Slater: UGH!! FINE!!
Slater: This is Axel’s problem now.
Slater: See everyone soon!
Putting the phone down, she shook her head. “Wow. You guys are a lot.”
“Yeah. Especially since we started working on the resort. We’re a wild mix of personalities and skills, but it works.”
For the rest of the drive, they talked about all the things they were going to need to do to actually move in together.
Maisie was keeping her place in the city for now because she loved it. She was going to sell the pickup—they were currently in Axel’s—but she left her car in the city as well because she didn’t want them to have to drive separately. There were still a lot of things that she left behind at her condo because Axel’s cabin was already crowded.
Ultimately, they wanted to find a place to rent and knew they could talk to Harlow about it, but they weren’t prepared to buy because now that they were together, she wasn’t sure if Harbortown and the surrounding areas were going to be enough to keep her in business. There were still so many things to work out, but hopefully they’d figure some of it out soon.
When they pulled through the resort gates, they spotted Slater jogging across the parking lot toward the lodge.
“We’re home,” Axel announced with a grin, and it hit her.
Home.
This place in a little town in upstate New York was her new home. It wasn’t shiny and sleek or in a prestigious neighborhood, but…it was better. This was the place she found calm during a storm—and not of the weather variety. This is where she started to heal. And this was where she found the love of her life.
Turning her head, she smiled at him.
He arched a brow at her. “What? What’s that smile for?”
“Because I am home. And it’s good to finally be here.”
Epilogue
That night at dinner…
* * *
Walker tapped his wineglass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention. They were sitting around the large table they had been using for months, and it was great being able to sit down to a family dinner like this.
Axel leaned back in his chair and put one arm along the back of Maisie’s. When she turned and smiled at him, he swore he was the luckiest son of a bitch alive. How he had gotten a woman like her to fall in love with him was a bit of a mystery, but he was so glad she did. He never imagined himself finding someone that he wanted to settle down with, but from the moment he met her, he knew it was her.
“Okay, so you’ve all been very patient so far,” Walker began. “And I appreciate your patience because it was nice to have all of us here and getting caught up on not only the progress with the resort but also seeing for ourselves that Maisie is okay.”
Beside him, Axel saw her blush as she nodded to thank Walker.
“When Jace and Kelsey first reached out to me about the resort and the possibility of getting a group of investors together, I kind of thought it was crazy. But deep down, there was always a part of me that wanted this place, but I had a completely different vision for it.”
Harlow groaned loudly, and they all laughed.
“What Harlow is trying to say with that sound is that she showed me that what made the Lakeview Harbor Resort special was the simplicity of it. I kept thinking it had to be new and better and more upscale, but now that I’m seeing it all come back to life, I remember exactly how I used to feel on those summer trips. And honestly, I can’t wait for our first guests to arrive and to know this next generation of kids could find some of their best friends and make the greatest memories here.”
Damn. Axel wasn’t prone to crying or getting emotional, but right now, he actually felt like he could shed a few tears.
“You all know I looked for more property around here to do some things I originally wanted to do, but that turned into a bit of a nightmare,” Walker went on, and again, there was groaning. “But once I let it go, something crazy happened. I started seeing listings for properties just like this one—old and outdated resorts. Most had been abandoned and would require a ton of work.”
“I think I see where this is going,” Milo said with a knowing grin.
“Harlow and I put an offer on one that’s located right across the Massachusetts border.”
Everyone started talking at once, including Axel.
