Caged (Gold Hockey Book 11) by Elise Faber (romantic love story reading TXT) 📕

walked past Brit, knowing she was wearing a cat-ate-the-canary grin, and not giving a damn.

“He’s mine,” she announced, patting the goalie’s shoulder. “My bearded, sexy man.”

“Hear, hear,” Brit said.

There was no reason to deny it, not when it was in her heart, her soul, not when there weren’t any secrets with the team, with her family.

Her love for Ethan was forever.

Epilogue

Part One

Ethan, Six Months Later

He was being stared down by three gorgeous women with amber and russet eyes.

“What makes you think that you could possibly be good enough for my Dani?”

“I’m not,” he admitted, picking up his glass of water and wishing that when he’d met Dani’s mom and sisters, it hadn’t been on a night when he needed to stick with the diet plan.

Because fuck, what he wouldn’t give for a beer.

“Mama, stop,” Dani said, sweeping into the room with a big platter of food. She set it on the coffee table then came over to perch on the arm of Ethan’s chair. “I love Ethan, and he loves me, so stop doing the whole scary parent thing.”

He covered her knee. “I don’t think she’s doing the scary parent thing. I think she embodies the whole parent thing.”

Dani sighed.

Belle, her mother, smiled. Barely, just the corners of her lips turning up. “You’ll do, Ethan. I think you’ll just do.” He relaxed marginally, and the smile flattened. “For now.”

Dani sighed again. “Loni, can you please talk some sense into Mom?”

“Nope.” She reached for the platter of cheese and bread and started scarfing both down in rapid succession. “Mom gets to be Scary Mom for all first boyfriend interactions.” Loni glanced at him, winked. “But don’t worry, she calms down after a while.”

Toni was in the midst of filling another plate, though she passed it to her mother, then did the same for Dani and Ethan.

It contained all sorts of things he couldn’t eat, but he smiled his thanks anyway.

“For the record, my mother never calms down,” Toni said, once she’d made up her own plate.

Dani sighed for a third time.

He chuckled.

She swatted him. “Don’t encourage them.”

Setting their plates on the table, he tugged her off the arm of the chair, brought her close. “They remind me of you.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “So, I’ll always encourage them.” A beat. “And you.” Grabbing her plate again, he held it for her. “Now eat,” he ordered.

“Ethan.”

He lifted the plate. “Food.”

“I’m not.”

“Food.”

“I’m—”

“Will you just eat the fucking piece of cheese?” Loni burst out.

“Language!” Belle scolded.

But Ethan didn’t give a shit about language. He’d gotten fed up with the orders and the plate and the cheese. He swapped their positions, dropped her into the chair, and knelt at her feet, tossing the aforementioned cheese onto the table.

That was when she finally noticed it, her eyes going wide, her mouth parting on a gasp. “Is that—?”

That being the diamond ring Toni had done him a solid by hiding.

“Dani,” he murmured. “I love you”—he glanced behind him—“and your family—”

“You haven’t met my dad yet—”

“He has, baby,” Belle said. “He’s met all of us. And Daddy approves.”

Dani sucked in a breath, her eyes wide.

“I—” He froze, all the pretty words he’d had planned in his brain drifting off into nothing, leaving him with a fuzzy tongue and a desperation to hear this woman say yes. “I love you—”

“You said that already,” Loni grumbled.

“Shh!” Toni whisper yelled.

Dani lifted a brow. “You seriously volunteered to include them in this?”

“They’re your family,” he said. “Our family, and I want us to—want you to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of.”

“I have you,” she murmured. “Which means I already have it.”

Fuck, he loved her.

“Dani Eastbrooke, will you—”

“Yes, she will!” Loni burst in. “Now kiss her already so we can have more cheese.”

“Loni Eastbrook, you will be the death of me,” Belle began.

“God, seriously, I wonder if you were adopted,” Toni muttered. “You’re ruining a perfectly happy and romantic—”

Ethan tuned them out. “Will you marry me, sweetheart?”

She slipped out of the chair, knelt with him. “You sure you want to be part of that mess?” A nod over his shoulder, where the voices were rising in volume.

“I can’t wait to be part of that mess.”

Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. “Then, yes, baby. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Then with a conversation—no, an argument about the proper merits of really good cheese happening in the background, the voices increasing in volume, he slid the ring on her fourth finger.

And then he kissed her to the sound of a debate over ranch vs. blue cheese.

A glimpse of his happy ending.

And a damned perfect one at that.

Epilogue

Part Two

Fanny

She glanced down at the text from Dani, the picture of the gleaming diamond ring on her finger, and smiled.

Yeah, Dani was one of the good ones, and she deserved the good that Ethan brought into her life.

She typed out an enthusiastic response then set her cell on the counter and blinked rapidly. She’d had that once. The diamond ring, the loving fiancé, the wonderful, joyous hope of a future.

But it had all been taken away.

As she’d tried on wedding dresses.

“Fate can be a real bitch sometimes,” she muttered, going to the cabinet and retrieving a glass—a big glass—because she was most definitely happy for her friend, because she wasn’t the kind of woman who wanted everyone else to be miserable just because her happy ending hadn’t worked out.

Shit happened.

Unfortunately, a heap of that shit of life had landed on her shoulders.

She opened the fridge, pulled out the stopper on her bottle of wine, and then poured a generous splash into her glass.

And then remembering the diamond ring that had once sat on her own finger, she poured another long splash.

“Come on, Fan,” she murmured. “You’re going to change into pajamas, put on a face mask, and watch the Saw franchise until you forget all about failed romances and remember that you have a very fulfilling life.”

She paused, considered that.

Then nodded once, proud of her very sound plan.

Bringing her wine