Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
ADDISON
Jasper Hastings, Roman Ashford, Zeke Adams.
My heart stops when I see those three names on the guest list. I blink, thinking maybe I’m seeing things, but the letters stay in place, laughing at me through the screen.
I’d asked my mom to email me the attendee list, but honestly, trying to teach a boomer how to open anything more complicated than a Facebook post is about as productive as trying to baptize a cat.
After fifteen minutes of instructions and another five of her asking if “the internet was down,” I gave up.
I emailed Jenny, the event coordinator, who sent the file over in minutes, where it sat unopened in my inbox overnight.
Part of me wishes I’d stayed blissfully unaware, but here I am, late twenties, and having a full-blown meltdown over three men who probably haven’t thought about me in years. And because my brain’s an asshole, I find myself thinking about Zeke and Roman—specifically that night.
I’ve replayed that memory more times than I can count.
Jasper was right.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever come close to touching how hot it was.
Groaning, I grab my phone, check the time, and shoot a text to Willow. I know she’s awake. Her tiny humans seem allergic to sleep, and she’s usually up at the ass crack of dawn.
What are you wearing on Saturday?
It takes her about two seconds to reply, and when it comes through, I snort out a laugh.
WILLOW: nn48mlm)))
Seriously? Why are you still letting Hannah use your phone as a teething toy?
WILLOW: Sorry. She grabbed it off the couch. Uhm… what am I wearing? Something someone my age can get away with that doesn’t smell like spilled milk or a diaper explosion.
Helpful.
WILLOW: A long maroon dress that sucks in everything happening south of my boobs. And a coat. Because it’s practically Christmas, and it’s gonna be cold as hell.
Thank you. Also, you’re beautiful, spilled milk and diapers or no spilled milk and diapers.
The day I realized I’d be stuck in this town for good, I made a choice.
If I couldn’t leave, then I’d build something worth staying for, and that’s how Eternal Chapter was born.
I used to dream of seeing the world. I imagined myself on endless road trips, staying in tiny, crooked apartments in cities where nobody knew my name.
About late-night conversations with strangers who’d feel like home, even if just for a brief moment in time.
I wanted to live it all. I thought I would, but I didn’t, and there’s no real reason why. I just… didn’t move.
Eternal Chapter is my baby. My quiet little slice of heaven, tucked between a coffee shop that never quite gets my order right and a vintage clothing store that always smells like lavender.
Every morning, when I unlock the front door and the old brass bell chimes its familiar welcome, I feel that slight flutter in my chest because there they are—all my literary loves lined up on wooden shelves I stained myself.
In here, between these walls that hold more stories than I’ll ever live, this life doesn’t feel small at all. It feels like exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Imagine a bookstore bathed in every shade of pink and purple you can think of.
Soft-blush walls, dusty-rose cushions slumped lovingly into the corner of a cream couch, and a faded lilac rug worn in by customers who caught their boots on the corners.
Now imagine those shelves lined with books full of men who don’t just blur the line between right and wrong—they set it on fire.
Morally gray men who’d take their time ruining you, then make you crawl back and beg for more with your legs still shaking.
And all of them, stacked neatly against pastel-pink shelving like filth disguised as fairy tales.
My phone sits on the desk, practically taunting me, daring me to do something I never have before and break the one promise I made to myself when Jasper, Roman, and Zeke left: no looking them up online.
Cold turkey worked until now, but with the ceremony looming, the temptation to learn everything about them claws at my throat. I need to be prepared. I need to know if they’re married, engaged, or happy without me in their life.
My finger lingers over the purple social media icon when the doorbell chimes, making me jump like I’ve been caught watching porn in church.
Maybe it’s divine intervention or the universe saving me from myself. Either way, I focus on Bing Crosby’s voice drifting through the speakers instead of my racing heart.
I take a breath, flatten down my sweater, and when I finally lift my head, I find three sets of eyes focused on me.
The world grinds to a halt around me, and all I can think is how badly I wish I looked hotter, because this bookstore gremlin situation is definitely not how I imagined my hockey boys seeing me for the first time after all these years.
Zeke’s eyes hit me first—deep emerald green that are still so soft it guts me. There’s no resentment there, no distance, just that same devastating gentleness that always made me want to fall apart in his arms.
Jasper’s gaze follows—dark brown and burning, sharp enough to slice through me, yet somehow he still feels like the safest place I’ve ever known. He stands with that same confidence he’s always had, like he knows exactly what he does to me.
And then there’s Roman.
Roman, whose amber eyes have darkened into something almost molten now, rich gold catching the wall lights like fire.
His black T-shirt clings to his chest beneath the open coat, and I catch glimpses of tattoos I don’t recognize crawling up his neck and disappearing beneath his collar.
He stares at me as if five years away from each other didn’t dent the hunger he once had for me, but that hurt… I still see it in his eyes.
They aren’t boys anymore.
They’re men now.
Men who didn’t just survive without me, they thrived.
It’s there in the set of their shoulders and how they own every inch of space they occupy without even trying.
Meanwhile, I’m standing behind the counter of a pink bookstore, clutching a half-cold cup of cocoa, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to survive this.
As Jasper steps forward, the smallest smile pulls at the corner of his mouth, and my heart stutters in my chest.
“Hey, angel,” he says, his voice so heartbreakingly familiar it knocks the ground right out from under me. “It’s been a while.”