Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Hayes and I taught Roxy a new trick. He reaches into the pocket of his pants and takes out one, new Christmas sock with illustrations of presents on it. It’s weighted down in the toe.
He gives it to me. I dangle the sock before the dog. “Roxy, give the sock to Stefan,” I say.
She takes it.
Stefan startles. His expression grows more curious as Roxy trots across the cushions to him, the sock in her mouth.
I’m bursting with excitement, giddy before he can even open it. I meet Stefan’s eyes. “I love you both so much, and I don’t want a husband and a boyfriend. I want both of you as my partners.”
Stefan’s eyes glimmer with wild hope. My marriage to Hayes was a legality, born from a late-night dare that had me married to one man while I fell equally for two.
With us all living together now and sharing our lives, I don’t want the distinction anymore. Hayes doesn’t either. Distinctions might exist in the eye of the law, but we can make our rules for our world.
“Hayes and I got new rings. Three of them. They match,” I say, my voice trembling with emotion.
Stefan parts his lips, but he can barely speak. “I…wow…I’m…”
“Open it,” I say.
Stefan reaches into the sock, takes out the box, and opens it. When he sees three gorgeous, matching platinum bands, his eyes glisten. But he’s stoic—a hockey player after all. He swipes his cheek like there was simply dirt in his eye.
“Let’s do this,” Hayes says to his friend, intensely serious.
Stefan stares at the rings for a long, weighty beat then says, “Yes.”
Like if he said more, all the tears would fall.
He takes out the bands and turns one over, then the other, then the third. Studies each inscription on the inside. They’re all the same.
Home.
He looks up at us, his eyes full of love. He stands and holds out his hand to me. With reverence, I slide the band on his ring finger. Then I hold up my hand for him to see I’m no longer wearing my gold ring from Las Vegas. Hayes does the same. His finger is bare.
I slide another band onto Hayes’s finger.
Then they take the last one and together, they slide it onto mine.
A little later, we walk into the gala, three of a kind.
During the awards ceremony, I sit with Stefan’s family from Copenhagen, chatting and getting to know his outgoing parents, his friendly brothers and sisters, and then watching and cheering the loudest when my man receives the Sportsman of the Year award that he so deeply deserves. An award that no one could ever take away from him.
Afterward, when the photographer asks for a picture, Stefan brings Hayes and me to him. We pose together with me in the middle, our matching bands visible for all the world to see.
On the way out of the hotel, I stop to say goodbye to Trina, showing her the rings, then telling her about the gift.
“You beat me to it,” she teases.
“Your day will come soon,” I say, and I’m a fortune teller evidently, since a few months later, Chase and Ryker propose to her on Valentine’s Day. And she says yes. It looks like we’ll be having a busy season of triad weddings.
Until then, I keep busy with work, doing what I’ve been doing. Turns out, my side hustle as Foxy is hard for me to give up. I love whipping up the crowds at home games for a sport I adore. During the days, I keep writing articles for Birdie and a few others, including my own channels, as well as working for the store. Oh, and I have one more new client—Jessie hired me as her personal stylist.
Looks like I picked the right name, because I am definitely a scrappy little fashionista. One with a devoted canine sidekick, who likes hanging out with me as I work.
At the end of the hockey season—the best of Hayes’s hockey career—the team offers him a new contract, and he says yes so fast. He loves being part of the Golden State Foxes.
It’s a relief to him, but not a surprise to me at all. I believed in him from the start, and I’m glad he started to believe in himself more as the season went on.
That summer, the three of us host our friends and family in a private wedding ceremony in our San Francisco backyard, where we pledge our love to each other.