Delayed Penalty (Empire State Hockey #5)

Epilogue

Avery

I ’m not the best with surprises and honestly I probably never will be, but Harris doesn’t care. He loves to surprise me as much as possible and somehow it’s endearing —albeit I usually feign annoyance so that he doesn’t get any ideas that he should continue this little game of his.

After he got home from his run earlier today, he told me he had a surprise for me and that I needed to pack and be ready to go by the time he was finished with his shower, but that was it. He didn’t say anything else just gave me and James a kiss then went on his merry way.

Little did I know that meant that I would be getting on a private airplane just over an hour later.

But that’s what you get with Harris. You can never quite guess what’s going to happen next, or what idea he has up his sleeve. It’s never exactly what you’d expect, but in the greatest, swooniest, most exciting ways ever—usually.

One time he surprised me by telling me we were having Mexican food for dinner and instead he brought home sandwiches because he thought that’s what I’d want.

Spoiler alert: I wanted Mexican food and I was not happy.

Thankfully he figured out right away not to surprise me with anything involving my food or I get hangry.

That’s the thing about Harris though, everything he does is to make me smile, even the annoying little surprises because they always do make me happy. I never thought this is what my life would be like. When I ran into him at the bar last year, I thought it was the worst thing ever. Little did I know that it would be the best thing to ever happen to me. I never thought I’d be this happy, I never thought I deserved to be this happy. Yet here I am married to the most incredible man ever, with our son, James, and our sweet pup Luna and I know deep down that I’m the luckiest woman alive.

They make me feel like I won the lottery.

“Is this where you guessed we’d be going?” Harris asks with a smirk as he takes a sip of his drink.

“Not a chance. Hell, when you told me to pack I freaked,” I say with a laugh.

“Oh, I know. It was cute to watch.”

I just glare.

“But I had everything under control, you just needed to show up. It’s not every day that I get to spend time with my wife at Harry Potter World.”

I look around as he pulls me into his side and we continue walking around the park. It’s so beautiful here, makes me feel like I’m trapped in one of those books I grew up reading. When Harry got his letter, I felt like I had received my letter, and now, I’m here, with my husband.

It’s magical— no pun intended .

Even better is the fact that all of our friends are here, Kelly included, and they’re spending the day with James so we could have a little alone time. He called it our delayed honeymoon.

But that’s sort of been our entire story, everything has been a little delayed, but it’s always ended in a win.

Now though, the sky is starting to get darker and the buzz of noise has died down as the park gets ready to close. Somehow Harris pulled some strings and got it to where we could stay for a little while longer, giving us time to see some of the shops that we wouldn’t normally wait in lines for.

At least that’s why I thought we stayed.

“Where are you taking me?” I whisper as he moves through one of the little alleyways they’ve built between two stores, the red and gold on his robe he insisted we buy flowing in the wind, while my blue Ravenclaw robe does the same.

“Just right over here to a private corridor,” he mumbles as he tugs me to the side with him.

It’s a small little area that’s off of the main alleyway path, and although it’s more private than most places, I can very clearly still hear people’s voices so I know we aren’t completely alone. That doesn’t seem to matter as he smirks down at me, a devilish gleam in his eyes that he usually saves for the bedroom.

His lips drop to mine and immediately I know this isn’t just a simple kiss as his tongue teases my lips demanding entry—immediately. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I lift up on my toes, submitting to his kiss.

His hands grip my ass, lifting me up into his arms as he presses me against the wall. Pulling back for just a moment he licks his lips. “I want to kiss you right now, but once I’m done with that, I want these pretty lips sucking my cock.”

Before I can say anything, his mouth is on mine again, only this time we’re interrupted by a deep voice.

“C’mon you crazy kids,” Rex grumbles from the alley, breaking our kiss before it even really started. “James is tired and I’m getting hungry. Y’all have plenty of time for that nonsense later.”

“Where’s the fun in that, Lockwood?” Harris laughs and I can’t help myself, I laugh, too. Dropping my head into his chest, I soak in the craziness of the moment.

“Ready to go find our group?” I say quietly, the desire to drop to my knees and take that makeout session right where we had meant to take it—but I shouldn’t.

“Only, if you let me Slytherin those robes tonight, wife.”

“I mean obviously,” I say, rolling my eyes with a smile because although his jokes are corny as hell, they’re a part of him and everything about this man is my favorite.

My husband, my happiness, my home.