Page 83 of Top Shelf

“That’s what everyone else said.” He darted a look over his shoulder at me. “Not those same words. But some of them.”

“No one blames you.”

“They said that too.”

Licking my lips, I asked, “Would now be a bad time to ask you a very important question that has nothing to do with hockey or this game? Because it can wait. But…but I had a plan.”

“A surprise?”

“I know you hate them.”

“I do.” He took a breath and lifted his leg over the bench, adjusting himself so he was straddling it, facing me. “What do you want to ask me?”

I reached into my pocket and closed my hand around the mouse. “I can’t do this the way I wanted to. The way it should be done. My body won’t move that way anymore. So I hope you don’t mind if I can’t get down on one knee.”

He swallowed heavily.

Pulling the mouse out of my pocket, I opened my hand, leaving it resting in the center of my palm. It was three different colors of yarn with stubby arms and mismatched ears. And there was a little pocket like a kangaroo. Poking out of the top was a gold band.

He blinked rapidly.

“I’m not going to make a speech. I tried, but everything I wrote down sounded ridiculous. I’m only sappy right after we fuck, and that seemed like the wrong moment to ask you to marry me.”

He looked up at me, and I could see that while he wasn’t crying, his eyes were a little watery. “Oh.”

“So I’m going to ask now, right after a shitty loss, because apparently, I have crap timing.”

“Okay,” he whispered.

I realized he was most definitely going to make me say all the words, and I almost laughed because that was so him. And I fucking loved him for it. “You are the love of my life, and I never want to spend it with anyone else. So, will you marry me?”

“When?”

Shit. I was not prepared to answer that. But the words came easily. “Whenever you want. You get to pick.”

“Tomorrow.”

I laughed hard and shook my head. “I think we need more time than that. We have to get a license and file it, and?—”

“We can start tomorrow,” he said, cutting me off. Then he put his hand over the mouse and leaned in and kissed me for everything I was worth. And then a bit more than that.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes.” Easing back, he took the ring out of the mouse’s pocket and slipped it onto his left hand. I had no words for how it made me feel to see it there. Subtle, small, thin, and exactly him.

Exactly us.

“Did you make this?” he asked, picking up the mouse and turning it in his hands.

I was still staring at the ring, but I managed a nod. “Yeah. I bought a kit and followed a pattern.”

“It’s terrible.” His eyes darted up to meet mine. “No offense.”

My stomach hurt from holding in the laugh I wanted to let out. “Not offended. This is definitely not one of my talents.”

He slipped it into his pocket. “I love it anyway. I love you. And you want to marry me.”

“Yeah. I really,reallywant to marry you.”

He shifted forward, closer, then closer. Then he was on my lap with his legs resting on top of mine. The weight of him was the most reassuring thing I had ever felt in my life.

“I really want to marry you too.”

And then he sealed those seven words with a kiss.

Now that you’vefinished Ferris and Quinn, please hop over to check out Play With Me, by Cora Rose, to see how Colton and Myles stumble into a happily ever after.