Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(33)

“And what?”

“The sex,” she demands. “Tell me about the sex.”

I cock my eyebrow at her and give challenge. “You first…tell me about the sex with you and Erik.”

“What do you want to know?” she asks with a confident smile. “I’m your girlfriend now. We have hockey boyfriends. Technically that means we can share sex details.”

    “It does?” I ask her with a laugh.

“Absolutely,” she replies. “Now what do you want to know about us? Like just sex, or about oral, or if he’s into anything kinky like—”

“There you are,” Legend says from behind me as he snakes an arm around my waist. He takes one of the champagne glasses out of my hand and looks at me, then to Blue, and back to me. “What were you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” I say.

“Sex,” Blue says at the exact same time.

Legend cocks an eyebrow. His eyes come to me, back to Blue and then to me again. “Sex, huh?”

“We were sharing secretive details,” Blue says, just to egg the situation on.

“No, we weren’t,” I assure him, not because I’m embarrassed but because I don’t know if he will be.

Legend gives me a sly smile and bends to whisper in my ear. “I don’t care if you tell her details. I’m confident enough in my skills that I know you’ll only be saying good stuff about me.”

I pull my chin inward and my expression is skeptical as I regard him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” he replies, again sounding like he doesn’t have a single doubt in the world.

“Fine,” I say and then turn to Blue. “Let’s get together for lunch this week sometime. We have so much to talk about.”

    She grins back at me. “Deal.”

Suddenly, a shrill whistle pierces the air around us and I realize that the great room is almost full. Shoulder to shoulder, standing-room only as everyone crowds in.

I look over and find that Bishop—who is standing with Brooke and Coach Perron—is the source of the whistle. The conversation starts to die down, and Bishop calls out to silence the others still chatting. “If I can have everyone’s attention a moment…”

Finally, the chatter dwindles to almost complete silence, and everyone is staring at Bishop.

He smiles as he looks around the crowd. “Okay, first…let’s everyone thank our hosts tonight, Erik and Blue. This party is spectacular.”

Bishop pauses while everyone hoots and hollers. Erik somehow miraculously appears by Blue’s side and Legend slaps a hand on his shoulder and squeezes.

Pushing his hands in a downward motion, Bishop motions for silence. When he gets it, he takes on his role as assistant captain. “I can’t think of a better group of people that I’d like to be around to celebrate the end of what has been a trying year for most of us. We started the year with one team, and then went to an expansion team. It’s been hard but I think it’s safe to say the hockey world has been shocked by how fucking great we are.”

More cheers, whistles and a few “fuck yeah’s.”

When it quiets, Bishop grins and nods. “We’ve got the ability to take that Cup this year so I’m just asking everyone to keep playing the way we’ve been playing. We’re a team and frankly…we’re fucking awesome.”

    This time the cheering goes on for a while until Bishop has to whistle above it to get people to quiet again. He points at the huge TV that is tuned into one of the New Year’s countdown parties. “Okay, everyone…we’ll follow the countdown on that TV, which looks like we have about two minutes, but the reason I’m up here talking isn’t about thanking our hosts or pointing out how great this team is.”

Everyone sort of looks around and murmurs in confusion, but Bishop has something up his sleeve. I can tell.

Or rather, something in his pocket.

I’m stunned when he reaches in and pulls out a black, velvet box that’s clearly the shape and size that would hold a ring.

People gasp and a few laugh, but none is as stunned as Brooke.

The look on her face is classic. Her dad—who by the look on his face knew all about this and thus is the reason why he’s here at this party—takes a few steps back so this moment is only between them. Bishop turns and faces Brooke and speaks clearly so everyone can hear what he has to say.

“Brooke,” he begins as he drops to one knee. A few women in the room give an audible sigh. “I gave you this ring once and you gave it back to me once our fake engagement came to an end.”

I look up at Legend, and he’s grinning at the couple. One night in bed, Legend had told me all about Brooke and Bishop’s fake engagement because they got busted fooling around and the coach—her father—caught them. Brooke told an immediate—and really bad—lie, claiming they were engaged. At some point, Legend had told me, Bishop’s widowed mom found out what was happening and got in on the charade, loaning her own engagement ring for Bishop to use.

    Brooke’s hand is covering her mouth and her eyes are shining with tears. Bishop takes her other hand in his, resting the ring box on his knee as he continues. “But now…with my mother’s and your father’s full blessings…I’d like to give it back to you. There’s no ruse this time. Nothing phony. My love for you is as real as it gets. And if there’s anyone out there that would look at us and say, this is too soon, I would tell them…they don’t know what’s between us. Only you and I do, and because I know you so well, and because I know you love me, I know you’re going to say yes. So can I put this ring back on your finger, where it will stay, and then we can start planning our wedding?”