me, he pulls me to his side. “Especially this beautiful girl right here.” He grins. “Thank you, Bria. For taking me on my first real vacation. Throwing me my first real birthday party. For being my first biggest cheerleader in the stands and a calming force in my life. I love you so fucking much, baby.”
Everyone raises their glasses up to cheers his speech as he kisses me.
“When you do shit like this, it makes me think you’re a saint.” He puts his lips to my ear. “And then I remember how hard you came last night when I had you bent over the chair with your hands tied together, and I realize, my baby ain’t no saint.”
Blushing, I chew my lip. “What can I say? You bring the bad out in me.”
As he releases me, walking around to give everyone a hug, my heart squeezes in my chest. I didn’t know it was possible to love a human being so much that you physically feel their pain and their happiness. Brody has been through so much darkness. And yet, to everyone around him, he’s like sunshine, making everything better. His smile is contagious, and his humor is unmatched. I can’t erase the scars from his past, but I can do my best to heal them.
I’ve never been awhite picket fencesort of girl. But a white picket fence doesn’t sound so bad when Brody is the one building it.
Brody
I watch Bria as she dances in a group. The smile on her face as she does the funniest, most adorable moves has even me cracking up, just looking at her. I wish I knew how the hell I’d gotten so lucky to have someone like her fight for me, but I’m just glad I did.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Cam says, coming next to me. But when his eyes move to the group of women, his girlfriend included, he grins. “We are two lucky sons of bitches.”
“You ain’t kidding, Cap,” I drawl, knowing how right he really is. “When do you think they’ll wake up and realize they are way too good for our dumbasses?”
“I hope never,” Cam says softly before his elbow bumps mine. “Did you have a good birthday, O’Brien?”
“The best,” I answer.
Clasping my shoulder, he grins. “That’s great. You deserve all of the wonderful things in life. I’m glad you’re starting to see that.”
“What’s this? A heart-to-heart?” Cam’s dad, Jaxon, says, coming behind us. “Y’all know I love me a good one of them.”
Cam looks at me, rolling his eyes upward. “Oh, trust me, Dad, we know.”
Taking the barstool next to me, Jaxon looks to where we’re watching before looking back at us. “You two are gonna be just fine after all.” He squints one eye. “For a while there, it was debatable.”
“Hey, dick! What’s that supposed to mean?” Cam laughs.
“Well, both of you knuckleheads couldn’t pull your heads out of your own asses for a long time.” He nods his head toward the dance floor. “Takes a good woman sometimes to help you find your way. I’d say you both found yours.”
“I don’t know.” I take a sip of my water. “Truth is, I’m scared I’ll fuck it up with her every single day. I never had a front row seat to a healthy relationship when I was a kid. Shit’s new to me. I worry that she’ll outgrow me.” I cringe. “I worry that the NHL life might get to our relationship. And not in a good way.”
“Boy, best advice anyone ever told me was this: Take care of all the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves. Show up for her. Love her. Be a good friend to the ones you love. And play a game you can be proud of. And I promise you, everything else will be just fine.”
As Cam and his dad get up and walk away, I watch Bria again. Feeling my heart do that thing it does whenever I take the time to really look at her or think about all she’s done for me. It’s a feeling I never even knew was real, but I’m thankful as fuck that it is.
It’s the feeling that no matter what happens, you know you have a person standing next to you who is ready to go to war for you at any given second. Without hesitation. And knowing damn well that you’d do the same. And you love that person so much that the rest of the shit in the world melts away. Leaving you as the luckiest bastard because you’ve got an actual angel next to you, looking at you like she’s the lucky one. And you just hang on like hell, hoping you can treat her good enough and love her fiercely enough that she’ll stick around.
Because if I lost Bria, I don’t know how I’d go on.
When her eyes land on mine, she makes her way toward me, her entire face lighting up.
Sitting down on my lap, she throws her arms around my neck and touches her nose to mine. “You having fun, handsome?”
“I am now.” I press my lips to hers. “Didn’t you say something about a secret employee restroom?”
She smiles against me. “Yes.”
“And do you want me to drive my cock inside of you as badly as I want to feel you wrapped around me?” I move my lips to her neck, burying my face under her hair, breathing in her vanilla scent.
“Yes,” she whispers. “And…the restroom has a lock.”
Pulling back, I look at her. “So, go in there. And maybe…in one or two minutes, you’ll find yourself some company.” I widen my eyes. “And that company might last…oh, I’d say at least a solid three to four minutes. If you’re lucky.”
