Bonus Epilogue
FOREVER AFTER
Declan
Ginny’s scowling at me as we pull up to the winery’s back gate in the middle of the night. “You could still play without the documentary crew.”
I grin at her. “I don’t want to play anymore with or without the documentary crew. I want to be here. With you.”
“Mabel, please tell him he’s being ridiculous.”
My best friend does not, in fact, do what I’ve asked.
“Nothing like going out a hero,” she says instead. “Think you’ll take Indianapolis up on their one-day contract offer so you can retire formally with them?”
I shake my head. “Honestly? I’d rather leave the league as a Thruster. Be a legend for it.”
“You were always a legend,” Ginny says to me.
“We’ll walk from here,” Mabel tells our driver.
The gate’s closed, and it’s not far to the house, so I don’t argue.
I don’t argue about letting the ladies carry my luggage either.
My body’s fucking sore.
Brain too.
Meetings about my future went late yesterday. Today? Yesterday?
Don’t know, don’t care.
All I care about is being home with Ginny.
Once Eddie decided she had enough footage of my comeback for a full documentary and didn’t need to film any more after that incredible single game I had with the Thrusters, I told my agent to get me out of the rest of my hockey contract.
Don’t really care what it costs me financially.
There’s no price too high to be with the woman I love in the place she’s happiest.
I loop my arm around her, grimace out loud at how my sore body reacts to the movement, and press a kiss to her hair. “Love you.”
Her scowl disappears behind one of those gorgeous smiles. “I hope I’m worth it.”
“Always and forever.”
She pauses to go up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.
“Winona, the neighbor. She’s retiring?” I’ve wanted to ask for a while, but things have been a bit of a whirlwind. Now that I’m positive I’m done with hockey, that I want to settle here—it’s time to start thinking about things.
Things like Ginny and me needing our own space. But Ginny also still needing to be close to this community of women.
Buying the winery next door and entering into a formal partnership with Pip and Mabel would be fucking awesome. For so many reasons.
“Yes,” Mabel says.
“This year?” I ask.
“Still up in the air. She wants to sell—she doesn’t have any family who are interested in taking over—but she also doesn’t want to move her dad. He’s happy here.”
“Huh.”
Ginny starts to ask something, but Mabel interrupts her.
“Why’d you leave your car at the barn?”
I glance toward the barn, thinking she’s talking to Ginny, until I spot a black Range Rover on the pad outside.
“I didn’t.” I tilt my head. “I don’t think that’s mine.”
Mabel drops her suitcase and my backpack.
Ginny drops both her and my suitcases and her computer bag.
All three of us speed up as we close the distance to the barn.
Light’s on.
I try to go first, but I’m moving like an old man courtesy of the workouts I’ve put myself through the past two weeks.
Mabel easily overtakes me, which I can only tolerate because I have a strong suspicion about who’s in the barn, and if I’m right, none of us are in danger.
“What the hell?” Ginny whispers as we pass the SUV.
“Your brother’s?” I murmur.
“Yes. And he thinks I’m across the country with you. Why is his car here?”
Mabel stalks inside.
Ginny and I share glances, then together rush to catch up.
“What the fuck?” Mabel says.
Screeches, actually.
And there he is.
Tennessee Rhodes.
Ginny’s brother.
Holding a thick white letter-sized envelope.
He drops it. “Somebody left a fuckton of money. I’m stealing it.”
“You drove all the way here from LA to look for envelopes of cash around my winery.” Mabel folds her arms, staring at him in that impassive, takes-no-bullshit way that’s mildly terrifying.
Especially in dim lights.
Ten’s wearing the look of a man who’s been caught red-handed.
And I don’t mean stealing money.
I mean leaving it.
“Uh, yeah,” he says. “I like cash. Heard you kept finding it.”
“From who?” Ginny asks.
“Cricket,” he replies.
Ginny’s expression goes as flat as Mabel’s. “Not Pip?”
