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BLAKELY

“I’m sorry,” I mutter, embarrassed beyond belief at this entire situation.

Jamie smooths his hand over my knee and glances at me over the centre console. “I don’t want you to be sorry.”

“I should have done things differently.”

“What would you have changed?”

Heaving a sigh, I rub at my forehead. We’ve finally gotten out of traffic, but we’re still too far from home. I hate not being closer to him. Our conversation feels too important to be having it in the car. I need to be outside. Somewhere we can be face to face.

“Can you pull over somewhere?” I ask.

“Yes.”

His spot of choice is the front of an empty, abandoned Taco Bell parking lot. The boarded-up windows and peeling sign form a perfect backdrop behind his luxury SUV. I’d laugh if I had it in me.

Once we’ve parked, I rush outside and suck in a long breath. My heart races with the unknown of what’s going to happen, but I try and steady myself with the reminder of what he said to me in front of my mother.

My love doesn’t come with strings. There are no conditions in this relationship. I want to be your safe place, the person you know won’t ever run, no matter what.

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted and needed to hear from someone. And for him to say it so openly and confidently? There isn’t a man alive who could compare to him.

“I love you, Bandit. In case you somehow forgot in the past few minutes that we’ve been driving,” he teases, rounding the hood to stand in front of me.

His expression is open and honest. So very Jamie-like that it grounds me.

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good. Myself, on the other hand, I think I need to be reminded how you feel.”

A soft laugh escapes me. “You’re that needy, huh?”

“The neediest. I’m outright desperate when it comes to you,” he coos, gliding a hand down my arm.

His fingers are warm and strong as they curl around my elbow and guide me forward until we’re standing toe to toe. He takes my hand and brings it to rest against his chest, twirling my wedding ring.

I stare down at where we touch, almost in disbelief. “I love you, Jamie. So much that it doesn’t feel like it should be possible.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was waiting for,” he murmurs, eyes twinkling.

“Was it worth it?”

“Worth what? Every day I’ve spent with you? Because if that’s what you’re asking, then abso-fucking-lutely.”

My face heats as I flex my fingers against his chest. “How did you know where I was?”

“I followed my gut.”

“Is Nate okay?”

“He’s just fine. Studying like a little brainiac at school,” he soothes.

I nod, swaying forward. “There’s a lot to tell you. ”

“I’ve got all day.”

“Are you planning on skipping practice, then, Pretty Boy?”

“I was hoping you’d just forget about that, actually.”

“Kind of hard to when I work with you.”

He dips his head and drawls, “We could play hooky together.”

With a quirk of my brow, I push forward on my toes and tease a kiss over his lips. He tries to chase me when I pull back, but I wink and fall to my heels before he can make contact.

“Not happening.”

With a pout, he drags a knuckle along the edge of my jaw. “Fine. You better get talking, then.”

“No pressure,” I mutter.

He shakes his head and kisses the back of my hand, drifting them over the rock on my finger.

“It’s just us, Bandit. You can talk to me.”

Holding his gaze, I grab onto the affection and support he’s offering and let it lead me.

“You saw my mom at the game. She watched the interview video of us and after some research figured that I’d finally be of some use to her. She brought up money then and tried threatening me with Nate. I should have known that she wasn’t serious about taking him from me, considering she abandoned him in the first place, but I let it get to me. Then, she showed up at the stadium yesterday. It was the same thing. She needed money for her backlogged rent, and when she kept threatening me with Nate . . . I snapped. It just exploded out of my mouth before I could stop it. I told her our marriage wasn’t real, and she took it and ran.”

If I could go back and change one thing, it would be not letting her affect me to the point of blurting out the truth. It was exactly what she was looking for. A bloody steak held above a starving lion.

Regret shackles me, shame chasing its coattails.

“It doesn’t matter what she does with that information. Anyone who believes what she says will only do so because they already believe exactly what she’ll be preaching. It won’t change anything,” Jamie swears.

“It didn’t feel like that before. I was scared Graham would find out, and yeah, he could have sued me for breaking the NDA, but I would have dealt with that. What I couldn’t have dealt with is you being punished because of me. Not only with the team but the fans, and then your parents! They would have been so hurt, and I know how much they mean to you. I’d have preferred they just hated me for taking your money instead.”

“I want to make something very clear to you,” he states, creating an anchor between us with his hold on my hand. “You are more important to me than football. If you had taken money from me to pay off your mom, there wouldn’t have been a chance in hell that I would have considered not having you in my life. I know why you contemplated making that choice, and I love you even more for it. I’m aware of all your quirks and personality traits. From your fierce heart, protective nature, and inability to put yourself first in any situation, I know and accept them all. I’m not surprised that your first instinct was to put my career and my family first. But that’s going to stop right here, right now.”

