“You’ve got this,” he said, winking and pulling away. I took his stick, which was way too big for me. But I needed all the luck I could get, so I’d insisted on using it.
“Alright, Kate,” the announcer said, “Get into position and we’ll drop the puck when you’re ready.”
Ryke skated behind me, out of view, and I wished he’d come back and stand next to me. I blew out a breath. The faster I did this, the sooner it would be over. I looked at the net and took a couple of practice swings with the stick. The crowd roared to life, louder than I’d heard them before, some people on their feet. I gripped the stick, grateful for something to keep my hands from shaking.
I turned to tell the announcer I was ready, but he was gone. Only Ryke was there, and he was bent down on a knee on the ice. Holy shit. Was this what it looked like?
The thousands of people in the arena were cheering and clapping louder than I’d ever heard them. I walked in front of him, my puzzled expression making him smile. He held a hand up to the crowd and the roar faded like magic.
“I love you, Kate,” he said, taking my hands in his. “You fill up my heart and make me whole. Will you be my wife?”
It struck me as funny that he looked at me with such expectation when I adored every hair on his head. I was madly in love just three months into our relationship.
“Yes.” I reached for his face when I said it, brushing a thumb over his bristled cheek. He opened his hand to reveal a platinum ring with a glistening square cut diamond. When he took my hand and slid it on my finger, my unshed tears finally spilled over.
He swept me up by the waist, spinning me around as his lips met mine. The roar of the crowd was deafening now, but I was focused on my sweaty, sexy, incredibly sweet husband to be.
“You really know how to surprise a girl,” I said, smiling and leaning my forehead against his.
“I want it all with you. I want us to have a family and grow old together. Are you happy?”
“I’ve never been happier. Does this mean I don’t have to shoot the puck?”
He laughed and gave me one more soft, quick kiss before setting me back down on the red carpet walkway on the ice. The announcer stood off to the side, and Ryke motioned him back over and asked for his microphone.
“She said yes!” He took my hand and raised it in the air and the crowd went wild again. His magnetism seemed to affect both men and women, because none of these people could get enough of him. He waved the noise level back down and spoke again. “Kate was a little nervous about shooting that puck, but it was all a ruse so I could propose. I was just thinking, though, guys, what if she could make a goal? Should I give $50,000 to the team foundation if she does?”
The crowd thundered its approval and I covered my face with my hands. Five times the pressure.
“Ryke …” I tried to think of a way out of this, but he just smiled and squeezed my hand.
“You guys think my girl can do it?” he asked. The crowd cheered a much higher level of confidence than I had. “I think if she does, the Naughtons should match my donation to the foundation. What do you say, Jean?”
He looked up at the box the team’s owners, Jean and Steve Naughton, watched the games from. Jean raised a thumb in the air and the crowd cheered.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. This was getting worse by the second. Ryke took his stick from the announcer and handed it to me. He led me back to the spot I was supposed to shoot from and someone wearing a shirt with the team logo brought out a bucket of ice with a puck in it. Ryke took it out and held it up to drop on the ice.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, sighing. I was looking down the ice and remembering what Ryke told me about shooting when Luke and Vic skated up to the net, each one disconnecting the hardware on one side of it and lifting it. They skated toward me, bringing the net with them, and Ryke rolled his eyes dramatically.
The crowd loved it; their laughter was almost as loud as their clapping. Luke and Vic positioned the net about ten feet from me and skated away. In spite of my nerves, I laughed. Even I could shoot a puck ten feet, couldn’t I?
It turned out I could. I made the goal and got another embrace from Ryke, who swung me through the air while I laughed and my hair flew behind me. It was fitting. This man had swept me off my feet in every way possible. I’d spend my life making his dreams for us come true.
Chapter 3
The deep lines on my client Margo’s face had gotten more pronounced over the month I’d been meeting weekly with her. Her frizzy gray hair looked more like a dirty mop than the helmet of old-lady curls it was set in when we first met.