“Yeah. From Pip. That’s what I said.”
“Declan, go search his car,” Mabel says.
“Is that safe?” I ask.
Ten doesn’t say anything.
His eyes are darting between Ginny and Mabel like he’s debating how to best convince me not to search his car.
I am definitely searching his car.
“What am I looking for?” I ask.
“A post-it note printer,” Ginny says. “They’re small and portable. Maybe a few more envelopes of cash too.”
“I don’t have anything like that,” Ten lies.
I don’t know him well, but even I know he’s lying.
“Do not make me turn Cricket’s chickens loose on you,” Ginny says. “Where’d you get the cash? And why are you leaving it here?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says.
Mabel brushes past me. I should go look for the printer like she asked me to, but I don’t want to miss anything here.
Plus, Ginny might need me.
“Don’t—” Ten starts.
“Don’t go see if you have a sticky note printer in your car?” Mabel says without stopping.
He heads after her.
I block him.
Add a growl.
He scowls at me, but he also backs down. “You’ll let my—my pigs out. I drove up here with pigs. Feral pigs. They’re scary. Super dangerous.”
Ginny stalks past him, squats and grabs the envelope, and thumbs through it. “Where’d you get this kind of money, and why are you leaving it around the winery?”
He thrusts a hand through his wavy hair, face falling like he knows he’s caught. “Can’t a guy do a random good deed and not get shit for it?”
Ginny squares up to him. “Someone else? Yes. You? No. Where. Did. You. Get. The. Money.”
“From my job.”
“What job?”
“My job.”
“Found the printer,” Mabel calls. “Put it in bottles with boobs? We weren’t supposed to figure it out when you were planning to leave that kind of a request in this envelope?”
“I didn’t fucking use that note,” Ten yells back.
Ginny thumbs through the envelope again until she finds the hundred-dollar bill with the note on it.
“Make the bottle classy,” she reads.
She lifts her brows at him, crosses her arms, and waits.
“I got a job. It paid well. I wanted to fucking help you, okay?” Ten says. “Be a fucking big brother for once. Don’t make a big deal of it.”
“What. Job?”
“Project got shelved. Doesn’t matter.”
“You’re acting?”
“Didn’t say that.”
“Declan, give him a wedgie,” Ginny says.
Ten looks at me while I debate doing what Ginny’s asked.
Of course I will—I’ll do anything Ginny asks me to do—but I’ll give him a brief moment to convince me not to.
“You gonna be good to my sister?” he asks.
“Not gonna lie to her about where I got the money to leave thirty grand sitting around her winery with cryptic notes, if that’s what you’re asking.” It’s probably wrong how much I’m enjoying this.
This being watching Ginny’s brother squirm.
I have a feeling we’ll have a fun relationship.
Eventually.
If Ginny wants me to have a relationship with her brother.
If Mabel doesn’t murder him in a way that makes it look like an accident.
Zero doubt, she could do it.
It’s not escaping my notice that we should be grateful.
But I’m well aware that the women here will expect strings if it’s coming from Ten.
For him to hold it over their heads for the rest of their natural lives.
“I’m helping,” Ten says. “Like you should, Mr. Money Bags.”
“I’m buying the winery next door and asking to be partners with the ladies here,” I tell him.
Ginny looks up at me, eyes going round. “Seriously?”
“For you? Absolutely. I’ll talk to Winona tomorrow. See how we can make it work so she and her dad can stay at the house as long as they want and we double production for your wines.”
“Oh my stars, just when I think I can’t love you any more.” She throws herself at me and peppers my face with kisses.
Mabel stalks back into the barn. “Get out,” she says to Ten.
“Just take the fucking money, Mabel.”
“If this came from a robbery—”
“I wouldn’t fucking do that to Ginny, and I don’t rob banks.”
They stare each other down.
I squeeze Ginny in a hug and press another kiss to her hair while we watch Mabel and Ten.
“I think I believe him,” Ginny murmurs.
