Page 146 of Double Puck

"Nope."

"But Colin said the teams agreed overnight."

"They did. Apparently everybody had a very productive night planning my future without me." I decline Philip's call and shove the phone back into my pocket. "Problem is, they still need one fairly important thing."

Her lips part.

I grin.

"I'm the one who needs to sign the contract."

Darcy blinks at me. I can actually watch her brain hit the problem

"But… the meeting was at ten. My report. You didn't know I reversed it. You couldn't have known—"

"Nope."

"Then why?"

She's genuinely lost now, gripping Beartholomew like a flotation device.

"Beck, they offered you everything you wanted. The spotlight. Face of the franchise." She takes a step closer, gripping to the front of my shirt. "You told me on this pier, this exact pier, that you wondered who you'd be somewhere else. It was everything you asked for."

"Yeah." I step closer, sliding my hand through her hair. "It was everything I asked for. Turns out I was asking for the wrong thing."

"I don't understand—"

"Darcy, I spent my whole life thinking I needed a new city, a new team, a new Beck. I just wanted a blank slate." I tuck the wind-blown hair back from her face, and my hand stays there, because it always stays there. "But I sat in that fancy room in Vegas, listening to two very expensive men tell me I could be the guy, the headline, the whole show… and all I could think about… was you."

Her breath catches.

"I love you, Darcy. That's the thing I figured out. Nobody's ever chosen me first. Not once, my whole life. I've been the bundle deal, the extra Morrison. So when Vegas said we choose you, I won't lie. I wanted in."

My thumb traces her cheek.

"But then I got back to Beachside, and I realized… choosing myself doesn't mean running from everything I love. It means finally deciding what I want, and finally having the guts to say it out loud. And what I want isn't a billboard."

"Beck—"

"It's you."

"It's this ridiculous town and my idiot brothers and Diego's constant judgment. But mostly… it's you. It's always you."

She's crying now.

"I love you," she says. "I love you so much I torched my own report."

"I love you too. So much I turned down a billboard with my face on it, which, let's be honest, is the much harder sacrifice."

She laughs and cries at the same time. I just hold her tighter.

"Whatever happens with hockey… if Colin trades me anyway, if the whole thing blows up, there's no fucking way I'm building a life that doesn't have Darcy Madden in it."

She nods, then her expression shifts into that lightning-fast Madden pivot into problem-solving mode.

"Okay. Okay, so… I'll resign then. I'm in love with a player, it's a complete conflict of interest, I'll draft a letter this afternoon, Colin can have it by—"

"Absolutely fucking not."