Change (Patrick Kane)

59: Summer Begins

The summer began, and it was great. Patrick and I spent about two weeks together in Chicago before we would head out to Buffalo to visit his family and have his day with the Cup. We had decided that my family would then fly out for two weeks to visit. Our families still haven't met each other yet, and now seemed as good a time as ever.

"Need some help?" I asked with an amused expression. I was sitting on our bed watching Patrick try to stuff crumpled up clothes into his suitcase.

He sighed exasperated. "Yes please."

I opened his suitcase and took out a few clothing articles. I began to refold them. I was kind of a neat freak about this stuff.

"Wow, so precise," Pat joked as I folded another shirt.

"Yeah, well someone's gotta be the clean one in this relationship," I responded.

He shook his head. "You're so mean to me. Why am I even with you?"

I stopped what I was doing for a second and looked up at him. "Because you loooove me!" I exclaimed with a grin.

A smile broke through his serious demeanor. "You're finally right about something," he said as he pulled me into a hug.

I slapped his shoulder lightly. "Hey!"

I pulled away and went back to helping him pack. I stacked his clothes and placed them in his suitcase. "See? It's a lot easier if- What the hell are you doing?" My little lesson was interrupted when I turned around to see Patrick laying on our bedroom floor. He had his arms behind his head, legs crossed, and was staring up at me.

"What?" He asked innocently with a glimmer in his blue eyes.

"Why are you on the floor?" I wondered.

He shrugged. "It's comfy. And all your clothes are taking up the space on the bed." He sure was in a good mood today, not that I was complaining.

I shook my head at his antics. Man, this guy was crazy. But I still love him.

As we continued packing and talking, with some music playing in the background, I began to think about our relationship. I guess you could say things were pretty serious with us. I don't know where we're going from here though.

Marriage could be an option in the future, but it could be too early in our relationship. Even though we've known each other for a year and a half, we've only been dating (and on speaking terms) a year. Does that make it too early for me to be thinking about marriage? I honestly wouldn't mind marrying Patrick. Who am I kidding, I do want to marry him. I could definitely see us having a future.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Patrick snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Delilah. You zoned out," he stated with a small chuckle.

"Oh right, sorry bout that." I shook my head in an attempt to clear it a bit and began checking if I had packed everything.

"What were you thinking about in that pretty little head of yours?"

I took my attention away from the luggage and looked up at Pat. "I dunno, just what the future has in store for us." I shrugged a bit. "Have you ever thought about marriage?" I saw that I had caught him off guard and quickly back tracked. "It doesn't have to be right now, but I'm just curious. Do you want to get married? I know there are some people that don't ever want to."

I sat down on the bed and he sat next to me as he answered. "I never really thought about it before, but I would like to get married one day. Preferably to you." I giggled as he poked my side, causing me to flinch away. He got a mischievous glint in his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be ticklish, would you?"

My eyes widened. "You wouldn't."

"Would I?" He smirked.

"Pat, I swear to god if you-"

I was cut off by Patrick's hands flying to my sides and tickling me. I screamed and tried to get away from him, but he grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.

"Patrick!" I yelled through my laughs. "Please stop! My face hurts."

Patrick just laughed at me. "You wish!"

"I'll do anything," I begged.

He raised his eyebrows. "Anything?"

"Yes!" My sides were hurting from laughing so hard.

He smirked. "Fine. Say that you'll marry me."

I stopped laughing and stood in his arms in shock. His fingers had stopped moving against my sides. "What?"

"I thought about what you said-"

"But I said that like, two minutes ago," I pointed out.

"So? Anyways, I didn't really need to think about it that much since I've known I want to marry you for a while now. I was actually going to take you out to a nice dinner and propose to you in Buffalo, but I figured why not now?" He said.

I was still stunned. "You're serious about this?"

Patrick nodded. "Of course I am. Delilah, I love you so much. We've been through some rough patches, but those fights have just made me love you even more. You're funny, beautiful, kind-hearted, and so much more. To me, you're perfect. You mean everything to me and that's why I want to make you my wife. So, Delilah will you marry me?" He held both my hands in his.

His words brought tears to my eyes. I nodded, unable to speak. My cheeks still hurt from smiling but I didn't care anymore. I found my words and said, "Yes, of course I will. I love you so much." I leaned in and kissed him passionately.

Pat pulled away, eyes shining. "You know, I actually have the ring with me." His eyes darted around the room for a second before he muttered a quiet "aha" once he remembered where he put it. He opened the drawer to his bedside table and pulled out a small black box.

He brought it over to me and cleared his throat. "Now, let's do this the right way, shall we?" He got down on one knee and opened the box. We were both still grinning uncontrollably and my cheeks were wet with happy tears. "Delilah, I love you. Will you marry me?"

I nodded again. "Patrick, I love you," I mocked him. "I would be honored to marry you."

He stood up and slipped the ring on my finger. "Holy shit," I mumbled. "I'm engaged!"

Patrick let out a loud laugh. "That's right," he winked. "Now, we'd better finish packing so we can go celebrate some more, eh?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Canada."

"Hey!" He protested as he followed me back over to our suitcases laying on the bed. "I already told you, I'm 100% American. Jonny's accent just rubs off on me a lot."

I rolled my eyes as I packed another shirt away. "Yeah yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night."

We finished packing, which took a weight off my shoulders. We were leaving tomorrow morning so we wouldn't have time to pack any last minute things before our 9 am flight.

We decided to celebrate our new engagement with some Chinese take-out and the movie Miracle on Ice. We weren't one of those couples that loved to go out that often, if you couldn't already tell.

That night when I climbed into bed next to Patrick, I was still looking at my ring. It had a big diamond in the middle and some smaller ones on both sides. It must have cost him a fortune. "I still can't believe we're going to be getting married," I said in a soft voice.

"Me either." Pat wrapped his arms around my midsection and planted a soft kiss on my shoulder. "But I couldn't be happier." That night, I fell asleep with a smile on my face next to the man I love.

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sooo based on all the comments, once I'm done with this fanfic I'll be writing an artemi panarin one! and maybe after that I'll do the tazer one, or ill try to do them both at the same time

thanks for commenting and letting me know!