Epilogue
JACE
ONE YEAR LATER
Standing in the center of the rink, the cold seeps from the ice beneath my skates.
The air drifts along the outer layer of my jogger pants, sliding through the thin fabric as it dances across my skin.
The front door closes as the last kid exits the building with his parents and I’m left alone after a long day of clinics.
Harrison and I opened the rink about two months ago and it’s been an absolute whirlwind since.
We weren't sure what to expect with interest from different families, but as the word spread around town and the neighboring cities, we found ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of people who wanted to come check out what we are doing here.
I slowly spin on my skates, a sense of peace washing over me as I take in the place Harrison and I have poured everything into. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours, were spent planning and preparing for our opening day.
And now, here we are two months later with a packed schedule of sold out clinics and classes. I never would have thought something like this would be possible, except there is one person who has always been there, forcing me to believe in myself, because of how much she believes in me.
“Hey, you.”
I turn away from the benches to face the far door that opens into the rink. A smile dances across my lips. She’s standing there, almost as if she materialized from thin air.
Willow Alder.
The woman who has never viewed me as a failure.
The muscles in my legs fire as I skate over to where she’s standing. “What are you doing here, beautiful?”
Her lips twitch as a ghost of a smile dances across them. “Enjoying the view.”
“Yeah?” I say with a chuckle, coming closer to the door. Willow takes a step back, making room for me to pass through the opening in the boards. I grab the door and push it shut behind me. “I thought you were working late at the shop tonight?”
She shakes her head, heading down the hallway as we walk into the coach’s locker room. “I ended up getting done earlier than I thought and figured I’d come watch you.”
I lower myself onto the bench by the wall and bend over to untie my skates. Willow slowly walks around the room, her eyes scanning the different cubbies with Harrison and the other coach’s gear. “Are you done for the night?” She asks as she stops in front of me.
“I am. The last clinic’s done and everyone went home for the night.”
She arches a brow as I sit back upright, leaving my skates on the floor by my feet. “So, it’s just the two of us here?”
“It is,” I murmur, leaning forward to hook my hands around the backs of her thighs. She doesn’t protest as I drag her closer, spreading my knees as I pull her into the space between them. “I don’t think we’ve christened this room yet, have we?”
She lets out a soft laugh as she runs her hands along the tops of my shoulders and the base of my neck. “This room smells so bad, Jace.” Her nose scrunches upward and she shakes her head. “This room will remain untouched.”
My own laughter vibrates in my chest as I tilt my head up to look at her. “Hey, it was worth a try.”
“Well, A+ for effort,” she says with a wink as she leans down and kisses my forehead. “Hurry and finish up here so we can go get dinner.” As if her stomach knows it needs to support her case, it growls.
“When’s the last time you ate?” I ask as I grab my skates and put them where they belong. My keys and wallet sit in the locked part up top and I take them out before meeting Willow by the door.
“I don’t know, maybe lunchtime?” She gives me a shrug. “I was waiting so we could have dinner together.”
Willow always has been, and I think will always be, the type of person who frequently forgets to eat multiple times a day. There’s a prickle of frustration under my skin and I let out a sigh as I push the door open for her. “I’m about to start packing you snacks to eat throughout the day.”
She lets out a soft laugh as we fall into step with one another. “I can pack my own.”
“I know you can, but I want to do it,” I say quietly as we reach the front desk. Willow stops and waits as I step behind it, locking the computers and flicking off most of the lights. I catch her gaze as I stand and turn back to her. “I always want to take care of you.”
A tender smile dances across her lips as she walks around the desk, stepping into my space. “I like you taking care of me, Jace Miller. You can as long as you want, okay?” she says, lifting her arms to wrap them around the back of my neck.
“As long as I want?” I growl, my hands finding her hips as I pull her body to mine. “I want to for the rest of my life and in the next one, and however many others come after that.”
Her fingers twirl the ends of my hair at the nape of my neck. She cocks her head to the side, her eyebrows tugging together as her eyes search mine. “Do you think that’s how it is? That we get more than one life?”
My tongue darts out to wet my lips as I lift one hand to brush some stray hairs from her face.
