“You’re so sweet to me,” I whispered, laying my hand on top of his. “You always know the right thing to say.”
Sam was glad to come home to me. I knew it deep in my bones. But even so, I’d worried a little about being the reason he retired early. What if he resented me?
Looking at the expression on his face, there was no room left for those worries in my heart. Sam was delighted to be home, amazed by the prospect of a family.
“It’s pizza for dinner, obviously,” I informed Sam. “Charlotte promised me that slow-cooker pizza is a thing. If it’s terrible, we’ll just order in.” Lunengrove might not have as many delivery food options as Salt Lake City, but there was good pizza right around the corner!
Sam looked at me about as skeptically as I had at Charlotte when informed about the existence of slow-cooker pizza. Still, like I said, the worst that would happen would be us ordering in.
“Well, I guess, I am all for taking risks with you,” he decided, making me laugh. Of all the different risks we had taken together, pizza in a slow-cooker seemed pretty mild. But since we’d managed to make a long-distance relationship work for seven years, we could probably make a slow-cooker pizza work. It would very much pale in comparison to our biggest challenge.
A challenge we would no longer face! This was it, this was Sam coming home to me forever.
“What are you smiling about?” Sam asked, nudging my foot with his.
Ignoring my misty eyes, I smiled. “Oh, everything! You being home, us starting a family, introducing our kid to pizza and hockey.” It felt like I was living inside a dream. There was only one way to make it better.
Reaching for my handbag, I tugged it up onto my lap. Sam raised an eyebrow, which I ignored as I rummaged through the contents.
It took a moment before my fingers curved around the smooth surface I was looking for.
Turning to Sam, I presented him with the hockey puck he’d given me all those years ago, the one still bearing the words ‘I promise to mary you, Helena Worth.’
My eyes twinkled as he realized what he was holding. “Is this still valid?”
From the way Sam’s eyes widened, I could tell that he hadn’t expected me to still have this. I couldn’t exactly blame him; it had been almost twenty years since he’d given the puck to me. His promise to marry me, especially with how he’d misspelled it, had always meant so much to me. Even after we’d broken up. And then especially so when we’d gotten back together.
Reaching for the puck, Sam slid his thumb over the writing. “I misspelled ‘marry’,” he observed. It startled a laugh from me. It had never occurred to me, in all these years, that Sam didn’t know he had misspelled it.
“I could buy you a ring,” he pointed out, looking up from the puck with a wide smile. “But yeah, if you wish to cash in your marriage puck, I would still very much like to marry you.”
Grinning, I leaned in to cover Sam’s mouth with mine. “Yes,” I confirmed, when I pulled back. “Yes, I would like to cash in my marriage puck. And yes, I would also like you to buy me a ring, please.”
Sam chuckled, making my smile widen even more. “I love the marriage puck. Obviously.” I wouldn’t have kept it for so many years if I didn’t love that this was the way Sam had proposed to me. But I was also traditional. I wanted a big wedding, and a proper engagement ring.
“After all, there’s no harm in having both.”
Reaching for Sam’s hand, I closed mine around it, feeling the hard puck between his fingers. “We can plan our own wedding,” I said softly. “Make Charlotte and Pat be our best man and maid of honor.”
“We sure can!” Sam nodded. “Wait here,” he told me, pulling his hand away from mine so he could get off the couch. He disappeared for a moment. I could hear him go upstairs. When he returned, Sam’s smile was so wide it seemed to cover his whole face.
“I’m glad you kept the puck,” he told me. “But I don’t want you to think that you had to cash it in,” he added. My eyes widened when Sam got down on one knee in front of me. From his pocket, out came a small black box. He must have had it in the house since at least last time he’d been home. That was weeks ago!
Opening the box, Sam revealed an engagement ring. It was perfect, shiny but not too much at the same time. Charlotte must have helped him pick it out, which meant that he’d planned to propose long before I’d cashed in my puck!
“Helena Worth, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? This time for real?” Sam grinned.
I was beaming, too, a wave of love for this perfect man rising up inside me. “Oh, Sam!” I was half-laughing, half-crying, but one hundred percent happy. Marrying Sam was something I’d always felt drawn to. Now, it could be a reality!
Holding my hand out, I let Sam slip the ring onto my finger. “Yes, of course, I’ll be your wife!” Despite my slight pregnancy bump, I slithered down onto the floor to join him, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“This is the most perfect day,” I said, pressing my cheek to Sam’s. “I get you back from the NHL and I get you as my husband? How are we ever going to top this?”
And yet, I already knew that we would. The future stretched out before me, a continuous chain of wonderful moments with Sam. Our wedding, the day our child was born, our first family holiday.
We had it all to look forward to. That even made the ten years we’d spent apart worth it, in their own way. This was day one of the rest of our lives. I could hardly wait to see what triumphs were on their way towards us!
Other books by Camellia Tate
Salt Lake Pumas Series
Gloves Dropped
El Sterling ruined my life once. I’m not giving her a chance to do it a second time.
I’ve made mistakes.
Mistakes that I’ve learned from.
I’ve come a long way to make it as captain of the Salt Lake Pumas.
So of course, that’s when she comes back.
The girl who ruined my life twelve years ago.
But not again.
I’m a changed man. I’ve worked hard for this.
My head knows I need to ignore the woman El has become.
My body’s much more easily swayed.
The fire in her eyes burns through my cool-headed defenses.
No one told me that giving in to the sparks between us might make me change all over again.
A 68k standalone, enemies-to-lovers hockey romance!
Body Checked
Falling for a man who thinks romance is pointless is the stupidest thing I’ve done this year!
