Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
INDIGO
The line for my first-ever signing stretches around the building, and my heart hasn’t stopped hammering since I stole a peek through the window.
“Damn, Quinny,” Griffin says with a massive grin. “All those people are here to see you.”
“Oh god, I know.” My stomach does a little flip.
“Don’t make her nervous,” Sebastian chides, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my middle. The soft kiss he presses to my temple goes a long way to slowing my heart rate, but my stomach is still doing a tumbling routine from hell.
“Ignore Griffin,” Maddox says, giving his teammate a playful shove. “We’re all here to support you.”
Griffin holds a hand over his heart and makes an affronted face.
“Ignore me? How rude. But yes, of course we’re here to support you.
We’ll always be here for all the big moments, ready to support you.
” His tone is the slightest bit accusatory, and his gaze slips to my ring finger and the huge, beautiful diamond sparkling there.
Bash said after they won the Cup that we would take it slow, but slow meant the length of the summer we spent together between LA and Maine. He proposed to me in a private moment on the same stretch of beach where he first saved me from being attacked by rogue seagulls.
All our friends were thrilled, and Griffin was, too, but he was also a little put out that Bash was the only Rogue who didn’t plan something big that involved the rest of them.
He’s been a little salty ever since, even though he’s incredibly happy for us.
Luckily, Bash was mostly able to smooth things over by asking Griffin to be one of his groomsmen.
“Okay, is everyone ready?” Jess, the owner of It’s a Love Story, asks, her face lit up with excitement. She blushes a little when she spots the five massive hockey players huddled around me and Lola, but she maintains her professionalism. I don’t blame her in the slightest. They’re a lot.
“Ready,” Lola answers for me. She has been my biggest supporter through all of this, and even though we’re not living together anymore—she kept the temporary rental for a few months after I moved in with Bash and then she moved in with Megan—we still see each other almost every single day.
The coffee shop is now our work spot instead of only mine.
I couldn’t have done any of this without her.
Normally, for events like this, it would be another author sitting down and having a little interview-style chat with me, but when I asked the owner of It’s a Love Story to make Lola my conversation partner, she loved the idea.
“Are you sure we can’t be on stage too?” Griffin asks cheekily.
Jess blushes. “Oh, um…”
“Ignore him,” Logan tells her, pushing Griffin toward the seats that have been reserved for them and their ladies, who insisted on waiting outside in the line so they could tell me all about the vibes later.
We vetoed letting the guys wait in line because, after they won the Cup last year and made it into the third round of the finals again this year, they’re way too recognizable.
They didn’t want to cause a scene and take away from my moment.
“Okay! Indie, you and Lola can wait behind the partition there, and I’ll introduce you once everyone is in and has taken their seats.” Jess claps and hurries toward the door of the bookshop, which has been turned into an event space for the night, while Lola and I hide ourselves away.
The chatter of readers and excited squeals when they see the guys has my stomach doing flips all over again, but Lola keeps me grounded with wedding talk and by sharing way too much information about what she and Megan got up to the night before.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they get engaged soon.
They’re perfect together, and now, we don’t only have NHL players in our friend group, but quite a few PWHL players too.
Lola and I spend almost all of our free time at hockey games during the season.
We both have Rogues and Lightning jerseys, and they get a lot of use.
Once Jess calls Lola and me out onto the stage, my nerves settle. It helps to see so many familiar faces in the audience, including Megan and her teammates. And it sure doesn’t hurt that it’s just me and my best friend sitting on the little stage having a conversation.
The audience cheers when I tell them my next book will be a hockey romance—because of course it has to be—and they gobble up all the insider info I have to tell them about my writing process and the characters of my new release.
And when Lola opens it up to questions, they start off asking things like which character was your favorite to write and do you ever struggle to meet a deadline.
But it doesn’t take long for the questions to turn a bit more personal.
They all want to know what it’s like to date a hockey star. And they’ve all seen photos of my ring, so they want to hear about our engagement.
