Summer
“How you doin’, Calgary?” I say into my mic. The resounding cheer goes up. “I wanna thank you all for coming out tonight. You know, it wasn’t too long ago that I stood backstage in this very arena, and I couldn’t shake the feeling like something important was missing. So, I ran away. See, I thought I was running from something, but it turned out that I was running toward someone. I had to go find me a man, y’all.”
The crowd hollers. “Now here I am, less than a year later, and I’m kind of hoping he’ll come out here and introduce himself. Van Ross, the new captain of this year’s Stanley Cup winners, the Calgary Crushers, can you come out here please?”
Van stands in the wings, shaking his head. His mother gives him a nudge, and Emmett punches him on the arm before smiling at Sadie like a fool. Lana is beside them, looking all business as usual. Eli drapes his arm over her shoulder, but she promptly shoves him off. His grin turns lascivious. Lana rolls her eyes.
“Please, honey?”
“No,” Van mouths.
“Aww, ladies and gentlemen, I do believe my big, scary NHL-playing boyfriend is shy. Why don’t y’all give him a round of applause?”
The stadium erupts with hoots and hollers, and Eli shoves Van out into the spotlight. “There he is, ladies, would you look at that face? Why don’t you give us a little twirl, honey bunch?”
He folds his arms across his huge chest. “No.”
“No?” I pout. “Ladies, we want to see the hockey butt he’s worked so hard for, right?” The crowd goes wild. “Come on now. Give us a little spin.”
“You owe me,” he says, shaking his head, but he grins and my heart just melts. Along with every other females’ in the room.
“Van?” I pull him closer and thrust the mic up under his chin.
“Yes, country?”
The screaming about deafens me, and I grin at the audience. “I have a very important question to ask you.”
“Shoot,” he says.
“Ten months ago, you saved me from freezing to death in a snowdrift.”
He nods. “I remember.”
“You took me into your house, upstairs to your bed, and warmed me up.” The audience turns rabid with catcalls, and I stop to look at them. “Not like that. It was completely innocent.” I glance at Van again. “Wasn’t it, honey?”
He smirks, and I make a wide-eyed “tell them” face.
Van leans into the mic. “Completely innocent.” He winks, which undermines everything he just said.
I roll my eyes. “Since you warmed me in your bed that night, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to warm my bed every night for the rest of our lives?”
He flinches, and for a beat I think he’s going to break my heart and say no. My breath catches in my throat. This was a terrible idea. What was I thinking?
Van reaches for the mic and I hand it to him, terrified of the answer, but wanting it all the same.
“Are you asking me to marry you, Stella Hart?”
I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience. I’m paralyzed by fear, but somehow, I manage to nod.
“Then what the hell took you so long?”
I exhale, and he pulls me closer, dropping the mic so he can kiss me on the lips. He dips us and I almost lose my footing in the six-inch heels, but Van has me, just like he did the night we first met. He has me, and I hope he never intends to let go.
When he pulls back, my red lipstick is smeared all over his face, and I attempt to wipe it away, but that just makes it worse. A roadie hands me a new mic, and I take it with a grin. “I just got me a husband, y’all.”
A million flashes go off as I kiss him again, and the cheeky bastard can’t resist one good squeeze of my ass. Pretty sure I know what tomorrow’s headlines are going to be.
“Now get off my stage, Ross. I got songs to sing.” I wink at him and turn to the band, giving them the signal to lead into Van’s song, which went straight to number one on the Billboard charts.
When the concert is done, I thank Calgary for their hospitality, and run off the stage into Van’s waiting arms. Ten months ago, I sat backstage in this very venue, unable to breathe, smothered by schedules and the weight of my career and the loneliness that came with that, and now? Now, life is perfect. It took running away to lose myself, and to find what I never knew I ever wanted.