“And when we get home, I’ll take that tingle to the next level.”
Hailey squirmed. “Just how big is your penthouse?”
“Oh, it’s big, all right. And the walls are very well insulated.”
“I can’t wait to be alone with you. Watching you shout at your teammates, that mean face you gave the guy on the other team, and all those goals…” She shivered. “So hot.”
“I’m glad you guys are with me.”
“It’s fun. I’m glad you suggested it.”
“Even if Pais had to miss two days of school?”
“It won’t be easy for this goody two-shoes, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to living with a rule-breaker.”
“Hey, so where do you want to tell the girls? I know you wanted to rent a cabin, but is there some other place where we could start the tradition?”
“I don’t think it has to be a specific place. I just like the idea of an annual birthday party. Afternoon tea would be fun, but I have to meet that guy in my apartment at noon, so it won’t work in Boston.”
A guy in her building owned a thrift shop, and he’d agreed to take her furniture off her hands. All she had to do was hire the trailer to get everything to his shop.
“We can make a day of it in the city. Horse and buggy ride in Central Park, the carousel, and then tea.”
“That would be fun, but it’s going to take me most of the day to box up my stuff. And then I have to get it all to the post office. Remember, I’m shipping everything to Calamity.”
“What if we do it at my dad’s screening? Never mind. That’s too hectic. We want to do something private, just the four of us.”
“First of all, the girls aren’t going to a screening. They’re too young, and they won’t appreciate it. But secondly, I’m having dinner with my mom. It’s my only chance to be with her before I move. Let’s hold off until Sunday.”
“I’ve got a game Sunday night.” He was looking for some amazing venue when the actual event itself was what mattered. “Fuck it, let’s do it when they wake up in the morning. I want to see their faces when we tell them we’re their forever home.” Had he ever wanted anything this badly?
“I do, too. I’m happy, Cole. Really, really happy.”
He reached for her hand, pressing it to her heart. “I love that you’re moving in. I love that we’re a family.” He was skirting around the truth. It was the molten core of a mountain, and he was circling the rim.
“Me, too.”
How ironic that the guy who slammed two-hundred-pound men into the boards was too afraid to say three simple words. “The other day at my house...” He drew in a slow breath. “When you said you loved me—”
“Oh, God, no. Stop. You don’t have to say it back. That was—”
“I do, though. But besides my dad, I’ve only ever said those words to one other person.” He didn’t have a lot of clear memories of his time with the bad nanny. What he had were remnants of uncomfortable feelings that clung to him like spider webs. "I said it to the bad nanny once, and she got angry.”
“Angry? For saying I love you?”
“She said, ‘Oh, no. It’s not like that.’ She was so disgusted… That’s what stuck with me. It was my first true rejection, and I remember thinking I’d never say it again. I’d had this pure, strong emotion, and I’d assumed it was mutual, but it wasn’t. I’d gotten it so wrong. And that made me see love in a whole new light. I stopped trusting the feeling.” He gazed down at those creamy cheeks, the warm hazel eyes, and the lips that brought him such pleasure…I get to see that face every day for the rest of my life. “I’ve always known I loved you, but I didn’t want to say it and have you say, ‘Oh, no, Cole. It’s not like that with us.’”
She unbuckled her seatbelt and hitched a leg across his lap. “Say it.”
And suddenly, with her looking at him like that, all fired up with passion, it wasn’t hard to say at all. “I love you, Hailey Casselton. I love you like a house on fire.”
“And I love you, Cole Montgomery. You’re the sun, the moon, the stars. You and the girls are my entire universe.”
As much as he’d wanted to hire movers for her, Hailey had insisted on doing it herself. She wasn’t going to take much with her, but she needed to go through her belongings and decide what to take with her and what to leave behind. She’d encouraged him to treat the girls to a whole day in New York City.
They’d sign the papers when they weren’t so busy.
So, he’d invited his dad, bundled the girls up in parkas and boots, and taken them to Central Park where they’d bought hot pretzels from a kiosk and taken a horse and carriage ride. The girls had flipped out over the carousel, insisting on going around three times in a row. After that, they’d gotten frozen hot chocolates and chicken fingers at a favorite restaurant on the Upper East Side.