We all raise our glasses, and then Liam asks for a second toast for their mom, “who loved all of us boys so damn much.”
“My baby brother has never loved anyone else. It was always you, Winter. You two inspired the rest of us Storms to reach for the stars in love. To Hunter and Winter, congratulations!”
After all the cheering has quieted down, Liam says, “I’d like to preface this last part of my speech by saying that Hunt gave me permission. In fact, he basically said he’d kick my ass if I didn’t.” He shifts to look directly at me. “Haley Laine, I love you. And I’d like to break our deal that we’d break up after our trip ended so that I can date you for real.”
The screams and cheers are deafening. Liam’s beloved by his brothers and basically anyone from New Orleans, and they’ve got a lot of people from back home here.
When the screaming stops, Liam says to me, “What do you think?”
Emerson urges me to stand, but I’m already pushing back my chair. “Yes,” I call back to him. “Let’s end the deal.”
He drops the mic and jumps off the stage.
I’m already walking to him when he meets me halfway. He lifts me into his arms and kisses me.
I kiss him back and then hug him hard.
“I love you,” I say in his ear. “Is tonight date one?”
“Date one,” he agrees. “Date two tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Always, always yes.
Liam Storm was supposed to come with a warning.
But thank God he didn’t.
Thank God I flew to New Orleans and ran into him.
Because now I get to enjoy life with the man that I love.
EPILOGUE
Five years later
Montana
Liam
“Francine May’s asking for Daddy,” Haley says as she hands me a blond, blue-eyed two-year-old who looks so much like her big sister.
We named her after my parents. Fran was my dad’s nickname, and May was my mom’s.
Lulu races around the corner from where she’s been playing corn hole with her cousins.
She gives Francine May a kiss. Lulu always wanted a sibling, and when Haley got pregnant a couple of years after we married, I think Lulu may have been more excited than we were.
I don’t know how that’s possible though. Having a child with Haley feels like the culmination of our love for each other.
I retired like I’d wanted to, and I never looked back. Haley and I eloped in Yellowstone National Park a year after dating “like normal people” as Haley called it. She spent that year transitioning from working for Mia Wild to opening her own foundation, this one for exotic animals called Haley’s Dream. Her dream has come true—she has a couple of loyal employees, including her husband.
I do consulting work for Haley’s Dream, although she keeps asking to make me co-CEO. It’s a family business, and we love it. We travel for work with Lulu when she’s with us, and now with Francine May.
“Hey, Uncle Liam!”
I look up. One of Hunter’s twin daughters, Summer, is holding a foam ball.