“Well, as you’ve probably read in the interviews we did after my publisher confirmed my identity, Sebastian and I met when we were fourteen in this little summer town in Maine.
I was on the beach while my parents were shopping, and all I wanted was to eat my sandwich, but the seagulls had other plans. ”
The crowd chuckles, and so does my fiancé, who watches me with the softest expression of pride. I see that look on his face a lot.
“I was screaming at a whole flock of flying rats while they dive-bombed me, ready to drop my sandwich and run for cover, when out of nowhere, this handsome boy ran up to me, shouting and waving his arms. When the birds flew away, he grabbed my hand and dragged me to a different part of the beach that was a bit more sheltered. He introduced himself and promised he’d stand guard while I ate. ”
The crowd lets out a collective awwwww, and so does Griffin, which starts a cascade of laughter in the audience.
“Not only did he stand guard the way he promised, but he offered to do it again the next day. By the end of the week, he was my best friend.” When I meet Bash’s gaze, it’s soft and happy.
It took us a long time and plenty of twists and turns to get to this point, but we found our way back to each other.
And we’ll never allow ourselves to be separated again.
“I was completely in love with him by the end of the summer.”
“So, how did he propose?” a fan asks, leaning forward in her seat with wide-eyed interest.
Chuckling, I recall our second to last evening in Bar Harbor.
“Where are we going?” I ask Bash as he leads me down the beach with our fingers intertwined. He’s been uncharacteristically quiet tonight. Maybe he’s as sad to leave this little island as I am.
Spending the last month here has been amazing.
We got to relive the best parts of our summers together and rewrite the worst. We even crashed the periphery of a teenage bonfire in the same place where I saw that girl kiss Bash all those summers ago.
We watched from the outskirts and speculated about what life might have been like if I’d watched even five seconds longer before running away that night.
But ultimately, we agreed that, while we hate that we missed all that time together, things ended up the way they should have in the end.
“Almost there,” he says with a gentle smile over his shoulder. “I promise it will be worth it.”
“It better be,” I say right before we walk around a bend in the beach and I see it.
Right there, in the spot where he saved me as kids, is a beautiful table set with a gauzy white tablecloth, a massive floral arrangement, two spindly chairs, and lights strung up on poles planted in the sand around the table.
Sheer curtain panels flutter in the breeze, strung up along wires between the poles, giving the setting an air of privacy while not obscuring the view of the ocean.
“Oh my god,” I whisper as I take it all in.
“I’m told the curtain panels should keep the seagulls away.” Bash grins cheekily at me. “But if they don’t, I’ll protect you.”
Turning, I wrap my arms around him and press my face to his chest. “I know you will.”
Because he always has.
My stomach chooses that moment to growl, which makes Sebastian laugh. “Come on, Rosebud. I promise I’m going to feed you.” We wander over to the beautiful setup, but when we’re bathed in the golden glow of the string lights, he pauses. “But first, I need to ask you something.”
Butterflies take flight in my stomach. Is he…?
“I was going to wait until after dinner,” he says, laughing quietly to himself and shaking his head. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized we’ve waited long enough.”
My hands flutter to my chest when he pulls a black velvet box out of his pocket and drops to one knee in the sand. Tears pool in my eyes, and I can’t stifle my gasp. The princess-cut diamond sparkles under the string lights. It’s beautiful. Radiant.
But it has nothing on the sparkle in the love of my life’s eyes.
“I can’t even tell you how many times I imagined doing this.
Because it started when I was seventeen.
I didn’t have the guts to tell you how I felt then, but trust me when I say that I loved you.
Completely. Even throughout the years we were apart, I imagined this moment.
Held on to the hope that we’d get here, eventually.
I couldn’t let myself believe I’d lost you because, out of all the shots I’ve missed in my life, losing you was my biggest regret. ”
When Bash reaches out to take my hand, I give it to him eagerly. Both of our hands tremble.
“I’m never letting you go again, Rosebud.
