Epilogue
EPILOGUE
HADLEY
“Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
Sam grins from the driver’s seat of her car. “Can’t I visit my sister without an ulterior motive?”
“You can, I suppose. But I’m going to see you for Christmas in a week.”
Although my sister and I see each other a lot more often than we did when I still lived in Brazil, it’s hard to find time between both of our jobs to visit one another. So when she showed up on my doorstep this morning and made me play hooky, I was confused.
“Jesus, Hadley. If I had known you didn’t like my company so much, I would’ve stayed home.”
I roll my eyes. “You know that’s not what I mean!”
Sam doesn’t reply, and I let out a sigh, slumping in my seat. But when she steers the car into the Dirty Dick’s parking lot, I sit up straight again.
“What are we doing here?”
After brunch and getting our nails done at the resort spa, I thought we’d maybe head to the next town over for some last minute Christmas shopping. I wasn’t expecting to go drinking in the middle of the afternoon .
Sam groans. “ Must you ask so many questions? I said I wanted to kidnap you today. Please trust that I have your best interests at heart.”
“Fine,” I reply. Like I have a choice.
Once Sam parks, we hop out and head inside.
While the bar itself is the same as it’s always been, it feels like a far cry from the dingy building I walked into that day I reconnected with Brooks. After Margaret decided to retire, she handed the business down to her great nephew, and my boyfriend has been doing everything in his power not to disappoint her.
Once he took over, I helped him make some…improvements. Nothing to get rid of the character of the place, which has admittedly grown on me, but small things to spruce it up a bit. My first order of business was requesting the sign outside be fixed. The wonky S is no more.
Inside, the place was given a very thorough cleaning, top to bottom. No doubt it’ll eventually return to its once scuzzy state, but a girl can try.
Now that it’s Christmas season, a small tree has been set up in one of the empty corners. It used to sit upstairs in Brooks’s apartment, but once we moved in together and started getting a real tree, it no longer had a use. The decorations are sparse, but it gives the bar a pop of colour.
I expect to find at least a handful of regulars sitting around the tables and over playing pool, but the place is surprisingly empty. Too empty.
I turn to Sam, but somehow, she has managed to disappear.
What the hell?
I walk farther into the room, looking for one of the employees. Luce would be my best bet. She’s as no-nonsense as the day I met her—she’ll tell me what’s going on.
“Hello?” I call.
No response.
“Sam, whatever this is, it’s not funny.”
She doesn’t say anything, and I let out a small grumble. The longer I stand here, the more concerned I get. This place is never empty. Even if it’s not busy, there’s always someone posted at the bar with a beer.
I spin around, looking for signs of…something. When I don’t find anything, I turn back to face the bar, and then I see him. Brooks comes out from the back room, and I freeze.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “I thought you weren’t working today.”
At home this morning, he said something about going to his mom’s to fix her kitchen sink. But he obviously didn’t go to Pineridge if he’s here right now.
“About that…” he says. “I may have told a small lie.”
He rounds the bar, coming to stand in front of me. I can’t put my finger on it, but something feels different about him. Maybe it’s the new shirt he’s wearing. While it isn’t odd for a man to wear a nice button-up, it is odd for my man. He almost exclusively wears flannels and Henleys.
I arch a brow at him. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening right now? Sam drove me here and then abandoned me.”
He gives me a smile as he holds out a hand. “Come with me.”
Skeptically, I set my palm in his, letting him tug me along. I trust him wholeheartedly, but as could probably be expected from my personality, I’m not a huge fan of surprises.
He pulls me through the arched doorway and into the side room. This is where the pool tables are set up. Today, though, it looks a lot different.
Mistletoe. There is so much mistletoe .
It’s hanging from the ceiling and decorating the walls. It looks like Santa threw up in here. It’s pretty, don’t get me wrong, but it leaves me even more confused.
“Where did you get all this?” I ask. Maybe not the most important question at the moment, but I have to know. I reach out and touch one of the bundles wrapped with a red bow. “Is this real ? ”
“It’s real. I had a little help from the florist. She loves me.”
I shake my head as I continue my perusal of the room. “I’m not sure how. You always make her job harder than it needs to be.”
Over the past couple years, Brooks has purchased a lot of flower bouquets for me. But he often requests blooms that are expensive and hard to find, and poor Martha has to run around trying to meet his expectations.
It’s her own fault, really. After she helped him with the poinsettia two Christmases ago, she was doomed.
“This is very pretty, baby, but why is the bar covered in mistletoe?” I ask.
I turn to Brooks for his explanation, but I stop short. Because he’s not standing in front of me anymore. Instead, he’s down on one knee.
Oh my God .
My lips part as words try to escape, but nothing comes out.
“Hadley,” he begins. “From the moment you showed up in this bar, I knew I couldn't let you go again. You have always fit in my life like you were destined to be there, and I truly believe you were. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much.” He opens a ring box I hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Will you marry me, sweetheart?”
My heart threatens to beat right out of my chest and gift itself to the man on his knee before me. Sixteen-year-old Hadley had been convinced we’d end up here. Twelve years later, I can tell her she was right.
“You want to marry me?”
Brooks chuckles. “Only since the day I met you in high school.”
I scoff, but it soon turns into a sniffle. “Yes. Oh my God, yes. Obviously.”
He stands, and I throw my arms around his neck, pressing my face into his chest. He holds me there, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head. And that’s when the mistletoe clicks into place. The bar and the plant are pieces of our story. Pieces of us.
When I eventually pull back, he takes my hand and slides the ring onto my finger. It’s a solitaire diamond on a gold band. Simple and perfect, and exactly me.
“I love you,” I say, meeting Brooks’s gaze. “So much.”
“I love you, too, Hads.”
I glance up at the mistletoe hanging directly above us. “I suppose this was all part of your plan. Guess I have to kiss you now, huh?”
He shrugs. “It is tradition, after all.”
I rise up onto my toes, taking his face in my hands. Then I let my lips find his. He wraps his arms around my waist, tugging me closer. I hope my sister truly did leave or she’s going to be getting an eyeful.
Brooks’s tongue tangles with mine, and I let out a moan. “Is your old bed still upstairs?” I ask between kisses.
“Yeah,” he replies, out of breath. “But the heat’s not on up there.”
I grin. “That’s okay. You’ll just have to keep me warm some other way, fiancé .”
Without another word, Brooks takes my hand and starts pulling me toward the stairs. Giggling, I follow after him.
I’ll forever be grateful for the night I walked through that door. The night Brooks came back into my life. It goes against all my beliefs, but I think Sam was right—the universe was trying to tell us something. And damn, am I glad I listened.