Puck Off!

Epilogue

Milan, Italy is a gorgeous city. None of the girls minded that the Winter Olympics were being held in a city known for fashion, and there were a lot of shopping bags piled high in my hotel room to bring back to the states with us. We had a large group of proud supporters with us to cheer them on too.

               As we walked to the arena, I was surrounded by my parents, Iryna's parents, Elske's parents and her two sisters, and Bobbie's mom and brother. It would be a big day of games, and there would be some people leaving a little sad.

               Ella was already at the arena, no doubt wishing Elske good luck in her match, though she'd have to join Team USA shortly. Yep, while Elske was playing in the bronze medal match with the Netherlands against Sweden, Ella had been good enough to get selected to the US team after two great seasons at BC. So, her and Ryn would be playing in the gold medal game for the US against archrival Canada, who just so happened to have Bobbie on it. Yeah, I never even knew she was Canadian until Ryn mentioned it at the beginning of the Olympic training. It would be rough playing against their good friend!

               On the good side, Ryn, Ella and Bobbie would be guaranteed a medal, but they couldn't all get gold. Elske had to win her game to get Bronze, but they had been playing well so we hoped for the best! That bronze medal game would also be the first one, with the gold medal afterwards, followed by the medal ceremony.

               And after that I'd be asking Ryn to marry me. We'd been strong for three years now, but there was always a lot of training happening, so it never seemed like the right time to pause, get married, and potentially start a family. You can't really play goalie with a baby in your belly!

               But the rest of our life was going great. We'd gotten Ryn's art shown into over half a dozen exhibits in Boston, and in the last year had two in New York, which was very exciting. I was still working at Newberry, though I'd taken over Olivia's job once she got a promotion. The money was still great, though now I was just saving it for a new place and a bigger family.

Ella still had one year of school, and she and Elske were going strong. They had been all over the place in the past year with the hockey training, but always ended up back home whenever they could. But once Ella graduated, I planned to give her the apartment, and let Elske run the restaurants downstairs, as she had gotten a finance degree and could handle it. It would let them stay together easier too.

As for Iryna and I, well we could do what we wanted. If we wanted to just buy a house while opening an art gallery, a potential idea for sure, we would be able to. Or we could just start our family and let Ryn keep getting her photos in galleries and auctions. I didn't really care as long as we were together. We'd discussed all the options, and we were still undecided. But we did know we wanted to move out of the city to give the kids a yard and beach access.

We never did see Fisher after the hockey game that got him injured. Ryn, since she was close with the hockey teams, heard that his physical therapy didn't go great, and that he never was able to walk without a limp. We were okay with that. Honestly, it wouldn't shock me if he was in jail somewhere, because I doubted that he'd changed at all. Limp or not, he was still a predator.

One of the funnier incidents came from when we went back to my hometown for my high school's ten year anniversary. Honestly, I hadn't planned to go since it wasn't like I had fond memories of that period of my life or the people I'd known there. But we happened to be visiting my parents, since they loved Ryn as a future daughter in law and decided to go to the reunion at the last minute.

Part of me thought that perhaps Ryn wanted to meet some of my old bullies and kick their ass, and that might have happened had Cullen or his buddies not had to graduate a year later than I had. But we did run into Tilly and seeing her deflate was gratifying. I guess she didn't realize that Ryn was with me when she sidled up, and then Ryn practically growled at her when she put her arm on my shoulder. Tilly's eyes shot open when she finally took in Ryn, and she just stood there gaping for a moment.