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I set Cami down on her feet and stare into her eyes. She looks back at me, her smile wide but her expression still tentative. Uncertain. It’s as if she’s expecting me to change my mind or somehow pull the rug out from under her feet.
“I was wrong,” I tell her solemnly. “There’s one thing that can make me even happier than knowing we’re going to have a baby.”
“What’s that?”
"Cami, you have breathed new life into me, and being with you has made me happier than I ever knew I could be. I didn’t even know this kind of happiness even existed. You’re the most important thing in my life and I never want to be without you…”
Her eyes widen and she covers her mouth with her hands again as if she knows what the next words are going to be. And she probably does. I get down on my knee and take her hand in mine, staring up at her, silently conveying every single thing I feel for her.
“Cami Blankenship,” I say. “I love you with everything in me. Would you do me the honor and make me the happiest man on the planet by marrying me?”
She squeals and jumps up and down then throws her arms around the back of my neck and squeezes me tight. Getting to my feet, I scoop her up and hold her tightly. Setting her back down on her feet, I take her hand again.
“Is that a yes?” I ask.
“Yes. Of course. Yes, yes, yes!”
The love I feel for Cami makes my heart swell and fills me with a sense of joy so profound it’s overwhelming and makes it hard to breathe. Nothing I’ve done in my life and career matters more than this moment.
“Come on,” I say. “We need to go.”
“Go where?”
“We’re going to get a ring to make this official.”
“I don’t need a ring to know how much you love me.”
“No. But I want everybody else to know you belong to me.”
“Marking your territory, huh?”
“Damn right.”
She smiles wide. “Well, then. Let’s go ring shopping because I am most definitely yours.”
“Good girl.”
EPILOGUE
CARTER
Two Years Later
The confetti is still falling as I walk to the middle of the field, soaking in the roar of the crowd, the music, and the fireworks going off overhead. I take it all in and let myself really feel the blend of complex emotions washing over and through me. Ryder runs over to where I’m standing, his face etched with joy as he throws his arms around me, giving me a ferocious bro-hug.
“Dude. We did it again!” he screams as he steps back. “You were amazing out there, bro!”
“The entire team was amazing out there. Including you.”
“Hell yeah!”
Ryder bounds off to celebrate with the rest of the team in the wake of our resounding, nearly flawless win tonight on our sport’s biggest stage. Sarah Oliver and her camera crew from ESPN make their way through the crowd to where I’m standing. She’s smiling wide and gestures to her cameraman to start rolling tape then turns to me.
“Carter Cole, first of all, congratulations on winning your second consecutive championship with Vegas and your fourth overall, and of course, on winning the MVP award tonight,” she says as she thrusts a microphone in my face. “Now, there were a lot of people who thought when Los Angeles let you go that you didn’t have anything left in the tank. But you’ve played like a rookie since arriving in the desert and tonight might have been the best singular performance of your career. What is your secret? What’s the fountain of youth you’ve discovered that’s allowed you to author a masterpiece like tonight?”
“The team around me authored tonight’s masterpiece,” I reply into the mic. “This team won at every level in all three phases of the game. They made my job easy.”
The crowd parts and I see Cami walking with a pair of the team’s security guards. She’s carrying our three-month-old, Cooper, while big Bennie, the head of security, carries Caitlin, our eldest. Cami has a wide smile and a look of pride on her face. When they get to me, I pull her to me and give her a hug and a kiss. Stepping back, I take Caitlin out of Bennie’s arms and kiss her cheek as she squeals. Still holding my daughter, I turn back to Sarah.
