by Laurie Lochs
I glared at him. "We've been very adept at hiding it, besides the endless makeup sessions. I've shot down every question."
"That doesn't mean they bought your lies."
I groaned. He was absolutely right. I took a sharp breath. It was time.
I rose to my feet and turned to address the room. They stopped talking and immediately faced me.
"Hi, team."
Jacob snickered in the back of the locker room. "Hi, team? Really?"
I glared at him. "Shut up, Jacob. I have something serious I'm trying to say."
"I'll shut up, but only because I don't want to steal your shine."
"If you don't tone down that attitude, I'm going to send your disrespectful ass to the bench."
The room laughed and pretended to be shocked. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the water bed,” Stellan said with a grin.
I turned my laser beam glare to him. "You be quiet too, Stellan. If only you knew how difficult this was. You know, I haven't exactly spilled my heart to anyone before."
The team burst into a fresh round of oohs and awws. They pretended to glance at each other in shock.
I took a sharp breath. "When I first joined the team, I was doing it for one reason. It wasn't the best reason and I'm not particularly proud of it. For a long time, my ex kept me a secret. I didn't know why. One day, I discovered he was married. He had a family and kids. It killed me, and I vowed to never be with the man again. When I left him, I vowed to –"
"Jesus Christ,” Stellan shouted. "Enough with the monologue. Get to the point."
I gritted my teeth. "To make a long story short," I growled, "I threw myself into work, joined the Rainbow League for an extra dose of stimulation, and promised to never talk to a man again. But…"
I turned to Luke. His eyes were glistening.
“Well, this is where Luke comes in. This man, who Liam introduced to the team less than 2 months ago, is the most beautiful, thoughtful, caring person on this planet. I want to give myself to him, not just for a night or afternoon, but over and over again for the rest of my life."
I took a short breath to face Luke. This was the part he wouldn’t see coming.
The part I'd kept hidden from even him.
Pull it out, Mitch. It's sitting in your pocket in the little box. You need to pull it out for him.
I took a sharp breath and dropped to one knee. "Luke," I whispered, staring into his eyes. "I know we haven't exactly been together for the longest time. But you've made more of a difference in my life than every man I've dated combined. I want to marry you, and I want to do it soon. Would you accept my proposal and make me the happiest queen alive?"
Luke's jaw was on the floor. His eyes flitted around the room. And for a second, I was sure I'd ruined our relationship. After all, I hadn’t exactly discussed it with him beforehand – besides a few late-night conversations where we whispered sweet nothings to each other and daydreamed about a happily ever after side-by-side. But those weren't exactly serious conversations, and they certainly weren't the kind of get-on-one-knee-and-propose-in-front-of-the-entire-team kind of conversations, if those existed at all.
My proposal was spontaneous, raw, and straight from the heart. With my cards exposed, it was up to Luke to accept my offer or throw it out like a damaged puck.
But Luke didn't hesitate a second. Without a word, he grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. "Yes," he cried, rushing towards me. "I can't say I saw this coming, especially not like this… But Mitch, I’d love to marry you. You're the funniest, sassiest, most hard-working guy I know. And buried under that protective layer of sass is the biggest damn heart of gold."
That was it. I burst into tears and threw my arms around him. "Thank you so much," I sobbed, hurrying myself in his arms. “I feel like such an idiot in front of everyone, but you’ve just made me the happiest boy in the world.”
Luke kissed my forehead as the room burst into applause. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he whispered when we finally parted.
I wracked my brain for what I might be forgetting.
Then it hit me.
"The ring!" I shouted, scrambling for the little Tiffany box in my pocket. I yanked it out and slid the glistening silver band on his ring finger. The team clapped wildly. In the far back corner, Jacob grabbed Brent's shirt to dry his eyes.
“We're married, cutie," Luke whispered in the dim light of the hockey dressing room. "I can't believe it, but we're married."
"I think the word you're looking for is engaged. But yes," I whispered with a giant grin on my face. “We're happily ever after-ly engaged."
Luke burst into laughter and kissed me. "My beautiful little femme twink."
I kissed him back. "My sexy cuddle bear.”
"Now let's hit the ice before we get kicked off the team for missing practice,” I added perfunctorily.
Luke burst into laughter and, with the rest of the team shouting and applauding behind us, led me to the rink.
DID YOU LIKE MITCH AND LUKE’S STORY? The third book in the series is dropping September 20th! It’s called Yass Queen and follows Stellan as he reconnects with a childhood friend… Who might not be as straight as he thinks.
In the meantime you’ll love this FREE 5,000-word short story that explains how the “Rainbow League” began! :) Sign onto Laurie’s newsletter to get your free short now!
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About the Author
Laurie Lochs is a writer of contemporary MM romance who’s finally dusting off his writing chops. He’s published age play books and is currently finishing his Rainbow League series, a laugh-out-loud series that follows drag queens as they attempt to skate on ice. You can sign onto Laurie’s newsletter to keep track of his new books :)
Thank you for reading! <3 <3