“Obviously, tell Charlotte,” I teased a little bit.
To my delight, Helena giggled. It was a sound I hadn’t realized I’d missed until I heard it again. Now, it felt even more precious than ever.
“Telling Charlotte means telling Pat,” Helena pointed out. “And if he knows, your parents may as well know. We don’t have to keep it a secret. They’ll understand that we can’t know what will happen until we try.”
As Helena shifted closer, I could feel the warmTH of her skin. “But maybe don’t tell the press right away. Or Ethan.”
God, yeah. I could imagine how excited Ethan would be that his aunt was dating an NHL player. And how disappointed he’d be if she stopped.
“Okay. You’re right, my family probably would find out.” I nodded. “But yours doesn’t have to.” Yes, telling Ethan was a bad idea but so was telling the rest of Helena’s family. Even if they seemed to like me better now that I was earning quite a lot of money. Suddenly, me playing hockey for a living didn’t seem to matter as much.
Turning my head, I pressed a kiss against Helena’s hand, making her smile in response. “It’s easy to start planning for far away future, for all the things I’d want us to be and become, but... Let’s be real about this. It might not work, I know that. Obviously, I hope it will, I’m willing to work hard to make it succeed. But it might not.”
And yeah, that was very far from the ideal. But what was the point in getting our hopes up without even trying?
“So date me. Let me take you out on a date. Yeah, I am going in a few days, but that’s a few days we could fill with dates?”
Helena’s smile was as sweet as that very first time I asked her to teach me to dance. But this time, there was a lot more confidence shining from her eyes, too. It was a heady combination, one that made me want to prove to her that this could work.
“Alright,” she agreed, sliding her hand to the back of my neck. Her fingers worked their way through my hair, bringing my whole body out in pleasant shivers. “You take me out on a date first, then I’ll take you out on one.”
Her lips curved into a smirk that was totally sexy. “We’ve both got an advantage; it should be pretty interesting to see who can plan the best date.”
“Oh, it will be you,” I said with confidence. A smile played on my lips. Having Helena date me better than I was dating her wasn’t something that bothered me a great deal. I could put together a good date, I was sure, one that she’d enjoy. She was just no doubt better at it. But that was okay, too. Trying was going to be what Helena truly appreciated and I was ready to put in all the trying.
Giving her another grin, I tugged against her hand. “Before the dating, though, do you think we can do a bit more of the kissing? I’ve missed kissing you.” There were ten years of kissing to catch up with after all!
The blush that tinted her cheeks made her eyes sparkle even more brightly blue. I had missed this, saying things that made Helena give me those incredible smiles.
And as she leaned in, still cupping one side of my face, all I could think about was how much I wanted to be there for the next ten years, and the ten years after that.
Chapter Twenty
Helena
If possible, going on a date with Sam at thirty felt even more exciting than it had at seventeen. Maybe that was partly because it had been ten years since I’d been on a date with Sam Levesque. And maybe it was partly because we had the freedom to do more than go to the same three restaurants.
Sam told me to pack an overnight bag with comfortable clothes and to wear whatever would make me feel suited to a nice restaurant, but refused to give me any more information. Even as he drove us away from Lunengrove, I couldn’t needle anything further out of him, no matter how hard I tried.
By the time we reached the city, the sky was just beginning to shade towards twilight.
“Oh, wow! Look how pretty the lights are reflected in the river!” The streaks of white, yellow, orange, and red looked like something out of a painting. It was beautiful. If Sam had told me we were going to picnic by the water, that would’ve been more than enough to make this a great date.
Instead, he took my arm and guided me towards a big, fancy yacht. “Are you really not going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked, hoping that this time, Sam might relent.
“I feel like it’s going to become obvious very soon,” Sam teased, waving his free hand around. It made me look around more. There weren’t that many places we could be heading from here. In the distance, I could see a building that may or may not have been some sort of seafood restaurant. But if that was where we were headed, Sam would have parked closer.
Instead, as we walked towards one of the bigger yachts, it dawned on me that that was where we were going. Sam must have recognized the moment I realized it because his smile widened.
“You love boats,” he pointed out. “So I got you a boat. Well, I got you dinner on a boat. I thought buying you a yacht for our first date might be a bit much.”
The noise I made was half a laugh and half a gasp. “Buying me a yacht would be a bit
