Goodie appeared behind Riley at the bar.“Okay, I think that just about wraps it up.”
“Josh, wish I could say it was a pleasure….”She shook her head.“Now, if you would take your seedy behind out of my restaurant and out of Green River and never come back, we’d be set.”She said it so matter-of-factly, you’d think she was placing a food order.
“I never liked you,” Josh sneered.
She laughed, seeming genuinely delighted.“I’ll take that as a compliment.Anyone you consider good company wouldn’t be someone I’d break bread with in this lifetime.Now, boy, get gone.”
“This isn’t over, Lucy.”He pointed a finger at me.“You’ve lost your mind.This isn’t you.”
Hudson physically bristled at the threat, his arms tightening around me.
“You’re wrong.”I shook my head.“This is who I was all along.”
“Time to go,” Riley announced, rising and taking Josh by the elbow.
“You can’t force me out of here.I’ll press charges!”Josh bellowed as Riley began to bodily remove him from the bar.
“I’d be happy to take you direct to the sheriff’s office.He’s our brother.”Riley grinned maniacally as he manhandled Josh through the doors and out of sight.
“That was fun,” Goodie crowed, watching their departure with glee.
“You’re certifiable,” I muttered as Hudson continued to hold me close.
“Okay.”Goodie clapped her hands.“Everyone back to drinkin’, eatin’, or workin’.”
As she redirected the room—despite the fact that this would undoubtedly be fodder for gossip for the foreseeable future—I realized I was… fine.
Though I would never have volunteered to see Josh again, facing him and telling him off had given me the closure I hadn’t known I needed.None of the past anxiety and dread that had been a frequent companion during my time with him made my heart race or my hands shake.I simply felt, relief—and maybe a little proud of myself, too.
“I have to get to the interviews,” I murmured to Hudson, trying to extricate myself from his arms.
“Not yet.”He shook his head and lifted me into his arms, to a chorus of catcalls from around the bar.Lane raised the bar top so he could step through.
“What are you doing?”I protested as he carried me toward the back.
“What I want to do is take you home”—he stepped into the stockroom and kicked the door shut behind us—“and keep you there for about a week, but I know that’s not what you want.”He sat me on the counter and stepped in close.“So, I’ll settle for the few minutes I can get.Then I’m going to wait out there for you, and we can go home together.”
“Have it all planned out, huh?”I raised a brow at him.
He pressed his forehead to my chest, shuddering as he pulled me close.“Baby, I’m realizing I don’t have it planned out at all—and I don’t want to.Not without you.What I do know is that I love you.”His eyes lifted to mine, so bright with intensity they seemed almost a new color of blue.“I want to make a life with you.Hopefully, one day, make a family too—if that’s what you want.Beyond that, I’m learning that the plans in between, and everything after, are things we need to make together.”
“You love me?”I rasped, the emotions of the day catching up to me.
“More than anything,” he replied, his voice thick with feeling.
“I love you, too,” I said softly.
“Christ, but I love you,” he breathed, as though he couldn’t help but say it again.Then he kissed me deeply.“I never want to hold you back or shut you out.I think you’re the most amazing human I’ve ever met.I guess I’ve just been living in my head, and I didn’t realize I wasn’t sharing things with you.I promise I’ll work on it.”
“Okay.”I rested my forehead against his, our bodies fitting together perfectly.
“Christ, I wish I could take you right here,” he growled, the need clear in his voice.
“Well, you can’t.”I grinned.“But later.”
“Later,” he rumbled, straightening to his full height.“I’ll let you do your thing.I’ll be the lovesick fool at the bar when you’re ready to head home.”He winked.
Rolling my eyes, I smothered a grin as I stepped out of the storage room into what, in many ways, felt like a new chapter.
