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He smiled down at her. "Of course."
She leaned in closer and gave him a wicked smile. "Tell those lawyers to do whatever they have to so you can have this team. I can't lose the arena's contract and my spot in the owner's suite."
He couldn't stop himself from kissing her again. "I'll make sure you get both."
Epilogue
Maggie walked down the street in Lincoln Park enjoying the spring air of Chicago. It was one of those evenings where you still had to wear a coat, but it wasn't as crisp as the winter nights that were hopefully fading away.
She could see the front of Icing dimly lit by the lights inside. It was too late for them to be open, but she knew people were there. After all, she had been invited, which is also why she wasn't coming empty-handed.
They may be celebrating something or they may not, so she brought a basic vanilla cupcake this time. No black cherry chocolate cake. It hated Charlie.
Besides, Maggie was wearing a bit of black and cherry underneath her clothes instead. She couldn't help it. She found a cute black lace lingerie set with red ribbons and bows on so she had to buy it. It reminded her of Charlie's favorite cake and her night with him in her bakery.
That was a month ago and Maggie told Charlie she would wait for him, and she held to that promise too. She thought it would take forever, but it sounded like the legal issues with Charlie's cousins wrapped up quicker than anyone expected.
And yet, no one seemed to know what that meant. The team's lawyers were tight-lipped and Noah wasn't telling anyone anything, not even Georgia. It seemed to be bugging Georgia that she was out of the loop even though she understood why Noah wasn't telling her anything.
The players didn't seem to know either, at least the players that Maggie had become friends with. She was finding more excuses to be at Icing and bring in extra baked goods for their cases so she would run into Riley Rookwood or Fletcher Keris on occasion. It wasn't hard when they were both dating Icing employees and Riley was an investor in the bakery.
Sure enough, as Maggie got close to the front door for Icing, Riley saw her through the window before she had to bobble the cupcakes to knock and get in.
"Hey, you made it."
He smiled at her and held the door open before closing it and locking it behind her. Then he gave another check to make sure the sign was still turned to "Closed" and no one on the street was getting any ideas about the bakery being open late. This wasn't a normal open hours type of thing. It was a private party for only invited guests.
Riley turned back and his eyes got wide when he saw what was in Maggie's hands.
"I know you know we make cupcakes here, but I do appreciate when you bring some extras."
"I had to bring some for tonight to either celebrate or drown our sorrows."
Riley gave her a tight smile and nodded towards the back of the bakery. "Everyone is in the kitchen."
Maggie took it as her cue to head back behind the counter and into the kitchen area where her friends were all sitting around the large prep island in the middle of the room.
Well, most of her Icing friends. Noah wasn't here and neither was Charlie. They were the ones this group would either be toasting or lamenting with.
"Oh, what are those?" Cora asked.
She came around the table and snuggled up next to her boyfriend Riley while keeping her eyes on Maggie's box. "What's in there?" she said with a nod towards the box.
Maggie gave her a teasing grin and waved her closer. The other women around the table leaned in too. This reveal was going to be fun.
"Ta-da!"
Maggie pulled the lid off with a flourish. Inside, were a dozen perfectly decorated vanilla cupcakes and not one of them was smushed. But each one still had a cherry on top of it. She thought it at least needed that.
Samantha practically cackled at the sight and her boyfriend Fletcher tilted his head trying to take them in. "I don't get it."
"Oh, let me tell you this story," Georgia said before launching into the embarrassing events of how Maggie met Charlie.
She listened in as Georgia told them about seeing Maggie roll the cart in with a scowl on her face and Charlie confessing he had smashed the cake. Everyone laughed at the right parts of the story, even Maggie, who could laugh about it now. It wasn't so funny when it happened.
But then a lot had happened between then and now. She never would've guessed that the man who sheepishly smashed her cake was also brooding and apologetic and a quiet fighter when it came to what he wanted. He had made it clear to Maggie that he knew what he wanted: the team and her.
"So then Maggie took down the side of the box and a cherry went rolling across--"
