Epilogue #2
Hattie and Rowan’s romance is next Just One Kiss. I’ve loved Hattie for years. So when I accidentally tell the entire town we're engaged, it seems easier to play along than admit the truth.
“When can we expect Hart's Brewery to open?"
"Sometime in the new year. Boone's making the bar and furniture by hand, and it takes time. But we thought it was worth it to include his craftsmanship."
"Do you think we can get an exclusive tour before it opens? We'd love to do a piece in the paper."
"Of course," I said, my mouth suddenly dry. I had no idea if I was allowed to grant her request. I wasn't used to dealing with the publicity stuff, and I wished I could avoid it.
"We asked our readers to send in their questions for this interview, and there was one burning question."
"What's that?" I asked, feeling a little hot despite the cold temperatures.
"Our readers want to know if you're single."
I coughed. "I'm sorry. What?"
She smiled. "You could host a contest on opening day, and the winner gets a beer bath with Rowan Hart. We'd be happy to promote that for you. You'll have so many people applying—"
I cleared my throat in an attempt to stop her rambling. "I'm not single."
Hattie raised her brow.
Jane frowned. "Who are you seeing then?"
My heart rate picked up. Why had I lied? I should have known she'd have a follow up question. They'd want to know who I was dating. My gaze swung to Hattie, who was looking at me expectantly. "I'm engaged to Hattie."
Why had I said I was engaged? I should have said we were dating. That was more believable. But I panicked. The opening was supposed to be about my brews, not my single status. Hattie would understand, even though she hadn't talked to me for years. Not really.
"You're engaged," Jane said slowly, as if she'd missed something important.
I stepped toward Hattie, thinking that we needed to act this out to make it more believable. I placed my arm over her shoulders, drawing her into my side. "I've been so busy with the renovation and finalizing my brews that we haven't had time to share the good news."
"Our followers will certainly be disappointed." Jane clamored on about setting up a time to tour the brewery.
Hattie was stiff under my arm, and I was worried that she'd tell Jane that I was lying. That we weren't even friends, much less engaged.
"We'll be in touch," Jane finally said, and then left with her photographer.
"What was that?" Hattie asked.
I followed Hattie to the edge of the hot cocoa bar. "I'm sorry. She started talking about women clamoring to get into the bath with me, and I panicked."
"So you said we were engaged? We don't even talk anymore. No one will believe it." Her voice was soft, a hissed whisper.
"We were friends at one time." We had been younger then, just entering the teenage phase. She'd created distance between us, and I was helpless to stop the progression. It was normal for friends to drift, but I was upset that it was Hattie that had initiated the breakup.
She crossed her arms over her chest, and I was worried that Jane would look over and see that my supposed fiancée was very much upset with me. I had to fix this, and fast.
I moved closer, forcing Hattie's chin to lift so that she could maintain eye contact with me.
"She was making the grand opening a spectacle with single women competing to climb into a tub with me.
I had to do something. I wanted the grand opening to be about the brews, the renovation, the bath house. Not my love life."
Hattie sighed, and I hoped that meant she was softening toward the idea.
"Would you mind pretending to be my girl, at least until the opening? It will take the pressure off me and keep the focus where it belongs, on the brewery."
"The story is that we reconnected and fell madly in love?" she asked, and I detected a twinge of sarcasm, as if the idea was ludicrous to her.
For me, it wasn't that far from the truth. I'd crushed on her from the moment I'd realized I liked girls. "Something like that."
She looked away from me. "We'll have to pretend to be engaged over the holidays, be seen in public together, do all the usual holiday events."
"That's fine with me." I was actually getting excited about the idea of spending time with Hattie. She'd been running from me for years, and I'd finally be close enough to her to discover why.
She gave me an exasperated look. "You'd have to bring me to your family's gatherings as. Your. Date, and tell everyone that we. Are. Engaged."
"I don't like lying to my family, but we can't have the story around the brewery be about my love life and not the hard work we did to get here."
"I'm sympathetic to that—"
I touched her arm, and to my surprise, she didn't pull away. "It's just for a few weeks, four to six tops. I promise. Then we say that we broke up because I was too focused on work or something like that."
Her gaze lowered. "That's believable."
I should have asked her what she meant by that, but I was too excited that she was giving into this. "So you'll do it?"
She sighed. "I don't want to."
I looked at her hot cocoa bar, the slow cooker, and the fixings in containers. "Maybe there's something I can do for you."
Read Just One Kiss.
Have you read The Sterling Brothers Series yet? These brothers renovate a small mountain town and fall hard for women they never expected. Start with book 1, Wildest Dreams. The worst part isn’t that he’s back. It’s how much I still want him.