Promise Me (Asher Family #1)

Epilogue

HUDSON - ONE YEAR LATER

Luca made space in his schedule to do the remodel in the winter. Now, we are coming up to the one-year anniversary of when Sadie showed up at my doorstep and demanded I let her move in with me, and our store has officially been open for two months.

It’s been a wild two months, and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon.

I spit out my mouthwash and turn off all the lights before I head down to the bar.

Even though the bar and Sips and Stories are now one big open space, they each have their own main entrance. Sadie and I went back and forth over whether we should give the entire place a new name, but in the end, we decided that Hudson’s and Sips and Stories both deserved their own names. Both represent a piece of what we fought to get back, so it didn’t feel right to take that from either one of us.

I pass through the kitchen, stopping outside the office to talk to Ian.

“Hey, is everything ready for tonight?” I ask.

“Yes, sir. ”

“And she has no idea.”

“None.”

I knock on the doorframe and smile.

“Good.”

Then I make my way out to the main room. Turns out, moving the bar top would have added time to the remodel, so the bar top is still in the same place. But now, instead of it being surrounded by high-top tables, there is a mix of tall tables, standard tables, couches, and comfy chairs. The entire place looks more homey. Just the way Sadie and I wanted it. The side that holds the bookstore, Mrs. Whittaker’s old space, has more couches, but the space is so open that customers can purchase their books and enjoy a drink, too.

Sadie is behind the counter of Sips, laughing with a customer who has a stack of books between them.

Most of the bookstore holds romance books, and from what Sadie told me, I knew that it was a big market, but damn, I did not expect the bookstore to be neck and neck with the bar on profits each month.

The door to the bookstore opens and Brooke walks in with a pink box of baked goods. Sadie sells them in the store, but she switches it up each day to whatever Brooke feels like baking.

I hear my brothers laughing behind me, and as I glance around, I feel like a sappy sap thinking of how this is actually my life right now. Add in the fact that The Rockets have asked me to officially be their assistant coach and life is amazing.

“This place is packed,” Luca says.

“Again,” Miles adds.

“Oh, look there’s Simon Stone,” my dad says and waves to Betty Banks walking in with her grandson, Tobias Banks, and Simon. Both Tobias and Simon write romance books.

That’s why the crowd is so big today.

“Is it just the two of them signing today?” Miles asks. His tone loses a fraction of its cheeriness when Tobias’s sister, Quinn, walks in behind the group. “I’m out,” he says before I can answer his signing question.

He stops to shake Tobias’s hand and then Simon’s, then he leans in to hug Betty. Quinn smiles at him, but he just walks right by her like he didn’t even see her.

I shake my head. Miles can be stubborn and strong headed, but I’ve never seen anyone get him as worked up as Quinn Banks. She only comes here a few weeks every summer and then over Christmas, so I have no clue when the two of them could have created this feud he thinks they have.

“Oh fuck, who invited Shay?” Luca whisper-snaps at me.

“Well, this is a local business, and she is a local, soooo …”

He groans and walks off to get a drink at the bar, then finds a spot out of her view.

I chuckle to myself.

I see my brothers every Sunday at breakfast, and they tell me everything from the nails Luca bought on sale last week to the new car remodel Miles is working on, but I get the feeling they’re keeping some details to themselves.

A hand rubs up my back and over my shoulder.

“Why did Miles leave?” Sadie asks as she steps in front of me and presses a quick kiss to my lips.

“I’m not really sure. Remind me to ask him at breakfast this weekend.”

“You got it. Hey, did you get those bags we sorted for the giveaway winners?”

I nod toward the back office. “Yep, they’re in the back. I’ll go get them.”

She laces her hand with mine. “I’ll come with you.”

I step through the doorway and head for the corner where I put the bag, but I hear the door click behind me.

I spin to see a naughty grin on Sadie’s lips .

“What are you doing?” I ask, standing up straighter and forgetting about the bag. I’m more interested in whatever she’s up to.

“I just thought that with a busy schedule ahead of us, we could have a minute alone.”

I nod. “And what should we do with this time?”

She saunters toward me and sits on the desk, pulling me toward her with the belt buckle.

“I think we can come up with something.”

I’m leaning in to kiss her when there’s a knock at the door.

“Sadie, Hudson,” Linc’s voice comes through the door. “Someone wants to talk to the owner out front.”

Sadie beams. “That’s me.”

I chuckle at how quickly she can put on her business face but swell with pride as I watch her walk out the door.

She’s got everything she wanted in life.

I reach my hand into my pocket and twirl the diamond ring around my pinky.

If I’m lucky, by the end of the night, I will too.