Page 147
“Well, I’m sorry I made things difficult. I was scared, everything was changing so rapidly, and I-I just wanted to fix it. Make it better.”
Her expression softened into his favourite smile. “You have. You’re here.”
Longing swelled in Oliver’s chest. “I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you.” He traced the soft curve of her cheek, then held her hand. “And that’s why I want to build a life with you here.”
Her jaw dropped.
“I met with Amalia Friday afternoon. I told her I’d like to stay, and she offered me a permanent position on the spot.”
“But what about the Rafferty and mudlarking?” Sadness clouded her eyes. “Waffles?”
“I’ll have business trips there, and we’ll visit. Raff’s coming here this summer.”
“Are you sure? You’d be leaving your entire life behind.” She glanced sidelong then down.
Oliver softly placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face, her gaze reuniting with his. “My job, my family, they’re all here, Georgie. With you.”
Her expression brightening, she threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, I fucking love you, Oliver Jönsson! More than anything.”
An ebullient “Whoo-hoo!” arose beside and behind them, followed by an abrupt “Sssh!”
Audience or not, Oliver grasped her waist, the freckles on her nose and gold flecks in her blue eyes signs of home. “I love you…so much so, I might open my heart to the Leafs as well.”
“Ooh, be careful,” she sassed. “They’re a heartbreaker.”
“So I’ve heard!”
Georgie squinted. “You don’t have to like them, you know. I’ll love you regardless.”
Letting out a relieved laugh, Oliver grinned. “Thank god! But I think I’m done with hating hockey.”
A sparkle glimmered in her eyes.
“And the fans—well, one in particular is really hot.”
Toying with the soft hair at the nape of his neck, Georgie stared at his mouth. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He stroked her back.
“You are so getting lucky tonight!” Georgie lunged forward, claiming his mouth.
Oliver happily let her in, losing himself wholeheartedly in her boldness and taste, oblivious to the cheers and claps of their own personal fan club in grey section 85.
FORTY-FOUR
GEORGIE
Five weeks later, Saturday, May 29, 1993
London could keep its early blossoming daffodils. To Georgie, spring meant tulips, playoffs, and hopeful new beginnings, and life with Oliver in Toronto was in full bloom.
Within days of their Game 4 reunion, Toronto defeated the Red Wings with a nail-biting Game 7 overtime victory in Detroit. Watching at McNally’s, Oliver bought their friends celebratory drinks and Georgie lost her voice cheering, a predicament that left her serving tables the next morning with hand gestures and whispers.
She didn’t have much time to recover. The second round and the St. Louis Blues stood in the Leafs’ path two days later. Oliver sat with Kaitlin during the home games so superstitious Georgie had Michael by her side. Toronto (being Toronto) chose hard over easy, enduring two double-overtime games and another seven-game series to finally send the Blues packing with a lopsided 6-0 win at the Gardens on May 15.
And then the Leafs met Wayne Gretzky and the LA Kings. The conference final was a feisty affair with numerous questionable non-calls, and during the first minute of overtime in Game 6, it looked like The Great One’s high stick on Doug Gilmour might go down in history as a huge miscarriage of justice—but nope! The referee, spotting Gilmour’s bloody chin, slapped Gretzky with a double-minor penalty and a game misconduct, and the McNally’s faithful exploded in cheers. A rule was a rule, and no one was exempt, not even the game’s greatest player.
Number 99’s banishment put the Leafs on a four-minute power play and led to a top-shelf goal from Mr. Gilmour himself, winning the series four games to LA’s two and propelling Toronto into their first Stanley Cup Final since 1967. Even more perfect, the Leafs would be facing their longest-running rivals, the storied Montréal Canadiens, in an all-Canadian climax.