Never. Which is why I’m down on one knee, more nervous than I was even in the third period of the last game of the Cup, asking you to be mine forever.
” A tear slips down my cheek when he plucks the ring out of the box and positions it in front of my ring finger.
“You’re my person, Indie. The love of my life.
Time, distance, heartbreak…none of that could touch my love for you.
Because you were made for me, and I was made for you.
Will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to become my wife?
” He sucks in a deep breath, his own rich brown eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Indie, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I choke out through the tears that now pour freely. “Of course, yes. I’ve only been waiting for ten years.”
The moment he has the ring on my finger, he stands, wrapping his arms around me, and he spins us until I’m dizzy.
We kiss under the stars and the twinkling strands of lights, and, for the first time since I broke both of our hearts that summer ten years ago, I know I’m going to get my own happily ever after.
And it’s going to be with the boy who has always protected me and loved me better than anyone else ever could.
Shaking my head to bring myself back to the present, I smile at the curious fan and say, “Let’s just say, he redeemed the spot where I was dive-bombed, and it was the most romantic moment of my life.”
I can tell the fans want the rest of the story, but some love stories are private.
“Any other questions?” Lola asks.
“I have one.” Griffin raises his hand like he’s in school, waving it in the air. His wife shakes her head affectionately, chuckling.
“Yes, Griffin?” Lola says through laughter.
“Uh, yeah. My name is Griffin. I’m your biggest fan, Violet.” He gives me a wink that is anything but subtle, and the crowd breaks out into laughter. “And I was wondering if you could sign something for me?”
“Of course I’d love to sign something for my biggest fan, but you’ll have time after the Q and A is done. Or, you know, later tonight when we’re having dinner at your house.”
The crowd laughs again, but Griffin waves a hand dismissively. “Oh, this isn’t your new book, Quinny. This is your very first book. In fact, there are only two printed copies in existence.”
Lola arches one eyebrow at the mischievous blond man. “What are you talking about, Griff?”
Griffin bends down and grabs something from beneath his chair. It’s a book I’ve never seen before, with a simple cover with what looks like a photo of the ice in an arena. Narrowing my eyes, I try to read what the title says, but I’m too far away.
“You may not recognize it, because I picked the stuff for the cover, but I wouldn’t be your biggest fan if I didn’t have someone print and bind your very first book. You know, the one you wrote about a certain goalie ten years ago?”
He waves the book in the air and my cheeks flush. When I look to Bash to see if he knows what’s going on, my fiancé shrugs.
“Goal Lotta Love is a cute title, but I do think you’ve chosen better ones since then.”
“Oh my god,” I murmur into the mic. “You didn’t.”
“Hell yeah, I did,” the big softie says.
“It was your first book, and while I think all of them have been love letters to my boy here in some way, shape, or form, this one was about him. And the love you hoped for.” He gives Bash’s shoulder a squeeze.
“Though, I think in this case, real life is better than fiction.”
“Griffin, are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. So what d’you say, Quinny? Sign it for me?”
“Yes, you big dork. Of course, I’ll sign it for you.”
The crowd cheers as I make my way off the stage and toward Sebastian and our group. They do a collective swoon when Sebastian wraps his arm around my waist and pulls my back against his chest. And they cheer again when Griffin hands me a beautiful copy of the story that started it all.
But all of that becomes background noise after I sign the book and am immediately surrounded by the people I’ve come to love most in this world. My best friend, Bash’s teammates, their wives, Reed, Megan and her teammates… My circle has exploded in the best way, and I’m overwhelmed with joy.
“I’m so proud of you, baby,” Bash whispers in my ear as the group hug ends and the store owner tells everyone they can get in line to have me sign their books. “I always knew you’d get here.”
“I love you so much,” I tell him, turning to face him. He bends down so our noses touch. “And I can’t wait to marry you.”
“I love you too. I’ll love you forever.”
“Forever,” I agree, going up on my toes to kiss him.
I used to believe happily ever afters only happened in fiction.
I’m so glad he proved me wrong.