Game Plan

by Camellia Tate

  Somehow, Ashley had half-expected him to just ask her to move in with him. She would have said no, it was too soon. That just made her even more pleased. Connor must have expected that to be her answer and therefore not asked. Taking it slow wasn’t his strong suit and yet he was trying for Ashley.

  “I love it,” she announced with a wide smile, turning to kiss Connor. “It’s an excellent surprise.” The way he smiled back was almost as great.

  He wrapped his arm around her again, kissing her for a long moment before he pulled back. “That’s why I’m so glad you like coming home to me,” he explained, “because now you can leave some clothes here, and you can do it more often. Not always ,” he hastened to explain. “I know sometimes we’ll go to your place, and sometimes you’ll go to your place without me.” He did give a little pout at that, but Ashley could tell it was teasing.

  “I thought it would make things easier. And I like the idea of you hanging things in my closet. It feels… long-term.” His eyes scanned Ashley’s face, still smiling at her. “You really like it?”

  “It’s also more efficient,” she teased. There were still times when Ashley worried that her planning of things, or the way she wanted things to be in a particular order, might be off-putting. But most days, she truly believed that Connor didn’t mind. He did a lot to show her how not only he didn’t mind but he appreciated the way she was.

  And yeah, she really, really did like it. “I love it,” she promised Connor. Giving Connor a wide smile, Ashley tiptoed to press another kiss against his lips. “I love you.” She really, really did. “And I love that you want this to feel long-term.”

  “Such a lot of things you love,” Connor teased, but he was beaming. It really made Ashley appreciate how easily it came to her to make Connor happy. “Maisy said I should buy you fancy scented coat-hangers,” Connor told her dubiously, “but I think she was joking.”

  More seriously, he added, “I love you, so of course I want this to be long-term. You make everything better.” He sounded so sincere, and he pulled Ashley close against his chest, like he still worried that he might lose her. “I always want you to be in my life,” he said.

  If possible, Ashley’s smile widened even more. It was a fantastic realization to know that she believed him. Connor meant it, both that he loved her and that he wanted to always have her in his life. But more than that, Ashley knew he also wanted them both happy and was willing to work for that happiness.

  Soulmates might still be something that Ashley didn’t fully trust, but what she was very quickly learning was that being with Connor wasn’t about having a soulmark that matched his. If they were soulmates, it was because they were good for each other. Sure, their names matched, but it didn’t have to define them.

  Getting over the fear that somehow Ashley was obliged to pick Connor was easy when she wanted to pick him. They’d make it work. They’d been a great fake couple, and they made an even better real couple.

  Fake soulmates or not, Ashley didn’t think it mattered.

  Not for as long as they could be happy .

  Epilogue

  By the time the press conference had been going for nearly fifteen minutes, it had covered most of the actually hockey-related questions. After that, the reporters had to start getting creative.

  “Connor, do you think your game has improved now that you have a soulmate?”

  Giving a startled laugh, Connor paused to think. As much as he loved Ashley, and he did, he didn’t think she would say that she’d improved his performance on the ice. He remembered what she’d said to him all those months ago about people wanting to believe that celebrities lived a charmed life. In many ways, Connor felt as if he did . It wasn’t difficult to give an answer he thought people would like to hear.

  “Everything about my life has improved now that I’m with Ashley,” he said, and then grinned. “She doesn’t give me tips on my game - I had to teach her the rules of hockey when we started dating.” That got a laugh. Connor waited until it had quietened. “She makes me happier, and that means I sleep better, and I eat better, and I have less stress in my life. All of that makes a difference to my performance, in training and out of it.”

  Connor could see people nodding. He knew Ashley was nearby, listening. Connor didn’t seek her out. He was better at handling the press now, thanks to Ashley’s advice, but he always got distracted when she was in his line of sight. Sometimes he got impatient for the questions to be over so he could take her home.

  “What’s it like when you have to travel for away games? Do you mind having to leave your soulmate behind?”

  Connor did mind, but there was no help for it. He and Ashley had talked about how it wouldn’t really be good for anybody if she traveled with the team.

  “I’m just glad we live in an age of technology,” Connor joked. There was certainly truth to it, too. “I text her a lot, especially if we’re on the road. And we make good use of FaceTime.” His eyes briefly strayed, but he forced himself not to search for Ashley in the crowd. “It’s not as good as being together in person, but it’s a lot better than not talking to her at all.”

  It gave Connor a pang of regret, thinking about how he’d once dismissed phone calls and FaceTime as not good enough to keep their relationship alive. It always ached, to think of how much he’d hurt Ashley. The pain seemed to get weaker the further away from it they moved. In a way, Connor wouldn’t want it to stop hurting completely, because he never wanted to make the same mistakes again. It was a reminder, and one that he valued, even if he didn’t enjoy it.

  “I miss her,” he carried on, “but when I’m on the ice, it’s easy just to focus on the game, on my teammates, and what we’re there to do. I don’t think anyone would say that I’m unfocused.” He gave another grin. “She’d be the first to tell me off if I was. She’s my best support, and of course she wants me to do well.”

  The questions moved on, and Connor let his attention wander as Nilssy answered questions about their strategy for the upcoming games.

  Finally, he was allowed to leave the podium. He bounded past the gathered reporters to find Ashley.

