What’s five-month-old Lily’s favorite game? Watch this.

I placed Snuggle Bear on the cream-colored rug in Lily’s bedroom and covered the floppy bear with the pink baby blanket. “Where did Snuggle Bear go?” I asked Lily in a sing-song voice. Since she wasn’t quite able to sit on her own yet, a pile of cushions propped her up.

The little girl blew a raspberry—her favorite new sound, which she loved to practice whenever she could.

Smiling at her, I whipped the blanket off the toy. “There she is.”

Lily giggled. Didn’t she have the cutest giggle ever?

The apartment door clicked open then shut.

“Daddy’s home,” I said, loud enough so Josh would know where to find us. A moment later he entered the room, wearing shorts and a white T-shirt that clung deliciously to his sweaty body. “How was your run?”

From the look of him, he had pushed himself to hell and back, pausing only long enough to down his favorite sports drink. But could you blame him?

Yesterday, he was officially a Montreal Canadien.

Today he was a free agent—with no idea where his future would take him for the next year or so.

When would he find out if a team offered him a contract? Anytime between nine a.m. today and the beginning of the NHL season—in October.

So anytime in the next three months—which made it really hard to plan things.

What was I doing home on a Friday morning when I had returned to work last month?

I loved my job, but I also loved being with Lily—and I needed the flexibility so we could fly out and visit Josh whenever possible, depending on where he ended up. We had already decided I would stay in San Francisco no matter what, and Josh would live with us during the off-season until he eventually retired from hockey. It wasn’t the greatest solution, but we would make it work.

But I did have a long talk with my boss and then his boss. In the end, they offered me the opportunity to job share with the woman who had been covering for me while I was on maternity leave. She wanted to get her Masters degree in International Business. Job-sharing allowed her to do both that and work.

It was a win-win for us both.

And the best part? The switch in hours didn’t jeopardize my work visa status. Not that it would matter once Josh and I were married.

Josh knelt on the hardwood floor—to avoid getting sweat on Lily’s rug. “The run was good.” He picked up the pink blanket and covered my head with it. “Where did Mommy go?” he asked Lily.

She, of course, blew another raspberry.

The blanket was yanked off my head. “There she is.”

Lily giggled—and Josh leaned in to give me a brief kiss. “Guess I should have a shower now.”

“That might be a good idea.” I gave his shoulder a little shove. Not enough to move him, but that didn’t matter. He pretended to fall over anyway.

Lily giggled once more. One of her other favorite toys was the kind that you pushed over and it wobbled up again.

“Uh, oh,” I said, “Daddy fell down.”

Not overly concerned about this, she went back to practicing her air raspberries.

Joshed pushed himself back onto his knees, pulled Lily’s koala T-shirt up (one of a million gifts my parents had sent her), and blew a raspberry on her belly.

What’s her second favorite thing to blowing raspberries? Daddy blowing them on her stomach. She giggled and reached up to him.

She really was Daddy’s little girl.

Just as her T-shirt proclaimed.

He kissed her forehead. “I’m all yucky, but as soon as I finish my shower I’ll pick you up. Deal?”

Lily cooed in reply.

She and I played while he showered, my heart suddenly pounding in my chest—like the countdown clock on New Year’s Eve.

Ten. Nine. Eight…

Only in this case, it taunted me with the reminder that nine a.m. was rapidly approaching.

There would be no spectacular firework show once the clock struck midnight.

But on the bright side, Lily’s crib wouldn’t be turned into a pumpkin either.

For the past few weeks, rumors had been circulating about which teams were showing an interest in him, but while Josh chose not to talk about them, Trent had pointed out they were exactly that—rumors.

And because I didn’t want to stress out about where Josh could be moving to next, I avoided anything where I might glimpse a knock-me-on-my-arse rumor.

And that included telling my colleagues that under no circumstances, whatsoever, were they allowed to mention hockey in my presence.

To do so would not be pretty.

Naturally, I saved this announcement while holding one of Lily’s dirty diapers, so that might’ve had something to do with their total cooperation.

“If we’re lucky, San Jose will sign Daddy,” I told Lily.

But luck had nothing to do with it.

Nor did wishing on a shooting star.

But in case it did, I might have tried it. Once or twice.

Okay, thrice.

But you know what they say about three times the charm…

“And I’ve heard Vancouver’s really nice,” I told her—in case he signed with another Canadian team.

Please, please, please, if he has to join a Canadian team, make it Vancouver. Not only was it closer to San Francisco, it was the one Canadian city that didn’t suffer from brutal winters.

Maybe I should’ve also wished for that when it came to the shooting stars—as Plan B.

As Josh stepped from the bathroom, his phone rang from the kitchen table. He briefly glanced in my direction and I could’ve sworn I stopped breathing.

I could hear him talking to whoever was on the other end but was unable to hear what he was saying. I couldn’t even tell if it was good news or not.

After what felt like a hundred and twenty years, the phone call ended. Josh walked toward Lily’s room—his expression giving nothing away.

“Was that your agent?” I asked. Seven. Six. Five…

He shook his head and I released a shaky breath. “It was the Rock. They were calling me to tell me I got the internship.”

“Internship?”

“I didn’t say anything to you in case it didn’t pan out, but I’ve decided to retire from hockey.”

“You have? But I thought you weren’t ready to give it up yet.” I couldn’t believe I was actually trying to talk him out of it—what was I thinking?

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 regret this.

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 worth it.”

“But you’re sure this is what you want?”

“Yes, this is what I want. Of course, my agent wasn’t thrilled with the idea.”

“I bet.” Not when Josh had been making four million dollars a year.

“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 my decision.”

Josh lowered his head to mine, this time giving me a deeper, longer lasting kiss than the last one.

And those fireworks? The ones that lit up the night sky at the end of the New Year’s countdown?

They had nothing on the ones going off in my body.

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 it for.”

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 my side.

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 me happy.

He was doing what was right for him and what was right for us.

As a family.