by Kate Meader
“I know how to protect myself. How to fight. Not as much need for it now I’m no longer on the ice but I haven’t forgotten.” Back in his playing days, Dante was known as the Beast. He wasn’t always the one starting a fight but he sure knew how to end one. He also knew how to fight for what he loved.
This was worth fighting for, and Cade had known it better than Dante did.
Lorenzo studied him. “You should have been a lawyer. Safer.”
“Debatable.”
“You’re happy?”
“With my job. With Cade.” But not with this ache he’d carried for so long.
His father considered this. “When your team won the Cup a few years ago, your mother was very pleased.”
Dante would take that as the nearest his father would get to complimenting his son. Besides, he’s already seen the Internet printout back at the restaurant.
“It was the highlight of my career. I hope it’s not the last time, but if it is, at least I have that.” Look at them, talking like normal human beings. He should take a turn. “I stopped by the restaurant this morning. I like the new bar and all the other improvements.”
“There have been some changes.” He shrugged. “Adapt to survive as you say.”
Dante wouldn’t call it a breakthrough, more like a fissure that might widen with the application of a little emotional elbow grease.
Allie walked in and unsubtly started at seeing her father and brother sitting side by side on the bed. “Everything okay?” Her voice sounded higher than normal.
Lorenzo stood with some effort. “Have you spoken to everyone out there behind my back?”
“Sure, Papa, all everyone wants to do at this hospital is talk about you. I’ve got your meds and discharge instructions. You ready to be pampered like the divo you are?”
His father waved a hand of annoyance and turned to Dante. “Will you at least stop for coffee and biscotti before you leave?” And just in case Dante got any ideas that peace reigned throughout the land of Moretti, he added, “Your mother would like it.”
Allie’s lips twitched.
“Sure, Papa, I can visit a little longer.” He picked up his father’s jacket and helped him into it.
Chapter Eight
Cade was not in the mood to socialize but Erik, the Rebels goalie, had convinced him to hang with a few of their teammates at the Empty Net in Riverbrook, just north of Chicago. Dante was catching a flight tomorrow morning from New York so this seemed as good a way as any to distract himself.
Since he and Dante had coupled up three years ago, they’d never spent a night apart—until now. Two nights without Dante in his bed, two mornings without waking wrapped in his arms, was hell. More than that, it was foreboding. The universe was telling him: get used to this, Burnett. Your nights and mornings will be empty very soon.
Their recent conversations and texts had understandably centered on Dante’s father’s health. Getting whiny about his future wouldn’t be very supportive on Cade’s part.
He headed to the bar to get the first round in. Theo Kershaw, recently nicknamed the rather hilarious “Superglutes” because of his overdeveloped ass muscles (Kershaw’s words), was chatting with the new-ish bartender, Elle.
“Gadget repair?” Theo was saying.
“Nope.”
“Parachute quality testing?”
Elle shook her head while she pulled on the draft beer tap.
“Oh, I know! You used to buy all the wigs and disguises they used.”
Elle spotted Cade. “Save me?”
Cade laughed for what felt like the first time in days. “From Kershaw?”
Theo squinted at him. “I’m trying to learn more about my local bartender.”
“Middle school assignment?”
Elle chuckled and placed a pint on the bar.
Kershaw said to Cade, “She was in Special Forces support with Hunt, so I’m trying to figure out what exactly that means.”
Right. Elle was a former army colleague of Levi Hunt’s, the Rebels’ most recent rookie, who in another lifetime was a Green Beret.
“Gadgets and wigs?” Cade eyed Theo. “You do know that Special Forces is not the same as James Bond?”
“Isn’t it, though?” Theo thumbed at Elle. “She gives off this international woman of mystery vibe. I’m softening her up with easy questions before I attempt a deeper dive.”
Cade had to give it to Kershaw. No such thing as still waters with him. Everything was on the table.
“You just told her your entire strategy.”
Theo grinned. “Did I? Or is that part of the strategy?”
“Kershaw, thank Christ you’re pretty and a decent D-man because your pick-up game is astonishingly lacking.”
Elle looked taken aback. “Pick-up? Uh, no, that’s not what he’s doing. Is it?”
Theo waggled his eyebrows. “And if it was?”
Somewhat flustered, Elle put another pint up on the bar. “Ha, ha, hilarious, Kershaw. Cade, what can I get you?”
“Fat Tire for me, White Russian for Erik”—he spotted Levi Hunt coming in and gave him the universal sign of drink incoming—“and a Heineken for Hunt. Put it on Kershaw’s tab because he needs to be punished for making me listen to whatever the hell that was.”
“Hey! Just because I come at a problem differently to you, Alamo.”
“Elle’s a problem now?”
Theo shook his head and took his drinks. “Not cool, dude.”
Cade smiled, glad of the brief reprieve from his thoughts. Dodge and veer. That’s what his brain had been doing the last few days so he wouldn’t think about the hole he and Dante had fallen into.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he checked the screen. It was from Dante.
Got an earlier flight. Can you come home?
Home. Yes. And if that meant changing the physical location of home so his heart’s home remained the same, then so be it.
