Breakaway

Epilogue - Breakaway

ERIC

It felt good, sitting on the sofa in the Campbells' TV room with my arm around Dana. She had her feet up beside her and her head resting on my shoulder. Comfortable. Casual. She didn't care that her dad was sitting across from us. She didn't care that her mom could come in at any minute with a tray of freshly baked cookies or a big bowl of popcorn.

She just sat there like that, letting me hold her and occasionally playing with that stupid ring I'd given her.

I was pretty sure she was almost ready for me to give her a real one. To pop the question for real, not just accidentally lead a lot of people to think I'd already popped it. I hadn't meant to give her that ring while so many people were looking on like that. It had just happened.

She didn't seem to mind, though. Not once her initial embarrassment wore off, at least.

Mr. Campbell picked up his remote control and flipped it over to the Stanley Cup Finals. I didn't really like watching the playoffs. Watching them on TV just reminded me that I wasn't there, that I wasn't getting my chance to raise the cup. But that was good, in a way. It helped fuel my fire for next season, made me hungrier to get the Storm back there.

They were just playing the national anthem when Soupy came through the front door.

He stopped short when he saw me on the couch with Dana. For a second, I thought he was going to turn around and leave. He'd been doing a lot of that lately, ever since we'd both been back in Providence. Hell, he'd been doing it since the morning of our final game of the season, when he gave me a black eye because I'd slept with his sister.

But he didn't leave. He flopped down on the other end of the sofa, leaving Dana between us.

Mrs. Campbell came in from the kitchen with a plate of cookies as I'd been expecting. "Brenden! I didn't know you were coming tonight. I would have made oatmeal raisin."

He took a cookie off the plate before she set it on the coffee table. "Just got off a conference call with my agent and Jim Sutter."

Everyone stopped paying attention to the pregame chatter and turned to him.

"Jim wants to re-sign me. One-year contract at a million bucks. One-way."

A one-way contract would mean they'd have to pay him just as much to play on the minor-league team as they would when he was playing with Portland. And a million dollars was almost double the league minimum. It wasn't big money compared to a lot of contracts out there, but it was more than a lot of guys made. That meant he'd be much more likely to stay in Portland instead of being sent back to Seattle. It also meant it was a prove-it sort of contract. Jim wanted Soupy to prove he could hack it at this level consistently, that he belonged in the NHL, before they gave him more years and more money.

Dana and their parents chattered and congratulated him, all the kinds of things families do. I kept quiet, even though I felt a swell of pride for him. He'd worked so hard to get this shot. Now he was really getting it.

It got quiet when the puck dropped. We all focused on the game and on eating our cookies.

But Soupy turned to me. "Jim said you told him there's no one you'd rather have on the ice with you."

I nodded. I'd said that, and I meant it.

"So you think I should take the deal?"

There wasn't a team in the league that would offer him anything better if he went into free agency. He knew that. But that wasn't what he was asking me.

I pulled the throw pillow out from behind my back and tossed it at his head. "Take the fucking deal."

He threw it back, but it hit Dana.

"Now you've done it," I said.

"You've just started a war," Dana said.

Before I could grab another pillow, she leaped straight at her brother and wrestled him to the ground.

I had to protect my girl, so I got in on it, too.

When we came up for air, laughing like lunatics, Mrs. Campbell gave us her best Mom look. "You three are acting just like you did when you were kids. If you break my sofa, you're going to buy me a new one."

It was just like when we were kids. Only better.

To download a complete copy of Breakaway for free, visit http://catherinegayle.com/contemporary-romance/breakaway.

Breakaway is Book 1 in the Portland Storm series by USA Today bestselling author Catherine Gayle. There are currently 7 other novels and 5 novellas within the series, which should be read in the following order: Breakaway, On the Fly, Taking a Shot, Light the Lamp, Delay of Game, Double Major, In the Zone, Holiday Hat Trick, Comeback, Dropping Gloves, Home Ice, Mistletoe Misconduct, and Losing an Edge. Game Breaker, Defensive Zone, and Power Play will be available soon. More books will follow these, as well.

Find links to buy the rest of the series at http://catherinegayle.com/contemporary-romance.

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If you want more hockey romance from Catherine, check out her sexier, edgier Tulsa Thunderbirds series. It's a spin-off series which starts off with some familiar characters from the Portland Storm series. The series begins with Book 1, Bury the Hatchet.