They set the date for late June, a full season away, both of them wanting enough time to plan properly around their respective schedules without rushing something neither of them wanted to remember as chaotic or compressed. It gave them, too, an entire hockey season to simply enjoy being engaged, ring catching light during morning coffee, the quiet, unhurried anticipation of a wedding neither of them needed to prove anything through, only celebrate.
The season itself unfolded with considerably less drama than their first — both of them settling fully into professional careers that no longer felt like constant proving grounds, Reese's team clinching a playoff spot by March, Cole's game steadying into exactly the reliable, positionally sound hockey Petrelli had once reminded him was enough,