Cade opened the front door. The house, shrouded in darkness, felt alive with potential.
“Hello?”
“I’m up here,” Dante called out. Just the sound of his voice put an extra bounce in Cade’s step. He took the stairs two at a time.
He reached the master bedroom, a soft glow welcoming him in. Lit candles stood on the dresser and the nightstand. Dante looked up from unpacking his suitcase, his expression drained.
“Hey,” Cade said. “How was your flight?”
“Uneventful. I took an earlier one because I needed to see you.”
Cade’s throat burned, emotion gelling into a lump. He hadn’t realized how scared he was until Dante admitted needing him.
“I missed you, too.” He closed the gap between them and took his guy into his arms. Their kiss was desperate, fierce with longing and need. “It feels like it’s been forever.”
“I know.” Dante cupped Cade’s jaw and touched their foreheads together.
“How’s your dad?”
“Better. We spoke, a real conversation. It’s not fixed, but it feels like a step. A first move.”
Cade smiled. “And he didn’t go ballistic when he saw you?”
“No, it seemed yours and Sofe’s reconciliation stunt warmed him up so seeing me in his hospital room wasn’t quite as shocking as it could have been. Maybe he was too weakened to fight back. It’ll take time.”
This was good. Cade wanted Dante to be happy in all things—with his family, his career, and his personal life. But mostly, he wanted to be included in that happiness.
“We need to talk.”
Dante nodded to the dresser. “Why do you think I opened a bottle of wine?”
One of Cade’s favorites, a Cab Sauv with a picture of a witch on a broomstick, was breathing on the dresser. “Remember when I showed up with that punk-ass bottle the first night I came over for dinner?”
“The pig’s tail label on pig swill wine. A classic in seduction.”
“Hey, you said it was good.”
Dante’s smile was wry
. “I lied. You were so nervous and trying so hard.”
“I was. I had such a crush on you and you were Mr. Sophisticated with your opera and sharp suits and pocket watch. I was a complete novice at everything.”
“But you were brave. You sought me out and made the first move. Just knowing you’d done that blew me away.” He poured the wine into two glasses and handed one off to Cade. “To brave moves.”
“Brave moves,” Cade whispered, clinked, and sipped.
Dante sat down on the bed. “Harper has offered me a three-year contract.”
Cade swallowed. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. But I need to add a contingency.”
“Okay.”
“About you.”
Cade’s head snapped back. “What—they are trading me out?”
“No. Or at least not yet, but we have to start thinking about what would happen if they did. If they hadn’t offered to extend my contract, I would be out of a job and we’d be thinking about a possible separation sooner.”
“We’ve always known this. If one of us has to leave Chicago, we’d assess.” They’d examine the pros and cons, take a look at the ledger of their lives together and decide if the credits outweighed the debits.
“Well, now the time has come to figure it out, Cade. I’ve agreed to sign on for three more years but if you’re traded out, they have to release me. Assuming that’s what you want.”
“Assuming that’s what I want? You’re asking if I’m okay with having you lose your dream job on my conscience.”
Dante curled his pinky around Cade’s and drew him to the bed. “Sit with me.”
Cade sat but his mind couldn’t stay still. “You won’t be able to find a GM position in whatever city I end up in. They don’t grow on trees.” With his thoughts whirring, he quickly shifted to bargaining. “Maybe I won’t get traded.”
“Maybe. But it’ll always be over our heads. We need to have a plan in place.”
“And this plan is for you to quit your job?”
“Cade, what did you think was going to happen? We’ve been together for over three years. This is it for me. There is no one else. We’ve been holding back on a full commitment while we waited to see how our careers would pan out. This contract renewal is the first test of where we stand.”
Cade stood. “And you’d give up your job, just like that?”
Dante smiled up at him, like Cade was an idiot for even thinking otherwise. “Yes.”
As simple as that.
Cade took a gulp of wine.
Dante watched him. “The alternative is that we plod along waiting for forces outside our control to scatter us to separate cities. We wait for this to die. I don’t want to live like that, Cade. I’m guessing that’s why you tried to fix things between me and my dad. Because you assumed neither of us would compromise and that might cushion the blow. Fix that broken part of my life before the other falls apart.”
“You did it for me. I wanted to make it right for you, Dante. I wanted to plug that gap in your heart.”
“You do that. Every day. And no matter what happens, I want us to continue doing that for each other.” Dante put his wine glass on the nightstand and extracted something from under the pillow. “I’ve had this for a while. A couple of years, actually. Whenever the trade deadline would pass, I’d say ‘now’s the time, we’re safe for another year.’ But until I could come to grips with what was most important, I couldn’t bring myself to lock you down like this.”
He opened a box and displayed a platinum band.
“Marry me, polpetto.”
A ring. Dante had bought him a ring. Yet Cade’s brain could only see the obstacles. “Before anything is settled? Before we know where we’ll be in six months?”
“Does it matter?”
