“I only wanted to do it because you were here.”
My heart stumbles. Every single time this man says something sincere, it feels like getting hit directly in the sternum.
I tip my head back against the wall as he kisses the spot beneath my ear, and wow. Okay. Maybe this storage closet has potential.
One of his hands slides into my hair just as voices echo faintly outside.
“…where did they go?”
“Oh my gosh,” I whisper, laughing. “They’re going to know.”
“Ignore them.” He pulls away long enough to look at me, eyes warm and devastating and entirely too pretty this close up. “You happy?” he asks quietly.
I smile slowly.
“Yeah,” I admit softly. “I really am.”
His expression gentles instantly, like my happiness matters to him as much as his own. Maybe more.
Outside the door, someone pounds once.
“IF YOU TWO ARE MAKING OUT IN THERE,” Campbell yells, “WE DESERVE A BREAK TOO.”
I burst out laughing against Ty’s chest. “It’s like having kids.”
Ty closes his eyes briefly. “I hate them.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No,” he agrees, kissing my forehead. “I really don’t.”
EPILOGUE TWO: ONE YEAR + A COUPLE WEEKS LATER
TY
The first cool breeze of the evening rolls through Old Town just as Vivian steals a bite of my ice cream like she hasn’t spent the last year pretending she doesn’t like mint chocolate chip. Her nose wrinkles immediately.
“Okay, no. That still tastes like frozen toothpaste.”
I grin. “And yet you keep trying it.”
“Because I like to repeat mistakes, obviously.”
“Yet you walk beside me, licking a lavender honey ice cream.”
“It’s artisanal.”
I roll my eyes playfully. “It tastes like a candle.”
She gasps, scandalized, and lightly smacks my arm with the back of her hand while we keep walking down King Street beneath strings of patio lights. One year later, and this city still feels different with her in it. Alive in places I didn’t realize were there before her.
The season starts next week, which means the city is already buzzing. Dominion jerseys in storefront windows. Kids carrying sticks down sidewalks. Sports radio losing their collective minds over preseason predictions.
And beside me is Vivian, still talking with her hands whenshe’s passionate about something. Still somehow collecting people everywhere she goes.
Her workshops have exploded over the last year, and I’ve gotten a front row seat to witness her growth. The Dominion contracted her to come in before every season for the next five years because apparently professional hockey players now require emotional crafting enrichment.
I glance over at her while she talks about some upcoming jewelry collaboration with Emma and catch myself smiling for absolutely no reason other than she exists.