He takes a step back before lowering himself to one knee in the dirty parking lot, keeping our hands together.

I gasp, eyes burning with tears. The setting around us doesn’t match the beauty of the moment, but . . . I think that might make it even more beautiful.

“I don’t need money or a successful football career as long as I have you and Nate. You’re my family, Bandit. The only two people I see and need in a crowded stadium where tens of thousands of people are watching. I love our quiet nights at home after a home-cooked meal when you pretend to be awake enough to watch a movie but fall asleep five minutes in. I love waking up before you every morning and taking my time looking at how beautiful you are while slipping my pillow beneath your arm because you sleep better holding something. I love the way you still try to pretend that my flirting doesn’t affect you when we both know that your pink cheeks don’t lie.

“And I really, really love sitting in the hard bleachers beside you watching Nate play ball, knowing that you worked your ass off to make sure that he could do what he loves. That’s just who you are. The woman who’s going to make sure everyone you care about is happy and taken care of before sitting down and checking in on yourself. You have no idea how special you are, Blakely, and I’m going to spend the rest of forever telling you and proving that I’m here to take care of you when you forget to. So, I want to do this for real this time.”

Here, in an abandoned parking lot in the middle of nowhere Vancouver, with tears streaming down my face and splattering on the filthy pavement, Jamie slips my ring off and holds it in the space between us.

“There isn’t anything I want more than to have you be my wife, Blakely. Will you marry me?”

I reach out and palm his cheeks, my thumbs tracing the shape of his lips, nose, and jaw. His stare doesn’t stray from where it’s become locked on mine. Every second that passes between us is another that I repeat every single one of his words in my mind, trying to form a few of my own.

“I never considered myself a damsel in distress. The only man I needed in my life was Nate, and I thought I was content with that. It turns out that I was wrong.

“I didn’t need a miracle to wake me up from the slumbered life I’d found myself in. Instead, all I needed to find was you and the love that you’ve offered me but also that you’ve evoked from inside of me. You showed me parts of myself that I had forgotten existed, and with every door you helped yank open, you slipped through and made a home for yourself. It only took you a handful of weeks to convince the woman who thought she was content being alone forever that she could have everything she’s ever wanted and then some without losing herself in the process. I fell in love with your devious smirks, sunray personality, and the heart that you hang on your sleeve with pride. You’re the most incredible man I’ve ever known and will ever meet. So, fuck yeah, I’ll marry you, husband.”

He pounces off the pavement and bulldozes into me. I squeal as he picks me clean off my feet and spins me in a circle.

“You have no idea how happy I am right now,” he murmurs in my ear.

“Actually, I think I do.”

When my feet touch the ground again, I’m quick to grab him by the shirt and drag him toward me before planting a hard kiss on his mouth. He grins against my lips, and I copy him. Our kiss is sloppy, our teeth clacking and hands wandering frantically, and it’s perfect.

The cool band of my ring slides back on my finger when I bring my hand to his neck and hold him, loving every thump of his pulse against my palm.

“Will you marry me again, this time in front of my entire family? Our family?” he asks, tucking my hair behind my ear.

I lean against his body, resting my face in the hollow of his throat as my stomach soars. “You want a redo?”

“Not a full redo. Just something for us. Not for the team, or Graham, but you and me and the people who love us. The wedding I wish I could have given you in the first place.”

“You just want a chance to have a reception this time so you can show off your dance moves,” I tease, grinning into his skin.

“Well, that, and as much as I loved our kitchen first dance, I want to give you more than that. Another memory for us to hold forever.”

“I would love to marry you again, Jamie.”

He releases a heavy breath and folds me into his chest. “Thank God.”

“As if you thought I’d say no.”

“Hey, a man can’t ever be too confident.”

“Coming from you. ”

“Don’t start a war that you’re not prepared to finish, baby,” he warns lightly, dropping a hand to grab my ass.

“It never works properly in a vehicle, Jamie.”

A smirk is so obvious in his voice he might as well be staring down at me with one right now. “What never works?”

“You’re too big for car sex, and you know it.”

“This sounds like the perfect chance to test that theory. We have yet to try in the back seat, isn’t that right, wife?”

With an exaggerated sigh, I bite back a smile and ask, “What do I get if I’m right?”

“Anything.”

“Then yeah, I think I could entertain you for a bit, husband.”