I was thinking that I didn’t want him to give up on his dream, his goal, because of Lily and me. I didn’t want him to one day regretthis.
He sat on the rug. “I know, but I’ve been talking to a few players who recently retired. I decided this is the right time to do it. For me. For us.” He brushed his lips against mine. “And I was talking about it to someone I know in the marketing department. They have an internship position, and because of my experience with the team and my marketing minor in college, they offered it to me. I don’t know if it will result in a permanent position, but the experience will be worthit.”
“But you’re sure this is what youwant?”
“Yes, this is what I want. Of course, my agent wasn’t thrilled with theidea.”
“I bet.” Not when Josh had been making four million dollars ayear.
“But since my agent isn’t the one I’m marrying and my agent isn’t the one I plan to spend the rest of my life growing old with, he doesn’t have a lot of say in mydecision.”
Josh lowered his head to mine, this time giving me a deeper, longer lasting kiss than the lastone.
And those fireworks? The ones that lit up the night sky at the end of the New Year’scountdown?
They had nothing on the ones going off in mybody.
After a few minutes, Josh ended the kiss, resting his forehead against mine. “That was definitely worth ending my hockey career for. You’re worth ending itfor.”
And for the first time since Josh proposed to me, I could finally fully breathe—knowing the man I loved would always be there, by myside.
Knowing that each night I went to sleep and each morning when I woke up, he would be there.Always.
Knowing Josh wouldn’t be sacrificing what he loved to make Lily and mehappy.
He was doing what was right for him and what was right forus.
As afamily.
Epilogue
Josh
Five and a Half MonthsLater
Whoever saidChristmas was for kids was wrong. Because when you were a ten-month-old baby, Christmas was totally for theparents.
That’s right, Lily was almost a year old. And today she would be experiencing Santa for the first time. She had already seen him at the mall a few times but had no idea of his significance. She had been more excited with the pretty, shiny Christmas treedecorations.
Had she already joined the throngs of kids waiting to see Santa at the mall? Nope—we wanted her first experience with the guy to be lesstraumatic.
Don’t believe me that Santa could cause PTSD? The next time you see him at the mall, grab some popcorn and watch. Mothers love to get photos of their kids sitting on the big guy’s lap. But babies and young kids don’t always share the sentiment. The instant the baby realizes he’s on a stranger’s lap, he starts bawling. And that is the wonderful photo now gracing the family’s Christmascards.
Plus we didn’t want to risk Lily ending up with an overheated guy in a red suit who couldn’t stand kids. He was only doing it to earn some “easy” cash during the holidays. We wanted someone who was excited to play the role, and we wanted to avoid the stressed-outcraziness.
But most of all—we wanted Lily’s first Christmas to bespecial.
So that brought us to why we were here at Trent’s sister’s house. Erin and her husband were having a Christmas party for their fourteen-month-old daughter and her toddler friends. Their house looked like Christmas had exploded all over the place, in the most awesomeway.
I placed Lily on the floor. As soon as her knees touched the carpet, she was crawling toward the tree—and to one glittery decoration in particular. Good luck to her future fiancé. If this was any indication, she’d be wanting a large sparkly engagementring.
Speaking of engagement rings—I made my way over to Trent, who was by the wingback chair near the window. He didn’t see me approach. He was too busy staring at his girlfriend, who was talking toHolly.
Kelsey glanced in our direction, and from the way she suddenly blushed, she too hadn’t missed the heat in his eyes. She quickly looked away and answered whatever Holly had just asked her. Did I care what Holly had said? No—I was preoccupied with fantasizing about what I wanted to do to her tonight, once our daughter wasasleep.
“Did you getit?” I asked Trent, keeping my voicelow.
He nodded, knowing exactly whatitI was referringto.
