But better than that, Indigo Rose Bloom publicly claimed me and professed her love. Young Bash never would have doubted we’d end up together. But he would have been shocked by the path it took to get here.
Ten years of longing. Of looking for her everywhere. Ten years of dwindling hope that she’d walk back into my life, and in the end, it was a sex tape that gave her the push she needed. I’m not sure anyone could have come up with a stranger plot twist than that. Except maybe Indie. After all, she writes love stories for a living.
And love stories always have a happy ending.
epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
INDIGO
The linefor my first-ever signing stretches around the building, and my heart hasn’t stopped hammering since I stole a peek through the window.
“Damn, Quinny,” Griffin says with a massive grin. “All those people are here to see you.”
“Oh god, I know.” My stomach does a little flip.
“Don’t make her nervous,” Sebastian chides, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my middle. The soft kiss he presses to my temple goes a long way to slowing my heart rate, but my stomach is still doing a tumbling routine from hell.
“Ignore Griffin,” Maddox says, giving his teammate a playful shove. “We’re all here to support you.”
Griffin holds a hand over his heart and makes an affronted face. “Ignore me? How rude. But yes, of course we’re here to support you. We’ll always be here for all the big moments, ready to support you.” His tone is the slightest bit accusatory, and hisgaze slips to my ring finger and the huge, beautiful diamond sparkling there.
Bash said after they won the Cup that we would take it slow, butslowmeant the length of the summer we spent together between LA and Maine. He proposed to me in a private moment on the same stretch of beach where he first saved me from being attacked by rogue seagulls.
All our friends were thrilled, and Griffin was, too, but he was also a little put out that Bash was the only Rogue who didn’t plan something big that involved the rest of them. He’s been a little salty ever since, even though he’s incredibly happy for us. Luckily, Bash was mostly able to smooth things over by asking Griffin to be one of his groomsmen.
“Okay, is everyone ready?” Jess, the owner of It’s a Love Story, asks, her face lit up with excitement. She blushes a little when she spots the five massive hockey players huddled around me and Lola, but she maintains her professionalism. I don’t blame her in the slightest. They’re a lot.
“Ready,” Lola answers for me. She has been my biggest supporter through all of this, and even though we’re not living together anymore—she kept the temporary rental for a few months after I moved in with Bash and then she moved in with Megan—we still see each other almost every single day. The coffee shop is now our work spot instead of only mine.
I couldn’t have done any of this without her.
Normally, for events like this, it would be another author sitting down and having a little interview-style chat with me, but when I asked the owner of It’s a Love Story to make Lola my conversation partner, she loved the idea.
“Are you sure we can’t be on stage too?” Griffin asks cheekily.
Jess blushes. “Oh, um…”
“Ignore him,” Logan tells her, pushing Griffin toward the seats that have been reserved for them and their ladies, whoinsisted on waiting outside in the line so they could tell me all about the vibes later. We vetoed letting the guys wait in line because, after they won the Cup last year and made it into the third round of the finals again this year, they’re way too recognizable. They didn’t want to cause a scene and take away from my moment.
“Okay! Indie, you and Lola can wait behind the partition there, and I’ll introduce you once everyone is in and has taken their seats.” Jess claps and hurries toward the door of the bookshop, which has been turned into an event space for the night, while Lola and I hide ourselves away.
The chatter of readers and excited squeals when they see the guys has my stomach doing flips all over again, but Lola keeps me grounded with wedding talk and by sharingwaytoo much information about what she and Megan got up to the night before.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they get engaged soon. They’re perfect together, and now, we don’t only have NHL players in our friend group, but quite a few PWHL players too. Lola and I spend almost all of our free time at hockey games during the season. We both have Rogues and Lightning jerseys, and they get a lot of use.
Once Jess calls Lola and me out onto the stage, my nerves settle. It helps to see so many familiar faces in the audience, including Megan and her teammates. And it sure doesn’t hurt that it’s just me and my best friend sitting on the little stage having a conversation.
The audience cheers when I tell them my next book will be a hockey romance—because of course it has to be—and they gobble up all the insider info I have to tell them about my writing process and the characters of my new release. And when Lola opens it up to questions, they start off asking things likewhich character was your favorite to writeanddo you ever struggleto meet a deadline. But it doesn’t take long for the questions to turn a bit more personal.
They all want to know what it’s like to date a hockey star. And they’ve all seen photos of my ring, so they want to hear about our engagement.
“Well, as you’ve probably read in the interviews we did after my publisher confirmed my identity, Sebastian and I met when we were fourteen in this little summer town in Maine. I was on the beach while my parents were shopping, and all I wanted was to eat my sandwich, but the seagulls had other plans.”
The crowd chuckles, and so does my fiancé, who watches me with the softest expression of pride. I see that look on his face a lot.
“I was screaming at a whole flock of flying rats while they dive-bombed me, ready to drop my sandwich and run for cover, when out of nowhere, this handsome boy ran up to me, shouting and waving his arms. When the birds flew away, he grabbed my hand and dragged me to a different part of the beach that was a bit more sheltered. He introduced himself and promised he’d stand guard while I ate.”
