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“Yours, either,” he says, winking

“No, I’ll take a small-town dive bar with a jukebox and pool tables over this any day,” I admit

“Hell yeah Where you can get a bucket of beers for ten bucks and play some darts”

“But Ro loves places like this, and I love Ro,” I say

“And I love you, so here we are”

“Here we are” I kiss hi me closer

He leans his forehead againstas I’m with you, I’m exactly where I want to be”

Epilogue

Maverick

“A mini Alexei Petrov?” I clapawesoratulations”

“Thanks, man We’re stoked We decided to wait to tell everyone until we found out the sex It’s been really hard keeping it a secret”

“A son” Pike claps Alexei on the shoulder “Congrats, brother”

Alexei made the announcement in our locker roo a son, and everyone’s in high spirits now There won’t be any toasting to the good news, because Alexei is a recovering alcoholic who no longer drinks alcohol But we’ll find another way to celebrate

“We need to have a baby shower for you guys,” I say “Hoe even do that?”

“Ask Gia,” Pax says

“Nah, I’ve got this I’rill some food and watch football”

“Dude, that’s not what you do at a baby shower,” Grady says

“It’s my baby shoe’ll do it however I want”

Alexei grins “I’uys are still about the only people we know here”

His wife is a therapist, and between her work schedule and watching her husband’s hoames, I wonder how much time she’s had to make friends here It doesn’t sound like much I need to ask Gia to reach out to her

Gia’s got more tihts a week, and I go with her when I can I love seeing her in action She’s also taking several classes at a co sparks her interest enough to potentially start a career that fulfills her

It’s good—so da a partner in life Gia is my best friend, and now I have so much more than hockey to fulfillto Iceland, to take the trip she had planned to go on with her father before he died We’ve been buying furniture for the house, which is starting to look less like an oversized bachelor pad andto feel secure in our relationship, but I want to put one on her finger anyway I’ether for a year, because she’s already adapted to a lot of life changes in the recent months I don’t want to overwhelm her