  “How did I do?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her cheek. “Are you proud?”

  Ashley’s first response was a laugh, but she nodded soon after. “You did excellently,” she promised, making Connor beam at her with satisfaction. “I doubt I’d be the first to tell you off. Maybe more like fifth.” It was true that she’d have to get in line behind Coach, Nilssy and at least a few of the other guys on the team. It didn’t really feel like a negative, though, to have so many people Connor could trust to be fair and honest with him.

  After a moment’s thought, he shook his head. “I still think you’d be first,” he decided. “You’d notice first, even if you weren’t there. You’d be able to tell that my head wasn’t in the game. You’d say something to get me to concentrate.” If Connor wasn’t focusing on a game, it was true that the Howlers would get at him first. He honestly believed that Ashley would be able to tell long before it got to that point.

  “You wouldn’t really tell me off, though,” he said. “At least, I don’t think it would feel like telling off, not if I was distracted because I was missing you.” Ashley was too sensitive for that and would find some nicer way of getting Connor to focus on hockey first.

  “I wouldn’t tell you off if you were missing me,” Ashley agreed. “But I also have no plans to let you miss me.” As the summer was quickly approaching, the two of them were making plans for how they could avoid missing each other. Or, well, mostly it was Ashley making plans. Connor just enjoyed that he didn’t have to worry about anything. It was a pretty nice state of being.

  “Your mom’s been texting me about how excited she is that we’re coming over,” Ashley said almost as if she could read Connor’s mind. (She couldn’t, but sometimes he really did wonder).

  He beamed. “I like that she texts you rather than me,” he teased, putting on hi
s best pout. He knew, without either of them having to say so, that both Ashley and his mom were making an effort to reach out to each other. It settled a warm glow in his stomach to know it was because of how much they cared about him.

  “She texts me because I’m more reliable to actually arrange something,” Ashley pointed out. Really, Connor couldn’t object to that. Ashley was very good at planning things and Connor saw absolutely no reason to interfere.

  “You’re going to get on like a house on fire,” Connor promised. He’d never got the sense Ashley was really nervous about meeting his mom, but she would hardly object to hearing, again, how confident Connor was that it would go well.

  Ashley grinned. She clearly agreed because there was no attempt to suggest she wouldn’t . “And then the week after we’re going to visit my parents,” she said a little teasingly. It would be the first time Connor would meet Ashley’s mom and dad, too. He felt more nervous about that than Ashley did about meeting his mom.

  “They’ll like you,” she promised. Again, Connor was sure she could just read his mind. “I can’t read your mind, we’ve talked about this. It’s just that your facial expressions give literally everything away,” Ashley argued doing nothing for the cause.

  “My dad’s been learning hockey rules.”

  That made Connor give a startled laugh. “I think that makes me more nervous, not less,” he playfully complained. His stomach filled with excited, if somewhat nervous, butterflies at the idea that Ashley’s dad had gone out of his way to have something that they could talk about.

  Connor wanted to meet them. Ashley had reassured him a number of times that they wouldn’t think less of him for his soulmark matching Ashley’s name, so he was mostly nervous about making a good impression.

  “Did you tell him I can only talk about hockey?” he asked. Connor didn’t think it was true . He did talk about hockey a lot, so maybe he wasn’t a great judge.

  “No,” Ashley laughed. “I told him you can also talk to him about all the history documentaries he loves watching,” she teased.

  There were quite a few nights that Ashley and Connor had spent cuddled together on a couch watching documentaries. It was nice that this was something Connor could now share with someone. The idea that he might also be able to use it as a conversation topic with Ashley’s dad was kind of amusing.

  “I can try,” Connor agreed, “as long as he doesn’t mind reminding me of all the facts.” Having talked over documentaries with Ashley, Connor felt less self-conscious than he once had about all the things he didn’t remember. It helped to know there were things Ashley forgot, too.

  It struck Connor as he led the way outside that he was looking forward to the summer a lot more than he usually did. He always loved visiting his mom, and Maisy, but he usually missed the intensity of training with the team, not to mention spending time with Blake and Nilssy and the rest of the Howlers.

  “Are you sure you can handle a whole summer of me without half my attention being on hockey?” he asked Ashley. He was grinning as he said it.

  “I don’t know,” Ashley answered. It was striking how honest she was. Like, yes, maybe she couldn’t. “But I’m willing to try,” she teased. That set all of Connor’s nerves at ease. That was all they could ask from each other, to just try, and so far it was definitely working out well.

  “We’ll make it work,” Connor said, repeating Ashley’s own phrase back at her. He hadn’t always been so sure. The better they got to know each other, and the more time they spent together, the more confident Connor was that they would .

  That, Connor thought, was what it really meant to be a soulmate. He and Ashley didn’t agree on everything, and their relationship hadn’t all been easy and perfect. If it had been, it wouldn’t have felt real . What they had, a willingness to work together, and overcome challenges, was worth so much more.

  He linked his hand with Ashley’s, his arm brushing against hers. Though his soulmark was covered by his sleeve, Connor could imagine it reaching out invisibly to where he could just see his name against Ashley’s skin.

  They’d always make it work, not just because their soulmarks matched, but because they loved each other, which was a hundred times more important.

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