Promise Me (Asher Family #1)

Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

SADIE

The man who got out of Luca’s truck is next.

“Hi,” he says as he eyes Brooke behind the counter.

She smiles, shakes her head, and points to me.

He walks over and holds out the note for me to take.

I grab it, but he doesn’t let go. Instead, he looks me in the eye and says, “Don’t give up on him. I did once, and I promised myself that I’d never do it again. He’s a good man, Sadie. Give him a chance to prove it.”

At that, he lets go and walks out.

My bottom lip starts to shake as tears prick my eyes.

Promise me that when your memory comes back, this is the version of me you’ll remember.

That moment with Hudson comes back to me in a rush.

I close my eyes in an attempt to not cry, but as soon as I do, a vision of his face the other day hits me.

The way he knew I remembered everything.

The way he pleaded with me not to walk away.

He told me that was his biggest fear for us, and I made his fear a reality without a second thought .

Looks like we both have things we need to say to each other.

I open the note and smile.

Old-Fashioned Enemies-to-Lovers.

I take a breath and stand.

It’s now or never.

Maybe I’ll step through that door, and the old Hudson will appear, but perhaps I’ll walk through it, and everything will feel right again.

There’s only one way to find out.

“Brooke, I’m going to?—”

The door to the bakery swings open and a flustered Hudson fills the doorway. The sapphire eyes I’ve grown to love settle on me.

“What are you doing?” he asks as if he’s breathless.

I open my mouth to answer, but he beats me to it.

“I’m sending you notes and hinting that you need to come next door. Clearly, there’s a reason. Why are you still here?”

I cross my arms. He’s not the one who gets to be mad.

“Excuse me for?—”

“Ah,” he cuts me off and jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Over there.”

And then he walks out.

My jaw drops.

The nerve!

I let out a huff as I march from the bakery to the space next door.

No way in hell am I letting him act like that after everything he’s done.

I jerk the door open and blaze in. “Don’t you ever talk to me like?—”

I stop short, a gasp stealing my next breath.

Hudson is standing in the middle of the room, next to the counter where Mrs. Whittaker used to have her handmade jewelry. There are flowers covering it, along with more in each corner of the space. Six bookshelves round the back of the room; each one has one book with a notecard displayed next to it. I’m too far away to see what’s written on them, but from the notes sitting on the table next door, I have a pretty good hunch as to what they say.

There’s a table and a couple of chairs in front of one of the shelves, and it’s clear that he took them from the bar. The table has three rolls on it, and they look exactly like what Luca was holding earlier today when he got out of his truck.

“What is this?” I ask.

Hudson takes a breath, shoving his hands into his jeans. “It’s Sips and Stories.”

“How?” I say quickly before I start to cry, again. “I don’t own this, and I’m not leasing it from you. That’s not how I want to do this.”

“I know, but I was hoping we could do it together.”

“Together?”

He grabs something off the counter that I didn’t see with all the flowers in front of it.

It’s a legal-size document.

He steps toward me and hands it over.

I read through it quickly.

My name is listed right next to his under the purchasers’ names, and it’s dated for the day my memory came back. The only thing missing is my signature.

“When I showed up that day, I was bringing this to you. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Oh, I think we were all surprised.

“You … you bought this for us?”

“For you,” he corrects me, taking another step forward. “I’m just hoping you want to share it with me.”

“You want to share the bookstore?” I ask to clarify .

He shakes his head.

“I want to share your dreams, your life, our life. Everything.”

He moves to grab the blue rolls off the other table and hands them to me.

“I asked Luca to give you a few options on how you could remodel this place. With me or without me, I want you to have everything you want—but for the record, I really hope you choose to do it with me.”

My heart starts to race.

It’s him. The Hudson I fell in love with.

My hands start to shake. I still have a chance to keep my promise to him. I plan to, but in order for us to move forward, we can’t have any more secrets.

“Were you going to tell me about Mrs. Whittaker’s deal with us?”

“I don’t know.” He inhales a breath. “I wanted to, and in my head, I knew that was the right move, but I can’t tell you for sure that I would have followed through. I meant it when I said the only reason I didn’t tell you is because your dream of having your own place was so strong, I was worried that if I told you everything, you’d feel obligated to do something else instead.”

“You should have trusted me.”

“I do trust you,” he says quickly.

“Then you should have told me everything.”

“I was scared, okay?” He runs a hand through his hair and spins. His hand rests on his hips for a moment before he turns around. “I’d just fallen in love with the most incredible woman to ever walk this earth, and I was terrified as hell that if I told you everything, you’d remember a version of me who didn’t exist anymore, and you’d leave. Turns out, no matter which choice I made, I lost you.”

I place the blueprints on the counter and cross my arms.

“Oh, so you get to decide how this ends now? ”

His gaze darts to meet mine.

He’s still studying me as I say, “Because the way I see it is, I own half this place, and that means you’re stuck with me.”

“I …”

“Oh, you have nothing to say now?”

I take another step toward him, closing the distance between us, and a small smile tugs at his lips.

“As co-owner,” I continue, “I have some rules, and I suggest not speaking until I’m done listing them.”

He nods.

“First, you will never, ever keep something from me. No matter how scared or nervous or whatever you are, you come to me. You always come to me.”

He nods again.

“Second, I call dibs on the apartment above this place because my father told me I needed to move out by the end of the month.”

Hudson presses his lips together as he tries not to laugh.

“Third, the blueprint we use will be one we pick together. You like the windows in the bar. I like the windows in the bar. We will decide together.”

“Well, that’s why?—”

“I'm not done yet,” I cut him off, and he nods.

“And the fourth rule, the most important rule is”—I move to stand right in front of him, reach up and stroke his cheek, and the breath he lets out relaxes his entire body—“that I love you too.”

Hudson cups my cheeks like I’m his and slams his mouth to mine. He kisses me as if we have time to make up for, and he’s right.

I wrap my arms around his neck as he lifts me to wrap my legs around him. He starts moving toward the back of the room.

“Where are we going?” I ask. As excited as I am about what’s on his mind, I’m equally excited to see those blueprints. I’ve never been this close to my dream, and I have Hudson to thank for that.

“Upstairs, to what you think will be your apartment.”

I laugh. “To what I think?”

He sets me down at the back door.

“Yeah, you haven’t seen them yet, but none of those designs include two living spaces.”

“What? Why? What will you do with this one?”

“You mean, what will we do?”

I nod.

“We will knock out the wall that separates them and make one big apartment where we will live together.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Promise me,” I say, repeating the words he once said to me. “Promise me that no matter what life puts in our path, it will be you and me together.”

He smirks right before he kisses me.

“I promise.”