Page 79 of Baby for the Bartender

She stopped.

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I said. “I mean it.”

She pressed her lips together.

“You’re amazing, and I know that better than anyone,” I said. “You became family to me when I needed it most, and you never even blinked.”

Her face twisted up like she was going to cry.

“Now, I will be here to talk to you whenever you need it,” I said. “You deserve someone who doesn’t ignore you.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I fucking love you, Maggie Laine.”

I smiled. “I love you too.”

We went back out together, Delia parting ways with me to go and talk to Dave. Reid was in the corner with Theo, who had apparently decided Reid was acceptable, which was high praise. Reid was looking down at him with an expression that was—careful. Like he was allowing himself something he didn’t usually allow.

I watched him for a moment.

Nash appeared beside me, following my gaze.

“He’s okay,” he said quietly.

“Is he?”

“Getting there.” A pause. “Slowly.”

Reid looked up then and caught us watching and did the thing men like him and Nash did—the slight nod, the face that saidI’m fine, don’t make it a thing.Nash nodded back. That was their whole conversation.

I looked around the bar.

Lucas was back with Nell, who was pointing at the framed photo above the bar—Nash’s dad, young and laughing—and explaining something at length. Lucas was listening with his whole body.

Claire caught my eye from across the bar and raised her glass. I raised mine back.

Nash’s arm came around me.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” I said back.

“You okay?”

I looked at my life—all of it, assembled here in this bar where it had started, everyone I loved in one room.

“Yeah,” I said. “I really am.”

He pressed his lips to my temple.

Held them there.

Around us Rick’s Bar hummed with the warmth of people who had found each other in a small town in Vermont and decided to stay.

I had walked in here because I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Turned out, it was exactly where I needed to be.

THE END