Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
HUDSON
Beer sloshes over my hand.
Again.
“Motherfucking stupid piece of tr?—”
“Okay, all right.” Two hands land on my shoulder and guide me away from the tap behind the bar. “That’s a bit much for the customers, let alone anyone in general, to hear right now,” Betty says before stiffly ushering me away from our diners.
I sigh and then shake her off.
“Sorry.”
“I know you are, but if you’re just going to be a grump and shout incoherent profanity, I think the best place for that is anywhere but here.”
“I need to work,” I tell her and step for the bar again, but she stops me.
“You need to take time off.”
“Betty,” I warn.
“Hudson,” she warns back. “You. Need. A. Break.”
I start to argue, but then I notice the prying eyes. There’s a mix of tourists and locals, and it’s enough for me to step back and take a breath.
I need a distraction, yes, but I don’t need an audience, and that’s exactly what we have.
“Yeah. Okay.”
“Go for a walk or something. Get some air.”
I nod.
“It’s all going to work out, Boss. Just give it time.”
I huff and walk around her.
She has no idea what she’s talking about.
The last time someone told me something similar, I lost everything and ended up right back in the same place as before.
I push on the door a little too hard, and it flies open.
“Oh shit,” someone says on the other side.
I want to not give a shit if I hit someone with the door, but no matter how much I hate life right now, I don’t want to let myself sink to the level I did before. Sadie might not want anything to do with me, but she would be disappointed if I fell again.
“Sorry, man, I …” My words trail off as I come face to face with Carver Watkins and Archer Hittman.
The three of us stand frozen, staring at one another. While I’m stuck in shock, my former best friends and teammates look relieved.
What are the fucking odds of this right now? I don’t need this, this reminder of how far my life has fallen. Yet somehow, that thought isn’t enough to make me move my feet and walk away.
“Hey,” Carver says first.
“Hi.”
“My, uh, my sister is getting married at the lodge this weekend,” Archer adds, jerking a thumb over his right shoulder.
They’re here because of convenience, not for any other reason .
Sweet.
Then again, I haven't kept in touch with anyone since I left, so how did they know where to find me? They knew I was from here, but I didn't tell anyone I was moving back.
“We called your brother,” Carver says quickly. “Luca.”
“Three years later,” I shout before I can think better of it.
“We tried to call you back when …” Archer’s words trail off. “But you changed your number.”
It’s true—I changed my number after only a couple of weeks.
These were my best friends.
I didn’t just lose hockey that day, and that’s what hit me the most. If they weren’t going to call after a measly two weeks, my mind was made up that they weren’t ever going to call. I was going to erase as much of that life as I could.
Now, yes, I see that might have been a rash choice, but it doesn’t change the fact they never tried harder to reach me.
“You should have showed up at my door or called the next day or the day after that or?—”
“You never called us either,” Carver snaps. “You didn’t reach out. So we gave you space because we thought that’s what you wanted.”
His words are like a slap in the face.
Space.
I loathe that word.
“But you clearly didn’t want space. We just didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, man, we were just doing what we thought was best.”
The lack of communication on both sides was high back then. I can’t blame them for how I handled things, and I can’t blame them for not knowing what I wanted if I wasn't telling them.
If the roles were reversed, what would I do? How would I help someone? We all started together, and our careers were just taking off. Life was busy, and our commitment to the team took up a lot of our time. Like Archer just said, they were doing what they thought was best.
Fuck.
The same way I treated Sadie by not telling her about the space between her bakery and my bar.
I didn’t intend to hurt her, and they didn’t intend to hurt me.
I let out a breath.
“When’s the wedding?” I ask.
“Tomorrow.”
“Cool, I’ll—ugh, I’ll send a case of wine over. My treat.”
Archer tilts his head. “Is everything okay?”
“Yep.”
They both watch me cautiously. When I think they will head into the bar for a drink, Luca rounds the corner and shouts my name.
