Epilogue
HANNAH
“To Trav!” Danny holds up his glass.
Everyone at the table joins in, echoing the sentiment and clinking their glasses together. Travis’s teammates and friends all made the trip, as well as some of their wives and girlfriends. It’s a bigger group than last year but seeing so many people love on my man makes me deliriously happy.
“And to the Bennett-Walshes!” Trav exclaims. “One year today.”
“To the Bennett-Walshes!” Ruby is the first to chime in, the rest follow.
We’re sitting at the same club in Vegas as we did last year on his birthday. It feels like yesterday…at least what I can remember.
“Happy birthday,” I say next to him, cuddling up to his side. He has one arm around my shoulders and his leg presses into mine beneath the table.
“Thanks, baby.”
“I have something for you.”
“Yeah? You got me a present?” The unfiltered excitement he lives every day with is one of many things I love about Travis. He never holds back.
“Yep.” I pull out the small black box from my purse and hold it in my palm.
He stares at it, without taking it, then looks at me.
“Is that what I think it is?” His grin pulls higher on one side.
“I don’t know. Open it.” I shrug, then beam at him. I’ve been holding on to it for weeks, and I cannot wait to see his reaction.
He picks up the box and slowly pries it open. When he sees what’s inside, his expression can only be described as giddy.
“You got me a wedding band.”
“It matches mine,” I tell him proudly and hold my hand up next to the box. It’s black tungsten carbide instead of gold, but it has the same detailing as mine with little diamonds around the center.
He keeps staring at it without making a move to put it on.
“Do you like it?”
“I love it. I’m just…” His throat works and he turns to me, covering my mouth with his and kissing me hard. It’s quick but speaks everything.
“Thank you,” he says finally.
“It’s been a whole year. I figured I better put a ring on it.”
“I was yours from the moment I saw you.” He removes the ring from the box and puts it on, then stares at it some more.
“Mmm…not quite.”
“The first moment I really saw you.”
“I can’t believe you sent me to jail.”
He winces.
“But if you hadn’t, then who knows where we’d be.”
“We’d have found our way to each other.”
“You think?”
“I know.” He places his hand next to mine and admires our rings together.
“Hey, I have an idea. Let’s get married tonight.”
“What?” He laughs then realizes I’m not kidding. “For real?”
“I nod. This time I’m going to remember every second.”
“Fuck I love you, H.B.W.”
I let out a laugh.
“No? You don’t like that one?” he asks.
“I’m only wondering when you’re going to finally decide which nickname you like best.”
He reaches up and ghosts his fingers along my jaw. “I stopped trying to pick. They’re all yours. You’re my everything.”
It’s hours later when we stumble out into the warm Vegas night.
The sky is a kaleidoscope of neon colors. I tilt my head back and laugh. It’s a giddy, bubbly sound that I often make these days. I’ve never been this happy. Almost carefree.
That’s the thing about those great nights that you want to bottle up forever. They can’t be contained. And maybe that’s what makes them so wonderful.
Tomorrow morning everything will be exactly the way it should. I’ll keep loving him and he’ll keep loving me. Forever.
His hand envelops mine. Big and warm. The callouses on his palm match up with my own.
“Hannah,” he whispers my name, and something about the quiet of it amid the loud, busy streets feels reverent.
I look at him, taking in his dark, wavy hair and that one piece that’s always falling onto his forehead. And his smile—big and uneven. It’s unnerving how well he’s imprinted into my heart for how little time I’ve known him.
I used to think he was all wrong for me and yet…
Yet no one has ever been more right.
Before you go, I want to say thank you! I am so grateful that you took a chance on my book. If you enjoyed it, then I hope you’ll tell a friend who loves fun, swoony, spicy romance!
As a thank-you, I’ve written a bonus scene of Travis and Hannah playing strip poker. Find out if his epic losing streak continues. Read it for free here!
Next up in the Moonshot Hockey series is Taking Sides—a hockey romance between a shy pro hockey player who can’t talk to women and his rival’s sister. It’s releasing September 29th 2026. Check it out here.
But until then…
Are you ready to meet the Holland Brothers? Let me introduce you to Knox Holland. A motocross tattooed bad boy who meets his match in a fiery gymnast named Avery Oliver.
Burnout brings banter, spice, forced proximity, found family, and a bad boy falls hard for a girl that refuses to back down. Turn the page to start reading.