Everything happens for a reason.
The universe wouldn’t bring a smart, sexy NHL player like Will Green into my life if we weren’t supposed to connect.
Romance is more than just flowers and candy.
I’ll prove it to him.
Except, Will doesn’t do relationships.
Married to his NHL career, he told me that romance is a ‘waste of time’!
That should be the end of it.
But destiny keeps bringing us together.
Even our dogs have formed a bond.
It has to mean something, and I will put my heart on the line to figure out what.
A 66k standalone hockey romance with a guaranteed happily ever after!
Penalty Counted
They say you should never fall in love with a bad boy. But what do you do when a bad boy falls in love with you?
I love to party.
Irresponsible, reckless and wild.
As a quickly rising star in the NHL, I can be whatever I want to be.
Meeting Morgan Acton changes all of that.
She is the bad girl to match my bad boy.
Our lust is instant, burning fast and strong.
But it’s what comes after that stands the chance of ruining everything.
I shouldn’t fall in love with her.
She's too intense to resist.
Her body calls to me and her recklessness makes me want to take
that leap.
I might be a bad boy, but everything I know will be tested by her.
And I cannot wait.
A 69k standalone bad boy hockey romance with a twist!
Madison Howlers Series
Game Plan
Sometimes, knowing the name of your soulmate is more trouble than it’s worth. That’s how Connor Lewis feels when photographs of his soulmark get published.
The hockey fans go crazy. Every Ashley in the Madison area is wild to convince Connor that she’s the one. All Connor wants to do is focus on his game.
Ashley Walton isn’t looking for a soulmate. She wants a relationship based on something real.
That makes her perfect for what Connor has planned. He asks if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend, on the understanding that it’s just until the media frenzy dies down.
They expect it to be a few months, at most. Ashley’s really more interested in learning from the Howlers’ PR team than she is in Connor.
At least at first.
Everything about their ‘relationship’ is a show staged for the press. Except, Connor spends every waking moment with Ashley on the brain. Finding out she wants to move miles away for her dream job hits him like a body-slam into the boards.
The closer they get, the more Connor is willing to risk to keep Ashley at his side. Falling in love wasn’t in their game plan, so Connor takes matters into his own hands...
Best Shot
Finding your soulmate is supposed to be easy! Especially when everyone carries their soulmate’s name written on their skin.
Best friends Thea and Doe would never fall out over a man. Doe’s soulmark reads ‘Blake’ and Thea’s is ‘Frederick’, so the possibility has never crossed their minds.
Enter Blake Ashbury. Thea is first to meet the gorgeous hockey player. As soon as she finds out his name, she gives playing matchmaker her best shot. She should be over the moon to introduce Doe to her soulmate. It doesn’t matter that Thea is the one who loves Blake’s jokes, or that his touch feels like fire and electricity. Blake isn’t meant to be with her, so Thea will back off.
At least, that’s the plan.
Blake never expected meeting his soulmate to be so complicated. Doe is sweet. She’s everything Blake thought he wanted in a girlfriend. He can’t understand why it’s Thea who makes his pulse race!
Thea and Blake aren't meant to be together, so why is it so hard to keep the chemistry between them down? The longer they spend together, the harder it becomes to remember that they need to keep their distance!
Empty Net
A tiny portion of the population have empty space where the name of their soulmark should be.
Ryan Newell believes that hockey is his one true love. Knowing he doesn’t have a soulmate, he gives his heart to the Madison Howlers. It’s only his body that he gives away freely.
A little too freely. A scandalous picture lands him in hot water with the team’s PR. To fix his rep, they send him off to fundraise for a local charity.
That’s where he meets Naomi Stone. Being blind since birth, Naomi has never seen the name that’s written on her skin. All she knows is that Ryan makes her pulse race and her skin tingle in ways she’s never felt before.
As things heat up between them, Ryan starts to feel like he’s in over his head. Having a girlfriend isn’t something you can train for. Knowing that he can’t be Naomi’s soulmate is a thought that Ryan can’t escape.
Finding love is hard enough without knowing you are no one’s destiny.
Goal Line
When your dad owns an NHL team, you meet a lot of hockey players.
Annie’s daddy made her promise she’d never date one of the Green Bay Mammoths. That suited her just fine. Her interest was in their skills on the ice, not off.
But Devon Oakley changes everything.
Ever since she discovered the name of her soulmate, Annie has been waiting to meet him. And Devon’s just as dedicated to his soulmark match as he is to his team.
But there’s always a catch. Devon doesn’t play for Green Bay. He’s the goalie for their greatest rivals!
Annie has to know: is true love bigger than ice hockey loyalty?
There’s only one way to find out...
Final Score
Finding a soulmate is different for everyone. Lev and I met at the side of the road and became friends over a common language. Then I had to tell him that I couldn't see him anymore.
Maria Rawlins is the best friend anyone could ask for.
Funny. Passionate. Twice shy.
Under her insistence that she doesn’t need a man is a yearning for the kind of meant-to-be connection that her mom and sister have both found. She wants a Russian soulmate who loves life as much as she does.
A man who’ll make time to be with her, who’ll see her as his equal.
She doesn’t notice Lev settling into the empty space in her heart. Not until there’s no way to stop it.
A Russian-import NHL athlete, Lev Popov is...
Talented. Sexy. Wounded.
This devil-may-care extrovert could have any woman in Madison, but his heart is locked behind a wall built by his ex. Yet brick by brick, Maria is breaking it down.
Falling for his best friend is not what Lev wants. His heart races for Maria - and at the thought that loving her might mean losing her.
True love might be rare. True friendship can be rarer.
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