be perfect or easy.
But having him here with me again meant that something in my world was right. Something big. After years of partners who shied away from the reality of being with someone whose child had significant medical needs, I’d found Jase. I’d found a man who was not only willing to accept the price of admission for dating me, he wanted to help in any way he could. In real, concrete ways that might just make a difference in my daughter’s quality of life.
For years, I’d been sure it would take ages to find someone who could love me and my daughter, and who could weather everything that came with us. I wasn’t sure I’d ever find that someone.
But it hadn’t taken forever. The perfect man for me had shown up at the perfect time for us.
I had no illusions that things would be easy, but I had no doubt they’d be worth it.
And for the first time in a long time, I was excited about the future.
Epilogue
Jase
About eighteen months later.
“You ready for this, Kelly?” Maddox elbowed me on the bench. “Or do you need a bucket?”
I chuckled nervously. “Fuck off. I’m not going to puke.”
“Well, just in case.” Gagnon plunked a bucket in front of me. “You’re welcome.”
My teammates howled and applauded. I rolled my eyes and laughed too. “You guys are assholes.” I kicked the bucket at Gagnon, hitting him in the shin with a satisfying crack. He hopped and swore, which had us all laughing even harder.
The locker room door opened, and when I looked up, my heart was instantly pounding even harder.
“Hey guys.” Devin flashed a quick smile at my teammates as he crossed the room, and then he bent to brush a kiss across my lips. “Ready for this?”
“We’re always ready for this,” Maddox said. “Are you ready for it?”
I shot Maddox a shut the fuck up look, which got a snicker out of him.
Devin eyed him, then dropped onto the bench to take off his shoes and put on his skates. “Of course I am. I can actually skate without busting my ass now.”
“Of course you can,” Kuznetsov said with a smirk. “That’s what happens when you take lessons from an actual professional.”
I flipped off my teammate, and Devin snickered. “He’s not wrong, baby.”
“What?” I turned an exasperated look on him. “I wasn’t a good enough instructor?”
“I didn’t say that.” He paused to push his foot into his skate. “But I did get better after taking lessons.”
“That’s because you took regular lessons,” I muttered. “It was consistency, not the instructor.”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
I elbowed him. He elbowed me back. We both laughed, and my teammates just chuckled and muttered some comments about us being an old married couple.
Once he’d laced up his skates, Devin stood. “All right. I’ll see you out on the ice. Play safe.”
“I always do. You know that.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you do.”
We laughed again, and he came down for another soft kiss.
Which, of course, prompted more cheering and heckling from my teammates.
Devin and I rolled our eyes. We were used to it after all this time, and it was all in good fun.
He headed for the chute with Richard and one of the other members of the team that arranged the low stim hockey nights like this one, and as I watched him go I couldn’t help smiling. He’d struggled like hell in skates back when I’d first started teaching him. By the time he and Dallas had decided to take weekly lessons together, they’d both been pretty competent, and now they moved easily on and off the ice. I loved that—ice skating had become something we could do together. Dallas’s mom and stepdad were even learning now too, so it was really turning into a family thing.
The team was heading for the chute, so I got up, checked my pocket, put on my gloves, and then picked up my stick and visor.
Moments later, I joined my teammates on the ice. We warmed up at one end while at the other end, the visiting team—the Ice Giants, who we’d be playing for real tomorrow night—took the other end.
Lit only by the stadium lights, the stands were mostly empty. I thought Devin said there were maybe four hundred people tonight. all scattered throughout the ground level of seats so everyone could see and had some breathing room. The crowds had steadily grown over time, made up of people who couldn’t come to games for various reasons along with their families, but