Page 234 of At First Catch

Then from somewhere behind the café counter, Bailey loudly announces, “If you two start making out again in front of the new releases, I’m charging a ticket fee.”

A startled laugh bursts out of me, and Nolan groans against my forehead.

And for the first time in what feels like forever, everything feels light again.

EPILOGUE – HADLEY

One Year Later

The thing nobody tells you about finally finding a place to call home is that it stops feeling dramatic after a while. It becomes ordinary. And that’s even more beautiful.

The awareness settles warmly through me while I stand barefoot in the kitchen of the marina house watching Nolan through the open windows.

Golden evening sunlight spills across Back Bay while music drifts from the docks below. The marina glows beneath string lights and early summer warmth, alive with tourists, charter boats, and laughter echoing across the water.

I finish plating strawberry shortcake for the marina’s annual summer kickoff party happening downstairs, which technically started forty minutes ago. But unfortunately, Nolan Pierce remains extremely distracting even after a full year together.

Outside on the wraparound porch, Nolan leans against the railing, talking with Walter and Miguel while sunset light catches warm gold along his shoulders.

I still have moments when I can’t fully believe this life belongs to me now. The marina thriving again. The house. The future we almost lost because fear convinced us love had to survive alone.

Construction crews spent most of the winter replacing the western docks with hurricane-rated pilings.

The grant funding finally came through just before Christmas.

The new financing closed a month later.

Nolan still jokes that it took an entire town, one stubborn banker, and Dean Harrington refusing to solve the problem for him to make it happen.

Secretly...I think it took him finally believing he didn’t have to carry everything alone.

Nolan glances up toward the kitchen window suddenly.

The sight warms every inch of me.

“You’re staring at him again.”

I glance sideways. Bailey stands beside me, stealing whipped cream directly from the mixing bowl like the menace she is.

“I live here. I’m allowed.”

“That’s not how staring works.”

I smile despite myself before looking back outside again.

Nolan says something to Walter that earns an eye roll dramatic enough to qualify as cardio before his gaze returns to mine once more. Warmth blooms low in my chest because even from across the porch, he still looks at me like he can’t fully believe I stayed either.

Bailey watches me carefully while stealing another strawberry.

“You know the whole town’s obsessed with your relationship, right?”

“Concerning.”

“You broke up for four days, and half the town emotionally collapsed.”

Outside, music swells louder from the docks while people continue gathering beneath string lights stretched across the marina boardwalk. Kids run along the slips chasing each other with glow sticks while tourists crowd around the seafood shack near the fuel dock.

A bright metallic clang rings across the marina. My head turns toward the bait shop.