“Hudson!”
Archer, Carver, and I all glance his way as he walks up.
“No shit, you came. I was just coming to tell him you were in town,” Luca says with a grin.
I glance between them.
“They messaged me on the gram since you don’t have social media, and I gave them my number.”
Awesome.
“This is great timing because Hudson here could use a friend, and I’m in crunch mode trying to land a build with the devil herself.”
What the hell is my brother talking about?
“I don’t need a friend.”
“Last time life didn’t work out your way, you shut everyone out. I’m not letting it happen again. Luckily, these two are in town at the perfect moment. Fate is here, boys, don’t waste it. ”
Luca walks off with his phone to his ear, and all I can think, again, is what the fuck ?
I watch until he disappears and then glance back at Archer and Carver.
They’re both grinning.
“So that’s Luca,” Carver states.
“That’s Luca.”
“Should we get a beer?” Archer asks and points to the bar.
I take a breath and then let it out, dropping my chin to my chest. What have I got to lose?
“Okay, so let me get this right.” Carver takes a pull from his second beer and then sits up taller. “You two hated each other, but now you love her.”
“That about sums it up.”
“Does she love you?”
I shrug. “I’d like to think so, but it’s been two days and all I've got is radio silence.”
“She won’t answer your calls?” Archer asks as Betty brings us another round. His eyes linger on her a moment longer than normal.
I kick his shin under the table.
“Stop ogling my employee.”
He holds his hands up. “She held eye contact with me. I can’t leave her hanging.”
“Sure,” I say, and he chuckles, which in turn causes me to do the same because he’s not wrong. I’ve caught her looking too.
I hate to admit this after having so much animosity toward them, but I missed these guys. It’s been a whole hour, and even though so much has changed between us, the ease of being around them hasn’t .
“I actually haven’t tried to call her.”
“What?” Carver says a little too loudly.
“Oh my god, have you learned nothing since we last saw you?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Okay. Enlighten us.”
I glance between them. “Well, I …”
“You need to call her,” Archer says quickly. “You didn’t call us, and we didn’t call you soon enough. Don’t make that mistake again.”
“I don’t think she wants me to call her.”
Carver leans forward. “We thought the same thing, and now look. This is the first time in three years we’ve all had a beer together. Don’t be us. Be better.”
I nod, letting their words process.
“If you’re not going to call her?—”
“I’m going to call her,” I cut Archer off. “I just don’t know what I’m going to say that she hasn’t heard yet. And not to mention, I feel like she deserves more than a phone call. She’s been through so much that I just want … I just want to ease the stress of everything she has going on right now. If that means I give her the space she asked for even if I don’t want to, so be it.”
Both of my friends shake their heads.
“What else can I do?” I ask. “Remodel the bar and build the bookstore and hope that when she does want to talk to me again, I can win her over by showing her how badly I want her to get her dream?”
Their faces light up, and Archer snaps his fingers. “That’s exactly what you do.”
“That’s a great start!”
I study them for a moment as I process everything I’ll need to get started and get this in motion. Of course, it’ll take months to go from start to finish. I sure as hell don’t intend to wait that long to talk to Sadie again, but until she’s ready to see me, I’m going to do everything I can to prove that I’ve meant every single word I’ve said to her since the moment she knocked on my door.
Me and her, there is no going back.
“Remodeling the space is great, but I have a better idea.”
One that hopefully lets me win the girl back sooner rather than later.
“How long are you here?”
“Four days.” Carver grins.
“When do we get started?” Archer asks.
“Right now,” I stand quickly, my chair screeching as it moves back. The three of us head for the door and for the first time in days, I have a smile on my lips.
I’ve got my friends back for the weekend, which means there is one more group I need to message right now.
I reach into my pocket and send a quick group text to Linc, my dad, and my brothers. One that is short, sweet, and to the point. A text I should have sent three years ago.
Hudson
I need your help.