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“What do you want now?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
He took his phone out of his pocket and clicked an icon on the screen before putting it down on a nearby table. An all-too-familiar voice filled the pub, and Cal wrapped his arm around her waist and led her out into an empty space between the bar and tables.
There wasn’t promises of forever in the lyrics coming from the speakers. Instead of a banjo, the song began with the light notes from an electric piano. The loud promises of forever were replaced by the quiet celebration of being with someone who just wanted you.
“This right here is all I want,” Cal said, his words brushing against her skin like a caress. “You are all I want.”
“But the Yeti,” she said even as she sank against him, feeling like she was home.
“They’ll find another full-time coach but signed a sweet, mostly remote consulting contract with me for after the season ends and my exclusive time with the Ice Knights is done.” He spun her out away from him and then wound her back in so she was again pressed against him as he looked down at her. “I love you, Astrid, and I’m not going anywhere.”
She raised herself up on her tiptoes, so close they were practically touching. “I love you too, Cal.”
Closing the infinitesimal space between them, she kissed him with all of the please and yes and forever she could, and he met that energy and intent. Her running days were over.
She broke the kiss before they could get carried away in front of the regulars. “You changed out the jukebox for me?”
Cal nodded. “My first priority as the new owner,” he said as they swayed to the song on an empty makeshift dance floor. “As a Matsen, did I really have a choice with a name like the Flying Sow Pub? Especially since it’s where I met the woman I fell in love with.”
“Just staying true to the family legacy, huh?” Astrid laid her head on his shoulder, inhaling the woodsy scent of him. “Are you keeping the Fuck Hockey jar?”
“Haven’t decided,” he said as the song ended. “Why don’t we go upstairs and we can discuss it while I show you what will be our place?”
Surprise moved her back a few steps. “Our place?”
“Yeah, since the deal included the entire building, I’m turning the unused fifth floor into a single apartment with access to a roof garden.” He took her hand and pulled her in close again. “It’ll be big enough for a cat enclosure that will be perfect for a Maine Coon to get some exercise. I did some research, and they said that’s important.”
Once again, Astrid had no idea what to say. He’d researched cats for her just because he’d listened to her and he wanted to make her happy.
“Cal, you better take me upstairs now, or pulling out the jukebox plug-in and instituting the Fuck Hockey jar won’t be the wildest thing I will have ever done in this pub.”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. One second she was facing him and the next he’d picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and walked with her out of the pub and straight into their forever.
Epilogue
Three Years Later…
It was chaos at the church.
The wedding should have started a half hour ago—that should being the operative word. Instead, the guests were trapped in the pews, the organist was working her way through the parish’s entire wedding music catalog, and the one person that had to be there to get things started was nowhere to be found.
He wasn’t in the vestibule where the trio of flower girls were tossing pale pink rose petals everywhere as they spun around, completely ignoring their parents’ attempts to make them stop, the way only four-year-olds could do. He wasn’t in the covered entry area under the bell tower where the groomsmen were in a circle playing hacky sack. He wasn’t in the limo parked out front where the bride was plotting murder.
It was almost enough to give Astrid anxiety-induced flashbacks, but this time couldn’t be more different from the wedding that wasn’t in one very important way—this time she wasn’t the bride, even if the groom was the same.
“I’m going to smother him in his sleep for this,” Nola said into her phone set on speaker as Thea held out a dinosaur-shaped stress ball and Astrid offered her a shot of whiskey from the limo’s bar.
“He’s a priest,” Tig said, coughing to cover up a chuckle as a man squawked his objections to Tig’s driving in the background.
“Well, he was my second cousin first,” Nola said before shooting back the whiskey and then taking the squishy T. Rex and squeezing it tight. “And I told him there wasn’t enough time to take a brunch harbor cruise before the wedding. And then he takes the wrong train on top of that and ends up across the harbor in Waterbury? I’m telling you, no jury would convict me.”
“Well, if you knock him off,” Tig said over the sound of several horns blaring, “we’ll be spending our honeymoon talking to each other through a plexiglass window during visiting hours when the judge denies you bail.”
Nola pursed her lips, obviously weighing her options before she let out a huff of frustration. “How long until you’re here?”
“GPS says fifteen,” Tig said. “I’ll make it in ten.”
Nola visibly relaxed, her shoulders easing down as she sank back against the limo’s leather seat. Then she must have remembered her hair had taken an hour to do and she was in a custom-made lace wedding dress, so she jolted back into perfect sitting posture. “I knew I could count on you.”