Does it mat—? And in that glittering moment of panic as the words embedded in his consciousness, a strange calm unfurled in his chest. Dante was right: it didn’t matter. If necessary, this beautiful, generous man would give up his career to follow Cade. He liked to think he’d do the same but as well as being a decision borne of love, it was also practical. Cade made more money. Players earned their multi-million dollar salaries and then some.
But this wasn’t only about money. This was about careers they loved, lives they’d built, a love everlasting.
“You could say something,” Dante said. “Anything.”
“I’m still trying to process the fact you’d give up your job and go with me wherever I land.”
“Except for Tampa. I can’t do that weather.” He smiled. “You’re twelve years younger than me. You have your entire career in front of you. I only had five years on the ice and God I wished I’d had more, but I’ve created something out of the ashes with a second career. And if you’re traded, I’ll figure it out. With you.”
“I want kids,” Cade blurted out.
Dante’s eyebrow hitched. “Do you now?”
“I’ve wanted them since the beginning but when we couldn’t plan, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense bringing it up. We could wait to see if I’m traded—”
“Or we could go all in and start a family as soon as possible.”
Cade’s mind spun with this new data point. “But if I’m not traded and you’re still the GM of the Rebels, how the hell do we manage a kid?”
“Maybe I’ll become a stay at home dad sooner. Remy does it. Bren, too. My next big adventure. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. As long as we communicate and are open about our needs.”
Cade reached for his guy and cupped that strong lantern jaw. Marriage. Kids. Forever. “I thought this was the beginning of the end. I never expected this. How are you still surprising me?”
Dante took Cade’s hand and kissed his wrist, right over the thumping pulse point. Then his lips found Cade’s and turned him into a jellied mess. “I’ll ask again. Marry me.”
“Sounds like an order.” And Cade loved a sexily-delivered order from his hot-as-Hades boss.
“Goddammit, could you give me an answer? Do you think I offer my hand in marriage to handsome hockey hunks every day?”
Cade laughed at Dante’s irritation. “Okay, okay, I’ll marry you, if only to calm you the hell down. Let me see this ring.”
He extracted it from the velvet bed and turned it over, enjoying how it glowed in the candlelight. “There’s an inscription on the inside. Oh.”
Vivere senza rimpianti. Live life with no regrets.
It was Dante’s motto, the words inscribed on his grandfather’s pocket watch, which he gave to Dante on his deathbed. Words that signified bold steps toward a happy future, the one you chose instead of waiting for the universe to take the reins.
This was happening.
Three years after he’d made a move on Dante Moretti, three years after he’d decided to blow up his down low life and show the world who he was, Cade would finally get a chance to put a ring on it.
“We’re doing this.” Cade looked at the ring again, then up at Dante. “When are we doing this?”
Dante’s gorgeous smile told him that he had a plan for that, too.
Chapter Nine
The halls of Chase Manor, home of Harper, Remy, and their female brood (so much estrogen, as Remy oft observed) were decked with boughs of holly and shimmering garlands for the annual Rebels holiday party. They had much to celebrate. After a rocky start to the season, the team had evened out, and were now playing with a lot more confidence. Harper was fond of saying “Men in love play better,” though Cade would have liked to add that “men without the sword of imminent trade hanging over their heads will usually give it their all as well.”
He didn’t think Harper would appreciate that.
But today was more than just a seasonal shindig. Cade turned to his father, who looked mighty dapper in a suit.
“Thanks for being here, Dad. I know Chicago in December isn’t so great on those old bones of yours.”
Tucker Burnett shook his head. “Still
a cheeky kicker, even today.”
“Just nervous.”
“That guy is crazy about you. Knew it the minute he showed up in San Antone to tell me what a horse’s ass I was.” His dad fiddled with Cade’s tie. “I wish your mom was here to see this.”
“Really?” Cade’s mom had died when he was twelve, but not before expressing concern about Cade’s sexuality. It was a weight Cade had carried with him for much of his life.
Tucker nodded. “I like to think she’d have understood when she saw how happy you are. I’m so proud of you, son, and I know she would be, too.”
Cade gathered his father in a hug and sent up a prayer of thanks for having the best dad in the world.
Violet put her head around the door to Harper’s home office where Cade was waiting on the balls of his feet. “You ready, mi amor?”
As he’d ever be.
His father went out to take a seat while Violet put her arm through Cade’s. “Thanks for everything, Vi. I can’t believe you were able to turn this around so quickly.”
“Hey, thank Harper. She hates that she loves you so much. It’s a real drag on her Cruella de Vil image.”
He laughed but cut off at the sight of a tower of magnificent Italian manhood loitering with sexy intent outside Harper and Remy’s living room. While Dante’s family was here on the other side of the double doors—including his parents—it was too early in their reconciliation to ask for a traditional walk down the aisle. Dante and Cade had decided to walk in together. Having relied on each other since they’d met, they’d rely on each other for this as well.
“See you inside, hermano.” Violet kissed his cheek, whispered something in Dante’s ear that made him scowl sexily—they had a frenemies thing going on—and slipped away.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Dante said.
“Want to make a run for it?”
That made Dante laugh. He approached and coasted a hand down the lapel of Cade’s tux, then slipped that same hand over Cade’s thundering heart.