Page 26
The truth is, if they did trade me… I don’t know where that leaves me.
I've finally got something worth sticking around for, something that makes getting out of bed each day about more than just hockey.
But what if she doesn’t come with me? If I was traded, I would never ask her to give up her bookshop. Or the café if she wins the contest next week.
Shit.
What if I am traded and this mountain weekend turns into a goodbye I didn’t see coming?
The cabin door creaks, and Emma’s back, holding up a plastic bag of marshmallows in triumph. “Found them!”
Cole woops as she drops down beside me, legs tucked under her as she slides me a skewer.
We eat together by the fire, passing foil-wrapped fish and paper plates. Our beer bottles clink as laughter grows louder than the echoes in the distant treeline.
Eventually, the firelight flickers over Emma’s cheeks so brightly I look up at the night sky which has quickly changed to pitch black darkness.
And for the first time in a long time, I let myself lean back, and just… stare at it. I let myself feel the warmth of the flames, the peace of chit chat with my brothers.
Maybe… this could be more than just a break from reality.
Maybe this is reality.
The kind I want.
The kind that includes her.
A few logs collapse into embers, sending a soft crackle through the clearing. The fire’s burned low now, just glowing orange coals and the faint scent of charred pine.
Emma’s tucked against my chest, her legs pulled over mine. The wool blanket draped across us smells like campfire smoke, and her fingers are moving slowly over my chest.
Nate’s still sitting across from us, nursing the last of his beer, while Cole spins another story about the time he supposedly caught a fish “the size of a car bumper” on a piece of string and a stale granola bar.
Emma laughs, soft and easy, and I swear I feel the sound settle somewhere deep in my chest.
Eventually, Nate rises with a quiet grunt, stretching out his back.
“Well,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m turning in before Cole starts exaggerating the bear story again.”
“I did see a bear,” Cole insists, already yawning.
“On a cereal box, maybe,” Nate mutters on his way down the hall, giving me a subtle look as he passes. One I’ve seen before. Soft approval and a quiet warning.
He sees everything, always has.
Cole follows a minute later, clapping me on the shoulder.
“Try not to wake the wildlife,” he whispers with a wink, then disappears into the cabin.
And just like that, the world is quiet.
Perfectly quiet.
Emma shifts in my arms, lifting her head to meet my eyes. The fire casts light across her cheeks, and for a second, all I can do is stare.
She brushes a piece of hair back from my forehead, her smile soft.
“You’re really happy here, aren’t you?”
I swallow, my voice low. “I am, yeah. But only because you’re here.”
Her expression softens even more, that teasing gleam still sparking in her eyes. “Big, tough hockey player getting soft on me?”
I lean in and kiss her slow, letting it sink deep—past my chest, into the place that’s been hollow for way too long.
“You’re worth it.”
She kisses me back, and then we’re rising up together, hands still linked, moving into the quiet stillness of the cabin.
The bedroom is small. The kind of small where there’s only enough room for the bed and two people who want to be close. Faint darkness and shadows dance across the walls as we slip beneath the quilt, bare skin brushing bare skin.
I wrap my arms around her, pulling her in close, letting the sweet smell of one too many marshmallows she's consumed tonight fill all the empty places I didn’t realize were still there.
“This place,” I murmur against her neck, “it always used to feel too quiet. Not anymore.”
She hums, pressing her lips to my jaw, and I feel her leg slide over mine, the soft friction making my breath hitch.
My hand slides down her back, across the curve of her ass, pulling her against me. My cock’s already hard, pressing between her thighs, and when she shifts to meet me, I sink into her warm entrance slow.
Her heat wraps around me as the old bed creaks. We move together in the dark, the kind of rhythm that doesn't rush. No urgency. No game. Just a deep, unspoken need to be here. With each other.
She moans my name with a whisper. Like it’s safe.
And I think— I really could give it all up for this.
We keep moving, until I feel her clench around me, her body arching into mine as she comes, her moans smothered by the pillows so my brothers don't hear.
I follow right after, pressing my face into her neck, groaning low and rough as I spill deep inside her, holding her like I never want to let go.
We lie there afterward, tangled in sheets and each other. Her fingers trace along my ribs. I kiss the top of her head.
She shifts to look at me, lids heavy. “You okay?”
I nod, but there’s a knot in my chest I can’t quite swallow down.
Even up here, miles away, I know that in Iron Ridge, the trade rumors still linger. Like frost that hasn’t quite melted yet.
And worse… I haven’t told her. I should tell her.
But not tonight.
Not while she’s warm and smiling and curled up in my arms like she’s mine .
Not while this moment still feels untouched.
“I’m perfect,” I whisper, pulling her in tighter. “Now go to sleep, gorgeous.”
She falls asleep before I do, her breath even and slow against my chest.
And I lie there for a long time, staring at the shadows on the cabin ceiling, holding her like she’s the only real thing I’ve ever had.
Because if this is the last quiet night I get before the season, before decisions, before the noise… I’m going to remember exactly what it felt like to choose something more.
Table of Contents
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- Page 26 (Reading here)
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