My fingers drag along the shell of her ear as I tuck the hair behind it.
“I refuse to believe this is the only life I get to have with you. I refuse to believe that after this one, nothing else comes after.”
“It is a nice thought,” she says after a moment and her eyes flick to mine. “What if in another life we wouldn’t find each other?”
A quiet chuckle vibrates in my chest. “Do you really think I wouldn’t find you?” I slowly shake my head, a grin tugging on my lips. “Whatever life it is, I will always find you, Willow. You will always be mine.”
“I love you,” she breathes, lifting on her toes to nip at my lips. “Now, let’s go home.”
I wrap my arm around her lower back and pull her the rest of the way up onto her toes so I can capture her lips, turning her nips into a deep kiss.
When I pull back, my hand that had been at her ear slides down the length of her arm until I’m weaving my fingers through hers.
My heart pounds strong and steady inside my chest, and warmth washes over me as she stares back at me.
“I love you and I love the way that word sounds now.”
Last week she finally moved in with me and now home has a whole new meaning to it, but then again, I’ve always known where mine was.
It’s with her.
It’s always been her.
THE END
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Prologue
Natalie
ONE YEAR EARLIER
I can’t get my hands to stop shaking.
My vision blurs as I stare down at my left hand. At the ring on my second to last finger. The oval diamond that weighs heavily on my slender finger. “How long has this been going on?”
The silence stretches and he shifts his weight on his feet in front of me, the light catching on the shiny black toes of his dress shoes, pulling my gaze away from my engagement ring. “Since February.”
Nausea rolls in the pit of my stomach. The lace along the tops of my breast’s scratches against my skin. “So, since you started your new job.”
“I started it in January,” he says defensively. My eyes flick to his, ignoring the perfectly pressed suit that’s adorning his body. My gaze is as cold and as hard as steel. Chad lets out a shallow breath. “Yes. It started not long after I started there.”
Today was supposed to be one of the best days of my life.
The day I was supposed to marry him. The day I’ve spent months counting down to.
I should have known. I’ve ignored the warning signs for the last three months.
The smell of perfume on his shirts. The meetings that would run into the middle of the night.
All the hours he spent at that stupid fucking office.
And this entire time, he’s been sleeping with his assistant.
“Why did you wait until now to say something?” My voice sounds smaller than I want it to, but I’m exhausted. After the bomb he dropped three minutes ago, I’m obliterated. “Why not do it before the wedding?”
“I ended things with her,” he says in a rush, pushing a hand through his hair. That bullshit Rolex I bought him last year shines from his wrist. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for some time and I knew I couldn’t walk down the aisle today without you knowing.”
My eyebrows tug downward as his words are a blow to my chest. “When did you end things with her?”
His throat bobs as he swallows roughly. “On Wednesday.”
“Wednesday.” The word sounds foreign falling from my lips.
Suddenly, a simple day of the week tastes foul.
A harsh laugh escapes me and I feel it. I’m teetering on the edge of madness and it’s simply to shield the true emotion that snakes around me like a vine.
Pain. “You waited three days before our wedding to end things with her.”
“I still want to marry you, Natalie.”
I blink.
His words carry so much weight as they twist around us. The room feels as though it’s shrinking. As if the walls are sliding closer. Slowly draining the oxygen from the room. Slowly suffocating me.
“You still want to marry me.”
It’s not a question. It’s a statement. And my god, it might be the most ridiculous words ever spoken. Just hand me a palette and a paintbrush so I can paint his face to look like what he is—a fucking clown.
And I refuse to be painted in the same light.
“No.”
Chad jerks his head back as if I slapped him. “Don’t be like this, Natalie. We can work past this.”
This is the out I’ve been secretly looking for since he proposed.
Chad has always appeared like the good guy.
He’s charming and very likable, not to mention extremely handsome.
There’s just one fatal flaw. He lacks emotional depth and intelligence.
The connection we have has never been a strong one, but I always assumed it was because of how he is.
A simple man that things never have to be that deep or that serious with.
What we have—or had—never lit my soul on fire, but it was comfortable. It was safe.