“I think I do too,” I murmur back.
“You were supposed to be gone,” Ten mutters.
“The gift shop?” Mabel says.
“Lav left it open,” Ten says. “I put it there before I left after the wedding.”
“The envelope in the stockpot?”
“Came through to spy on Ginny and make sure this asshole was behaving.”
“You were spying on Declan?” Ginny says.
“All of you were doing harvest shit. You didn’t see me.”
“Where else?” Mabel asks.
He hesitates.
“Where. Else?” Mabel repeats.
“This is an odd way of saying thank you,” I murmur to Ginny.
“It’s an odd way of helping, and we don’t need to find out it was drug money or something else bad,” she murmurs back.
“It’s not fucking drug money.” Ten shakes his head and stalks around us. “Can’t a guy just help?”
“Have you ever?” Mabel murmurs.
His gaze shifts as he stares her straight in the eye.
She holds herself stiff as a board and stares back at him.
The air crackles.
The sky outside darkens.
Night insects stop chirping and singing.
And Mabel and Ten glare at each other with a heated animosity that’s bigger than disagreements over what’s best for Ginny.
I don’t know what went down between these two, but whatever it was, it was big.
“No,” he finally says. “I haven’t.”
He looks at Ginny. “Love you. Call you later. It’s legit money. Just wanted to help.”
“Ten—” she starts, following him, but he’s already out of the barn, sliding into his SUV, and firing up the engine before she can reach him.
I glance at Mabel.
“For Ginny’s sake, I will never answer that,” she says without looking at me, like she knows I want to know what happened and why she and Ten hate each other.
“Didn’t ask a thing,” I say as Ginny’s shoulders slump while she watches Ten drive off.
She glances back into the barn at us, then makes eye contact with me. “As far as I know, he’s never crossed the line to make money the wrong way, but…”
She trails off, glancing at Mabel again.
Mabel visibly swallows. “It was nice of him to try to help.”
“It was weird of him to try to help,” Ginny replies. “I love him, and I also know who he is.”
“Ginny can handle hard things,” I murmur to Mabel.
“It was never about Ginny, and I won’t stand between her and her siblings,” she murmurs back.
Then she stalks out of the barn, pauses to hug Ginny, and heads back toward our luggage.
Ginny tilts her head at me.
I join her, slipping my arms around her again. “You okay?”
“If he wanted to help, he should’ve just asked me how he could help,” she murmurs back.
“Would he have?”
“No. He can be a good guy, but not when he’s around Mabel. It’s like he completely loses his mind. But—I think I’ve misjudged him. A little. I thought—I thought he was always broke. And now I’m wondering if he plays a part to—to punish our mother. That would be like Ten. And I should’ve seen it.”
I hug her tighter. “You might’ve all suffered because of the same woman, but it’s not your job to fix him. He has to find his way on his own.”
“I know. I just—I want to help. But you’re right. I can’t. Especially not when he won’t let me.” She tilts her head up at me. “Tell me more about this idea where you’re buying Winona’s winery.”
I smile. “Of all the things I’ve tried, it turns out wine-making fascinates me most.”
She lifts her brows.
“Completely serious,” I tell her. “Has nothing to do with you. You’re the icing on the wine cake.”
She laughs. “I do love when you lick me like icing.”
“Me too.” I kiss her forehead. “But every time I left here, I kept wondering what Dori was doing with the wine and how the fields were looking for Cricket and what you and Mabel were developing for branding and when Olivia and Samantha would realize they should use the event space for an on-site restaurant. None of the closest wineries out here have one.”
Her lips part, and then she’s smiling so brightly that she could replace the sun. “You mean it.”
“With all my heart. I came here looking for a way back into hockey, and instead, I found everything I never thought I’d find.”
She goes up on her tiptoes and kisses me again, and I sink into kissing her back.
I’m never going back to hockey.
I have something better to live for.
My future is bright.
Our future is bright.
For this life and the next and the next.
Forever.