The Boyfriend Goal (Love and Hockey Book 1)

Josie

I’m helping Justine find some reliable sources on how to make the leap from working at a diner to working at a fine-dining establishment when my phone buzzes with a text. Wesley’s chime sound.

“One second,” I say, then steal a glance at the text from my boyfriend. Look at your email.

All I want to do is click on my email, but I need to finish with Justine. Five minutes later, I peel myself away, slipping behind the desk next to Penelope to check my phone.

It’s been lit up since Wesley’s speech the other night—a speech that shocked me and brought me to gloriously happy tears. Proud tears. Patrons here heard about it. Our donations increased a little bit, and the Boston team donated headphones too, following Wes’s lead.

My heart stutters as I read the first line.

Top Five Things For You To Do

1. Pick out your hottest librarian clothes.

2. Pack your bags.

3. Go to the airport.

4. Find a hockey player to collect your suitcase to take home.

5. Start your fully funded new job at the library near your home.

I gasp, shuddering out a shocked breath. My eyes widen, and I read it again and again.

“What’s going on? Did you get a coupon for deals on shoes?” The question comes from Penelope.

“Better. It’s from Wes. I got a job in San Francisco.”

Penelope beams, then sweeps out an arm toward the door. “Go!”

Two weeks later, I shuffle off the plane in San Francisco as if I’ve drunk ten espressos. Every cell is buzzing. I’m amped up. I can’t wait to race down the jetway, then fly along the concourse. But first, I have to get off this plane. It takes as long as the Pleistocene era, but eventually I make it to the jetway, and then…I run.

Past the gate, down the concourse, toward security, through the doors, and into Wes’s arms on the other side.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

He scoops me up in a koala hug. “You did it!”

“No, you did it.” I kiss him again and again. “You did.”

“Nope.” Then he shrugs, and smiles. “Okay, we did.”

The funding made it possible for Thalia to make my old job a regular one, where I can manage the Your Next Five Reads and also the library’s digital efforts, like I did before. I didn’t want to leave the foundation in the lurch, but I didn’t have to—Penelope is taking the permanent job they’d offered me in Boston.

With that behind us, and the future ahead of us, Wes takes me to the charming townhouse where I’ve laughed, cried, and loved. The second he pulls into the garage it feels just like that—home. I’m ready to race up the stairs and reconnect with him, but once we’re in the foyer, he says, “Remember that promise I made you?”

“Which one?”

He reaches for my hand. “I’ll show you.”

He takes me to my old room under the stairs and swings the door open. I gasp. He’s turned it into a library. Gleaming white walls are filled with shelves and books, fresh pillows line the window seat, and best of all—there’s a ladder resting against the shelves.

I tug him close to me, against the ladder, and kiss the breath out of him.

He’s always been the most generous person I’ve ever known, but to put himself out there like he did the other week? He’s not just my boyfriend. He’s the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.

But first things first. “Will you fuck me on this ladder? I feel like this belongs on a list somewhere after all.”

“Our new list,” he says, then fulfills a brand-new fantasy.